The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 288

hardly seem to ho.rmonize, either with the in Romans (viii. 14), "Ae mnny ns oro led almigbtinese of the Divine Agent engaged by tho Spirit of God (nv,oµan e,ov ~-ywra,), in the conflict or "\\ith the triumphant lnn- these are sons of Gcd." The dative ouee with gue.ge of Rom, viii. 1---4. In actual ex- li-vo,ua, in both passages is illnstrated by 2 perience, it does indeed seem to be but too Tim. iii. 6, " silly womeu lnden with ei ns, often almost n. µ.ax¾ lcr&ppo,ros, a drawn led nway by divers lusts (d-yoµ.m, /,r,Ooµ.lair battle; so greatly is the Spirit's agency 1roud}l.cus)." In all three cases the dotiv11 dogged and hampered by the wenk"tless of ~ust be_ the -~-ative of t~e agent, th~re being linman foith and the inconstancy of human m 2 Tim. m. 6 a shght persomfication. purpose. But it does not need to be so. In 'l'his use of the dative is not in prose wri te1·~ the case of St. Paul himself, as we may infer a common construction with passive verbs, from all that he says of his own career sub- though not altogether unknown (Winer sequent to his conversion, and in perhaps ' Gram. N. T.,' § 31, 10). In the present not a few cases besides, the Spirit has been case its harshness is perho.ps relieved by the completely and persistently triumphant. lL circumstance that the noun does not repre- thcreforo appears inconvenient to suppose sent an agent whose personality is markedly that the apostle means to ascribe such a conspicuous ab extra, but rather an inter- result to the ordering of Divine providence nally swaying influence, whose personality making it inentable. Certainly such a is a matter of faith. Hence in 2 Tim. iii. 6 construction of the passage is not necessary. we render, '.' led away with divere lnste." "'e escape from it altogether by ascribing This shade of sense mi11;ht be represented qy the notion of purpose la.tent in this 1va, " to rendering, " led with the Spirit." In Luke the end that," to the nisus severally of the iv. 1, "led by the Spirit,'' we have fi-y•-ro iv two agents. Taken so, the passage affirms -rqi Ilveuµcm. In all these passages tho this: Will whatever yon may, whether good passive," being led," must, from the nature or evil, vou will be sure to meet with au of the co.se, include the voluntary self-sub- adverse agency, striving to bar the complete jection of those led. In Romans, "being led accomplishment of your desire. There ap- by the Spirit" stands inetead of "walking pears to be no good reason for limiting the after the Spirit" in ver. 4; "being after applkation of this statement, as some pro- the Spirit" in ver. 5; "by the Spirit pose our doing, to the case of immature mortifying the deeds of_ the body" in ver. Christians, in whom Christ is n.s yet imper- 13. Similarly, here it is tantamount to the fectly formed (eh. iv. 19). With every "walking by the Spirit" mentioned. above Christian, to the very last, the life of holi- in ver. 16. The phrase cannot be fairly ness can only be a fruit of co11flict; a con- understood of merely having that preBence of flict on the v.hole, even perhaps persistently, the Holy Spirit, which is predicated of the successful; yet a conflict still, maintained whole "body of Clnist," even of those mem- by the help of the Spirit againet an evil bers thereof whose conduct is plainly not principle, which can never, as long ae we regulJlted by the sacred influence (comp. 1 live.cease to give occasion for care and watch- Cor. xii. 13; vi. 19); it muet be understood fulness (see 1 Cor. ix. 24-27; 1 Tim. vi. as describing the case of such as recognize 12; :l Tim. iv. 7). Why, it may be asked, is its presence and yield themselves to its the apostle concerned to refer to this con- guide.nee. The sense of the phro.se, "being flict here? Apparently because the Gala.- under the Lo.w," is illustrn.ted by eh. iii. 23, tians showed by their behaviour that they "we were kept in ward under the Law ; " needed to be stirred np and put npon their eh. iv. 4, "made to be under the Law;" g-na.rd. They were, as the apostle (1 Cor. iii. ibid., 5, "to redeem those which were under ::l) told the Corinthian believers they were, the Law;" ibid., 21, "ye who would fain be "carnal, walking as men." They had fore- under the Law; " Rom. vi. 14, 15, "not gone the sense of their adoption ; they were under the Law, but under grace;" 1 Cor. worrying one another with contentions. ix. 20, " to those which are under the Law The flesh was in their caee manifesily as under the Law, that I might go.in those thwarting and defeating the desires of the who are under the Law." These are all the Spirit. Therefore the apostle here reminds passages in which the expression ocours. them of the conditions of the Christian life ; 'rhe inference is clear that the apoetle it is to stimulate them to that earnest en- designates by it the condition of such as are deavour to walk by the Spirit, without subject to the Law of the old covenant, which (ver. 24) they could not be Christ's. viewed as a whole, in its ceremonio.\ n.spect Ver. 18.-But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye as well as its moral; his meaning would not are uot Ullder the Law ( ,l o, nv,~p.u.-rdry«r8,, be exhausted by the paraphrase," subject to ouK ,:.-,,.. inro v&f'o") ; but if ye are led by the the condemnation of the Law." Who.t ho Spirit, ye ar-e ,wt wn,der the Law. The sense affirme here is this: If in the course of your of Tiv•~l"'n as denoting the Spirit of God is lives you are habitually swayed by _the in• put beyond question by the parallel passage ward motions of the Spirit of God, then you  OD, V, 1-20.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 255