The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 298

lllBta (<Tov -ro'i< ,rafH,µa,r, r<al -rais tt18up.(a,s); ments of the world, why, as though living unth its affectir>nlJ and w, lusts. The differ- in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ence between "affections" and "lusts" ml\y ordinances, Handle not, etc.? •• So, likewise be probably assumed to be this-that the Rom. vi. 2, "We who died to sin, how shall former denotes disordered states of the soul we any longer live therein?" also Rom. viii. viewed as in B condition of disease, well 13, " If ye live after the flesh, ye must die : represented in the Authorized Version by but if by the Spirit ye make to die th11 "affections ; " while the latter points to the deeds of the body, ye shall live;" in which !Joi'?gsforth of the soul towards objects which last passage the changed senAo Qf the verb 1t 1s wrong to pursue. In Phil. iii. 10; in the second sentence is noticeable. In the 1 Pet. i. 11, and a. number of other pass:\ges passage before us, the "we" of the verb (G>,,.,v the noun r.a6-l111.a.tra means "suffering..." a.re of course the same persons as are recited Only once besides is it used in an ethical by the pbro.se, "they whoo.re of the Christ," sense ; in Rom. vii. 5 we rea.d, " The ,ra6r,- in ver. 24. These persons ho.ve fastened the µa-ra of sins which were through the Law flesh to the cross ; by a. final, professedly wrought in our members to bring forth fruit irrevocable resolve, they have reuounoed unto death; '' and in vers. 7, S the apostle sin. The purpose that we.s the proper, instances "coveting" ( /,r,6u,,.la) as wrought necessary concomitant of this, was to make by sin in Lis soul, by occasion of the com- the dome.in of the Spirit thenceforward mandment, "Thou shalt not covet." We their sphere of existence; their life wa.s now seem led to conjecture that he meant to be in the Spirit; a.s the apostle ·writes that a sinful condition of the soul (..-d671µa (Rom. viii. 9), "Ye a.re not in (Iv) the flesh, a.µap-rlas) wa.s by the commandment stimu- but in ('i,) the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit lated into a. mere aggressive action. We of God dwelleth :iil you;" for in this last have ,rd,6os in Col. iii. 5 and l Thess. iv. 5, passage the phrase,;•• in the Spirit," is con- and the plural ,r,£971 in Rom. i. 26; in ea.eh trasted with "in the flesh," each denoting case of exorbitant sexual desire. But in the the sphere of moral habits; in which sense apostle's use of •ur.61,,,_...,.,. in its ethical sense " the flesh" is often used, as well as at other we seem to have neither the notion of times of the vitiated nature itself, the in- extreme intensity nor the limitation to one dulgence in which characterizes that sphere. particular cla.ss of desire, which are both of So probably "according to the Spirit of them apparent in his use of ,rcl6os. This holiness," in contra.et to "according to the clause, "with its affections and its lusts," flesh," in Rom. i. 3, 4. Now, e.s in Rom. adds nothing to the substantial sense of viii 9 the apostle uses the word " Spirit " "the flesh." The apostle seems led to sub- in two senses, first of the sphere of more.I join the words by a pathetic remembrance of habits determined by the Spirit's influence, the moral miseries appertaining to "the and then of the Holy Spirit itself, so he fiesh "-" those e.ffections a.nd those desires would appear to do here. In respect to thereof which a.re so bard to control, and the relation expressed by the dative case, whlcL are at the same time so fatal to our although the /11 of Rom. viii. 9 is here welfare." wanting, it admits of being taken of the Ver. 25.-If we live in the Spirit(d c.,,,.~., sphere of being in which Christians e.s such n~e6,,....,.,); if u,e lifle by, or to, the Spirit. live; for so we find the dative used in l Exact critics have commonly recognized the Pet. iii. 18, "put to death (trapd) in the difficulty of precisely determining either the flesh, but quickened (Ilve6µ.a.,-) in the Spirit," sense in which the dative case of Ilve6,,_..-r, is e.s also the dative tr<1p1d is constructed in eh. used. or the meaning of the verb "live." iv. I of the ea.me Epistle. The relation ex- This verb is here distinguished from the pressed by the case, however, may be that verb of the next clause (<TTo,xG>/1.•v) in much which it denotes in Rom. vi. 2, 10, "die the same way a.e it is distinguished from the (a./J.llp-rl~) unto sin;" ibid., 11, '.' dead u~to verb" walk" (.,,.~p11ra-re,v) in Col. iii. 7, "In sin, a.live unto God;" Rom. xiv. 6, "hve the which ye also walked aforetime when ye unto the Lord, die unto the Lord;" 2 Cor. lived in these things." In both passages it v. 15, "live unto him the.t died for them:" <lenotes the moral sphere of existence in thus Bishop Lightfoot takes it. The "if" which it is our ruling choice to live. In is logical rather than conditional; they who Col. iii. 7 the apostle says that their chosen a.re Christ's have no life but in the Spirit, sphere of existenoe was once worldliness and and are thus bound in the details of their vice; and, when it was so, then they had conduct to act accordingly. Let us also followed in detail those different forms of walk in the Spirit (Ilve6,,.a-r, 1<al O'-ro1xw1,..v); degrading sin which he has specified in by (or, wnto) the Spirit let ua also walk. '!'he ver. 5. '!'he verb " live" is U!!Cd in the dative is here most naturally understood of 68,me sense of the general setting of our the rule e.ccording to which we should walk. nwrul habits viewed as a whole in Col. ii. If the relation intended by the dative iu the :CU, "If ye die<l with Clirist from the rudi- precc<ling clause is expressed by "to,'' it  THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, 265