The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 333

conformity of your reo.l o.lme and e.otnal means of etl'ecting (see vcrs. 12-15 of the pro.otice with the dictates of GocL's Spirit, same chapter). But this does not wo.nant and in tho.t alone, can you hope for eternal our limiting the application of the word life. God ia not mooked ( 0,da ob µ.v1CT1/pl- here to the bestowment of money gifts, (<T111); God is ,wt derided,, The verb though this in the context furnishes the µuKT'Jpl(eiv, to writhe the nostrils (µ.vKT1/pc,,s) occasion for its introduction ; the next verse at one in scom, to sneer o.t him, occurs proves the wider application which the frequently in the Septuagint, rendering apostle's mind ls making of it, not, however, clifl'crent Hebrew words, which denote dis- losing sight (vere. 9, 10) of this specific do.in; as niiatz (" despise"), Prov. i. 30; bazah reference. "Whatsoever he is sowing, that ("despise"), Prov. xv. 20; lii'ag, "lo.ugh (in shall he reap;" the quality of the harvest derision),'.' Pa. Ixxx. 6. St. Luke uaes it in (its quantity does not seem from the next his Gospel twice (xvi. 14; xxiii 35), where verse to be particularly thought of, as in 2 it is rendered " deride," "scoff at." It i,, in Cor. ix. 6) is determined by the quality of effect, a .u derision" of God when we meet the seed sown. In the form of expression, his requirements of real piety and of pro.c- the deed which is done is said to he itself t.ico.l obedience by the presentation of lip-- received back-received back, that is, in its profeesioll8 and outward shows of religious- corresponding reward or punishment. In a ness. But the derision will not last long; similar manner the apostle expresses himself it cannot hold good. Whatever in our in Eph. vi. 8, "Whatsoever good thing each hypocrisy we may pretend, or even aft.er a man doeth, this shall he receive ago.in ( Ko,u.,- fashion believe, as to ourselves, the eternal ,;Taa) from the Lord." So of evil doings in principles of Divine government are sure to Col. iii. 25, "He that doeth wrong shall work out their accomplishment. Bishop receive again the wrong which he did;" Lightfoot, founding upon the use of the verb and of both good and be.d in 2 Cor. v. 10. µ.v1tT71p!(,av in Gree.k authors on rhetoric- These last-cited passages, together with with whom it denotes a kind of fine irony, others which will readily occur to the reader, in which a feeling of conte!llpt is thinly appear to contemplo.te a reference to be veiled by a polite show of respect-proposes made in the day of jndgment to each several to apply this sense here; and it would well action, with an award assigned to ea.eh; suit the tenor, of the passage; but as em- which view is likewise presented by such ployed by so Hellenistic a writer as St. Paul utterances of Christ himself as we read in it appears so.fer to interpret the verb simply l\fatt. x. 42 ; xxv. 35, 36, 42, 43. On the In the light. thrown, upon it by the uso.ge other hand, in the pMso.ge now before us, of the Septuagint. l'or whatsoever a. man the "eternal life," and probably also the aoweth, that Bho.ll he e.lso reap (& 70.p ~a., "corruption" mentioned in ver. 8, seem to a-1r.Cpp (,v8p.,.,os, ToiiTo 1<al 9,p!a-«), The point to the genera.I award, of life or of word a-1«ipr, may be either a.n aorist, as in destruction, which each man shall receive, Eph. vi. 8, "whatsoever good thing each one founded on the review of his whole behaviour doeth (1ro1flO'?J);" or a pr_esent. The latter (see Rev. XL 12, 15). This is a somewhat eeerus to agree better with the 6 a-1r•lpo,11 d\flerent view of the future retribution from of the n~t verse, and the more pointedly the former. Considering such passages directs attention to one's present immediate in the light of morn.l exhortation, we are behaviour. The reaping-time is either the reminded that in each several action we are future life or its starting-point in the'' day of to.king a step towards either a happy or a. the Lord" which determines its future com- diso.strous end-a step which, i/ pursued plexion, as in Rom. ii. 5-16; 2 Cor. v. 10. onward in the same direction, will infallibly '!'he axiom here eto.ted holds good, no conduct us to either tbo.t happy or that doubt, in much that befalls us in the present disastrous end. In regard to the relation life, as is forcibly evinced by the late Fred. between the two somewhat differing views Robertson's sermon on thi8 text; but this of the future retribution above state.i, when application of it hardly lies in the apostle's considered as subjects of specuhllivc inquiry, pr~sent field of view. .All human o.ctivity a few observations may not be out of pltice is here recited under this image of" sowing," here. We need find no difficulty at all in wiLh reference to the consequences which in this diversity of representation BO far as tho day of retribution will infallibly acorue relo.tes to the good actions of those who from every part of it.. In 2 Cor. ix. 6, how- sho.11 then be o.ccepted or to the evil actions ever (" He that soweth sparingly shall reap of those who shall be rejected. But a also sparingly," etc.), the idea is applied to difficulty does seem to present itself with pecm1iary gifts. Such an applioation seems respect to the evil deeds done, if not be fore to possess a peen lio.r propriety, founded on yet after their conversion, by the ultimo.tely the bonofits that the ~ivingofmoney-which, accepted, and also with respect to the good viewed as gold, silvor, or copper coins. is in deeds done by the ultimately lost. Will itself a dry and u~oless thing-would be the the righteous receive the awurd of thoir evil  300 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [oll. VI. 1-18.