The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 335

and Wilkinson,' Commentary'). This wo.y 118 o.l~uding to or rather expressing a certain of oonetruing suits better in the phro.se, ,lr qno.hfico.tion of the flesh's condition, is .,.b n11,iiµa, which follows. Applying the shown by his inserting the words, 11< .,.;;, imoge of sowing genero.lly, the apostle in <1ap1<&s, "of the flesh." Strictly speaking, ver. 7 speaks of the quality of the sowing those words are not neceesary for the corn• (not precisely the quality of the seed) o.s pleteness of the sentence. To all appear. determining the quality of the ho.rveet; o.nd nnce _they are added a,tiol.ogically, to me.kc here, of one kind of sowing being "unto pro=ent the thought that what is sown the flesh," the other " unto the Spirit." nnto the flesh may be expected to issue in "He tho.t eoweth unto hie own flesh ; " that corruption, becanse corruption is the natural is, he whose genero.l o.ction in life is referred end of flesh itself. For an analogous reason, to hie own persona.I gratification in hie lower "of the Spirit" is inserted in the antithetic nature-to hie own profit, pleasure, honour. statement; the Spirit being essentially not The addition of iavToii (" hie own ") has e. only living, but vivific. The words, then, marked reference to the topic which led seem to mean this : " shall from the flesh to this general statement: the apostle has reap that corruption which the flesh, un- in hie view e. man's gratifying his own quickened by the Spirit of God [for comp. merely worldly inclinations, to the disregard Rom. viii. 11], mnst itself iasue iu." In , .of the well-being, even the physical well- endea¥ouring more exo.ctly to determine the ) being, of other men. To sow unto the flesh sense of these words, it is well in the first / of our brethren, in one sense, namely, for instance to confine our view to the con. 1 ' the promotion of their physical well-being, ceptions relative to this subject presented would bear e. different aspect from sowing by St. Paul. In reviewing these, we unto our own flesh. " Shall from the flesh observe that St. Paul never predicates reap corruption." This by some commen- a.q,6apu(a (" incorruption," "incorruptible- tators he.a been interpreted thus : In the ness ") of the future bodily condition of ho.rvest of That Day, nought will be found "those who perish (o/ ci-..o,\,\oµevo,)." On with him of all those things on which hie the contrary, in 1 Cor. xv. 42-54 he clearly heart has been set-nought save, o.t the restricts this conception of bodily being to beet, mere rottenness, disappointment, o.nd the case of those whose body shall be illusion. Thie would be o.no.logous to the assimilated to that of the second Adam, more.I with which our Lord pointed hie the Lord from heaven, aa indeed it is only parable of the rich fool, to whom God to them that the entire discourse (vers. so.id, "Whose eholl those things be which 20-58) relates. So ago.in in PhiL iii. 21, thou ho.et provided? " " So is he," o.dded the "fashioning a.new of the body of our Christ," that layeth up tree.sure for himself, humiliation into conformity with the body and is not rich toward God" (Luke xii. of his glory" ie evidently limited to those 20, 21). The word q,6opd, corruption, whose end is not " perdition (ci1r<",\E<a)." involves at lee.et as much as this ; but this Ago.in, in 2 Cor. v. 1 the "hou.se not made view a.lone would furnish o.n inadequate with hands, eternal," appears to be an exclu- antitheton to " eternal life," as also it gives sive designation of the resurrection-body less force to the word itself tho.n it ap- of the accepted believer. Once more, in pears from its ordinary use to convey. , One Rom. ii 7 the words, "to them that by essential element of this verbal noun q,6op(I. patience in well-doing seek for glory aDtl is the notion of decay, or the condition of honour and incorruption (a.,p8apafav)," imply being impaired, spoilt, wasted away ( cf. that incorruption is an attribute exclusively Col. ii. 20 ; Rom. viii. 21). It is used of pertnining to the hnppiness after whicb true corruption in our moral no.tore in 2 Pet. i. Christians aspire. All that w& meet with 4 ; ii. 12, 19; as q,6,lpw and a,aq,6,Cpw are elsewhere in St. Paul's writing~ fits in likewise applied in 2 Cor. vii. 2; 1 Tim. vi. 5. perfectly with his holding the view that, But the oleo.r presentment of its sense, while " there shall be a resurrection both of when connected as it is here with " flesh," the just e.nd unjust," as he stated to Felix is afforded by its antithesis, with respect (Acts xxiv. 15)-o. resurrection surely he to the "body" or "flesh," to a.q,6apula in meant in the body-the bodies of the I Cor. xv. 42, "It is sown in corruption, it is accepted alone will be incorruptible, the raised inincorruption,"and ibid.,50, "Neither bodies of the lost being, for all that 1tppea,re doth corruption inherit incorruption; " and in his teaching, left in some sense subject to by the opposed adjeoti ves " corruptible" corruption. In what way the apostle in hie and " incorruptible " ( ,pea,,,..&, and lirp6apTos) own mind connected this conception, of in- in I Cor. xv. 53, 54, as well as by the use of corruption being a qu1tlity exclusively per• 3Ult/l6opit of the rotting awo.y of a dead body, t1W1ing to the futme condition of the just. in Acts ii. 27, 31 ; xiii. 34-37. That the with that of the " eternal destruction apostle U11es the word " corruption" with (aii:.,ior ~M6pos)" awaiting them who know a direct reference to " ilesh," o.nd therefore not God (2 Thess. i. 9), we shall, perhapa,  302 THl!i EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [en. VI. 1-18.