Again, the Scripture is wont to give the name of the Flesh to the Mysteries of the Eucharist, and to the whole Church, calling them the Body of Christ. (Col. i. 24.) Nay, to induce you to give the name of blessings to the things of which the flesh is the medium, you have only to imagine the extinction of the senses, and you will find the soul deprived of all discernment, and ignorant of what it before knew. For if the power of God is since "the creation of the world clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made," (Rom. i. 20.) how could we see them without eyes? and if "faith cometh of hearing," (Rom. x. 17.) how shall we hear without ears? and preaching depends on making circuits wherein the tongue and feet are employed. "For how shall they preach, except they be sent?" (Rom. x. 15.) In the same way writing is performed by means of the hands. Do you not see that the ministry of the flesh produces for us a thousand benefits? In his expression, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," he means two mental states. For these are opposed to each other, namely virtue and vice, not the soul and the body. Were the two latter so opposed they would be destructive of one another, as fire of water, and darkness of light. But if the soul cares for the body, and takes great forethought on its account, and suffers a thousand things in order not to leave it, and resists being separated from it, and if the body too ministers to the soul, and conveys to it much knowledge, and is adapted to its operations, how can they be contrary, and conflicting with each other? For my part, I perceive by their acts that they are not only not contrary but closely accordant and attached one to another. It is not therefore of these that he speaks as opposed to each other, but he refers to the contest of bad and good principles. (Compare Rom. vii. 23.) To will and not to will belongs to the soul; wherefore he says, "these are contrary the one to the other," that you may not suffer the soul to proceed in its evil desires. For he speaks this like a Master and Teacher in a threatening way.
Ver. 18. "But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the Law."
If it be asked in what way are these two connected, I answer, closely and plainly; for he that hath the Spirit as he ought, quenches thereby every evil desire, and he that is released from these needs no help from the Law, but is exalted far above its precepts. He who is never angry, what need has he to hear the command, Thou shalt not kill? He who never casts unchaste looks, what need hath he of the admonition, Thou shalt not commit adultery? Who would discourse about the fruits of wickedness with him who had plucked up the root itself? for anger is the root of murder, and of adultery the inquisitive gazing into faces. Hence he says, "If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the Law;" wherein he appears to me to have pronounced a high and striking eulogy of the Law, if, at least, the Law stood, according to its power, in the place of the Spirit before the Spirit's coming upon us. But we are not on that account obliged to continue apart with our schoolmaster. Then we were justly subject to the Law, that by fear we might chasten our lusts, the Spirit not being manifested; but now that grace is given, which not only commands us to abstain from them, but both quenches them, and leads us to a higher rule of life, what more need is there of the Law? He who has attained an exalted excellence from an inner impulse, has no occasion for a schoolmaster, nor does any one, if he is a philosopher, require a grammarian. Why then do ye so degrade yourselves, as now to listen to the Law, having previously given yourselves to the Spirit?
Ver. 19, 20, 21. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, [138] which are these; fornication, [139] uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I forewarn you even as I did forewarn you, that they which practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
Answer me now, thou that accusest thine own flesh, and supposest that this is said of it as of an enemy and adversary. Let it be allowed that adultery and fornication proceed, as you assert, from the flesh; yet hatred, variance, emulations, strife, heresies, and witchcraft, these arise merely from a depraved moral choice. And so it is with the others also, for how can they belong to the flesh? you observe that he is not here speaking of the flesh, but of earthly thoughts, which trail upon the ground. Wherefore also he alarms them by saying, that "they which practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If these things belonged to nature and not to a bad moral choice, his expression, "they practice," is inappropriate, it should be, "they suffer." And why should they be cast out of the kingdom, for rewards and punishments relate not to what proceeds from nature but from choice?
Ver. 22. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace."
He says not, "the work of the Spirit," but, "the fruit of the Spirit." Is the soul, however, superfluous? the flesh and the Spirit are mentioned, but where is the soul? is he discoursing of beings without a soul? for if the things of the flesh be evil, and those of the Spirit good, the soul must be superfluous. By no means, for the mastery of the passions belongs to her, and concerns her; and being placed amid vice and virtue, if she has used the body fitly, she has wrought it to be spiritual, but if she separate from the Spirit and give herself up to evil desires, she makes herself more earthly. You observe throughout that his discourse does not relate to the substance of the flesh, but to the moral choice, which is or is not vicious. And why does he say, "the fruit [140] of the Spirit?" it is because evil works originate in ourselves alone, and therefore he calls them "works," but good works require not only our diligence but God's loving kindness. He places first the root of these good things, and then proceeds to recount them, in these words, "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law." For who would lay any command on him who hath all things within himself, and who hath love for the finished mistress of philosophy? As horses, who are docile and do every thing of their own accord, need not the lash, so neither does the soul, which by the Spirit hath attained to excellence, need the admonitions of the Law. Here too he completely and strikingly casts out the Law, not as bad, but as inferior to the philosophy given by the Spirit.
Ver. 24. "And they that are of Christ Jesus [141] have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof."
That they might not object, "And who is such a man as this?" he points out by their works those who have attained to this perfection, here again giving the name of the "flesh" to evil actions. He does not mean that they had destroyed their flesh, otherwise how were they going to live? for that which is crucified is dead and inoperative, but he indicates the perfect rule of life. For the desires, although they are troublesome, rage in vain. Since then such is the power of the Spirit, let us live therein and be content therewith, as he adds himself,
Ver. 25. "If we live [142] by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk,"
--being governed by His laws. For this is the force of the words "let us walk," that is, let us be content with the power of the Spirit, and seek no help from the Law. Then, signifying that those who would fain have introduced circumcision were actuated by ambitious motives, he says,
Ver. 26. "Let us not be vainglorious," [143] which is the cause of all evils, "provoking [144] one another" to contentions and strife, "envying one another," for from vainglory comes envy and from envy all these countless evils.
[119] [The text of this verse is not settled. The textus receptus has te eleutheri& 139; oun he christos hemas eleutherose stekete, etc. Chrysostom has te gar eleutheri& 139; he christos humas exegorase, stekete, etc. W. & H. have te eleutheri& 139; hemas christos eleutherosen stekete oun kai, etc., with Aleph, A. B. C. Rev. Ver. But W. & H. suspect there is some primitive error. Lightfoot joins te eleutheri& 139;, with tes eleutheras of the preceding verse and retains the relative he, making it read; We are sons of the free woman with the freedom wherewith Christ freed us. Com. in loc. and Excursus p. 371.
[120] [The following verse does not introduce proof that Christ shall profit them nothing, but leads on to more detailed information and so is introduced by de, autem. So Meyer; though Lightfoot makes de adversative to the idea of ophelesei, and so Ellicott. Rev. Ver. agrees with Meyer's view.--G.A.]
[121] ["Again refers to I say' in preceding sentences." Schaff, Lightfoot, Ellicott. Meyer says, "It calls to the remembrance of his readers his last presence," (second visit.)--G.A.]
[122] ["To every man' stands in a climactic relation to foregoing umin remorselessly embracing all; that no one may think himself excluded. Hence Chrysostom's view is wrong."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[123] [Perhaps Paul's reason for his statement that every one who suffers himself to be circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole Law is this Scripture which he quotes in iii. 10: Cursed is he that continueth not in all the things that are written etc.--G.A.]
[124] ["The Holy Spirit is the divine agent' and faith is the subjective source' of our expectation."--Meyer.--G.A.]
[125] ["Circumcision and uncircumcision are circumstances of no effect or avail in Christianity; and yet they were in Galatia the points on which the disturbance turned,"--Meyer,--G.A.]
[126] ["How necessary it was for the Galatians that prominence should be given to the activity of faith in love' may be seen from verses 15, 20, 26. The passive view of energoumene (wrought through love) as held by some Fathers and by Catholics is erroneous. In New Test. energeisthai is always middle: faith which is operative through love.'"--Meyer.--G.A.] Lightfoot says: "The words di agapes energoumene bridge over the gulf which seems to separate the language of St. Paul and St. James. Both assert a principle of practical energy as opposed to a barren theory."--G.A.]
[127] [The words aletheia me peithesthai are wanting in Chrysostom's text.--G.A.]
[128] ["The false teachers had spread the malicious report that Paul himself preached circumcision because he practiced it in the case of Timothy. But this was a measure of expediency and charity and not a surrender of principle."--Schaff. "This calumny was sufficiently absurd to admit of his dismissing it, as he does here, with all brevity and with what a striking experimental proof!"--Meyer.--G.A.]
[129] ["The vivid realization of the doings of his opponents, who were not ashamed to resort even to such falsehood, now wrings from his soul a strong and bitterly sarcastic wish of holy indignation."--Meyer. Paul wishes that the circumcisers would not stop with circumcision but go beyond it to mutilation (make themselves eunuchs) like the priests of Cybele. A severe irony and similar to the one in Philip. iii. 2, 3, where Paul calls the boasters of circumcision "the Concision." Self mutilation was a recognized form of heathen worship especially in Pessinus in Galatia and therefore quite familiar to the readers. Thus by their glorying in the flesh the Galatians relapsed into their former heathenism,--Schaff and Lightfoot. The Revised Version here has, "would even cut themselves off," the American Committee has, "would go beyond circumcision."--G.A.]
[130] ['Apokoptein eautous. Chrysostom here, as often, "goes off at a word" into a digression on a subject which is only remotely suggested by the passage in hand.--G.A.]
[131] [This is not a digression. It is in strict continuity with the preceeding context and gives a reason for the indignant expression of the foregoing sentence. "They are defeating the very purpose of your calling: ye were called for liberty and not for bondage."--Lightfoot.--G.A.]
[132] [On the doctrine of the Manichees see Schaff Church History vol. ii. p. 498-508, where a full account of the literature is given also.--G.A.]
[133] ["An ingenious juxtaposition of freedom' and brotherly service' in that freedom,"--Meyer. "Ye were called for freedom,' but through love make yourselves willing bond-servants' to each other."--G.A.]
[134] [See Lightfoot, Introduction, p. 39. Note 3.--G.A.]
[135] ["Paul returns to the warning in ver. 13, not to abuse their freedom for an occasion to the flesh'"--Schaff. "In verse 13he had warned them against using liberty for an occasion to the flesh; now, ver. 16, he shows them how they are to accomplish that end and this introduces the deadly and interminable antagonism between the spirit and the flesh."--Lightfoot.--G.A.]