Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 5:14
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
14. ‘You would go back to bondage; there is a servitude which constitutes liberty. You desire to be under the law; there is a law the law of love to which ye will do well to submit yourselves; for all the requirements of the law are met by the fulfilment of one precept Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ Similarly in Rom 13:8-10, ‘He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law Whatever other commandments there are, all are summed up in this precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself love is the fulfilling of the law.’
thy neighbour ] This term in the original precept (Lev 19:18) had reference only to the Jewish people, but our Lord enlarged its scope so as to include everyone whom it is in our power to benefit or injure, i.e. all men. It is so explained in the Church Catechism ‘My duty towards my neighbour is to love him as myself, to do unto all men &c.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For all the law is fulfilled … – That is, this expresses the substance of the whole law; it embraces and comprises all. The apostle of course here alludes to the Law in regard to our duty to our fellow-men, since that was the point which he particularly enforces. He is saying that this law would counteract all the evil workings of the flesh, and if this were fulfilled, all our duty to others would be discharged. A similar sentiment he has expressed in Rom 13:8-10; see the notes at that passage. The turn here in the discussion is worthy of particular notice. With great skill he changes the subject from a doctrinal argument to a strain of practical remark, and furnishes most important lessons for the right mode of overcoming our corrupt and sensual passions, and discharging our duty to others.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor … – See this explained in the note at Mat 19:19.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 5:14
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The fulfilling of the law
I. Love is of perpetual obligation.
II. A true response to the obligation of neighbourly love will ensure the faithful discharge of every other obligation.
III. Therefore love is the fulfilliing of the law. For–
1. The law is the interpretation of love, and the definition and prescription of that which the infinite intelligence knows that love demands. But–
2. There is also the underlying assumption that in the absence of love the law cannot be truly fulfilled. Therefore–
3. When the principle of love, recognizing the authority of the teaching and guiding law, has restrained from every act of injury to its neighbour, and prompted to all sorts of kindly service for that neighbours good, then has the law been truly fulfilled. (W. Tyson.)
Love of our neighbour
I. Love is–
(1) Desire for,
(2) delight in,
(3) endeavour after anothers good.
II. It exists as being–
1. Cherished in the heart.
2. Exhibited in the life.
III. The term neighbour is applicable and includes all men. All are Gods offspring.
IV. The degree of love here necessary.
1. As truly as thyself.
2. With the same love in kind and degree. (T. Robinson.)
I. The duty–Love.
1. The word.
2. The deed.
3. The truth.
II. Its object–Our neighbour.
1. Friend or foe.
2. At home or abroad.
III. Its measure–As thyself; therefore–
1. Sincerely.
2. Constantly.
3. Devotedly.
IV. Its excellence.
1. It fulfils the whole law.
2. Promotes universal happiness and peace. (J. Lyth. , D. D.)
Self-love
Contracted affections, like self-love, may oppose their own end–private good. The supposed contrariety between benevolence and self-love may be only apparent.
I. Self-love as distinguished from other passions.
1. Self-love has an internal, other affections an external, object.
2. Such affections are distinct; from self-love, though part of ourselves.
3. All language recognizes this distinction. Self-love produces interested actions; particular affections, actions which are friendly.
4. Happiness does not consist in self-love, but in the wise gratification of all our affections.
5. Self-love often fails to produce happiness; it often produces anxiety, ands when in excess, misery. Thus self-love is distinct from particular affections, and so far from being our only rule, it often disappoints itself, especially when made one solitary principle.
II. Self-love as distinguished from benevolence. These are distinguished but not necessarily opposed.
1. From the nature of the affections themselves; self-love does not exclude particular affections, nor does benevolence.
2. From the course of action suggested by them.
(1) Affections tend both to private and public good.
(2) Their tendency to one object does not disturb their connection with another.
(3) Benevolence produces as much enjoyment as ambition.
3. From the temper of mind produced by them.
(1) Benevolence gives a pleasure over and above other pleasures, with which it does not interfere.
(2) Has an assurance of special favour from God.
(3) Hence self-love and benevolence are so far from being opposed, that the second may be the easiest way of gratifying the first.
(4) It is true that particular affections may be gratified, so as to interfere with self-love, but benevolence interferes with it less than any other.
(5) The origin of the mistake that they interfere is in the confusion of property and happiness.
4. From Scripture, which inculcates benevolence, and yet recognizes self-love and appeals to it. (Bishop Butler.)
The love of our neighbour
I. The object of this affection. Love of our neighbour or benevolence seeks the good of others, and in its noblest form it is the perfection of God.
II. The proper extent of this affection. As ourselves: which implies–
1. That this love is to be of the same kind.
(1) We have a common interest in others and in ourselves.
(2) This is the proper temper of virtue; love.
2. That our love for others is to bear a certain proportion to our love for ourselves.
(1) A proportion in affections implied in all virtuous characters.
(2) So a due proportion of benevolence and self-love is implied here.
(3) What the proportion is to be not easily decided, for affection is not easily measured; but as to actions, the expression of affection, the more others occupy our thoughts (provided we neglect not ourselves) the better. Even if this imply–
3. That our love for others is equal to our love for ourselves, no ill consequences can ensue, for
(1) men have other affections for themselves not felt for others.
(2) They are specially interested in themselves.
(3) They have a particular perception of their own interests, so that there is no fear of self-neglect.
III. The influence of this affection on our general temper. Its effect is–
1. To produce all charitableness.
2. To fit men for every relation and duty.
3. To moderate party feeling.
4. To prevent; or heal all strife.
IV. This affection includes all virtue.
1. Love prompts men to seek the greatest happiness of all, which is itself a discharge of all obligations.
2. Love even prompts to the practice of personal virtues (temperance, etc.); and certainly the neglect of these virtues implies a deficiency of love to others.
3. Apart from particular natures and circumstances, love includes all goodness; and–
4. Piety itself is the love of God, as an infinitely good Being. (Bishop Butler.)
We may love man because of what he is as man
God has stamped beauty on his material body, and given an higher grandeur to his mysterious mind. But there is a deeper and diviner reason for love. It is this: To love a man because he is a brother in Christ; because he is to some extent like Christ, and reflects His image upon those who come in contact with him. Here the grounds of love are moral, spiritual, and internal. (Thomas Jones.)
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Neighbourly love
Thomas Samson was a working miner, and working hard for his bread. The captain of the mine said to him on one occasion, Thomas, Ive got an easier berth for you, where there is comparatively little to do, and where you can earn more money: will you accept it? What do you think he said? Captain, theres our poor brother Tregony. He has a sick body, and he is not able to work as hard as I am. I fear his toil will shorten his useful life. Will you let him have the berth? The captain, pleased with his generosity, sent for Tregony, and gave him the berth, which he is now enjoying. Thomas was gratified, and added, I can work a little longer yet. (Sunday Magazine.)
Caring for others
The intensity of maternal affection was illustrated in the observation of a little boy, who, after reading Bunyans Pilgrims Progress, asked his mother which of the characters she liked best. She replied, Christian, of course: he is the hero of the story. The dear child responded, Mother, I like Christiana best, because when Christian set out on his pilgrimage, he went alone; but, when Christiana started, she took the children with her. Great love:–Edward I. of England having received a wound from a poisoned dagger, his wife Eleanor sucked out the poison, venturing her own life to save her husbands.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. For all the law] Which respects our duty to our fellows, is fulfilled-is comprehended, in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. See Clarke on Mt 19:19, and “Ro 13:9“.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The whole will of God, containing our duty towards men, is reducible to this one thing, love; for whatsoever God hath commanded us to do towards men, is but a brauch from this root, and must flow from love as its principle. Or, the whole will of God concerning man is fulfilled in this one thing of love; where love to God is not excluded, but supposed, as the root of our love to our neighbour; for our neighbour is to be loved for God. Thus Rom 8:8; He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law: and 1Jo 4:20, the apostle proveth, that a man cannot love God unless he loveth his brother: and 1Ti 1:5; The end of the commandment is charity. Yet what the papists would conclude from hence, (viz. that it is possible for a man to fulfil the law because it is possible for him to love his neighbour), doth by no means follow; for the apostle {1Ti 1:5} telleth us, this love must proceed out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. Mr. Calvin observeth well, that the apostle here mentioneth love to men as the fulfilling of the law, in opposition to the false teachers; who made the fulfilling of the law to lie in the observance of the ceremonies of the law, whereas the great thing which the law of God requireth is love, out of a pure heart, good conscience, and faith unfeigned. So that he who believeth with a faith unfeigned, and, out of that principle, with a pure heart and a good conscience, loveth his neighbour as himself, shall be by God accounted to have fulfilled the law; for love is the end of the law.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. all the lawGreek,“the whole law,” namely, the Mosaic law. Love to Godis presupposed as the root from which love to our neighborsprings; and it is in this tense the latter precept (so “word”means here) is said to be the fulfilling of “all the law”(Le 19:18). Love is “thelaw of Christ” (Gal 6:2;Mat 7:12; Mat 22:39;Mat 22:40; Rom 13:9;Rom 13:10).
is fulfilledNot asreceived text “is being fulfilled,” but as the oldestmanuscripts read, “has been fulfilled”; and so “receivesits full perfection,” as rudimentary teachings are fulfilled bythe more perfect doctrine. The law only united Israelites together:the Gospel unites all men, and that in relation to God [GROTIUS].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For all the law is fulfilled in one word,…. Not the ceremonial law, to which acts of mercy, kindness, and love are opposed, and from which they are distinguished; but the law of the decalogue given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and by him to the people of the Jews; and intends either only the second table of it, since only love to the neighbour is mentioned; or else the whole of it, both tables, since it is said, “all the law”; which by Christ is reduced to two heads, love to God, and love to the neighbour; and though the former is not here expressed, it is implied as a cause in the effect, for the love of God is the cause, and so the evidence of love to the neighbour; nor can there be the one without the other. The two tables of the law consist of , “ten words”; as the s Jews commonly call them, and we the decalogue, and yet they are fulfilled in one; that is, they are to be brought into such a compendium, reduced to such an head; or as the apostle in a parallel place says, they may briefly be comprehended in this saying,
Ro 13:9. The Jews make the commandments of the law to be a very large number indeed, but at last reduce them to one, as the apostle here does,
“six hundred and thirteen commandments (they say t) were given to Moses—-David came and reduced them to eleven, Psalm xv, Isaiah came and reduced them to six, Isa 33:15 Micah came and reduced them to three, Mic 6:8 Isaiah came and reduced them to two, Isa 56:1, Amos came and reduced them to one, Am 5:4 but this being objected to, it is observed that Habakkuk came, , “and reduced them to one”, Hab 2:4 that is faith, as here the apostle reduces them to love:”
even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: these words are taken out of Le 19:18 and which R. Akiba says u, agreeably with the apostle, whose contemporary he was, is , “the grand general rule in the law”; or the grand comprehensive of the law: the object of love, the “neighbour”, signifies not only, as there the Jews explain it, those of their own people, or proselytes to their religion; but all sorts of men, whether in a natural, civil, or spiritual relation; and whether those that do us good or do us ill, friends or enemies: the measure or rule of love is, “as thyself”; and designs not an equality of affection, but a likeness of effects; that is, to do the same kind acts of love to others, one would choose to have done to ourselves: and this is the fulfilling of the law; that is, so far as a man loves aright, so far he fulfils the law; not that he does it perfectly, for man in his fallen state is unable to do that, for the law is exceeding broad, and reaches to thoughts, desires, and inclinations, as well as to words and deeds; and besides, love said to be the fulfilling of it, is imperfect; hence then there can be no justification by works of charity, nor by any services of men, which at best are imperfect; nor are they done in their own strength, and without the grace of God; nor is there any that can be said to have fulfilled the law perfectly but Christ, and to him must we look for a justifying righteousness. These words contain a reason engaging to love one another, and to do all kind of offices of love to each other; since it is a main and principal thing contained in the law, and to which that may be reduced.
s Exod. xxxiv. 28. Vid. Targum Onk. & Jon. in ib. t T. Bab. Maccot, fol. 23. 2. & 24. 1. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 151. 1. u In Jarchi in Lev. xix. 18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Even in this ( ). Just the article with , “in the,” but it points at the quotation from Le 19:18. Jews (Lu 10:29) confined “neighbour” () to Jews. Paul uses here a striking paradox by urging obedience to the law against which he has been arguing, but this is the moral law as proof of the new love and life. See also Ro 13:8, precisely as Jesus did (Mt 22:40).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
All the law [ ] . More correctly, the whole law. Comp. Mt 22:40.
Is fulfilled [] . Has been fulfilled. Comp. Rom 13:8. The meaning is not embraced in, or summed up in, but complied with. In Rom 13:9, ajnakefalaioutai is summed up, is to be distinguished from plhrwma hath fulfilled (ver. 8) and plhrwma fulfillment (ver. 10). The difference is between statement and accomplishment. See on do the law, ver. 3.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For all the law,” (ho gar pas nomos) “For the whole law; all the principles of the law, every principle, Jas 2:8.
2) “Is fulfilled in one Word,” (en eni logo peplerotai en to) “Has been summed up in one Word,” one expression, which is referred to as the “royal law,” Jas 2:8.
3) “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” (agapeseis ton plesion sou hos seauton) “Thou shalt love the neighbor of yours as yourself.” Lev 19:18; Mat 22:39; Rom 13:8-9.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. For all the law. There is a contrast in this verse, though not plainly stated, yet evidently to be understood, between Paul’s exhortation and the doctrine of the false apostles. While they insisted on ceremonies alone, Paul takes a passing glance of the actual duties and exercises of Christians. The present commendation of love is intended to inform the Galatians, that love forms the chief part of Christian perfection. But we must inquire in to the reason why all the precepts of the law are included under love. The law consists of two tables, the first of which instructs us concerning the worship of God and the duties of piety, and the second instructs us concerning the love of our neighbor; for it is ridiculous to make a part the same with the whole. Some avoid this difficulty by reminding us that the first table contains nothing more than to love God with our whole heart. But Paul makes express mention of love to our neighbor, and therefore a more satisfactory solution must be sought.
Piety to God, I acknowledge, ranks higher than love of the brethren; and therefore the observance of the first table is more valuable in the sight of God than the observance of the second. But as God himself is invisible, so piety is a thing hidden from the eyes of men; and, though the manifestation of it was the purpose for which ceremonies were appointed, they are not certain proofs of its existence. It frequently happens, that none are more zealous and regular in observing ceremonies than hypocrites. God therefore chooses to make trial of our love to himself by that love of our brother, which he enjoins us to cultivate. This is the reason why, not here only, but in the Epistle to the Romans, (Rom 8:8,) love is called “the fulfilling of the law;” not that it excels, but that it proves the worship of God to be real. God, I have said, is invisible; but he represents himself to us in the brethren, and in their persons demands what is due to himself. Love to men springs only from the fear and love of God; and therefore we need not wonder if, by a figure of speech, in which a part is taken for the whole, the effect include under it the cause of which it is the sign. But it would be wrong in any person to attempt to separate our love of God from our love of men.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor. He who loves will render to every man his right, will do injury or harm to no man, will do good, as far as lies in his power, to all; for what else is included in the whole of the second table? This, too, is the argument employed by Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (Rom 13:10.) The word, neighbor, includes all men living; for we are linked together by a common nature, as Isaiah reminds us, “that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh” (Isa 58:7.) The image of God ought to be particularly regarded as a sacred bond of union; but, for that very reason, no distinction is here made between friend and foe, nor can the wickedness of men set aside the right of nature.
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Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ”. The love which men naturally cherish toward themselves ought to regulate our love of our neighbor. All the doctors of the Sorbonne (88) are in the habit of arguing that, as the rule is superior to what it directs, the love of ourselves must always hold the first rank. This is not to interpret, but to subvert our Lord’s words. They are asses, and have not even a spark of the love of their neighhour; for if the love of ourselves were the rule, it would follow that it is proper and holy, and is the object of the divine approbation. But we shall never love our neighbors with sincerity, according to our Lord’s intention, till we have corrected the love of ourselves. The two affections are opposite and contradictory; for the love of ourselves leads us to neglect and despise others, — produces cruelty, covetousness, violence, deceit, and all kindred vices, — drives us to impatience, and arms us with the desire of revenge. Our Lord therefore enjoins that it be changed into the love of our neighbor.
(88) The College of the Sorbonne, in Paris, takes its name from Robert de Serbonne, who founded it in the middle of the thirteenth century. Its reputation for theological learning, philosophy, classical literature, and all that formerly constituted a liberal education, was deservedly high. In the Doctors of the Sorbonne the Reformation found powerful adversaries. The very name of this university, to which the greatest scholars in Europe were accustomed to pay deference, would be regarded by the multitude with blind veneration. If such men as Calvin, Beza, Melanchthon, and Luther, were prepared by talents and acquirements of the first order to brave the terrors of that name, they must have frequently lamented its influence on many of their hearers. Yet our author meets undaunted this formidable array, and enters the field with the full assurance of victory. Despising, as we naturally do, the weak superstitions and absurd tenets held by the Church of Rome, we are apt to underrate our obligations to the early champions of the Reformed faith, who encountered, with success, those veteran warriors, and ‘contended earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.’ (Jud 1:3.)” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) This verse is another of the marked points of contact between this Epistle and that to the Romans. The theme of it is worked out at length in Rom. 13:8-10.
Thy neighbour.In the original command this appears to mean thy fellow Israelite. Our Lord, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, had given it a wider signification, and in the same wider sense it is used here.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Law love From the law of Moses we are emancipated into the law of love. While that love inspires us to run in the way of the law, there is a perfect unity of love, law, and liberty. We act not from compulsion of law; we are in that sense not under law; because our heart freely and spontaneously runs with the law. Yet if, when our love grows cold, or when temptation appeals to our lower nature, we sin and grow discordant, the law revives and we die. It is when our hearts and will vary from the law, because not springing from love, that we feel first the slavery, and then the condemnation, of law.
Fulfilled Not summed up, but obeyed and carried out. When Paul says that all the law is fulfilled in love to our neighbour, we think, contrary to most commentators, that he means all the duties of man to man. This is not “arbitrary” limitation, for it is in the sphere of mutual human duties ( one another, Gal 5:13; Gal 5:15) that Paul is speaking. So, also, in Rom 13:8-11. Paul there enumerates several commandments, and then adds, that if there is any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Of course in that passage, as in this, we must understand Paul as speaking within the scope of the second table of the Decalogue. It is no doubt true, that the holy love which in a man fulfils one table, will also fulfil the other. But that is what Paul is here neither saying nor assuming.
Love thy neighbour as thyself From this clause we may assume, 1. That it is right to love thyself. Self-love, not exaggerated into selfishness, is right. Such a renunciation of self as does not desire one’s own safety, happiness, wellbeing, present and eternal, forms no part of religion. 2. We owe duties to ourselves which others do not owe to us. We cannot demand that others should perform for us those duties which we owe to ourselves. Such a demand would, on our part, be selfish and tyrannical. 3. We owe relative duties to wife, husband, parents, children, which we cannot demand others to perform for us and in our stead. We must love our neighbour so well as not to demand that he perform for us those duties that belong to us. We must leave him time and liberty to perform those duties for himself and his which belong to him. 4. Reciprocally, what we do not rightfully, and by this constitution of things demand, of our neighbour, our neighbour cannot demand from us. We do not claim to love him better than ourselves; and if we so love him as to release him from performing these strictly personal duties for us, we may relieve ourselves from performing his for him. If we claim to reduce the scale of duties to be performed by ourselves for others, we must reduce the scale of duties we demand from others. We adopt thereby the rule that is right and fair for all.
This love is a moral principle. It has different degrees of the emotional in different temperaments. And when expressed in intellectual and practical terms it becomes the Golden Rule.
This principle of love needs the blessed Spirit of God to quicken it into a true life. Nevertheless the law of the second table is often, apparently, more completely fulfilled by natural men than the law of the first. There are men who, in practical life, are just, fair, and benevolent to their fellow-man, but who are little reverent, grateful, or devout to God, their true benefactor. Judged by man, they are all that is right; judged by God, what are they?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gal 5:14 . [234] Reason assigned for the . . . just said: for the whole law is fulfilled in one utterance; that is, compliance with the whole Mosaic law has taken place and exists, if one single commandment of it is complied with, namely, the commandment, “ Love thy neighbour as thyself .” If, therefore, ye through love serve one another, the whole point in dispute is thereby solved; there can no longer be any discussion whether ye are bound to fulfil this or that precept of the law, ye have fulfilled the whole law. “Theologia brevissima et longissima; brevissima quod ad verba et sententias attinet, sed usu et re ipsa latior, longior, profundior et sublimior toto mundo,” Luther, (comp. 1Ti 1:16 ; Act 19:7 ; Act 20:18 ; Soph. El . 1244; Phil . 13; Thuc. ii. 7. 2, viii. 93. 3; Krger, 50. 11. 12) places the totality of the law in contradistinction to its single utterance . The view of Hofmann, that it denotes the law collectively as an unity, the fulfilment of which existing in the readers they have in the love which they are to show, falls to the ground with the erroneous reading, to which it is with arbitrary artifice adapted; and in particular, means not at all the law as unity , but the whole law: [235] comp. also 2Ma 6:5 ; 3Ma 6:2 et al.; Herod. i. 111. In point of fact, the phrase does not differ from , Mat 22:40 . Without alteration in the sense, the apostle might also have written , which would only have made the emphasis fall still more strongly on .
] As to the reading, see the critical notes. The perfect denotes the fulfilment as complete and ready to hand, as in Rom 13:8 . Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Estius, Baumgarten, Semler, Morus, Rckert, Matthies, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Wieseler, and others, have correctly explained of compliance with the law; for the explanation comprehenditur (Erasmus, Castalio, Luther, Calvin, Rambach, Michaelis, Zachariae, Koppe, Rosenmller, Winer, Usteri, Olshausen, Reiche, and others), that is, (which, however, in Rom 13:9 is distinguished from ), is at variance with the universal usage of in the N.T. (comp. . , Herod. i. 199; so also Philo, de Abrah . I. p. 36). See Gal 6:2 ; Mat 3:15 ; Rom 8:4 ; Rom 13:8 ; Col 4:17 . The thought is the same as in Rom 13:8 , , and Rom 13:10 , . Grotius interprets . in the same way as in Mat 5:17 : “sicuti rudimenta implentur per doctrinam perfectiorem.” This interpretation is incorrect on account of , and because a commandment of the Mosaic law itself is adduced.
] that is, in the saying of the law; see Winer, p. 103 [E. T. 135].
] Lev 19:18 . Respecting the imperative future , see on Mat 1:21 ; and as to used of the second person , see on Rom 13:9 ; Jacobs, ad Anthol . IX. p. 447. On the idea of the ., see on Mat 22:39 . Comp. Cic. de Legg . i. 12: “Nihilo sese plus quam alterum homo diligat.” The neighbour is, for the Christian who justly (Mat 5:17 ) applies to himself this Mosaic commandment, his fellow-Christian (comp. Gal 5:13 , , and see Gal 5:14 ), just as for the Jew it is his fellow-Jew. But how little this is to be taken as excluding any other at all, is shown not only by distinct intimations, such as Gal 6:10 , 1Th 3:12 , 2Pe 1:7 , but also by the whole spirit of Christianity, which, as to this point, finds its most beautiful expression in the example of the Samaritan (Luk 10 ); and Paul himself was a Samaritan of this kind towards Jews and Gentiles.
The question, how Paul could with justice say of the whole law that it was fulfilled by love towards one’s neighbour, is not to be answered, either by making signify the Christian law (Koppe), or by understanding it only of the moral law (Estius and many others), or of the second table of the Decalogue (Beza and others; also Wieseler; comp. Ewald), or of every divinely revealed law in general (Schott); for, according to the connection of the whole epistle, cannot mean anything else than the whole Mosaic law . But it is to be answered by placing ourselves at the lofty spiritual standpoint of the apostle, from which he regarded all other commandments of the law as so thoroughly subordinate to the commandment of love, that whosoever has fulfilled this commandment stands in the moral scale and the moral estimation just as if he had fulfilled the whole law. From this lofty and bold standpoint everything, which was not connected with the commandment of love (Rom 13:8-10 ), fell so completely into the background, [236] that it was no longer considered as aught to be separately and independently fulfilled; on the contrary, the whole law appeared already accomplished in love , that is, in the state of feeling and action produced by the Spirit of God (Gal 5:22 f.; Rom 15:30 ), in which is contained the culminating point, goal, and consummation of all parts of the law. [237] The idea thus amounts to an impletio totius legis dilectione formata , by which the claim of the law is satisfied (Gal 5:23 ). The view of Hofmann, that here the law comes into consideration only so far as it is not already fulfilled in faith; that for the believer its requirement consists in the commandment of love , and even the realization of this is already existing in him , so that he has only to show the love wrought in him by God simply emanates from the erroneous form of the text and the wrong interpretation of Gal 5:14 adopted by him. That the apostle, moreover, while adducing only the commandment of love towards one’s neighbour , does not exclude the commandment of love towards God (comp. Mat 22:37 f.), was obvious of itself to the Christian consciousness from the necessary connection between the love of God and the love of our neighbour (comp. 1Jn 4:20 ; 1Co 8:1 ; 1Co 8:3 ). Paul was induced by the scope of the context to bring forward the latter only (Gal 5:13 ; Gal 5:15 ).
[234] Hofmann reads the verse: . . . . A form of the text so destitute of attestation (Tertullian alone has in vobis instead of ), that it is simply equivalent to a (very strange) conjecture . Also the omission of is much too feebly attested. In the text, followed above, A B C agree.
[235] [This is an approximate rendering of the passage, the meaning of which is not, to me at least, very clear. Hofmann seems to have been conscious of this want of clearness, for in his revised edition just issued he has considerably altered his mode of expression, but still leaves the matter somewhat obscure. ED.]
[236] Especially the precepts as to cultus , in the apostle’s view, were included among the , Gal 4:3 .
[237] Therein lies the essence of the so-called tertius usus of the law, the further development of which is given in the Epistle to the Romans. Comp. Sieffert, in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol . p. 271 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Ver. 14. For all the law ] i.e. All the second table. The Scripture often appropriateth the law to the second table, as Rom 13:8 ; Eph 6:2 , &c. A man must exercise the first table in the second, the duties of his general calling in his particular calling. In the first commandment, saith Luther, the keeping of all the laws is enjoined, Primo praecepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur. Neither can any one love his neighbour as himself, but he that loves God above all.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14 .] See Rom 13:8-9 . The rec. reading would mean merely ‘ is in course of being fulfilled ,’ whereas now it is, ‘is fulfilled:’ not ‘ comprehended ’ (Luth., Calv., Olsh., Winer, al.). “The question, how the Apostle can rightly say of the whole law, that it is fulfilled by loving one’s neighbour, must not be answered by understanding of the Christian law (Koppe), or of the moral law only (Estius, al.), or of the second table of the decalogue (Beza, al.), or of every divinely revealed law in general (Schtt.); for cannot from the circumstances of the whole Epistle, mean any thing but ‘ the whole law of Moses :’ but by placing ourselves on the lofty spiritual level from which St. Paul looked down, and saw all other commands of the law so far subordinated to the law of love, that whoever had fulfilled this command, must be treated as having fulfilled the whole.” Meyer: who also remarks that applies to fellow-Christians; cf. below.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 5:14 . . MS. authority is decisive in favour of this perfect against the present . The perfect is likewise adopted in the parallel passage Rom 13:8 , . For the very existence of love in the heart attests the completion of a previous inward act of the will. . The single precept which follows embodies in itself the whole duty to man. . The language of Lev 19:18 is here invested with the comprehensive force which Christ attached to the word neighbour by his teaching.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
fulfilled. Greek. pieroo. App-125.
word. Greek. logos. App-121.
love. Greek. agapao. App-135. Quoted from Lev 19:18.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14.] See Rom 13:8-9. The rec. reading would mean merely is in course of being fulfilled, whereas now it is, is fulfilled: not comprehended (Luth., Calv., Olsh., Winer, al.). The question, how the Apostle can rightly say of the whole law, that it is fulfilled by loving ones neighbour, must not be answered by understanding of the Christian law (Koppe), or of the moral law only (Estius, al.), or of the second table of the decalogue (Beza, al.), or of every divinely revealed law in general (Schtt.);-for cannot from the circumstances of the whole Epistle, mean any thing but the whole law of Moses:-but by placing ourselves on the lofty spiritual level from which St. Paul looked down, and saw all other commands of the law so far subordinated to the law of love, that whoever had fulfilled this command, must be treated as having fulfilled the whole. Meyer: who also remarks that applies to fellow-Christians; cf. below.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 5:14. , is fulfilled) Rom 13:9, note.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 5:14
Gal 5:14
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this:-They desired to be under the law; here then is the sum and substance of the law, and faithfulness to the gospel would not hinder them, but on the contrary would enable them to do what the law required to be done, that is, to live according to the will of God.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.-There are two classes of commands in the law of Moses-one embracing mans duty to God, the other to his fellow men. Man cannot discharge the duties he owes to his fellow men unless he first discharge those he owes to God; they stand first. Discharging these fits him to perform those he owes to man. Hence, he who performs the duties he owes to man must have discharged those he owes to God. The performance of these implies the performance of those. Hence, he who loves his neighbor as himself has fulfilled the whole law-these laws regulating his duties to God as well as those to man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
all: Mat 7:12, Mat 19:18, Mat 19:19, Mat 22:39, Mat 22:40, Rom 13:8-10, Jam 2:8-11
Thou: Lev 19:18, Lev 19:34, Mar 12:31, Mar 12:33, Luk 10:27-37, 1Ti 1:5
Reciprocal: Jdg 8:2 – What Mal 4:4 – the law Mat 5:19 – do Mat 5:43 – Thou Mar 9:50 – have peace Mar 10:19 – commit Luk 6:31 – General Joh 13:34 – That ye love Rom 2:27 – if it fulfil 1Co 9:21 – not 1Co 16:14 – General Gal 5:13 – but Gal 6:2 – Bear Eph 4:16 – edifying 1Th 3:12 – love Jam 5:9 – Grudge not 1Jo 2:7 – but 1Jo 4:21 – General 2Jo 1:6 – this is love
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 5:14. -For the whole law has been fulfilled in one word. Codices K and L have instead of -an evident blunder. D1 and F prefix to -a plain interpolation; Tertullian has in vobis. Marcion, as quoted by Epiphanius, substituted for , and he seems to have read the verse thus: ; thus out of enmity against the Mosaic law, as some alleged, altering the apostle’s meaning, and omitting that the following clause might not seem to be a quotation.
The reading is found in A, B, C, , 17, 21, 23, 37, 39-71, in Marcion as quoted by Epiphanius, in Tertullian against Marcion, in Damascenus, and Augustine, who, however, often reads impletur. The reading is adopted by Lachmann and Tischendorf. of the Received Text has in its favour D, F, K, L, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and many of the versions, as the Claromontane and Vulgate, the Gothic, Coptic, and Syriac. It is also advocated by Reiche at some length. The external testimony for is not however preponderant, and it is impaired by the suspicion which Meyer alleges, that the mechanical copyist did not understand the full force of the perfect. The present, besides, would mean that the process of fulfilment was still going on; whereas the perfect signifies, has been and is still fulfilled, is in a fulfilled state, or has received its full complement of obedience in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. A. Buttmann, p. 172.
The position of the words is peculiar, but not without example: Act 20:18; 1Ti 1:16. In the connection is manifest: by their love they were to be serving one another, and for this reason, that love by divine appointment was the fulfilment of the law. The phrase means, in this one utterance or precept- and being in contrast. But,
1. The notion attached by Grotius to is peculiar: The law is filled up, or is fulfilled-sicut rudimenta implentur per doctrinam perfectiorem. That is, the law itself gets an addition which perfects it. But the apostle is not speaking of the law as a code which may receive any enlargement, but of the obedience which it exacts. How could the Mosaic law be made perfect by the addition of one of its own precepts, and how could stand in such a statement as Grotius supposes?
2. Not a few give the meaning of-is summed up, comprehenditur, like in Rom 13:9. This is the view of Luther, Calvin, Borger, Jaspis, Winer, Usteri, Reiche, and Olshausen. But though the meaning of the two phrases be not dissimilar, still the verb before us will not bear the signification thus assigned to it. Its proper meaning is distinctly to be given it, as other clauses of the New Testament show. So that we prefer-
3. The interpretation which gives the verb its common signification; and such is the view of Chrysostom and his followers, of Rckert, Matthies, Schott, De Wette, Meyer, Baumgarten-Crusius, and Wieseler. Thus Mat 3:15, Rom 8:4, Col 4:17, Gal 6:2, Act 13:25, Rom 13:8. See under next clause.
The apostle adds-
, -is fulfilled in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The repetitive words are omitted by D1, F, the Itala and Vulgate, by Marcion, and many of the Latin fathers, as Jerome and Pelagius, but without any ground. has the authority of A, B, C, D, E, K, , etc.; is read only in F, G, L, and many cursives. It is, however, defended by Meyer, but now abandoned by Tischendorf. It is true that does not change the sense, for it may be used in the second person: Winer, 22, 5; Mat 3:9; Joh 12:8; Act 13:46; Php 2:12; A. Buttmann, p. 99. But the external authority for preponderates, and the accidental dropping of a after , ending with the same letter, may have given rise to the variation.
The quotation is from Lev 19:18, , translated in Septuagint as it is found here: And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The future for the imperative is common in Hebrew. Thiersch, De Pent. p. 156, etc. The meaning of in the quotation is somewhat different from the original, where it denotes brother Jews. Here its reference seems specially to fellow-Christians, and generally to fellow-men. See Augustine, De Doct. Christ. 1.31. The question, Who is my neighbour? was in its wide sense answered by Christ in the parable of the good Samaritan; and that answer is, Every one needing thy help, be his blood or creed what it may, is thy neighbour.
1. But what is meant by loving one’s neighbour as one’s self? It does not mean with the same amount, but with the same kind of love,-which realizes or acts out the spirit of brotherhood,-which seeks for a neighbour what you seek for yourself, and feels his welfare involved in your own. According to Gwynne, it comprises both manner and degree.
2. But how does this love of a neighbour fulfil the law? And the first question then is, What is the law referred to? Some, as Koppe, Brown, and Gwynne, suppose it the law of Christ; others, as Beza and Locke, the second table of the law; others, as Schttgen and Rckert, the divine law generally; others only the moral law, as Estius and Baumgarten-Crusius; others, as Macknight, hold that the whole law signifies those parts of the Mosaic law which enjoined men’s duty to their neighbour; and similarly Turner. It seems a certain and necessary conclusion, that the whole law is that very law to which the apostle has referred so often in a variety of aspects. In what other sense could those who had heard the epistle read understand it? What is said is true of the Mosaic law in itself, and as a representative portion of God’s great legislation. Secondly, the difficulty yet remains, how loving one’s neighbour fulfils the whole law? Did the whole law mean only the whole law in reference to our neighbour, it would be easily understood. Love of neighbour would fulfil it in its various precepts; for what but the want of love, what but selfishness, leads any one to kill, or commit adultery, or steal, or perjure himself, or covet? If he loved his neighbour as himself, no such breaches of the divine code would be possible for him-murder would be to him as suicide, and false witness like self-crimination. The great Teacher has said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. Mar 12:30. But if one obeys the second commandment, which is like unto the first, he also obeys the first. For right love of neighbour implies the love of God, and is one of its tests or visible fruits. If he love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? No one can love his neighbour with the prescribed measure and character of love, unless he love God; for that neighbour is loved because he is God’s child and bears His image. The love of the child presupposes as its root the love of the All-Father; obedience to the second commandment depends upon and comprises obedience to the first; and therefore love, in its inner spring, essence, and motive, fulfils the law. Disputes about that law were apparently running high among the Galatians, and were creating alienation, schism, and hatred; and yet the spirit of that law is love, showing itself in mutual service. Thus the apostle says, He who loves his neighbour ; and again, -love is the fulfilment of the law. Rom 13:8; Rom 13:10. And this is the royal law. Jam 2:8. Calvin says that the doctors of the Sorbonne argued, that as the rule is superior to what it directs, so the love of ourselves must always hold the first rank. This, he affirms, is not to interpret but to subvert our Lord’s words, adding-asini sunt qui ne micam quidem habent caritatis.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
The Graces of the Spirit’s Indwelling
Gal 5:14-26
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The works of the flesh are manifest. It is not necessary for anyone to draw upon his imagination to describe the works of the flesh. The everyday contact of us all is with these very works. They are clearly seen and readily acknowledged.
2. The works of the flesh are descriptive of the life of the flesh. The heart of man is sinful above all things and desperately wicked. It is out of this deceitful, wicked heart that all fleshly works proceed. Like the tree, so is the fruit; like the fountain, so is the outflow. How vile is the inner self that emits such uncleanness.
3. The works of the flesh include such as these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, etc. Surely the human heart is a cage of unclean birds. How great a folly it is to seek to force such an heart to bring forth spiritual fruitage. The natural man cannot fulfill the righteous demands of the Law of God. The flesh cannot walk in the ways of the Spirit. This leads to our text:
4. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. The two are contrary the one to the other. There is no place for fellowship between the flesh and the Spirit. The two cannot walk together.
Paul, in the Spirit, graphically describes the conflict between the flesh and the. Spirit. He discovered within himself two opposite natures.
Here is his record, “I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” In answer to this, the Apostle wrote: “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
The Apostle readily granted that his flesh was corrupt. He said: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh.) dwelleth no good thing.” It was for this cause that the cry was made: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
5. The only place of victory over the flesh. Our Gal 5:16 in Gal 5:1-26, says: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” As long as we walk after the flesh, we will bite and devour one another, and be consumed one of another. If we walk after the Spirit, we will reckon ourselves dead to the flesh; we will refuse to hear its voice, and to follow its promptings.
Thus by the Spirit the righteousness of the Law will be fulfilled in us. God grant that we may catch this, the only possible way by which we may mortify the deeds of the body.
I. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE (Gal 5:22)
Love is the outstanding characteristic in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are a few facts relative to His love.
It is a love which passeth knowledge.
It is a love which washed us from our sins.
It is a love which caused Him to give Himself for the Church.
It is a love which encircles the whole world.
It is a love which led Him to lay down His life for us.
It is a love which endures unto the end.
It is a love from which nothing can separate us.
It is a love which chastens and scourges sons.
Love is the fruit of the Spirit. This fruit of the Spirit is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. The love which the Spirit sheds abroad in us is the love of Christ. It is not a human love, but a Divine love. Therefore, everything that we have suggested above of the love which is in Him, will be the same love which is in us.
How great was His love. Who can know its height or depth or breadth or length. And yet that same unfathomable love, in quality, will be ours.
Let us give you a few of the expressions of that love:
1. It is a love in deed and in truth. In 1Jn 3:18 we read: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
Love is not a theory but a fact. If we love because He loved us, we will soon love as He loved. If God loved and gave, we will love and give. If Christ loved and died, we will love and be ready to die. Our love will not be found in platitudes, and in high sounding phraseologies. It will be found in action, in service.
If He loved a lost world, we will love a lost world. If He loved and gave Himself for us, we will be ready to give ourselves for our brethren. If He had compassion when He saw the multitudes, and He said, “Give ye them to eat,” we will have compassion on those around us, and give them to eat (1Jn 3:17).
2. It is a love that loves Christ supremely. To Peter the Lord said: “Lovest thou Me more than these?” The “these” of whom Christ spoke were not the fishes of which they were eating at the time. The “these” were John and Andrew and Bartholomew and the other disciples. Christ was asking Peter if he loved Him more than the others loved Him. We would like to put it this way: Did Peter love Christ more than he loved all other things, more than father, more than brother, more than sister? In other words, was his love to Christ preeminent? Surely, such a love is the fruit of the Spirit.
3. It is a love that is ready to serve Christ. When we think of His service for us we think of it as an expression of His love. There is a verse in Exodus which reads: “I love my master, * * I will not go out free.”
True love will say to Christ: “Mine ears hast Thou bored,” and, “I delight to do Thy will, O God.”
II. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS JOY (Gal 5:22)
Before Jesus went away He said: “That My joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.” Jesus Christ the Man of Sorrows was also a Man of joy. The sorrows He bore were our sorrows. The joy He possessed was that eternal joy which He had with the Father.
The Lord wanted His joy to remain in us; that is, to abide in us. Perhaps there was no man who had more trying experiences than the Apostle Paul. Let us quote you a verse: “In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings.”
In spite of all of these experiences the Apostle Paul was always filled with the joy. of the Spirit. Even in one of his darkest hours in the Philippian jail Paul and Silas sang praises unto God.
Writing to the Philippians he said again, and again, “Rejoice,” and “joy.” Our Lord wanted us to have a joy that was full.
1. The Christian’s joy is not dependent upon circumstances. It was Habakkuk who said: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat.” A darker picture the Prophet could hardly have given, so far as temporal things are concerned. Yet he said: “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Whoever heard of anything more beautiful, a man walking upon the high places, with his feet like hind’s feet, rejoicing and praising God, while lying below him were famine-swept, devastated fields; barren orchards, and flock-less lands?
Did not the Lord say, “Rejoice in tribulation”?
2. The Christian’s joy is centered in Christ. It is a joy which is a result and not an effort. It is the fruit of the Spirit. When you think of the early Church eating their meat with gladness and with singleness of heart as they praised God, you think of a church filled with joy. They rejoiced to suffer shame for Christ. As Stephen died his face was as the face of an angel. The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.
God grant that we may all finish our course with joy.
III. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS PEACE (Gal 5:22)
Once again we would press home the fact that this Divine grace is a peace not merely from God but it is the peace of God.
1. Let us consider God as the God of peace. In Heb 13:20-21 we read: “The God of peace, * * make you perfect.”
In 1Th 5:23 we read: “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.”
In Rom 16:20 we read: “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”
Thus God Himself is a God of peace.
2. Let us consider the peace of God as a gift of the God of peace. It is the peace of God which passeth all understanding, which is to garrison our thoughts and minds. We are told to “let the peace of God rule in your hearts.”
In Isaiah, Christ is called “The Prince of Peace.” Ephesians then tells us that “He is our peace.” Did He not say unto us, “My peace I give unto you”? Did He not appear in the upper room and say, “Peace be unto you”?
3. The results of God’s peace. When we have the sense of our sins forgiven, we have peace. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
When we are saved, however, God says: “Let us have peace.” No matter what goes on around us we may both lay ourselves down in peace and sleep.
The Gospel which we heard was the Gospel of peace. The Gospel which we preach is the Gospel of peace.
4. The realms in which peace operates. First, peace rules in our hearts. There is not a shade of worry or of trouble that can enter the breast of him who has the peace of God.
In Psa 119:1-176 we read: “Great peace have they which love Thy Law.” In Joh 14:1-31 we read: “Peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”
In Isa 26:1-21 is the expression: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.”
In Rom 8:6 is the statement: “To be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
There is another realm where peace will work, when the Prince of Peace comes to earth. In that day we read: “The government shall be upon His shoulder.” Then it is said: “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” Now we have individual heart peace; then we will have universal world peace.
IV. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LONG-SUFFERING (Gal 5:22)
We have read of the long-suffering of God, and of how He waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing. We have read also that the long-suffering of God leadeth men to repentance. Have we ever experienced in our own heart this long-suffering? It is declared to be the fruit of the Spirit.
The word that is more commonly used by us is the word patience. The same God who is a God of long-suffering is a God of patience.
1. Let us consider long-suffering in the sense of patient waiting. The long-suffering of God waited; that is, God was patient, not impatient.
This is what we need. We need to know how to tarry, to wait until God undertakes in our behalf. It is natural to the flesh to want to get its desires immediately. We want our blessings now. Did not Job prove himself to be patient, because he waited until God brought deliverance. In James we read: “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
In this hour the wicked prevail and the saints suffer. We, too, should “be patient* *, brethren, unto the Coming of the Lord.” Does not the husbandman wait for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience for it? Let us also be patient, and gladly suffer long.
Has not God said unto us that if we are not weary in our well doing we shall reap in due season? Let us, therefore, having loved the Lord, patiently wait for His reward.
2. Let us consider long-suffering in the sense of faithfully enduring. Gideon came to the Jordan and passed over with his three hundred men. The Bible says: They were “faint, yet pursuing.” Shall we give up our service, and lay down our arms? or, shall we press on, enduring unto the end?
We remember how the Apostle Peter said: “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing.” Certainly, that was discouraging enough. However, Peter quickly added, “Nevertheless at Thy Word I will let down the net.” Let us have this same sense of enduring, and long-suffering.
Against the Apostle Paul the multitude arose, and the magistrates commanded that he should be beaten. Certainly Paul underwent untold suffering, but did he give up? Not he. He said: “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.”
V. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS MEEKNESS (Gal 5:23)
Moses was recognized as a meek man; that did not by any means suggest that he was a weak man. Jesus Christ was meek and He taught, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
1. A meek man is an humble man. He is not self-assertive. He does not live for honor, and human glory. He bends his back to spitting and shame.
Jesus Christ being found in fashion as a man humbled Himself. As a youth He gladly took the place of subjection to His parents. As a Man, though possessor of all things, He willingly accepted the place of poverty, having no place to lay his head. As a sin-bearer, He was numbered with the malefactors, was rebuffed, spit upon, and yet He never said a word.
This humility of Christ is foreign to the natural man. However, it is the gift of the Spirit to the spiritual man.
2. A meek man is a good man. One of the fruits of the Spirit is goodness. We bring it in here. A meek man does not seek His own. We add, he seeks another’s good, another’s welfare. He lives for others. He spends himself for others. Therefore, he is good. Goodness carries with it the thought of kindness, considerateness.
The meek man will be good even to his enemies. Instead of resisting he will rather suffer, that others may live. Jesus went about doing good, because He was inherently good. His very nature was the extended hand, the compassionate heart, the forgiving spirit.
3. The meek man is gentle. This is another fruit of the Spirit. To us it is wonderful how all of these fruits of the Spirit, are linked together. A man who is meek is not offensive. He is not saying the things that hurt. He is not flying off in a passion. He moves tenderly, softly, quietly, modestly, among men. He is not an imbecile, but he is gentle.
He may reprove, he may rebuke, but he does it with all long-suffering and doctrine. He does not lift up his voice and cry in the streets. If he pronounces a curse in his righteousness against sin, he weeps as he does it. If he says, “Your house is left unto you desolate”; He also says; “How often would I have gathered thy children together.”
God give us more of the spirit of meekness and of gentleness.
VI. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS FAITH (Gal 5:22)
Faith is a living, vitalizing, aggressive, active, working grace.
1. Let us consider faith in the sense of trust. The Old Testament word we know is “Trust in the Lord.” It carries with it the thought of confidence, of assurance. It walks in the realms of certainty, not in the realms of doubt. This faith is the gift of the Spirit. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. He that doubteth is condemned.
Faith is not only the acknowledgment of every claim of Christ, but it is the affiance of the heart to that claim. Faith says: “I believe; and, believing, I confide,” for “with the heart man believeth.”
This faith is the fruit of the Spirit because it is the gift of God. Peter speaks of having obtained a like precious faith. Faith, therefore, is not natural to the flesh. It is one of the graces, Divinely given.
2. Let us consider faith in the sense of conquest. When we read of the Old Testament worthies, we read of what they did by faith. “By faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, etc.” Here is faith in action. We have just considered faith as reclining its head in living confidence and trust upon the bosom of the Lord. We now consider faith as meeting every issue of a Christian’s life and service and conflict.
It is faith which gives us victory over the world. It is faith that makes us an overcomer. It is the shield of faith that overcomes every fiery dart of the wicked one.
3. Let us consider the faith, that keeps the faith. There are many ways in which we might speak of faith, but this, perhaps, is one of the greatest. If I have faith in God, I will keep the faith of God.
Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” The faith which he had kept was his “creedo.” He never was ashamed to make his confession of faith. He was ready to say “Believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.” A man without a faith, is a man without convictions. He is a man without the expression of his convictions, A creed-less man, is a man without a message.
In the days of the martyrs there were men who had faith to sustain even unto the death the faith which was more precious to them than life. They contended for the faith once delivered. This faith that contends, that stands unshaken is the fruit of the Spirit.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Near Deland, Fla., lived a Christian Chinese named Lue Gym Gong, a quiet, modest, yellow man, who has passed to his reward. His spirit of benevolence was known to many. Had he the opportunities be might have been another Burbank. As it was, he perfected an orange, by crossing with the Valentia, producing an improvement of great worth, and named by others for this modest man. He sold his right and discovery, but at first received no money on the contract. Others, knowing the value of the new orange, urged that he sell to them at an advance, since the first agreement was not secured by a deposit, and might not be carried out. His answer was: “Chinaman a Clistian. His word stand, even if white man He.”-Presbyterian.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Gal 5:14. The Judaizers would claim that giving up the law would be losing an important rule of conduct for one another. Paul shows that no principle that was required under the law is given up, for the Gospel requires its believers to love thy neighbor as thyself, which virtually incudes every command contained in the Mosaic law. All the law means all of the commandments that pertain to the proper conduct between man and man. Exo 20:12-17 gives the six of the ten commandments that pertain to this subject. In the very nature of the case, if a man loves his neighbor as himself, he will observe all things required by these six commandments. The one word is Paul’s term for the one commandment about love for one’s neighbor.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 5:14. For the entire law is (hath been and is) fulfilled in one word (even), in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The law commands supreme love to God (in the first table), and love to our neighbor as to ourselves (in the second table). Love to our neighbor springs necessarily from love to God, and is impossible without it. The teaching of Christ (Mat 22:39) and of the Apostle (comp. Rom 13:8-9) ere perfectly agree. The neighbor. In the Hebrew law, Lev 19:18, probably restricted to the Jewish people, but by Christ extended to the universal brotherhood of men. Comp. Mat 5:43, and the parable of the good Samaritan, Luk 10:29.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our apostle enforces the foregoing exhortation to love and serve one another, with a forcible argument or motive, namely, because love is the fulfilling of the law; that is,
1. it is the fulfilling of that part of the law which relates to our neighbour; all the moral law respecting our neighbour is fulfilled in that one word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Or, 2. Love may be said to be the fulfilling of the law in general; for true and regular love to our neighbour supposeth our love to God, springeth from it, and is an evidence of it; yea, the love of our neighbour is the perfecting and completing of our love to God. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1Jn 4:12.
Learn, That as love is a very comprehensive duty, comprising the inward affection as well as the outward action, so the word neighbour is of a very extensive consideration, and includes all persons, friend and foe, rich and poor, near and afar off; all that partake of humanity must be sharers in our charity: our inward affection and good-will must extend to all, though the outward expressions of it can reach but a very few. Thus the law is fulfilled in one word, when we love our neighbour as ourselves: not as we do (often) love ourselves, but as we should love ourselves, namely, with a wise and well-guided love.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Here we have quite a statement from a man that has just condemned the law and its keeping in a number of ways over several cases of proof and he suggests that loving your neighbor can fulfill the whole thing.
I suspect he wants to say, if you really want some relationship to the law then follow what the Lord told us to do – love our neighbor – neighbor being the church brethren (assumed from the context).
This could be a quote from the Old Testament, or it could have been something that Paul heard from the Lord while here on earth or even when Christ was teaching Paul. Luk 10:27 mentions it when the lawyer spoke to the Lord and in Mat 19:19 it is mentioned by the Lord when he spoke to the rich young ruler. Lev 19:18 is the occurrence in the Old Testament.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
5:14 {13} For {h} all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
(13) He sets forth the love of our neighbour, as a mark unto which all Christians ought to refer all their actions, and to that he cites the testimony of the Law.
(h) This particle “all” must be limited to the second table of the ten commandments.