Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 6:18
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit. Amen.
18. The Epistle commenced with expostulation and rebuke. It closes with benediction. Grace is the key-note of the Apostle’s argument. Grace the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the blessing he invokes on their behalf. It is the farewell prayer of a brother for his ‘brethren’, and it breathes the spirit of His Divine Master, of Whom we read, ‘And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them’.
Unto the Galatians Rome ] The Subscription in the earliest MSS. is simply, ‘To Galatians’. The additional words ‘written from Rome’ appear first in a correction of the Vatican MS. of uncertain date, and in two of the later Uncials. It has been shewn in the Introduction that the statement, which rests on no sufficient authority, is clearly incorrect.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Brethren, the grace … – See the note at Rom 16:20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 6:18
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Amen.
The apostolic benediction
By this last word he seals all that precedes it. He says not merely with you as elsewhere; but, with your spirit, thus withdrawing them from carnal things, and displaying throughout the beneficence of God, and reminding them of the grace which they enjoyed, whereby he was able to recall them from all their Judaizing errors. For to have received the Spirit came not of the laws penury, but of the righteousness which is by faith, and to preserve it when obtained came not from circumcision but from grace. Farther, he concludes his exhortation with a prayer, and makes mention of grace and the Spirit on this account, namely, both as addressing himself to the brethren, and as supplicating God that they might continue to enjoy these blessings, thus providing for them a twofold security. For this very thing, namely, both prayer and complete teaching, became to them as a double wall. For teaching, reminding them of what benefits they enjoyed, they rather kept them in the doctrine of the Church, and prayer, invoking grace, and exhorting to an enduring constancy, permitted not the Spirit to depart from them. And He abiding in them, all the error of such doctrines as they held was shaken off like dust, in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Chrysostom.)
The blessing of Christs grace
Dwell as we will on the brighter side of things, life is very hard, and men and women are hard on one another, and we ourselves are growing hard, and that is the worst of all. We need something to soften, in no enfeebling way, the hardness of life, and of men, and of our own heart. And most of the blessings we seek of our own will, weaken our souls; and in the weakening, make us harder in the future. But the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we could win it and take it, softens all things by making us stronger towards goodness and truth and righteousness and love. What is it? What is His grace?
I. Whatever this grace is, it does not come from one who is ignorant of all we need.
1. He has known to the full the weight of human suffering, and the blessing of His grace that is with us is brought home to us by that knowledge. He can comfort because He knows. He has known what temptation is, and can feel with the agony of our resistance, and through that with our weakness. He has not known remorse or the loss of good, but, through His infinite pain in contact with sin, and His infinite pity for those enthralled by it, He can understand our unhappiness in guilt. By knowledge of sorrow He can bring blessing to sorrow.
2. Nor has He known joy less. In early life, as boy and youth, He knew all our simple and pure joys. In manhood, when He first went out to the world, we have often traced the joy of enthusiasm in His work. In later days these only lived in memory, but another joy took their place–the mighty joy of universal love, the joy of giving up all things for all men–that wonderful and mystic joy which we faintly realize whenever out of the depths of personal suffering we rise into the glorious life of self-surrender because we love.
II. Christs fitness to give comes not only of knowledge of our need, but also of His victory over all that is evil and weak in our need. It is the Victor who can give grace and strength to those whom the same foes attack. In order to conquer, win His grace who has conquered, and who will give it to you.
1. Kindness, the goodwill of love. The first meaning of the invocation in the text is: The loving kindness which belonged to Christ, which formed part of His character, be with you, and form part of yours. Filial tenderness. Penetrating love and insight. Nay, more than this: to be perfect, it ought to reach, through frank forgiveness, those who injure us; through interest in the interests, ideas, and movements of human progress, those who are beyond our own circle, in our nation, nay, even in the world; and finally all men, those even who are our bitterest foes, through desire that they should have good and be good.
2. The kind of beauty we express by the word charm. The beautiful charm of Christ be with you all–the charm of harmony of character, the musical subordination and accord of all the qualities and powers of His nature, so that the whole impression made was one of exquisite and various order in lovely and living movement. Sensitiveness to the feelings of others, and to all that is beautiful. An eye to see traces of the Divine loveliness everywhere; faith to believe in it; power to draw it forth. Conclusion: Pray for this grace. It will make you at one with all that is tender, pitiful, dear, and sweet in human lovingkindness, and with all that is sensitive and delicate and graceful in manner and speech, and will create in you an harmonious soul. It will make you at one with moral good, just and true and pure. It will take all that is living in humanity, all that is fair, all that is moral, and link them to and complete them by uniting them to the love of God, and to Gods love for all men; so that to human love and moral love and imaginative love will be added the spiritual love which gathers them all into perfection. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.)
The apostles farewell wish
The apostle concludes the Epistle with his ordinary farewell wish; wherein, having designated them by the name of brethren, he wishes that Gods grace and favour, with all spiritual benefits flowing from it, and purchased and conveyed to them through Jesus Christ, might reside, both in the effects and sense of it, in their spirits and whole soul; and he affixes his Amen, as an evidence of fervency, and confidence in his wish, and as a confirmation of the whole doctrine delivered by him in this Epistle.
1. The more of prejudice a minister apprehends to exist in a people or person against himself and his doctrine, the more ought he to endeavour by affectionate insinuations, and by frequent and seasonable reiterations of loving force, to root out those prejudices.
2. The main thing in people for which ministers ought to care, is the spirit and inward man, as that for which God mainly calls (Pro 23:26), and being kept right, will command the outward man and keep it right also (Pro 4:23). (James Fergusson.)
Parting words
This is his last farewell. He ends the Epistle with the same words wherewith he began. As if he said: I have taught you Christ purely, I have entreated you, I have chidden you, and I have let pass nothing which I thought profitable for you. I can say no more, but that I heartily pray that our Lord Jesus Christ would bless and increase my labour, and govern you with His Holy Spirit for ever. (Luther.)
Grace
I. Grace is the sum of all other blessings.
II. Grace is obtained through Christ.
III. Grace is the greatest happiness we can desire for others. (J. Lyth. , D. D.)
Grace for all
I. Grace is needed by all.
II. Grace is provided for all.
III. Grace is offered to all.
IV. Grace is supplicated for all.
V. Grace may be enjoyed by all. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The grace of Christ
It is of little moment whether by this grace we understand that free love and favour which He always bears in His heart to all that believe in His name, or all that kindness–all those heavenly and spiritual blessings–in the communication of which He manifests this love, this free favour. In any case, to possess His grace is an inconceivable blessing. To be the objects of the kind regards of one so excellent, so amiable, so kind, so wise, so faithful, who can estimate the value of this? It was the apostles wish that the Galatian Christians might every day enjoy new proofs of this unaltered, unalterable lore. He does not pray simply that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with them, but that it may be with their spirit. The leading object of the whole Epistle is to withdraw them more from external things, and fix them on things spiritual; and such a prayer is a most appropriate conclusion. (John Brown, D. D.)
Grace through Christ alone
Here is the concluding wish of Paul for the Galatians, and it is quite in harmony with the teaching of the Epistle. In opposition to all that the false teachers would have the teachers believe respecting righteousness through the sacrifices of the law and obedience to its precepts, Paul had set before them Christ crucified as the sole foundation of all their hopes for eternity, and proved to them that by faith, and by faith alone, all the benefits of Christs death are to be obtained and appropriated. And now he concludes with the affectionate wish that they might constantly and richly experience in their own souls the truth of the gospel, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in their hearts. May every true believer, both with respect to himself and to the whole Church of Christ, say with the apostle, Amen! (John Venn, M. A.)
It is much to be observed that in the original the word Brethren stands at the end of the sentence in a very unusual and emphatic position. After all the severity and strength of the Epistle, he concludes with this word of tenderness and affection. (Bishop Moberly.)
After all his sorrow, amazement, censure, and despondency, he parts with them in kindness; after all the pain they had cost him, yet were they dear to him; and ere he lifts his hand from the parchment, it writes as a parting love-token–Brethren. (John Eadie, D. D.)
The benediction
As the apostle began with grace (chap. 1:3), so he ends with grace, to teach us–
I. That our salvation is placed in it alone for the beginning, progress, and accomplishment thereof. For–
1. Election is of grace (Rom 11:5).
2. Vocation (2Ti 1:9).
3. Justification (Rom 4:24).
4. Glorification (Rom 6:23).
II. That Christ is to have all the glory of this grace.
III. That all our salutations and greetings, adieus and farewells, ought to be founded in the grace of Christ.
The conclusion: It is an epitome of the Epistle.
I. Christ the Lord of the house is opposed to Moses who was but a servant.
II. The grace of Christ is opposed to the merit of works.
III. The spirit, the true seat of grace, is opposed to the flesh in which the false apostles gloried so much.
IV. brethren denotes the affection which is opposed to the lordly carriage of the false apostles and to the strife which they endeavoured to foment. (R. Cudworth.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. The grace] Favour, benevolence, and continual influence of the Lord Jesus, be with your spirit – may it live in your heart, enlighten and change your souls, and be conspicuous in your life!
Amen.] So let it be; and the prayer which I offer up for you on earth, may it be registered in heaven!
Unto the Galatians, written from Rome.] This, or the major part of it, is wanting in the best and most ancient MSS. Written from Rome is wanting in ACDEFG, and others. Claudius Antissiodor, has ‘ Written from Ephesus. Some add, by the hands of Paul, others, by Titus. The SYRIAC has, The end of the Epistle to the Galatians, which was written from the city of Rome. The AETHIOPIC, To the Galatians. The COPTIC, Written from Rome. The VULGATE, nothing. The ARABIC, Written from the city of Rome by Titus and Luke.
Little respect is to be paid to these subscriptions. The epistle was written by Paul himself, not Titus, Luke nor Tychicus; and there is no evidence that it was written from Rome, but rather from Corinth or Ephesus. See the preface, page 385.
THE great similarity between the Epistle to the Romans and that to the Galatians has been remarked by many; and indeed it is so obvious, that the same mode of interpretation may be safely pursued in the elucidation of both; as not only the great subject, but the phraseology, in many respects, is the same. The design of the apostle is to show that God has called the Gentiles to equal privileges with the Jews, pulling down the partition wall that had separated them and the Gentiles, calling all to believe in Christ Jesus, and forming out of the believers of both people one holy and pure Church, of which, equally, himself was the head; none of either people having any preference to another, except what he might derive from his personal sanctity and superior usefulness. The calling of the Gentiles to this state of salvation was the mystery which had been hidden from all ages, and concerning which the apostle has entered into such a laborious discussion in the Epistle to the Romans; justifying the reprobation as well as the election of the Jews, and vindicating both the justice and mercy of God in the election of the Gentiles. The same subjects are referred to in this epistle, but not in that detail of argumentation as in the former. In both, the national privileges of the Jews are a frequent subject of consideration; and, as these national privileges were intended to point out spiritual advantages, the terms which express them are used frequently in both these senses with no change; and it requires an attentive mind, and a proper knowledge of the analogy of faith, to discern when and where they are to be restricted exclusively to one or the other meaning, as well as where the one is intended to shadow forth the other; and where it is used as expressing what they ought to be, according to the spirit and tenor of their original calling.
Multitudes of interpreters of different sects and parties have strangely mistaken both epistles, by not attending to these most necessary, and to the unprejudiced, most obvious, distinctions and principles. Expressions which point out national privileges have been used by them to point out those which were spiritual; and merely temporal advantages or disadvantages have been used in the sense of eternal blessings or miseries. Hence, what has been spoken of the Jews in their national capacity has been applied to the Church of God in respect to its future destiny; and thus, out of the temporal election and reprobation of the Jews, the doctrine of the irrespective and eternal election of a small part of mankind, and the unconditional and eternal reprobation of the far greater part of the human race, has been formed. The contentions produced by these misapprehensions among Christians have been uncharitable and destructive. In snatching at the shadow of religion in a great variety of metaphors and figures, the substance of Christianity has been lost: and the man who endeavours to draw the contending parties to a consistent and rational interpretation of those expressions, by showing the grand nature and design of these epistles, becomes a prey to the zealots of both parties! Where is truth in the mean time? It is fallen in the streets, and equity is gone backwards; for the most sinister designs and most heterodox opinions have been attributed to those who, regarding the words of God only, have refused to swim with either torrent; and, without even consulting their own peculiar creed, have sought to find out the meaning of the inspired writers, and with simplicity of heart, and purity of conscience, to lay that meaning before mankind.
The Israelites were denominated a peculiar treasure unto God, above all people; a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, Ex 19:5-6. A holy people whom he had chosen to be a special people unto himself, above all the people who were upon the face of the earth, De 7:6. This was their calling, this was their profession, and this was their denomination; but how far they fell practically short of this character their history most painfully proves. Yet still they were called a holy people, because called to holiness, (Le 11:44; Le 19:2; Le 20:7,) and separated from the impure and degrading idolatries of the neighbouring nations.
Under the New Testament, all those who believe in Christ Jesus are called to holiness – to have their fruit unto holiness, that their end may be eternal life; and hence they are called saints or holy persons. And the same epithets are applied to them as to the Israelites of old; they are lively stones, built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ; they are also called a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that should show forth the praises of him who had called them from darkness into his marvellous light, 1Pe 2:5; 1Pe 2:9. All this they were called to, all this was their profession, and to have all these excellences was their indisputable privilege.
As they professed to be what God had called them to be, they are often denominated by their profession; and this denomination is given frequently to those who, in experience and practice, fall far short of the blessings and privileges of the Gospel. The Church of Corinth, which was in many respects the most imperfect, as well as the most impure, of all the apostolic Churches, is nevertheless denominated the Church of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, 1Co 1:2. That there were many saints in the Corinthian Church, and many sanctified in Christ Jesus both in it and in the Churches of Galatia, the slightest perusal of the epistles to those Churches will prove: but that there were many, and in the Galatian Churches the majority, of a different character, none can doubt; yet they are all indiscriminately called the Churches of God, saints, c. And, even in those early times, saint appears to have been as general an appellative for a person professing faith in Christ Jesus, as the term Christian is at the present day, which is given to all who profess the Christian religion and yet these terms, taken in their strict and proper sense, signify, a holy person, and one who has the Spirit and mind of Christ.
In my notes on the Epistle to the Romans I have entered at large into a discussion of the subjects to which I have referred in these observations; and, to set the subject in a clear point of view, I have made a copious extract from Dr. Taylor’s Key to that epistle; and I have stated, that a consistent exposition of that epistle cannot be given but upon that plan. I am still of the same opinion. It is by attending to the above distinctions, which are most obvious to all unprejudiced persons, that we plainly see that the doctrines of eternal, unconditional reprobation and election, and the impossibility of falling finally from the grace of God, have no foundation in the Epistle to the Romans. Dr. Taylor has shown that the phrases and expressions on which these doctrines are founded refer to national privileges, and those exclusive advantages which the Jews, as God’s peculiar people, enjoyed during the time in which that peculiarity was designed to last; and that it is doing violence to the sense in which those expressions are generally used, to apply them to the support of such doctrines. In reference to this, I have quoted Dr. Taylor; and those illustrations of his which I have adopted, I have adopted on this ground, taking care never to pledge myself to any peculiar or heterodox opinions, by whomsoever held; and, where I thought an expression might be misunderstood, I took care to guard it by a note or observation.
Now I say that it is in this sense I understand the quotations I have made, and in this sense alone these quotations ought to be understood; and my whole work sufficiently shows that neither Dr. Taylor’s nor any person’s peculiar theological system makes any part of mine; that, on the doctrine of the fall of man or original sin, the doctrine of the eternal deity of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of justification by faith in the atoning blood, and the doctrine of the inspiration and regenerating influence of the Holy Ghost, I stand on the pure orthodox creed, diametrically opposite to that of the Arians and Socinians. Yet this most distinguishing difference cannot blind me against the excellences I find in any of their works, nor can I meanly borrow from Dr. Taylor, or any other author, without acknowledging my obligation; nor could I suppress a name, however obnoxious that might be, as associated with any heterodox system, when I could mention it with deference and respect. Let this be my apology for quoting Dr. Taylor, and for the frequent use I have made of his industry and learning in my exposition of the Epistle to the Romans. If I have quoted, to illustrate the sacred writings, passages almost innumerable from Greek and Roman heathens; from Jewish Talmudists and rabbinical expositors; from the Koran; from Mohammedan writers, both Arabic and Persian; and from Brahminical polytheists; and these illustrations have been well received by the Christian public; surely I may have liberty to use, in the same way, the works of a very learned man, and a most conscientious believer in the books of Divine revelation, however erroneous he may appear to be in certain doctrines which I myself deem of vital importance to the creed of an experimental Christian. Let it not be said that, by thus largely quoting from his work, I tacitly recommend an Arian creed, or any part of that system of theology peculiar to him and his party; I no more do so than the Indian matron who, while she gives the nourishing farina of the cassava to her household, recommends them to drink the poisonous juice which she has previously expressed from it.
After this declaration, it will be as disingenuous as unchristian for either friends or foes to attribute to me opinions which I never held, or an indifference to those doctrines which (I speak as a fool) stand in no work of the kind, in any language, so fully explained, fortified, and demonstrated, as they do in that before the reader. On such a mode of judgment and condemnation as that to which some resort in matters of this kind, I might have long ago been reputed a Pagan or a Mohammedan, because I have quoted heathen writers and the Koran. And, by the same mode of argumentation, St. Paul might be convicted of having abandoned his Jewish creed and Christian faith, because he had quoted the heathen poets Aratus and Cleanthes. The man is entitled to my pity who refuses to take advantage of useful discoveries in the philosophical researches of Dr. Priestley, because Dr. Priestley, as a theologian, was not sound in the faith.
I have made that use of Dr. Taylor which I have done of others; and have reason to thank God that his Key, passing through several wards of a lock which appeared to me inextricable, has enabled me to bring forth and exhibit, in a fair and luminous point of view, objects and meanings in the Epistle to the Romans which, without this assistance, I had perhaps been unable to discover.
I may add, farther, that I have made that use of Dr. Taylor which himself has recommended to his readers: some of his censors will perhaps scarcely believe that the four following articles constitute the charge with which this learned man commences his theological lectures: –
I. “I do solemnly charge you, in the name of the God of truth,
and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and
the life, and before whose judgment seat you must in no long
time appear, that, in all your studies and inquiries of a
religious nature, present or future, you do constantly,
carefully, impartially, and conscientiously attend to
evidence, as it lies in the Holy Scriptures, or in the
nature of things and the dictates of reason, cautiously
guarding against the sallies of imagination, and the fallacy
of ill-grounded conjecture.
II. “That you admit, embrace, or assent to no principle or
sentiment, by me taught or advanced, but only so far as it
shall appear to you to be justified by proper evidence from
revelation, or the reason of things.
III. “That if at any time hereafter any principle or sentiment by
me taught or advanced, or by you admitted or embraced,
shall, upon impartial and faithful examination, appear to
you to be dubious or false, you either suspect or totally
reject such principle or sentiment.
IV. “That you keep your mind always open to evidence; that you
labour to banish from your breast all prejudice,
prepossession, and party zeal; that you study to live in
peace and love with all your fellow Christians; and that you
steadily assert for yourself, and freely allow to others, the
unalienable rights of judgment and conscience.” – Taylor’s
Scheme of Scripture Divinity, preface, page vi.
Thus I have done with Dr. Taylor’s works; and thus I desire every intelligent reader to do with my own.
When I was a child I had for a lesson the following words: Despise not advice, even from the meanest; the cackling of geese once preserved the Roman state. And since I became a man, I have learned wisdom from that saying: Blessed are ye who sow beside ALL WATERS; that send forth thither the feet of the OX and the ASS. May He, who is the way, the truth, and the life, lead the reader into all truth, and bring him to life everlasting! Amen.
Finished the correction for a new edition, Dec. 14th, 1831. – A. C.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle closeth this Epistle with this prayer, as he generally concludeth all his Epistles, with wishing them grace,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; under which he comprehendeth all the effects of the free love of God upon believers souls, for the sake, and in and through the merits, of the Lord Jesus Christ: this he prayeth that they might feel in their hearts, and that it might be in their spirits, to quicken, strengthen, comfort, and establish them, according to the different manifestations of the Spirit of grace.
It hath been said before, that we are not to look upon these dates of apostolical Epistles as part of holy writ, for in some of them there are manifest mistakes; but most think that this Epistle was written from Rome, while Paul was a prisoner there, who are in part guided to it from Gal 6:17, thinking that it was written at a time when Paul was there suffering imprisonment. But of this there is no certainty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. BrethrenPlace it, asGreek, “last” in the sentence, before the “Amen.”After much rebuke and monition, he bids them farewell with the lovingexpression of brotherhood as his last parting word (see on Ga1:6).
be with your spiritwhich,I trust, will keep down the flesh (1Th 5:23;2Ti 4:22; Phm 1:25).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Brethren,…. So he calls them, to testify his affection for them, notwithstanding their infirmity and instability, and the roughness with which he had treated them; and to show his great humility and condescension in owning the relation, and putting them on a level with himself, which the pride of the false teachers would not suffer them to do.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit: which is his concluding benediction and usual salutation and token in all his epistles: he wishes that more gifts of grace might be bestowed upon them; that the Gospel of the grace of God might be continued with them; that the love of Christ might be shed abroad in their hearts; that they might receive out of his fulness grace for grace; that there might be an increase of grace in their souls; that it might abound in them, and they grow in the exercise of it: he does not pray that the law of Moses, or the righteousness of works, but that the grace of Christ might be with them; not in the mere notion of it, but in the spiritual experience of it; that it might be in their hearts, and with their spirits, quickening, comforting, and strengthening them; making them more spiritual and evangelical in their frames and duties, and freeing them from a carnal and legal spirit: to all which he sets his
Amen; signifying his desire that so it might be, and his faith that so it would be. The subscription of the letter follows,
unto the Galatians, written from Rome; where perhaps he was then a prisoner; the Arabic version adds, “by Titus and Luke”: who might be sent with it, but the subscriptions of the epistles are not to be depended on.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The farewell salutation is much briefer than that in 2Co 13:13, but identical with that in Phm 1:25. He calls them “brethren” () in spite of the sharp things spoken to them.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The grace, etc. The same form of benediction occurs Phl 1:25. Brethren. Rev. rightly puts the word at the end of the verse. The position is unusual. It would seem as if Paul intended to close this severe letter with an assurance that the “foolish Galatians” were still his brethren : They are addressed as “brethren,” ch. Gal 4:12; Gal 5:11; Gal 6:1. Comp. 1Co 16:24. ===Eph1
CHAPTER I
“The first chapter has, so to speak, a liturgical, psalmodic character, being, as it were, a glowing song in praise of the transcendent riches of the grace of God in Christ, and the glory of the Christian calling” (Schaff).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Brethren,” (adelphoi) “Brethren,” is the last word in order in this verse in the Greek– after expressing fears for his wayward flock-churches of Galatia– after chiding and reproof he returned to forgiveness and expressed confidence in the brethren.
2) “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (he Charis tou Christou humon lesou) “The grace of the Lord of us, Jesus Christ;” The grace from God and of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ– Saving, teaching, and growing, grace, Paul’s prayers may be or abide with and upon all the Galatian church brethren, to whom the letter was addressed, Gal 1:2; Eph 2:8-9; Tit 2:11-12; 2Pe 3:15.
3) “Be with your spirit, Amen,” (meta tou pneumatos humon, Amen) “Let it be with the spirit of you all, Amen”, so may it be. This form of benediction, identifying the grace of the Lord with the spirit (disposition) of obedient church servants of the Lord, is found in only two other places in Paul’s prayers, 2Ti 4:22; Phm 1:25.
The devout “Amen,” “so may it be brethren,” is Paul’s last form of large-letter, salutation, written from a larger heart.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18. The grace (105) of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. His prayer is not only that God may bestow upon them his grace in large measure, but that they may have a proper feeling of it in their hearts. Then only is it truly enjoyed by us, when it comes to our spirit. We ought therefore to entreat that God would prepare in our souls a habitation for his grace. Amen.
END OF THE COMMENTARIES ON THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
(105) “It is of little moment whether, by the ‘grace,’ we understand that free love and favour, which He always bears in his heart to all that believe in his name, or all that kindness — all those heavenly and spiritual blessings — in the communication of which He manifests this love, this free favour.” — Brown.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) With your spirit.The grace of God works especially on the spirit, or highest part, of man.
[The subscription, as it stands in our Bibles, appears for the first time in MSS. dating from about the beginning of the ninth century, though before this the Epistle had been described as written from Rome by Theodoret, Euthalius, and Jerome. We have seen that the choice really lies between Ephesus and Macedonia, or Corinth, and that the probability seems to be somewhat in favour of the latter.]
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Brethren In the Greek this word is the last of the verse and of the epistle. “So,” says Bengel, “he softens with the final word the severity of the whole epistle.” He would part with them as brethren; whether they truly remained brethren, history does not reveal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.’
He finishes his letter by praying for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with their spirit. This is pointed, for he never finishes like this anywhere else. He is stressing that it is only to those who are spiritual, because they have received the promise of the Spirit, that he writes. To those who walk after the Spirit. To those who have received the Spirit, and whose spirits have been renewed. And he prays that the undeserved favour and activity of the Lord Jesus Christ will be active with them in their life of the Spirit, that He will be ‘with their spirit’.
‘Amen.’ So be it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gal 6:18 . . . .] See on Gal 1:6 .
] sc . . A special design , on account of which Paul did not write merely (1Co 16:23 ; Col 4:18 ; 1Th 5:28 ), or (2Co 13:13 ; Phi 4:23 ; 2Th 3:18 ; Tit 3:15 ), is indeed assumed by many expositors (that Paul desired once more to indicate that salvation does not come from the ; Chrysostom, Theophylact, Beza, and others; also Rckert, Usteri, Schott, Olshausen), but cannot be made good; especially as also in Phm 1:25 (and 2Ti 4:22 ), instead of the persons simply, we find that with greater significance and fervour the spirit of the persons (so also at the close of the Epistle of Barnabas) is named, because it is on the of man (the higher principle of life with the ; see on Luk 1:46 ; Rom 1:4 ; Rom 8:10 ; 2Co 2:13 , et al .) that the grace of Christ works (Rom 8:10 ; Rom 8:16 ), when the Spirit of Christ takes up His abode in the human spirit and so confers His . Paul might also have written . (comp. 2Co 12:15 ; 1Pe 1:9 ; 1Pe 1:22 ; 1Pe 2:11 ; 1Pe 2:25 ); but even in that case the gracious operation of Christ would have to be conceived as issuing from the seat of self-consciousness (the of man).
] The epistle, in great part so severe, ends with a mode of address which still breathes unaltered love (1Co 16:24 ).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
REFLECTIONS
Everlasting praises to God the Holy Ghost, for his mercy to the Church, in the gift of this sweet and precious Epistle! God be thanked for the ministry of his servant in it! And God be praised for every single instance of mercy vouchsafed the Church, by it.
We here behold, very clearly, the free, and full justification of Christ’s Church, in Christ’s Person; and by the sole righteousness of Jesus Christ. In Christ may all the Lord’s people be found; and never seek salvation by the works of the law, but solely in the Person, and by the righteousness of Christ. And, oh! for a portion of the same Spirit, which actuated Paul, when he determined to glory only in the cross of Christ; convinced, that nothing, short of a new creature, can give confidence before God.
After having blessed the Lord the Spirit for this sweet Scripture, we would look with affection to Paul, as the highly favored servant of it. Surely, it is profitable to bless God, in, and for, the ministry of his servants; and, therefore, we love the Apostle, for his love to his Master, and zeal in his service. Farewell for the present, Paul! W ho but must love thee, and desire to follow thee, as thou hast followed Christ? Shall we not by and by, meet thee before the throne, and bless our Covenant God together? Even so, Amen. Reader! the grace of our Lord Jesus be with the whole Israel of God! Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. To the Galatians written from Rome.
Ver. 18. Be with your spirit ] Spirituals are specially to be desired for ourselves and ours. Caetera aut aderunt, aut non oberunt. Other things we shall either have, or not want, but be as well without them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18 .] THE APOSTOLIC BLESSING. No special intention need be suspected in ( , Chrys.), as the same expression occurs at the end of other Epistles (reff.). I should rather regard it as a deep expression of his Christian love, which is further carried on by , the last word, parting from them, after an Epistle of such rebuke and warning, in the fulness of brotherhood in Christ.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 6:18 . . . This form of the final blessing occurs also in 2Ti 4:22 and Phm 1:25 , but not elsewhere: it was probably suggested here by the stress laid on the life of the Spirit in the Epistle.
The subscription is neither genuine nor correct. Its absence in the oldest MSS. stamps it as an addition of later date. The Epistle was evidently written before the Roman captivity (see Introduction, pp. 144 7).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gal 6:18
18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
Gal 6:18 This is an example of a brief closing blessing in a cyclical letter (because there are no personal greetings, like Ephesians). Note that the term “be with your spirit” is a good example of the small “s” (spirit) which is used of mankind’s spirit, not the Holy Spirit. However, in many instances in the New Testament, it refers to the human spirit, which is energized by the Holy Spirit. This is probably the implication here.
SPECIAL TOPIC: PAUL’S PRAYER, PRAISE, AND THANKSGIVING
“Amen” See Special Topic at Gal 1:5.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
grace, Greek. charis. App-184.
with. Greek. meta. App-104.
spirit. App-101.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18.] THE APOSTOLIC BLESSING. No special intention need be suspected in ( , Chrys.), as the same expression occurs at the end of other Epistles (reff.). I should rather regard it as a deep expression of his Christian love, which is further carried on by , the last word,-parting from them, after an Epistle of such rebuke and warning, in the fulness of brotherhood in Christ.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 6:18. , grace) This is in consonance with the whole epistle.- , with your spirit) having vanquished the flesh, Gal 6:1; comp. 1Th 5:23; 2Ti 4:22; Phm 1:25.-, brethren) The severity of the whole epistle is thus softened; comp. Gal 1:6, note.[69]
[69] Bengel, J. A. (1860). Vol. 4: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (J. Bryce, Trans.) (1-59). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 6:18
Gal 6:18
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,-He has exalted the spirit as above the body, the flesh, and emphasizes that he prays that Gods favor may be with their spirit. [The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the distinctive blessing of the new covenant. It is to the Christian the supreme good of life, including or carrying with it every other spiritual gift. What this grace of God in Christ designs, what it accomplishes in believing hearts, what are the things that contradict it and make it void, Paul has clearly taught in this epistle. Of this life-giving stream the Galatians had already tasted. From this grace they were removing (Gal 1:6); he hopes and prays that it may abide with them.]
brethren.-[This takes the sting out of the severity of the epistle. With all their faults, he loved them still, and the very rebuke was dictated by his deep concern and anxiety for their welfare.]
Amen.-So be it, may it be fulfilled. [It was a custom, which passed from the synagogues into the Christian assemblies, that when he who had read or had offered up a solemn prayer to God, the others in the assembly responded, Amen, thus making the substance of what was uttered their own. (1Co 14:16).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the grace: Rom 16:20, Rom 16:24, 2Co 13:14, 2Ti 4:22, Phm 1:25, Rev 22:21
Reciprocal: Rom 1:7 – and the Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 6:18. , . -The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. is invoked to be, not or , but . Phm 1:25; 2Ti 4:22. These two passages show that no special stress is to be laid on the phrase here. is not opposed here in any way to , as in some previous clauses of the epistle (Chrysostom, Beza, Rckert, Usteri, Schott). There are no salutations appended, perhaps because the epistle is an encyclical one, meant for believers throughout the province. The is the higher nature, the region of divine operation in renewal and sanctification-distinct from the by which it is united to the . See Heard’s Tripartite Nature of Man, Clark, Edin. 1868; Delitzsch, Psychologie. And the last word is unusually placed-placed last on purpose. After all his sorrow, amazement, censure, and despondency, he parts with them in kindness; after all the pain they had cost him, yet were they dear to him; and ere he lifts his hand from the parchment, it writes, as a parting love-token-.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Gal 6:18. Paul wished that the grace (favor) of Christ would be with the spirit of his brethren; if so, their temporal needs would be supplied also.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 6:18. The last sentence of this polemic Epistle is a benediction, and the last word is a word of affection, brethren. It takes the sting out of the severity. With all your faults, the Apostle means to say, I love you still, and the very rebuke was dictated by my deep concern for your welfare.
Thus concludes this Epistle so full of polemic fire and zeal, yet more full of grace,free, sovereign grace, justifying, sanctifying grace, and full of forgiving love even to ungrateful pupils; an Epistle for the time, and an Epistle for all times.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our apostle closes his epistle with his accustomed valediction, most affectionately praying that the grace and favour of Christ, in the sweet effects of it, and in the sensible apprehension of it, might remain in their souls, to enlighten, sanctify, comfort, and quicken them more and more, that from thence they may derive and draw abiding consolation both in life and death. Amen.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. [The Epistle closes with a fraternal benediction, but the word of grace rests on the spirit of the Galatians, and not on their bodies. Blessing was to be found in rectitude of spirit, and not in fleshly righteousness ceremonially obtained through ordinances. We have no word of history which reveals to us the immediate effect of Paul’s Epistle; but the fact that it was preserved argues that it was well received. Considering the vigor and power of it, it could not have been otherwise than effective. We may say, then, that it, with 2 Corinthians and Romans, were three blows which staggered Judaism, and restrained it, till smitten by the hand of God himself at the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70, it ceased to trouble the church till its forms were again revived in the days of the great apostasy.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Gal 6:18. A brief benediction to those whom he still calls brethren.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit. Amen.
If you look at Paul’s other letters, you will know that this is a very abrupt ending. I believe the explanation of the previous verse is part of that shortness, but also we might realize that his physical problem, may well have made this large letter a real and heavy burden upon him – especially to pen it himself.
You don’t think the added blessing of “grace” was a final nail in the coffin of the Judaizers do you? Just one last emphasis on grace as opposed to the law. I suspect that may have crossed their minds if it didn’t Paul’s.
The blessing being placed on their “spirit” may well be another measured comment to remind them one final time that it is the spirit that God wants to deal with, not the body – not that the spirit correctly matured won’t control the body!
Amen, or so be it. It is closed. Not unlike the formula recent presidents and candidates have adopted, “and may God bless America.” – well if they can say that to millions, why can’t we talk about God in the schools might be a line of thought to pursue.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
6:18 {12} Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your {q} spirit. Amen. [To [the] Galatians written from Rome.]
(12) Taking his farewell of them, he wishes them grace, and the Spirit against the deceits of the false apostles, who labour to beat those outward things into their brains.
(q) With your minds and hearts.