6 days ago8 min read

Commends The New Life

Living As A Child Of The Light

Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭26‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/114/gal.5.1-6.NKJV

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”

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Love Fulfills The Law

Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭7‬-‭15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/114/gal.5.7-15.NKJV

“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”

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Walking In The Spirit

Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/114/gal.5.16-26.NKJV

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

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Footnotes

5:1, 2 Just as children imitate their parents, we should imitate. Christ. His great love for us led him to sacrifice himself so that we might live. Our love for others should be of the same kind — a love that goes beyond affection to self-sacrificing service.

5:4 Foul language or talk about shameful things is so common that we begin to take it for granted. Paul cautions, however, that vulgar speech should have no place in the Christian's conversation be-"? cause it does not reflect God's gracious presence in us. How can we praise God and remind others of his goodness when we are speaking coarsely?

5:5-7 Paul is not saying that believers should keep away from all unbelievers. Jesus taught his followers to befriend sinners and lead them to him (Luke 5:30-32): Instead, Paul is speaking against condoning or adapting the life-style of people who excuse, love; and recommend bad behavior-whether they are in the church or outside of it. Such people can quickly pollute the church, and endanger its unity and purpose. We must befriend unbelievers if we are to lead them to Christ, but we must be weary of those who are viciously evil, immoral, or opposed to all that Christianity stands for:

Such people are more likely to influence us for evil than we are likely to influence them for good.

5:8 Your actions should reflect your faith. We should live above reproach morally so that we can reflect God's goodness to others Jesus stressed this in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:15, 16).

5:10-14 It is important to avoid evil pleasures, but we must go even further. Paul instructs us to rebuke and expose them, for often our silence is interpreted as approval. God needs people who will take a stand for what is right. On which evil pleasures should you lovingly speak out for what is true and right?

5:14 This is not a direct quote from Scripture but was probably taken from a hymn well known to the Ephesians. The hymn seems to have been based on Isaiah 26:19; 51:17; 52:1; 60:1; and Mala-chI 4:2. Paul was appealing to the Ephesians to wake up and realize the dangerous condition into which some of them had been slipping.

5:15, 16 By saying. "these are difficult days," Paul communicates his sense of urgency because of evil's pervasiveness. We need the same sense of urgency because our days are also difficult. We must keep our standards high, act wisely, and do good whenever we can.

5:17 It is not enough to know what God wants us to do; we must also do it. We must follow our beliefs with actions.

5:18 Paul contrasted being drunk with wine, which produces harmful effects, to being filled with the Spint, which produces positive effects. What matters is not how much of the Holy Spirit we have, but how much of us the Holy Spirit has us. We need to submit daily to his leading and draw on his power. Some effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit are mentioned in 5:19-21.

5:20 When you feel down, you may find it difficult to give thanks.

Take heart-God works all things out for good if we love him and are fitting into his plans (Romans 8.28). Thank God, not for your problems, but for the strength he is building in you through the difficult experiences of your life. You can be sure that God's perfect love will see you through.

5:21, 22 Submission is an often misused word. It does not mean becoming a doormat. Christ—at whose name "every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" (Philippians 2:10)— submitted his will to the Father, and we honor Christ by following his example. When we submit to God, we become more willing to obey his command to submit to others; that is, to subordinate our rights to theirs. In a marriage relationship both husband and wife are called to submit. For the wife this means willingly following her husband's leadership in Christ. For the husband it means putting aside his own interests in order to care for his wife. Submission is rarely a problem in homes where both spouses are in a strong relationship with Christ and where each is concerned for the happiness of the other.

5:22-26 Why did Paul tell wives to submit and husbands to love?

Perhaps Christian women, newly freed in Christ, found submission difficult; and Christian men, used to the Roman custom of giving unlimited power to the head of the family, were not used to treating their wives with respect and love. Of course both husbands and wives should submit to each other (5:21), just as both should love each other.

5:22-24 In Paul's day, alot of women, children, and slaves was to submit to the head of the family— slaves until they were freed male children until they grew up, and women and girls their whole lives. Paul emphasized the equality of all believers in Christ (Gala-tians 3:28), but he did not suggest overthrowing Roman society to achieve it. Instead, he counseled all believers to submit to one another by choice-wives to husbands and also husbands to wives; slaves to masters and also masters to slaves; children to parents and also parents to children. This kind of mutual submission preserves order and harmony in the family while it increases love and respect among family members.

5:22-24 Although some people have distorted Paul's teaching on submission by giving unlimited authority to husbands, we cannot get around it —Paul told wives to submit to their husbands. The fact that a teaching is not popular is no reason to discard it. According to the Bible, the man is the spiritual head of the family and his wife goes along with his leadership. But real spiritual leadership is service. Just as Christ served the disciples, even to the point of washing their feet, so the husband is to serve his wife. A wise and Christ-honoring husband will not take advantage of his role, and a wise and Christ-honoring wife will not try to undermine her husband's leadership. Either approach causes disunity and friction in marriage.

5:25ff Some Christians have thought Paul was negative about marriage because of the counsel he gave in 1 Corinthians 7:32-38 These verses in Ephesians, however, show a high view of marriage. Here marriage is not a practical necessity or a cure for lust, but a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church!

Why the apparent difference? Paul's counsel in 1 Corinthians was designed for a state of emergency during a time of persecution and crisis. Paul's counsel to the Ephesians was more a theology of marriage. Marriage, for Paul, is a holy union, a living symbol, a precious relationship that needs tender, self-sacrificing care.

5:25-30 Paul devotes twice as many words to telling husbands to love their wives as to telling wives to submit to their husbands. How should a man love his wife? (1) He should be willing to sacrifice everything for her. (2) He should make her well-being of primary importance. (3) He should care for her as he cares for his body. No wife needs to fear submitting to a man who treats her in this way.

5:26, 27 Christ's death sanctifies and cleanses the church. He cleanses us from the old ways of sin and sets us apart for his special sacred service (Hebrews 10:29; 13:12). Christ cleansed the church by the "washing" of baptism. Through baptism we are prepared for entrance into the church just as oriental brides were prepared for marriage by a ceremonial bath. It is God's Word that Cleanses us (John 17:17; Titus 3:5).

5:31-33 The union of husband and wife merges two persons in such a way that little can affect one without also affecting the other. Oneness in marriage does not mean losing your personality in the personality of the other. Instead, it means caring for your spouse as you care for yourself, learning to anticipate the other persons needs, helping the other person become all he or she can be. The creation story tells of God's plan that husband and wife should be one (Genesis 2:24), and Jesus also referred to this plan (Matthew 19:4 6).