Galatians 6:17-18

Read this brief postscript carefully.

           Lightfoot says that Paul refers to marks of ill treatment suffered for Christ.  These marks are more glorious than any other fleshly sign could be. Paul uncompromisingly asserts his office.  Stigmata is brand or mark of ownership.  Slaves, captives and soldiers were branded.  For Paul, they are the marks of persecution. Calvin says that these marks are imprisonment, chains, scourging, blows, stoning, and every kind of injurious treatment that he had incurred in bearing testimony to the gospel. Barth[1] says that Paul is marked for Christ and lives in the imitation of Christ. He cannot seek to please people.

          He offers a benediction to the letter, ending in tenderness.

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[1] (Church Dogmatics, IV.1 [61.4] 638).

Galatians 6:11-16

Please read the passage first.

The theme of Galatians 6:11-16 is that of offering a postscript or summary, adapting the closing to a refutation of his opponents.

Tolmie says the Paul now adapts the conclusion to his rhetorical purpose in this letter, that of persuading the Galatians to his gospel.

Galatians 6:11-16 is a summary. Paul closes his letter by reasserting that circumcision is not necessary for conversion to Christian faith (Galatians 5:2-12), and making the obvious metaphorical connection between "works of the flesh" and the literal physical mutilation of flesh of which circumcision consists.

Verse 11 has long fascinated commentators and casual readers alike. At this point in the original letter, Paul stopped dictating to his secretary and wrote the last section in his own hand.

The danger, as he sees it, is that there are some “who want to make a good showing in the flesh.” Though they think they are “something,” in reality, they are “nothing.” Moreover, they “try to compel the community to be circumcised — only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ” (v. 12). His opponents have a primary interest in making a mark on the flesh, while Paul has an interest in the inward work of the Spirit and that Christ formed in them. They are — to use Paul’s previous descriptors — people who rather than bearing “one another’s burden,” add to it, “deceive themselves,” fail to “test their own work,” and do not “carry their own loads.”  Paul's opponents were selfish and worldly.  Not willing to suffer, they held on to circumcision and zeal for the law while having Jesus as their Messiah.  The cross of Christ and the flesh are opposed, as faith and works.

In verse 13, the allusion here is not to the impossibility of observing the Law, but to the insincerity of the people themselves, who were not enough in earnest to observe it rigorously. 

In verse 14, the offense of the cross is Paul's greatest boast.  Paul will let others boast in external things, but he will boast in something nobler. F. F. Bruce says it is difficult for us to imagine the loathing that people had of speaking of the cross in the time of Paul. Not even Romans spoke of it in polite society. Paul, however, embraces the cross. This is a transvaluation of values. Paul has reassessed everything in light of the cross.

In verse 15, it is striking that Paul twice says in this letter that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision are anything in themselves.

In verse 16, "Israel of God" is an implied contrast to "Israel after the flesh."  We find the phrase only here in the New Testament.

With this blessing, Paul demonstrates one way believers “work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”

Galatians 6:6-10

Please read the passage carefully.

            The theme of Galatians 6:6-10 is generosity. Paul underscores his message by framing the indulgence in this type of sin in terms of his familiar contrast between things of the "flesh" and things of the "Spirit" (1 Corinthians 15). Those who do what is right are those who work for the good of all the family of faith, both in the spirit of gentle reproof and also in the spirit of honesty which prevents conceit. This is the way of the Spirit. According to Richard B. Hays, verse 8, contrasts sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit. Therefore, it

… encapsulates the message of the letter as a whole. It is not a moralistic warning against sensual self-indulgence; instead, it is a warning against placing confidence in anything that belongs to the realm of the merely human - particularly circumcision. Paul insists that only the Spirit of God has the power to confer life."

            Verse 6 refers back to bearing burdens.  The hearers of the word have the obligation to support the ministers of word, though he seldom asserted his own claims.  Paul is thinking of imparting material goods.  Verse 6 may refer back to verse 5 as the means by which a person can test his or her own work. In other words, Paul suggests that gifts offered to a teacher by “Those who are taught the word” demonstrate that they are not conceited, competitive, envious, or deceived [planasqe] (cf. vv. 3, 7). In verse 7, the concern is with mocking God. This sowing and reaping have an intimate connection to the notion of God not being mocked. The people of God are not immune from divine judgment. For some, the verse refers to sowing temporal goods.  I Corinthians 16:1 says the Galatians were asked to contribute to the collection for Jerusalem.  Could they be stingy?  He passes from the support of clergy to a general principle of liberality.  In particular, “if you sow to your own flesh (or, as in 5:16 — ‘gratify the desires of the flesh’), you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit (or, as in 5:16, 25 — ‘live by the Spirit’), you will reap eternal life from the Spirit” (v. 8). Paul has just spoken of the kind of seed down.  Now he speaks of the nature of the ground.  The flesh yields blighted corn.

            Therefore, Paul exhorts both himself and the believers in Galatia “not [to] grow weary in doing what is right” (v. 9a). They are not to be full of conceit, possess a competitive spirit, or envy others. Instead, they are to restore transgressors with gentleness, bear each other’s burdens, test one’s own work in order to eradicate self-destructive pride, and graciously share with their teacher(s). Why? Because “we will reap [eternal life] at harvest time [kairw idiw], if we do not give up” (v. 9b). Paul expands the vision to the more general concept of beneficent actions.

            Appropriately, then, Paul offers one final instruction for those who “live by the Spirit.” They are not to limit the expressions of their Spirit-led lives to certain people or communities. On the contrary, Paul unequivocally declares that “whenever we have opportunity [kairon], let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith [touVoikeiouV thV pistewV]” (v. 10). The verse probably alludes to the time before the second coming.  Christian love is first exercised within the community, but it is shown to all, even one's enemies. Fellow believers, and more than that, brothers and sisters, accompany the one who loves God from the beginning. These are the people of God and partners in the covenant, part of the “household of faith.” To love God is to be together with other people whom God also calls to serve. To love God is to stand in one of the many human relationships that exist here, uniting with others who love God.

Aristotle begins his discussion of our relationship to money by pointing to the deficiency of meanness, the excess of prodigality, and the mean of liberality. The prodigal wastes wealth, which is a sort of wasting oneself. Liberality relates to character, rather than the amount. The poor person can be of liberal character. Liberality involves spending according to one's wealth and on the right objects. The liberal person will spend with pleasure in this way. The liberal person is one easy to deal with in matters of money. The prodigal is self-indulgent and does not live with the noble in view. In IV.2, he discusses the person of magnificence, for this person is able to spend large sums for the sake of honor and with public-spirited ambition.