THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. CHAPTER I. THE briefest possible introduction sets forth the writer's high commission as an apostle of Jesus Christ and of God the Father (v. 1); bears the customary salutation of grace and peace (v. 2); traces these blessings to the great atoning sacrifice of Christ for our sins coupled with its ultimate purpose to deliver human souls from sin no less than from condemnation under law (v. 3– 5); then promptly brings out the great occasion for this writing, víz., the sudden lapse of some at least of the Galatian converts unto another gospel (v. 6, 7), which "other gospel" and all its authors and abettors, Paul most earnestly denounces (v, 8, 9); and then proceeds to defend himself against his traducers, asserting the divine authority of his mission and teachings (v. 10–12); appealing to his Pharisaic life (v. 13, 14), his conversion and subsequent history (v. 15-24). 1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) 2. And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: It was entirely vital to the object of this epistle that Paul should vindicate his divine mission as an apostle. The case required him to speak with authority, and of course demanded, first of all, that this authority should be traced to its source in his direct commission from God. Hence this stands in the very front of the letter-in its first words: I, Paul, am sent forth as an apostle with authority and commission, not from men in any remote sense, as the ancient priests held office by their birthright from Aaron; not by man-by any one man's special authority; but directly and only as one commissioned by Jesus Christ; and yet farther back, by God the Father who in raising Jesus from the dead had fully indorsed him as his own eternal Son-the appointed Redeemer of lost men. -All the brethren now with me unite in this Christian salutation; probably he would imply-in the contents and spirit of this epistle. -Who these brethren were can not now be known with certainty. If we could determine the question of place between Corinth and Ephesus, we might approximate toward the answer to this question. In this uncertainty it must suffice to say that the Galatian brethren doubtless knew where Paul was at this writing, and what fellowlaborers were there with him.- See on this point the closing paragraphs of the introduction. 3. Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. "Grace" is the comprehensive word for the love of God manifesting itself in the salvation of men; while "peace" best applies to the resulting blessedness which comes from the reception of God's mercies.- -May this divine love be richly manifested in your behalf, and may the consequent fruits of peace-all spiritual blessings-abound to your souls. These blessings come from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom-let it be distinctly said-"He gave himself a sacrifice for our sins"-a fact lying at the very center of this gospel scheme, yet a fact utterly left out from the Judaizing scheme-that "other gospel" which is yet no gospel, but into which ye have been seduced to your great peril. Moreover, Christ gave himself for us to do what circumcision and works of law never can do-viz., "deliver us from this present evil world"-which comprehensively includes all the powers of sin and of temptation. From all these, the mission and sacrifice of Christ both can and will deliver us. For this result, that mission and sacrifice have the indorsement of the Father's will, to whom therefore be glory forever! 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7. Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Surprise and even astonishment break forth from Paul's burdened heart. Can it be that so soon after your warm and most hopeful reception of the gospel of Christ, ye are turning yourselves away (so the Greek) from him who hath called you-not precisely into the grace of Christ, but in and through (by means of) Christ's precious grace-unto another and totally different gospel-not another one of the same general character which might subserve the same ultimate end of saving the soul?the sense of this word another* (see Mark 16: 12)—“ After that he appeared in another form"-a very different one; and Luke 9: 29: "As he prayed the aspect of his countenance became another" (Greek)-i. e., entirely different; suddenly changed. *'ετερον. -For Most emphatically Paul declares: This is not another gospel, in any good sense of the word gospel; for it is really no gospel at all, but only a delusion, well adapted to delude men to their destruction. It is brought among you by men who are troubling your minds with this novel and pernicious notion, seeking to pervert the true gospel of Christ. 8. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let bim be accursed. But even if (his word representing the case as barely supposable), if we, or an angel from heaven, were to preach a different gospel from this we have preached to you, let him be accursed! There is no place for another! No other can be supposed possible! This strong, decisive language fully assumes that in Paul's conviction, the gospel he preached was the very truth of God, too pure and perfect to admit of being superseded by any thing better, or even improved by any thing newer. Moreover, he knew that he had not only received this gospel from God, but had taught it substantially as it was, in accordance with the facts of the case. There was no room open for other teachers, coming after him, to teach this gospel otherwise than he had taught, with any, even the least improvement."As we said before"-when myself and my associates were with you in person, preaching this gospel. The word "before," and the reference to others associated with him, taken in antithesis with what he himself ("I") says now, plainly indicate an allusion to their oral preaching on his last visit among them. They had said the same thing then; he himself reaffirms it most solemnly -and as his Greek words imply with heightened emphasis-now. -"Anathema" is Paul's own word, transferred (not translated)-its sense being-one abhorred, reprobated of God, falling under his awful frown. 10. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. "Persuade" is not the best word, for it comes short of the real sense-which is: Am I working in the interests of men, or of God? Am I doing work for men, or for God? Do I plead in behalf of men, or of God? Who is my acknowledged master whose pleasure is my motive and whose work is my joy? Ye can certainly understand this point; Am I seeking to please men? If I were yet pleasing men as I was doing in my Pharisaic life, I could not be the servant of Christ.- -We must not forget that Paul's Pharisaic life was essentially the same in its spirit, motive and bearing, as the life of these Judaizing teachers whose influence upon the Galatian converts he is now combatting. Hence these allusions to himself had also a side-bearing upon them. 11. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Thus Paul reiterates and reaffirms the vital point with which this letter opens (v. 1), viz., that the gospel he had preached never came to him from man, but from God only. I never learned it (he says) of man. I sat at Gamaliel's feet to learn my Judaism; but at no man's feet to learn my Christianity. All this I received from Jesus Christ himself by immediate revelation. Him I met face to face; his voice came into my ears; from him only did I originally learn this gospel, and from him came my commission to preach it. -These points became doubly vital to the purpose of this epistle because those Judaizers had been traducing his apostolic authority, representing that he preached only a secondhand gospel; was never in the school of Christ; was not one of the twelve disciples. These points, whether put forward openly or by implication and insinuation, Paul felt it incumbent upon himself to meet squarely. 13. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14. And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. For ye must have heard what I am now obliged to repeat-as to my early life in the Jewish religion. (The word "conversation" is in the now obsolete sense-one's manner of life, the whole drift and tenor of it). Ye know I was then persecuting the church of God with extreme, excessive, and even malignant zeal; I was making it desolate, doing my utmost to destroy it. Profited" in Judaism;-but "profited" is not the best word now for Paul's meaning. This is better expressed by proficiency than by profit. Certainly he does not mean that he found or made any profit in it, either to himself or to others. The word he used suggests that he struck forward. The action of the oarsman, putting each stroke in advance, and thus dashing on, seems to underlie the etymology and significance of the Greek word. *I was thus striking ahead of many of my own age in my nation -the word "equals" touching only the point of age.- -Being excessively zealous for the traditions of the fathers of my people. This was the animus of the Pharisaism of that day-devotion to traditionary lore under which they made void even the law of God. *προκόπτω. What Christ brings against them as their capital error (Matt. 15: 6 and Mark 7: 13), Paul here confesses to have been the very soul of the system. 15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 16. To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh. and blood: 17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Alike Peter and Paul declined to Noticeably, Paul sees the final cause of his own conversion in the good pleasure of God. Even from his mother's womb, God had set him apart-had fixed his eye and hand upon him and put him in unconscious training for his life-work. In due season, God had called him through his grace-by virtue of his loving good pleasure, merely and only. "To reveal his Son within me" better than merely "in"-i. e., to my inner soul, speaking to my very heart; to the end, moreover, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.- -Straightway, on hearing this voice from God, through his revealing Son, I held no consultation with frail mortals-flesh and blood" representing men as contrasted with God, and moreover, considered as frail, imperfect, unreliable. The exact sense of this phrase "flesh and blood"-considered as authority for truth revealed, may be seen in Christ's words to Peter (Matt. 16: 17): "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." Paul were not taught by "flesh and blood." seek such instruction; Peter did not have it.~ pose (Paul would intimate) that I should hasten at once to place myself under the instruction of the apostles, long time before me in the school of Christ. I did no such thing; but went at once away from Damascus into Arabia; and when I returned, it was not to Jerusalem but to Damascus.- -Precisely to what part of vast, indefinite Arabia Paul went has never been ascertained. As to his special object in going we are left, perhaps, mainly to conjecture, save that the scope of argument here suggests strongly that he turned entirely away from Jerusalem, and away from all contact with apostles and the earlier Christians, to spend time in communion with God, and to realize that discipline of prayer and meditation, coupled with special revelations from God, which would prepare him for his great life-work. Whether he was moved toward this preparatory school by the example of Moses and Elijah, each of whom had experience in the solitudes of Arabia, we can only conjecture. -Ye might sup 18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. |