Gal. 5:11. Why then am I still persecuted, brethren, if I still preach circumcision?
Since the slanderers were saying that he is a hypocrite and preaches circumcision in one place but not in another, he says: you are witnesses that the Jews persecute me. If I preach circumcision, then why do others persecute me? Clearly, they persecute me for violating their ancestral ordinances. But if I preach circumcision and uphold the ancestral ordinances, why then do they persecute me? But what of it, they say? Did you not circumcise Timothy? Yes, but that was with a special purpose. And besides, it is one thing to circumcise, and another to preach circumcision. For he did not say "if I performed circumcision," but "if I preach." For he who preaches teaches that this must always be done, as something unconditionally good, whereas he who does something for special purposes does it not because it is unconditionally good, but because it is useful in the given case.
Gal. 5:11. Then the scandal of the cross would have ceased.
If I were preaching circumcision, there would be no scandal which the cross produces in the Jews. And they are scandalized by the preaching of the cross and do not accept it for no other reason than because it abolishes circumcision and the law. Likewise, if I were preaching circumcision, the enmity of the Jews toward the cross and the scandal which it arouses in them would cease and disappear.
Gal. 5:12. O, if only those who are troubling you would be cut off!
Those who had been led astray he called at first foolish and rebuked them no more than children, but the deceivers themselves, as incurably sick, he curses and says: oh, if only they would not merely circumcise themselves, but cut up their whole body entirely! And notice, he called them "those who unsettle you" (in Slavonic "those who pervert," in Greek "those who compel you to leave your homeland and freedom"), leading them into captivity. Because they truly were depriving them of freedom and, leading them away from the heavenly Jerusalem, were settling them like exiles under the law and the pettiness of Judaism. Note also concerning those who castrate themselves, that they bring upon themselves the curse of the apostle.
Gal. 5:13. You were called to freedom, brothers, only let not your freedom become an occasion for indulging the flesh,
We were not called by Christ, he says, in order to become slaves of the law, but to be freed from the yoke of servitude under the law. Then, lest anyone think that since we are free, we may do whatever we wish, he corrects this and says: let not our freedom be an occasion for indulging the flesh, that is, fleshly desires. For we were not freed from the yoke of the law in order to commit transgressions, but so that even without the yoke we might walk in good order, as is fitting for those who have received a good upbringing. And we did not receive freedom in order to break the law, but to surpass even the law.
Gal. 5:13. But by love serve one another.
Having removed the yoke of the law, he imposes another yoke, the yoke of love, both lighter and at the same time stronger than the former. He also hints that these deceivers appeared among them out of a desire for power, for love of power is the mother of heresies. Therefore, since love of authority produced division among you, "through love serve one another," and by the word "serve" he denotes love that is intense and strong. Then turning to moral instructions, he shows the way by which one can eliminate enslavement to fleshly desires.
Gal. 5:14. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: love your neighbor as yourself.
If fully, he says, you desire to fulfill the law, then fulfill it not by circumcision, but by love, because in this consists the fullness of the law. See, while setting forth moral instructions, he does not forget dogmatic teaching either. So greatly did he grieve over their error.
Gal. 5:15. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed lest you be consumed by one another.
That which he knows for certain, he expresses with doubt, and the following expression: "take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" – is a warning and caution, not a condemnation. He did not simply say "ye bite" (which is characteristic of anger), but added "devour," which serves as a manifestation of extreme savagery. By this he also points to corrupted teaching, and implies also the plotting against one another, plundering and covetousness. And since they, in doing evil and plotting, thought only of harming others, he says: take heed lest this matter turn against you yourselves.
Gal. 5:16. I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh,
Having said that biting and devouring is destructive, he points out the remedy against this as well, which both preserves love and is itself preserved by it, namely, that they should be spiritual. For if we are spiritual, we will love more strongly, and if we love, we will be spiritual and then will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Gal. 5:17. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh: they are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you would like.
On the basis of these words, the Manichaeans and all heretics of this sort say that man consists of two opposing natures and that the apostle confirms this with the present words. But no: he is reasoning not about nature, but by "flesh" he means earthly thoughts, careless and heedless, and not the body, and by "spirit" he means spiritual thoughts, and not the soul. Earthly thoughts, he says, oppose spiritual ones, and spiritual ones oppose earthly ones. Thus, he acknowledges the struggle of evil and good thoughts, but not of body and soul. For to desire and not to desire is a matter of the reasoning soul. He adds, "you do not do the things you would wish," because the body also cooperates with the soul and does not oppose it, and the soul clings to the body and endures everything so as not to leave it, and when torn from it, grieves. How then can they be opponents when they have such a bond with one another?
Gal. 5:18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
He who has the Spirit extinguishes evil desires, and he who is free from them has no need of the counsel of the law and is not subject to it. For he who does not grow angry, what need has he of the commandment not to kill? And he who has no lustful desires, what need has he of the counsel not to commit adultery? This is the same as what he said elsewhere: "the law is not made for a righteous man" (1 Tim. 1:9). He also seems to speak in praise of the law, since it served in place of the Spirit, fulfilling to the extent of its power the duty of a guide until an appointed time. How then do you again submit yourselves to a tutor, having abandoned the Spirit who makes you perfect — as if someone who is already a philosopher were to need a tutor?
Gal. 5:19. The works of the flesh are manifest; they are: adultery, fornication,
These, he says, are the works of the corrupt carnal will, among which are recognized adultery and fornication. And it is clear how much adultery differs from fornication.
Gal. 5:19. impurity, lewdness,
He hints at shameless customs which he did not even dare to name.
Gal. 5:20. Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, jealousy, wrath, contentions, dissensions, (temptations), heresies,