THE KING’S BUSINESS
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undermine the whole gospel and pervert our whole Christian experience and life. Monday, May so. Gal. 5 : 10 - 12 . Paul has been speaking o f the evil con sequences that will result from their for saking grace and seeking to be justified by law. Now he expresses the confidence that he has in them. He says, “I have confidence to youward (i. e., eyen though he had thus spoken—cf. Heb. 6:4-9) in the Lord (i. e., confidence that they will not do, or continue to do, the thing that he is warning them against, or to put it in his own words, “that ye will be none other wise minded,” (i. e., otherwise minded than what he here urges them to be). But while Paul had this confidence lin the Galatian believers, he solemnly tells them that he that troubleth you” (i. e., some leader in the false legalizing teaching of Acts 15:24), “ shall bear his judgment,” and his bearing his judgment will be regardless o f who he is or how high his position, whosoever he be.” The word translated “bear” in verse 10 means to bear as a heavy burden, a very expressive word. It is serious business to teach God’s people error, and God Himself will judge all who do teach His people error. It mat tered not who this false teacher was, the judgment would fall, even though he occu pied the very highest position. The Juda- izers went so far as to say, or insinuate, that Paul himself still preached circum cision. It is quite likely that they pointed to his circumcision o f Timothy and mis interpreted it (cf. Acts 16:3; 21:24). Paul conclusvely answers their falsehood by a question. He asks, “I f I still preach cir cumcision, why am I stiill persecuted?” His ^offense in the eyes o f the Jews was that he preached the cross o f Christ and that alone as the way o f justification and this was to them a stumbling block. I f he preached circumcision the stumbling block o f the Jews had been done away. With great aiid solemn earnestness Paul expresses the wish that the Judaizers might ' be cut off, i. e., excommunicated, or pos
sibly taken away by' God’s judgment. There is a coarse interpretation o f “cut off” that has nothing in the context to recommend it. The Greek verb for “ cut ting off” is an entirely different word from the word for “cutting” found in the word circumcision. Tuesday, May 21 . Gal. 5 : 13 - 15 . ■ The reason why Paul wished that the Judaizers who were unsettling the Gala tians-were cut off was that the Galatians “were called for freedom”— freedom not merely from sin (John 8:34, 36), and from fear (Rom. 8:15), but also freedom from the Mosaic law. But just at this point Paul utters a very necessary warning, “only use not your freedom for an occa sion to the flesh.” The flesh is always seeking an occasion for its indulgence, and is fever ready to construe the doctrine o f o f carnality in Galatia, as it is the com- the believer’s freedom from the Mosaic law to mean freedom to live without any con trol, and to gratify every desire (c f 1 Peter 2:16; 2 Peter 2:19'; Jude,4). Fur ther on, in verses 16 and 17 Paul will tell how he escaped this , abuse o f Christian freedom. For the present he puts in con trast with the making our freedom an occa sion for the flesh the Christian’s law of action, viz., “through love be servants one to another.” The believer in Christ is not under the law o f Moses, but he is under the law o f love (John 14:15; 15:13, 14; 13:34). The whole substance o f the Mosaic law is summed up in one word, “ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (cf. ch. 6 : 2 ; Matt. 7:12; 22:39, 40). Walk by that law and every specific question will settle itself. And every regenerate man will walk by that law o f love. And now Paul bints that while talking so much about the law they were violating the very essence o f the law about which they talked: he says, I f ye bite and devour one another.” He warns them that if they continue , to thus bite and' devour one another they shall be “consumed one by another.”
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