Galatians 5:13-15 – Ditches, Ditches, Everywhere

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³For brothers you were called upon freedom. Only [do not use] that freedom into an opportunity to the flesh, but be serving one another through the love; ¹⁴for all the law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵But beware, if you are biting and devouring each other, lest you are consumed by one another.

As I went back and read my first post on this passage, I think I kind of got off my point. “Freed to what?” I asked and I was enjoying the realization it is “freed to love.” However, as I mull it all over, that wasn’t exactly the question that was lurking behind the scenes. I figured out earlier in the book that our “freedom” is a freedom to love. That is actually already clear to me. What I couldn’t put my finger on is this whole problem of antinomianism. How do I say very clearly that I am freed from law to live a life of grace, without the danger of falling into the other ditch of antinomianism? On the right side of the royal road we have the ditch of legalism. I now feel I see that ditch very clearly. But, it would seem, as soon as we try to extricate ourselves from that ditch, if we aren’t careful, we end up driving off the left side of the road into the ditch of antinomianism.

Obviously it would be true today, as all down through history, that some will take emphatic teaching of grace to mean they can literally “go wild.” I suspect our natural response to that excess is to quickly assert, “But we are still under law,” perhaps saying things (like I used to) that Christ’s death freed us from the “ceremonial” law, but we’re still under the “moral” law. That sounds very comforting to our incorrigibly legalistic hearts, but is, in effect, putting us back under law. It is no wonder that most churches go on in their legalism by teaching vast arrays of rules, “standards” they call them, in spite of on the other hand supposedly teaching grace. They like grace but then fear that their people need some system of rules to keep them (especially the youth group) from “going wild.” So then, they can go on teaching grace while very comfortably living in legalism and never realizing they are missing the whole point of it all.

But then again, how do we say it? How can we really assert grace without on the one hand freeing people to “go wild,” while on the other hand not slyly adding back in some form of law to prevent that? Grace is grace. It needs to be taught for that. It is freedom from law. To say otherwise is to teach the very error Paul is so passionately arguing against.

I found it interesting that Martin Luther himself struggled at exactly this same point. I’ll quote him at length: “Satan likes to turn this liberty which Christ has gotten for us into licentiousness. Already the Apostle Jude complained in his day: ‘There are certain men crept in unawares … turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness’ (Jude 4). The flesh reasons, ‘If we are without the law, we may as well indulge ourselves. Why do good … when there is no law to force us to do so?”

He goes on to say that in spite of that wrong antinomian response, “… we are obliged to preach the Gospel which offers to all men liberty from the law, sin, death, and God’s wrath. We have no right to conceal or revoke this liberty proclaimed by the Gospel.”

He concludes, “It is not an easy matter to teach faith without works … Both the doctrine of faith and the doctrine of good works must be diligently taught, and yet in such a way that both doctrines stay within their God-given sphere.”

Obviously Luther had to wrestle with these very same issues. Obviously too, we like him, need to let the Scriptures be our guide. To that end, once again, I think verses 13 and 14 are a giant mental hinge pin for the whole book and I believe in a nutshell they answer our question. The whole book from 1:1 to 5:12 has asserted the doctrine of grace which he summarizes in the opening words, ^“For brothers you were called to freedom”. This is what could be misconstrued as the left ditch of antinomianism. Paul cautions against that ditch saying, “Only [do not use] that freedom into an opportunity to the flesh,…” Clearly he is painfully aware of the two ditches and would have us avoid both. And so what is his prescription? “…but be serving one another through the love; ¹⁴for all the law is fulfilled in one word, in this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

I would suggest that our problem is thinking we must choose between the two ditches. We are in effect thinking, “I must either be a legalist or an antinomian. I either totally embrace grace and go wild or, to guard against that, I resort back to some form of legalism (grace with an asterisk), and that keeps me being ‘good.’” I believe Paul’s prescription would tell us that neither of the above solutions is our answer. Our answer, “serving one another through love” is something totally different from either.

And let me insert here that I think the problem of pondering these two ditches is that we still haven’t repented of our legalism. The basic question is still about law. “Am I under law or not?” The antinomian says, “There is no law,” while the legalist (even if he denies it) is saying we are still under law. But they’re still both thinking the big issue is law. Therein is the problem, I would suggest. They’re both missing the point of it all. What they’re saying is that the only alternative to legalism is license (hence grace with an asterisk) or the only alternative to license is legalism (If I give up my “freedom” [to do as I please] that makes me a legalist).

What they’re both missing is walking in the Spirit. They’re both missing, in a sense, one of the greatest gifts Jesus’ death and resurrection purchased for us – the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, and the very possibility that He can be my spirit, the very dynamo of my human existence. As I have said before, Jesus did not die to give us better rules (more legalism) but to free us from them. But what He freed us to is not a life of “doing as I please” (antinomianism) but rather a life of embracing the very heart of God, seeing the world (and our “neighbors”) through His eyes – and Paul sums up that world with the concept of “serving one another through love.”

I guess let me be specific. Why shouldn’t I get shame-faced drunk and run off with the neighbor’s wife? One could say, “Because that’s wrong.” True. It is wrong. Drunkenness is sin and obviously running off with the neighbor’s wife is adultery. If the fact those things are wrong is the best defense I can offer, it certainly beats falling into sin and wrecking one’s life. It is always better not to sin, no matter what kept me from it. However, what I believe grace offers us is something far better, far higher than the simple legalism of “that’s wrong.” Walking in the Spirit gives me the opportunity to see how unloving those choices would be to God and to my neighbor and to actually make my choice based on that love, not on “what are the rules?”. As Martin Luther stated above, the legalist, offered the freedom of grace, thinks he’ll reason, “Why do good … when there is no law to force us to do so?”  He (the legalist) isn’t realizing there is an entirely different alternative – that I could actually do good, not because I have to, but because I want to. The indwelling Holy Spirit does not just help me do good, He helps me be good. He is the new heart in me.

Let me say again, if the only thing that stops me from falling into sin is the recognition it is wrong, I would say, “Hallelujah. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” That’s great. Your wife will be glad. Your kids will be glad. You’ll save yourself untold heartache, but … the fear of the Lord is only the beginning of wisdom. The end, the goal, of wisdom is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Anything is good if it helps me do right, but what God is offering us in grace (without the asterisk) is the very, very best – a genuinely changed heart, a heart yielded to the Spirit, a heart that loves.

I believe this is what we see in verses 13 and 14, this very vacillation between legalism and antinomianism solved not by picking one or the other but rather by embracing something far better than either – real grace.

This feels very familiar to me. It seems as if my whole life studying the Bible has been like this. It seems everyone is shooting at each other from the ditches on either side. When I finally figure out what God thinks, it turns out to be neither. It turns out to be a royal road, far better than I could have dreamed. Hmmmm. That’s just Him – immeasurably more than we could ask or think.

Galatians 5:13-15 – Hinge Pin

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³For brothers you were called upon freedom. Only [do not use] that freedom into an opportunity to the flesh, but be serving one another through the love; ¹⁴for all the law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵But beware, if you are biting and devouring each other, lest you are consumed by one another.

Verse 13, I would suggest is a hinge pin of the whole book of Galatians. Paul has spent the entire book to this point establishing the fact of our freedom in Christ, that grace transcends law, that law-keeping is a miserable and beggarly alternative to the glorious Cross-won, Spirit-given sonship of the Gospel.

As I have written earlier, this book to me has been an explosion of truth. I feel for the first time in my life I really understand the freedom I have in Christ. Words fail to express the wonder, the dignity that I feel, freed from “rules” to actually know the heart of God and live out His image in me. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning these things and writing them down to help me organize my thoughts and perhaps to bless someone else.

But … all the while, something has been eating at me. I have been very aware that something “else” needed to be said. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew it was there.

To me, in these three verses, Paul hits the nail on the head. Freed, freed, freed … to what? To what? That is precisely the matter that needs to be addressed head on, that needs to be addressed very, very clearly. In verse 13, I believe Paul turns from establishing the fact of our freedom and like a giant mental hinge pin he turns to paint a picture of what that freedom is, what it looks like, how it expresses itself in the reality of our daily lives. I believe that in these three little verses and then (as I look ahead) in the discussion which follows, he leaves no uncertainly whatsoever in understanding what life is like for people who understand and wish to live out the reality of grace.

I foresee this taking a few posts. There is so much to think about and ponder.

Interestingly, he first of all assaults one of the most likely misunderstandings. “Only [do not use] that freedom into an opportunity to the flesh…”  The purpose of law, as we learned earlier, is to restrain our flesh. Fallen human beings need the rule of law to set before them “good” and to threaten them if they should choose the bad. It doesn’t work very well but it at least keeps them from being as bad as they could be. If you tell them, you no longer live under law, what is their most likely response? To throw off restraint, of course.

This is exactly the something “else” that needs to be said, the issue that needs to be addressed clearly and head on. Freed to what?

We of course are at exactly the point where this whole discussion has always culminated: What about antinomianism?” “Isn’t all of this teaching leading to a bunch of believers gone wild?” If I really cast off legalism and embrace grace, does that mean I’m going to rush out, get shame-faced drunk, and run off with the neighbor’s wife?

The same objection was raised from the very beginning. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Rom 6:1). Paul answered it then, and the same answer applies now: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer in it?” (v2).

I would suggest the very act of using freedom as an opportunity for the flesh proves we don’t understand the freedom at all. I even wonder if that response doesn’t betray a heart that has never really been redeemed.

Here’s what I mean: since I have been redeemed, although sins (and certain ones in particular) still very powerfully allure my heart, and I would in a sense very much love to indulge them, yet that is patently NOT the freedom my heart desires. My heart would be free of the very temptations themselves. I long to live “above” all of that. To tell me that freedom in Christ meant I was somehow free to “go wild” would be no freedom at all to me. My heart longs to be free of sin, to be free to love God and love people unhindered by this evil, selfish, conniving, manipulating heart of mine, to be free of doing and saying things that have again and again only caused me misery in the long run. As a young man, I thought freedom was to cast off restraint and indulge my every passion; but in time I found it wasn’t freedom at all but instead a miserable slavery that wrecked my life and left me knowing I somehow could not escape.

What Paul says in this passage is literally music to my redeemed ears: “… but be serving one another through the love; for all the law is fulfilled in one word, in this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love. Real relationships. Good relationships. Now that sounds like living!

And I love Paul’s choice of words: “be serving one another in love.” The word translated “serving” is the same root word that he used back in 5:1, ^“Christ freed us to the freedom, therefore be standing firm and do not be being bound again to a yoke of slavery”.  Don’t be bound again to a yoke of slavery. A yoke of slavery. Yet I could translate v13, “be enslaved to one another in love.” It’s the same root word. Don’t be bound to a slavery of rule-keeping, but enslave yourself to loving others! Love to others doesn’t cast off restraint and “go wild.” As Paul says in Romans 13:9, 10: “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

I would suggest again that a redeemed heart understands this and joyfully embraces it. A redeemed heart gladly yields to the “yoke of slavery to love.” Somehow my heart has always known the beggarly rule-keeping didn’t “cut it,” that there was something much grander that my faith was all about. Here we see it – the freedom to love, the freedom to rise above myself, my selfishness, my pride and my fears, and actually know and live a Christ-like love for other people.

Now that’s freedom! What a hinge pin! Free to love. I think I have a lot more I want to record regarding this passage, but for now I just want to say I can’t thank the Lord enough for the indescribable gift of His freedom, of His indwelling Spirit, of the Christ-love that made it all possible.

Awesome.

Galatians 5:7-12 – Scandal

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷You were running well. Who cut in [on] you to not be obeying the truth? ⁸This persuasion [is] not out of the One calling you. ⁹‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump’. ¹⁰I am persuaded concerning you in the Lord that you will think nothing differently but the one troubling you, whoever he is, will bear the judgment. ¹¹But, brethren, if I am yet preaching circumcision, why am I yet being persecuted? Consequently the scandal of the Cross is negated. ¹²O that the ones opposing you would castrate themselves!

In my last three posts I looked at verses 7-10. I have one last thought I’d like to record before moving on.

In verse 11, Paul says, ^“But, brethren, if I am yet preaching circumcision, why am I yet being persecuted? Consequently the scandal of the Cross is negated.”  First of all, the question that crosses my mind is, “Who said you were?” Nowhere in the book has there been any intimation that Paul preaches circumcision. In fact, I would have assumed the opposite situation, that the Judaizers were demeaning Paul to the Galatians precisely because he did not preach circumcision. I think this is one of those cases where we simply have to remember we are reading someone else’s mail. The Scriptures were written “for our admonition” but, on the other hand, they were written by people to people in another time and place and sometimes we simply are not privy to everything that was going on. Not a biggee to me, just something that occasionally has to be acknowledged by serious exegetes – that there are a few places where we simply don’t know what was going on.

But what interests me here is the idea of the “scandal of the Cross.”

In I Cor 1:23, Paul says the Cross is “to the Jews a stumbling block.” Matthew Henry comments, “That which they were most offended at in Christianity was, that thereby circumcision, and the whole frame of the legal administration, were set aside, as no longer in force. This raised their greatest outcries against it, and stirred them up to oppose and persecute the professors of it.”

The scandal of the Cross is, in one sense its exclusivity. It brokes no competition. Whatever else one may propose, “It cannot be both.” The Jews could have probably born the preaching of grace if only they could bring along their works; but when someone (Paul) makes it clear that the Cross – grace – means that all their beloved and precious rites and traditions are worthless, their anger knows no limit – they’ll even crucify their Messiah over it!

People today are no different. I remember hearing once about a creationist and evolutionist who got to debating in a group. As the creationist calmly presented the scientific facts, the evolutionist, who had no defensible answers, grew more and more angry. Finally one of the evolutionsist’s friends commented to him, “Seems to me he’s messing with your religion.”

So it is. People, religious or not, get very angry if you “mess with their religion.” And again, I think that is what creates the “scandal of the Cross,” its exclusivity. Jesus said, “I am the way … no one comes to the Father but by Me.”  The way. No one.

It is the whole theme of this book but worth pointing out again that legalism is a case in point. The Judaizers would apparently say, “It is okay to believe in this Jesus thing and all of that … as long as you keep our rules.” But when the response is, “No, Jesus means your rules are worthless,” then the fangs and claws come out. It’s “messing with their religion.” And I would suggest therein we see the problem – their rules are their religion!

Only a sincere and complete acceptance of grace can deliver us from this dread business of someone “messing with our religion.” Grace strips away all of the externals and leaves me with nothing but a real relationship with God (or not). I would suggest that only from the platform of grace can we really live a life of unconditional love to our neighbors, a life where their offenses, their practices, even their “religion,” doesn’t “threaten” us.

I have said for years if Jesus were to have waited and come today, it is the fundamentalist church in America that would crucify Him. It is a sad reality that, while they supposedly “preach Christ” and think they are the champions of the Scriptures, yet, like the Pharisees of old, the practice of their religion is their vast array of rules, and as a result, they will ostracize and castigate anyone who would claim Christ yet not keep those precious rules. Rest assured they would even crucify their Messiah!

I sincerely hope that the “scandal of the Cross” is not a scandal in my heart. I hope I have sincerely put away all the competitors my evil heart endears, that my “religion” (if you can even call it that) is truly Christ and Him alone. I guess God help me to see where things are otherwise. May real grace in my heart help someone else to see past the “scandal” and may I bear it patiently when the scandal brings out the fangs and claws in others.

God help us.

Galatians 5:7-12 – Bleeding Jesus

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷You were running well. Who cut in [on] you to not be obeying the truth? ⁸This persuasion [is] not out of the One calling you. ⁹‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump’. ¹⁰I am persuaded concerning you in the Lord that you will think nothing differently but the one troubling you, whoever he is, will bear the judgment. ¹¹But, brethren, if I am yet preaching circumcision, why am I yet being persecuted? Consequently the scandal of the Cross is negated. ¹²O that the ones opposing you would castrate themselves!

In my last two posts I looked at verses 7-9 and observed that Paul is at this point not necessarily writing in a smooth logical manner. He appears rather to be in an emotional froth over the Galatians’ devolvement into legalism. As a result, the sentences seem to be individual outbursts of his frenzied mind. But what I want to observe today is that even though he is in an emotional frenzy, yet every outburst is in itself a pearl of wisdom.

To begin with, in verse 10, he injects something few of us would express or even think at this point: ^“I am persuaded concerning you in the Lord that you will think nothing differently…”   Matthew Henry observes: “Herein he teaches us that we ought to hope the best even of those concerning whom we have cause to fear the worst.”  Once again, Paul is living out what he told us in II Timothy 2:24-26: “The servant of the Lord must not argue; but be gentle with everyone, able to teach, and patient; in humility instructing those who oppose them; that perhaps the Lord may grant them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth.”  Calvin comments, “It gives us courage to learn that good hopes are entertained about us; for we reckon it shameful to disappoint those whose feelings toward us are kind and friendly.”    

I think we all know personally the truth of what all these guys are saying. Most of the time if someone is “displeased” with us, they let us know in no uncertain terms. Their abrasive, negative, demeaning, threatening demeanor only stirs in us defensiveness. On the other hand, in the (maybe) three or four times in our life that someone honestly offered us loving, gentle, encouraging correction, we are all keenly aware how much easier it was to hear them. It may still have wounded our evil pride to be corrected at all, but at least they communicated it in a way that gave us the hope we could change.

The key is to, like Paul here, turn that around and ask myself, “Can I see others’ faults through the eyes of love?” If I ever do need to “say something,” can I, will I deliberately say it in words that “minister grace to the hearer?” I believe, if we will just walk in the Spirit, the answer is “Yes, we can.” Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth will speak kindly if that heart is living in Ephesians 4:29-32:

^“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

On the other hand, if I am walking in the flesh, I’ll never pull it off. Interesting, back in our verse 10, Paul injects the “in the Lord.” I’m not sure if he is referring to himself, that as long as his mind is “in the Lord” he entertains these hopes, or if he is referring to them, that his hope for them is not in them but in the Lord who “begun a good work in them.” Perhaps it makes no difference. Either way our hope springs from the Lord and His presence, His power, His involvement in the details of our lives. The key to their success or ours is to be walking “in the Lord,” “in the Spirit.”

And what is the hope that Paul entertains concerning these people? “… that you will think nothing differently.”  Here I would like to inject that the reason Paul can hope this hope is because he is convinced there is truth. He can hope this hope, that they will think like him, because truth is objective. The truth is the truth. The more anyone grasps the truth, the more we’ll all think alike. This is precisely why it is so important to be in the Word, reading it, studying it, attending to its teaching, and trying to live it out. The Word is the truth. It is the great Touchstone of Reality. We are all bombarded constantly with other ideas, thoughts, and paradigms of “truth,” which invariably appeal to us to one degree or another. Only an attentive consideration of God’s words can help us see through the maze of it all and make the many, many mid-course corrections it takes to arrive safely at our destination.

It just comes down to the fact that “truth is truth.” If people are genuinely born again and seriously seek the mind of the Lord, in the long run we will agree on what is the “truth.” The Word is our hope and should be our constant diet. The closer we all get to the Lord, the closer we’ll be to each other.

One last thought: in the last half of verse 10, Paul refers to “the one troubling you.” Some suggest based on this that there was really only one person causing all the trouble. However, I would suggest this is just a collective singular. Nearly all the other references are clearly plural: 1:7; 4:17; 5:12; and 6:12,13.  Regardless, it is interesting how Paul shifts the threat of judgment from the Galatians to those who are promulgating the errors: “…but the one troubling you, whoever he is, will bear the judgment.”  

From this, I would suggest there is another pearl of wisdom lurking in the heart of Paul. Matthew Henry made the comment, “…we should always distinguish between the leaders and the led …” My observation from life is that most people, if left alone, will actually live fairly quiet lives. What most people want is just to be left alone, to go to work, make a living, and come home every night to their family. There are actually very few people in this world who will go around and stir up everyone else. Every time I see a large protest, I always wonder who’s really behind it. Sometime notice how on many of the signs they hold the print is strangely similar. Someone else put it in their hands. The fact is all of those people would be somewhere else minding their own business if someone hadn’t stirred them up. At any rate, my point is that I think we waste way too much time fighting the “led,” when in fact the real problem (as Paul is here intimating) is the leaders. I think the bottom line is, if you want to stop a movement, figure out who the leaders are and somehow stop their influence. The whole thing will then probably die away. Obviously the “led” themselves are still responsible for the choices they are making and, in fact, the whole book of Galatians is being addressed to the “led,” but still, it is the leaders who need to be dealt with most severely. The whole world, it seems to me, would save a lot of time and trouble, if they just observed this simple fact.

My, my. How the mind of a godly man bursts with wisdom. Cut him, it would seem, and he only bleeds Jesus.

Galatians 5:7-12 – Fighting Well -- More Questions Than Answers

 As usual, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷You were running well. Who cut in [on] you to not be obeying the truth? ⁸This persuasion [is] not out of the One calling you. ⁹‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump’. ¹⁰I am persuaded concerning you in the Lord that you will think nothing differently but the one troubling you, whoever he is, will bear the judgment. ¹¹But, brethren, if I am yet preaching circumcision, why am I yet being persecuted? Consequently the scandal of the Cross is negated. ¹²O that the ones opposing you would castrate themselves!

In my last two posts, I looked at verses 7 & 8. I also want to record some thoughts from the little proverb in verse 9, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”. My impression is that this was a fairly common proverb in the ancient world, much like our “What goes up must come down.” Like them, we all “know what it means” and we can use it to apply to many different situations. I would also observe that the proverb itself apparently possessed no connotation negative or positive. Jesus quoted it in Matthew 13:33 as an illustration of the Kingdom of Heaven: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”  Paul quotes it here and also in I Cor 5:6 in the context of the immoral church member: “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” 

Obviously, it was simply a way of pointing out that seemingly small influences often can grow into pervasive impacts. Jesus was saying the Kingdom of Heaven can be that way; and it is certainly true that one person’s good influence can transform an entire family, a business, a church, even a nation. On the other hand, as Paul uses it in I Cor and here in Galatians, he is applying it to evil influences, which can themselves grow to corrupt entire people groups.

As I have pointed out earlier, it seems to me Paul is no longer writing in any kind of smooth logical flow. He has already built his case logically over five chapters and now, in verses 7 through 12, his passion seems to erupt in a series of exclamations, this proverb being one of them.  I think it is fair to say the consensus would be that he has in mind the teaching of the Judaizers, that in his mind there are only a handful of them, or perhaps he is thinking of their emphasis on the rite of circumcision – as if that were the “only” requirement the Galatians will have to submit to – when, as he has pointed out earlier, once you embrace legalism there will be no end to it.

Regardless, Paul’s point, Jesus’ point, and the point of our proverb is that we should ever be aware, both for better and for worse, that small influences should never be discounted or underestimated. Here in Galatians, the point is obviously, one way or another, the influence of false doctrine, and this is precisely where my blog devolves into more questions than answers.

Here’s my rub: on the one hand, it makes perfect sense to me that we must ever be on our guard against doctrinal error. Truth is truth, and, as I have said before, to be in error will be at least frustrating and may in the long run prove fatal. On the other hand, there is some measure of wisdom in knowing what “truth” is worth fighting for and what “truth” can be delegated to the realm of giving others the space to learn themselves. As a Christian, I have been “learning” for over 30 years. I don’t even agree with me from a month ago, much less from 5 years ago, or 10 or 20. And it should be that way. God help us if we can be around the Bible and Truth and not be constantly learning. But to learn is to realize I’ve been wrong. Was it “okay” that I was wrong? Was it “okay” that I myself had to learn to get where I am today? And then, what about the people around me? When is it okay for them to be wrong? When does the “wrong” call for correction? When is the “wrong” the little leaven that (dangerously) may leaven the whole lump?

What particularly brought this to mind was reading Marin Luther’s comments on this passage. He makes the statement, “This goes to show again how much importance Paul attached to the least points of Christian doctrine, … What right, then, have we to make little of doctrine? No matter how nonessential a point of doctrine may seem, if slighted it may prove the gradual disintegration of the truths of our salvation. Let us do everything to advance the glory and authority of God’s Word. Every tittle of it is greater than heaven and earth. Christian love and unity have nothing to do with the Word of God. We are bold to curse and condemn all men who in the least point corrupt the Word of God, ‘for a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.’”

Again, on the one hand, what Luther is saying makes perfect sense. Truth is truth. What isn’t truth is error and may grow into the very destruction of an entire people group. But where is the balance? “No matter how nonessential a point of doctrine …,” Luther said. Is that true? Hmmmm. While I deeply appreciate Luther and Calvin and their championing of the Scriptures such that there could be a Protestant Reformation, I am utterly unimpressed with the vituperative spirit they all seemed to do it with. If you go back and read their writings and the history of the Reformation, you will find they all hated and cursed each other. Luther tacked up his 95 theses on the Wittenberg Chapel door in 1517, and only 10 years later, in 1527, the first protestant was martyred by protestants. Felix Manz was drowned because he differed with them on the mode of baptism. Drowned? Executed? Really? Go back up to the last paragraph and read again what Luther said. Would he have someone executed because they differed with him on the mode of baptism? Yes.

Once again, I can read what Luther is saying and it can make perfect sense. Yet, somehow, I cannot and will not accept such a condemning spirit. Yes, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump;” but which leaven can be left to the process of sanctification in others’ lives and which leaven is worth going to the mat over?

Frankly, I don’t think I know the answer to these questions. I hope I will always be a champion for truth; but somehow I also want to live out the graciousness of a God who’s big enough to give me space to grow and still love me through it all.

For whatever it’s worth, I think the issues I’ve raised are of monumental significance. As I would live my faith, I have to live it in a world that is broken. The best anyone (including me) can be is learning. The best anyone can be is to be about the business of trying to fix the brokenness. So therefore there is no perfect church or church group. There are no perfect Christians to fellowship with. Therefore, and I think this is an enormous “therefore,” I cannot take Luther’s position to “curse and condemn all men who in the least point corrupt the Word of God.”  Somehow grace must be willing to overlook much, much, much in my church, my immediate Christian acquaintances, and even in the broader circle of who I align myself with – not to mention the non-christian world I live and work in.

On the other hand, the devil, like a roaring lion, still wanders about, seeking whom he may devour. A little leaven still leavens the whole lump. Error is still in the short run frustrating and in the long run fatal. To be wrong is still a dangerous thing. As in Paul’s case here in Galatians, sometimes error is serious enough to get a godly man worked up into an emotional froth – to even start proposing castration! Love of people sometimes gives them room to grow but it may also need to call error error and sin sin. How can we, for the love of grace and truth, determine where to draw these lines?

Once again, I don’t think I know the answers to these questions. Guess that is where I’ll have to leave this one. God grant us the wisdom to live, to love, and to fight well.

Galatians 5:7-12 – The Spirit and Real Freedom

As usual, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷You were running well. Who cut in [on] you to not be obeying the truth? ⁸This persuasion [is] not out of the One calling you. ⁹‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump’. ¹⁰I am persuaded concerning you in the Lord that you will think nothing differently but the one troubling you, whoever he is, will bear the judgment. ¹¹But, brethren, if I am yet preaching circumcision, why am I yet being persecuted? Consequently the scandal of the Cross is negated. ¹²O that the ones opposing you would castrate themselves!

In my last post, I recorded some thoughts and matters concerning verse 7. Verse 8 has also been interesting to me. ^“This persuasion [is] not out of the one calling you”, or, as in the KJV, “This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you.” (Pardon the KJV but that is what I was raised on, so oftentimes it is what sticks in my head).

“This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you.” Interesting. These last few weeks, I have been enjoying trying to learn to distinguish between my own rotten spirit and the Holy Spirit indwelling me. “This persuasion …” – where is it coming from? Many times lately those words have come to my mind as I’m dealing with people and situations. I guess, theologically speaking, for years I have recognized that, as a NT believer, I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But this Galatians study has really opened my eyes to how immediately and personally He is present and available to help me live out God’s heart, to actually be aware second by second of my “spirit” and to try to consciously and deliberately make sure it is coming “from Him who called me.”

(I need to insert some explanation here: I am convinced from my Bible study that I am a spirit living in a body. God formed Adam from the dust of the ground (his body) then breathed into him the breath of life (his spirit). When we die, our spirit goes to be with the Lord while our body molders in the grave. When He returns (with us as spirit beings), He will then raise our bodies and we will once again be complete human beings, a spirit living in a body, only now an eternal combination that will never die. I do not subscribe to the body, soul, spirit idea. That is only confusing and has no defensible Biblical support. It also disagrees with my self-awareness. I am very aware that “I” am inside here, that there is a “me” – my spirit – which can exist separately from this body I currently live in. It is this “spirit” inside me that is always thinking, noticing, deliberating, deciding, wanting, and just generally talking to itself (me). Throughout my discussion of “spirit,” this is what I am referring to. Also, I am convinced from my Bible study that the term “the flesh” as used in the NT is actually referring to my Adamic spirit/body combination. It is the natural “me” as I was born.  Unfortunately, since the body is descended of Adam it bears his sinfulness and hence the spirit that accompanies it, though created in the image of God, is essentially an evil spirit. That is some background theology that bears on the rest of what I want to say).

Just to recap what I think I’ve learned from Galatians, there are literally now two spirits inside of me. There is my Adamic spirit, which comes with my humanness, which I was born with, that part of me the Bible calls my “flesh.” On the one hand it was made in the image of God, therefore it is capable of doing much good. Because of that, it even has a sense of good and wants to be good. Unfortunately, its modus operandi is totally driven by selfish desires. Even when it does “good” it is one way or another scheming to “get” something. If it turns out it has to do wrong to get that something, well, “you just gotta do what you gotta do”. It is capable of good but totally unreliable and incorrigibly selfish. I think in the past I failed to recognize it because of that element of the image of God which it still possesses. I think I thought of my flesh as totally bad and always the “evil” voice in my heart. I realize now it may even be leading me to do good things. Unfortunately, its motives are less than noble. Its ugly face gets exposed when that “good” thing doesn’t get me what I wanted and suddenly I become an angry, resentful, hateful person who can’t seem to get on top of my emotions.

Honestly, I would say most of what I have done even as a Christian has been done in this spirit. Oh, I have done a lot of “good” things – in a sense my faith gave me a whole new horizon of good things I “wanted” in my life ... now I even had Bible verses to tell me I was “right” to want those things and “right” to pursue them. But, you see, by wanting “good” things, my flesh was tricking me. It was hiding its face and assuring me that all was well. In fact, that spirit within me is so powerful, so deceptive that, I am absolutely powerless to overcome it. Even with faith it conquers me. I am an utterly hopeless case of obligate selfishness.

But herein is exactly the freedom for which Christ has set me free. He did the one (and only) thing that could possibly save me from this powerful, deceptive spirit which is me. He Himself took up residence in me. The very Holy Spirit, the third person of the divine Trinity, the Spirit of Jesus, very God Himself, moved into “me.” Now there is another voice that calls me, another spirit within me that is seeing what I see, hearing what I hear, knowing what I know. It too wants to do good, wants me to be good, but because it is the Spirit of Christ, its motives are truly good. It is literally the Holy Spirit.

This is so completely awesome and liberating, I don’t know if I can even put it in words, but I will try. Through this study in Galatians, I feel I am now very aware of these two spirits inside me. Now I feel I am beginning to recognize my evil spirit, even when it is wanting “good.” I recognize the feeling of how I am wanting something, yet deep down inside knowing something is “wrong.” Where is this “persuasion” coming from? There is something insidiously evil present and I somehow even faintly know it. Again, for years I was deceived by the fact that supposedly what I wanted was “good.”  Why then, I have wondered, deep down underneath it all did I still have a “dirty” feeling? Why, even while I was doing “good” was I so easily irritated and angered and fed up? Now I know. I was literally doing it “in the flesh” – the spirit inside me that was actually moving me was my own rotten spirit, masquerading as a “minister of righteousness.”

But then there is God. He is so patient with me. He loves me with His undying love. He never stops doing everything in my best interest. He cherishes me. I am the constant and endlessly amazed recipient of His gracious kindness. He is so good. Everything He is and does is right and best and loving. I do want so much to be like Him, to see the world through His eyes, to love people the way He loves them. I used to feel that “spirit” was something “out there,” something I must somehow reach out to, to somehow attain. No. It is NOT outside me. It is INSIDE me. He is present with me, IN me. That very spirit, that spirit of undying love and sincere goodness lives INSIDE me. That very Spirit is itself a voice that is calling me.

And that is the very choice of freedom I now have: which spirit, which voice am I allowing to rule me? A spirit of love and kindness and sincerity and patience, the Spirit of Jesus, is my spirit, or should I say can be. But I must let it be my spirit. I must be aware “whence cometh this persuasion?” Am I at this very second being my old rotten self or am I allowing the Holy Spirit in me to define who I am? Am I “walking in the flesh” or “in the Spirit?” That is my choice. It is my freedom. I not only “don’t have to be who I was,” there is a sense in which I am not “who I was,” or in another way of saying it, don’t have to be. There is an infinitely powerful Spirit present to “make things happen!”

Think about it: It is cosmically encouraging to know that the Holy Spirit in me is the third Person of the Trinity. What I mean is, think of the power that is available there – the very power of God Himself. My rotten spirit seems so powerful. As I said above and it has been my sad realization all these years of “trying” to be a Christian – my rotten spirit is so powerful it conquers me. But it is not “me” that has to conquer it. God already has. The Spirit of Jesus in me already has conquered it. In fact, though it puffs and blows and appears so very powerful to me, yet it surely can only cringe before the infinite power of the Spirit of God. While it may seem “hard” to let His Spirit control me, yet I must believe that if I only will yield and unleash His power, I will find that in any given moment or situation I have in fact (He has) conquered my own evil self.

Hmmmm. I still have a lot to learn here. My understanding is no doubt very elementary and probably flawed somewhere, but “Strong meat belongs to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.” “By reason of use.” One truly learns to live Scripture as one tries to live Scripture. I’m going to try to allow the question to stay constantly in my mind, “From whence cometh this persuasion?” Then I am so looking forward to studying on through this book. The next section of verses directly address this whole subject of “walking in the Spirit” and not in “the flesh.” Surely the Lord will show me more that I need to know. And when I know the truth, the truth shall set me free!

This is so much fun! What will Heaven be like??