Galatians · chapter 5 of 6
Updated on
Galatians 5 calls believers to stand firm in the freedom Christ gave them and not to submit to circumcision, which would oblige them to keep the whole law. Paul explains that this freedom is not an excuse for the flesh but a freedom to serve one another in love, and he contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
After showing in chapters 3 and 4 that we are free children through the promise, Paul turns to the consequences. Galatians 5 is the chapter of Christian freedom: it warns against going back to the law as a way of righteousness and, at the same time, against using freedom as a pretext to live by the flesh.
Paul begins with a declaration: for freedom Christ has set us free, so we must stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of slavery. He warns that anyone who is circumcised to seek righteousness through the law is obligated to keep all of it, is severed from Christ and has fallen away from grace. Believers, by contrast, through the Spirit and by faith eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness; in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts, but faith working through love.
The Galatians were running well; someone hindered them from obeying the truth, and that persuasion does not come from the one who calls them. A little leaven leavens the whole lump, but Paul trusts in the Lord that they will take no other view, and the one who is troubling them will bear the penalty. If he still preached circumcision, he would not be persecuted, and the offense of the cross would be removed.
The call to freedom is not an opportunity for the flesh but for serving one another in love, since the whole law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If they bite and devour one another, they should take care that they are not consumed by one another.
Paul commands them to walk by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh, for flesh and Spirit are opposed. The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, jealousy, fits of anger, dissensions, envy, drunkenness and the like; those who practice them will not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions, and if they live by the Spirit, they also walk by the Spirit, without conceit or envy.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Christ set us free to live in freedom, so we must stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Paul reminds us that Christian freedom is a gift that must be guarded.
In Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but faith working through love. True faith is not passive: it shows itself in concrete love for others.
The whole law is summed up in one commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Paul does not cancel the law but shows its fulfillment in the love that the Spirit produces.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, and against such things there is no law. Paul speaks of fruit, not effort: it is the character of Christ that the Spirit grows in the believer.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: For freedom, so that we do not return to a yoke of slavery. — Galatians 5:1
Answer: He is obligated to keep the whole law and is severed from Christ, fallen from grace. — Galatians 5:3-4
Answer: Faith working through love. — Galatians 5:6
Answer: As an opportunity for the flesh; it is to be used to serve one another in love. — Galatians 5:13
Answer: In loving your neighbor as yourself. — Galatians 5:14
Answer: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. — Galatians 5:22-23
Galatians 5 asks us to guard freedom from two sides. On one side, not to turn the Christian life into a list of requirements for being accepted; on the other, not to take freedom as permission to do whatever we like. In a small group you can examine the list of the works of the flesh and that of the fruit of the Spirit and ask which qualities are most needed at home, at work or in church.
Fruit is not manufactured by willpower: it grows as we walk with the Spirit, that is, praying, listening to the Word and obeying each day. And verse 15 is a serious warning for every congregation: criticism and quarrels can devour a whole church. The best answer is to serve one another humbly.
Galatians 5 shows that freedom in Christ is lived out in love and by the Spirit, with a character that resembles Jesus. In chapter 6, Paul will give concrete advice for life in community and close the letter with a look at the cross.
Paul warns that circumcision, as a sign of submission to the law of Moses, cannot be taken halfway: whoever accepts it in order to be righteous before God takes on all the law. In doing so he stops trusting in the grace of Christ, because trust in oneself cannot be mixed with trust in him.
Believers understand it in different ways: some see a real warning to those who turn from Christ; others, a description of someone who never truly trusted his grace. In any case, the text calls us to remain in trust in Christ and not in works.
Paul speaks of fruit in the singular, with nine qualities that describe one character. They are not nine gifts handed out among different people but the portrait of what the Spirit produces in every believer, though some qualities show more than others at a given time of life.