A Brief Recap (Again)
Here in Part 5 of my look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we now come to the “big finale” of the letter. But again, like I did in my previous post, let’s do a quick recap of what has happened in the letter up to this point.
In roughly AD 48-49, Paul and Barnabas went on what was to be their first missionary journey. It took them basically to the “south-central” portion of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), through the region of Galatia. Long story short, even though they first went to the Jewish synagogue whenever they came into a new city and preached about Christ, time and time again, the Jews overwhelmingly rejected their message, while, surprisingly, the local Gentiles really gravitated toward it. And so, Paul and Barnabas ended up establishing a number of churches in Galatia made up primarily of Gentile believers.
On their way back to Antioch, they made a pit-stop in Jerusalem to let the “pillars” in the church (guys like James and Peter) know what they had done in Galatia. The “pillars” approved of it, and Paul and Barnabas went back to Antioch. Soon after that, though, two things happened. First, when Peter came up to visit Antioch, he initially shared table with the Gentile believers there; but when other Jews from Jerusalem showed up, Peter backed off with the Gentile believers. This drew the ire of Paul. Secondly, while that was going on, some other Jews from Jerusalem went to Galatia, behind Paul’s back, and essentially trash-talked Paul to the Gentile believers in the churches Paul and Barnabas had established. They said Paul wasn’t a real apostle, that Jesus’ apostles hadn’t sent him, and that Paul was preaching a watered-down message. They told the Gentile believers that if they really wanted to be a part of God’s people, they would have to get circumcised and submit to Torah.
All that is the back story Paul relates in Galatians 1:1-2:14.
In Galatians 2:15-3:20, Paul argues that the Torah, which came through Moses, detailed the “works” that the Jewish people were to do to distinguish them from their pagan neighbors. They were the “great nation” YHWH promised to raise up in His covenant with Abraham, and it was to be through them that He would eventually bring salvation and bless all nations. That being said, there was nothing in the Torah that actually made them righteous, because that wasn’t the Torah’s job. Righteousness had always been a matter of faith—and that was made evidence in YHWH’s covenant with Abraham. Bottom line: Righteousness comes by faith, not works of Torah.
Then in Galatians 3:21-5:12, Paul elaborates further on the role of the Torah. It was essentially a nanny, a guardian of children. Just like Nanny McPhee, the Torah had to “bring the discipline” on unruly children so that they would grow up, mature, and become adults. That means that the goal was to grow those children up. Of course, once they’re grown up, they shouldn’t need the nanny anymore. Thus, Paul argues, now that Christ had come, and God’s covenant with Abraham (and Moses, for that matter) had come to full maturity, there is no more need for the nanny.
Onto Galatians 5:13-6:10
Now, all that talk about Torah, faith, Moses, Abraham, etc. can get a bit “academic” and ‘intellectual,” in the sense of tracing Paul’s argument. One can intellectually “get” the points Paul is making, but still miss Paul’s underlying view of, quite frankly, everything that the Gospel is ultimately about. Here in 5:13-6:10 is where it is laid out. The older I get, the more I see this section as absolutely foundational if one is to begin to understand, not just the Gospel message, but the truly “Christian worldview” about creation, salvation…everything…existence itself.
It involves two terms/phrases that, unfortunately, are used so much that most people miss their meaning: the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. When Paul uses these terms, he’s not just talking about generalized “sexual/lusty” sins, as opposed to the more airy, vanilla idea of what “spiritual” means (i.e. glassy-eyed boring people who always have their heads in the clouds). Paul is talking about two fundamental modes of existence. He is saying that ultimately, people live in one of two ways, either according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. I’ve capitalized “Spirit,” because Paul isn’t just talking in generalities. He’s speaking about living according to the Holy Spirit of God.
In 5:13-16, Paul outlines the basic difference between these two ways of living. To live “according to the flesh” is to live as a slave, whereas to live “according to the Spirit” is to live in freedom. Now, it is important to know that when Paul talks about freedom, he isn’t defining it as being free to do whatever you want. If I can put it this way, freedom is choosing by what/whom you will be discipled/disciplined.
In anything you do in life, be it sports, a job, relationships, you don’t enter into those things fully developed and mature enough to do them well. Everything takes practice. Everything requires taking advice and guidance. Everything requires discipline and discipleship. After all, that is what a disciple is: someone who submits himself to a teacher/master who will guide him and form him into being fully developed, mature, and ultimately free. But to gain that ultimate freedom, you have to first submit to a teacher. You have to be discipled. You have to, in a sense, become a slave first. Whether or not you become truly free will depend on your training.
Therefore, to “living according to the flesh” means that you are choosing to submit to your natural, basic desires and passions. Now, think of yourself in your original “natural” state before you grew up into adulthood. You were a child, someone who was naïve, selfish, and, well, a kid. Your parents would give you rules, and if you wanted to “be a good boy/girl,” you’d follow those rules. But you didn’t want to follow the rules too much. You wanted to follow them just enough to gain your parents’ approval, and then hopefully you could do what you really wanted to do. Thus “following the rules” really was just a means to the end of getting to do what you really wanted to do. Still, you need your parents to set the rules because without them, you would be feasting on donuts and coke and playing video games 24/7. And that kind of self-indulgent behavior will eventually catch up with you and make you a very unhealthy person.
I’m using that as a silly example, but we all know there are a host of behaviors people indulge in that are a lot more dangerous, addictive, and horrible. The point here, though, is that “living according to the flesh” ultimately is a self-centered, self-indulgent way of life where you are “disciplined” by your natural passions. And ultimately, living that way actually enslaves you to your own base, natural passions and desires. And more times than not, people who live that way are pretty self-centered, angry, petty, and divisive people. They are still childish and selfish. Some of the worst kinds of people who live according to the flesh are really strict religious observers, who follow all the rules simply because they want everyone else to know how much better they are than everyone else. For Paul, those kinds of people were the Judaizers who were trying to force Torah observance on the Gentile believers. There’s a reason why he doesn’t say “the fruit of the flesh,” but rather “the WORKS of the flesh”–he’s tying those divisive actions to that very pharisaical mentality of “keeping the rules” in order to make other people feel bad that they’re NOT AS GOOD AS YOU ARE.
By contrast, “living according to the Spirit” is choosing to submit yourself to each other through love. That kind of “discipline” is a Holy Spirit thing that is, ironically, highlighted in the Torah. Paul actually quotes the Torah and says that the entire point of the Torah is to get people to “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is precisely what Jesus Himself said when He was questioned by the scribes in the Temple as to what the greatest commandment was. The scribes wanted to know “what the most important rule to follow” was, and Jesus responded by giving two commandments, to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself, and then saying they summed up the entire Torah.
Now, the fact is these two ways of life are pretty easy to spot in everyday life. As Paul says, you will either be “walking in the flesh” or “walking in the Spirit.” But before we dive into that distinction, it is important to first focus on the notion of what “sin” is. From a Jewish perspective at that time, you were a “sinner” if you didn’t keep Torah. Therefore, the distinction was easy—Jews who keep Torah aren’t sinners, whereas Gentiles who didn’t keep Torah are. Given that, what Paul does here is shocking—he basically redefines what “sin” is.
For Paul, a “sinner” isn’t someone who doesn’t keep Torah; a “sinner” is someone who “lives according to the flesh.” And—shocker of shockers—Paul then lines up the Torah on the side of “the flesh” when he says in 5:18, “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Torah.” To be clear, Paul isn’t saying the Torah itself is bad. But he is pointing out that the kind of people who need to be subjected to the Torah are selfish and sinful people of the flesh.
With that, Paul then gives a list of things that are deemed to be works of the flesh. His reason for labeling them as “works of the flesh” is related to his warnings about submitting to the “works of Torah.” All the things he mentions have to do in one way or another with things that create division, dissension, and hostility. Given that, the defining characteristic of people who live according to the flesh is one of fostering division—and that was precisely what the Judaizers were doing.
Paul then lists the fruit of the Spirit. Everything in this list, by contrast, emphasizes behaviors that contribute to unity and community, the polar opposite of the works of the flesh. When Paul says that there is no “law” (Torah) against these things, Paul makes that important distinction between what the goal of Torah was (to love God and love your neighbor as yourself) and what insistence on submitting to the works of Torah leads to, namely factions and divisions.
After outlining these two ways of life, Paul reminds the Galatian Christians that if they are in Christ Jesus, then they have already crucified the flesh and exhorts them to live by the Spirit and to reject the “fleshly” temptation to become conceited and jealous of one another. The reason he says this is because that is the very thing the Judaizers were trying to inject when they pressured the Gentile believers to submit to Torah. By telling them, “Oh, that’s great that you’ve come to faith in Christ, but if you were really righteous, you’d start observing Torah, because that is what really separates the men from the boys,” the Judaizers were essentially setting up a kind of caste system in the Christian community.
Paul ends his arguments in 6:1-10 with some general exhortations that further illustrate just what the fruit of the Spirit looks like in practical ways. In fact, Paul says when one tries to restore someone caught up in some kind of transgression in the “Spirit of gentleness” and helps bear that person’s burdens, that is how one “fully observes the Torah of Christ!” Paul also emphasizes personal accountability within the community, once again playing off the idea of “works.” You are responsible for your own work, your own righteousness, and your own faith journey, not anyone else’s. He then ends with emphasizing once more the utter incompatibility between the flesh and the Spirit by saying that you reap what you sow. If you sow in the flesh (and this would include Torah observance), you are going to reap corruption. If you sow in the Spirit, you are going to reap eternal life, or more accurately, the Life of the Age.
Conclusion
I think Galatians 5:13-6:10 is one of the most directly applicable passages in the New Testament to how people live and act in everyday life. Specifically, it serves as a tremendous challenge to Christians today as they live their lives in this current culture. Whether it be all the typical controversies and points of contention within churches and Christian communities, or whether it be how Christians act in our current hyper-partisan political climate in America today, I think it would be very beneficial for everyone to reflect on how Galatians 5:13-6:10 relates to the way we act in real time. In fact, I’m going to try to write one more reflective post in the next day or so to end this series on Galatians.
After that, it’s on to a short book review series on Beth Allison Barr’s book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, where I will try to make sure to put what Paul says here in Galatians 5:13-6:10 into practice.
