[5:1-15] Jesus Christ has truly set believers free. Paul warns to not get tied up in slavery to the law. J. Vernon McGee refers to circumcision as the “badge of the law”. Paul warns the believers to not count on circumcision to make them right with God. He reminds them that if they are trying to rely on the law to make them right with God they will never succeed. The law makes mankind disqualified. Galatians 5:4 points out that the law makes mankind cut off from Christ! “For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love” [Galatians 5:6]. Love is no a work of the law. Love is a fruit of the Spirit. Love is a work of the Spirit. Love is evidence of the Spirit of God in the believer.
Paul commends the Galatians that they were running the race well until they got caught up in this legalism. He references the legalistic, false teachers too, “…yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough.” Paul is telling the Galatians that this teaching is permeating their entire lives and it’s changing the truth of the Gospel. Mankind does not accept the Gospel because the offense of the cross is that: we are all beggars… we must come to the cross of Christ for a handout, and mankind does not want a handout!
Paul reminds the believers that we have been called to live in freedom. A freedom that allows believers to “love your neighbor as themselves” [Leviticus 19:18]. He warns them of the Christian cannibalism [Galatians 5:15] that is destroying themselves and the church.
He has confidence in
them to follow the truth and stop listening to these confusing false
teachers.
