1 Stand fast and be not held again under the yoke of bondage.
2 Behold, I Paul tell you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
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VERS. 2.-- *If you be circumcised.* Circumcision and the other legal observances are not hurtful to those so born and so instructed, although they are not necessary, it was more hurtful to forbid them as though hurtful. But the Gentiles are not to be compelled to such things. But if they are unwilling to conform to them, as Timothy, they are not to be forbidden, but if they trust in these, they are lost; it is lawful therefore for these to hold those things, lest they seem rather disapproved than ended. But upon the Gentiles they are not to be imposed, lest they seem either not to have been instituted for the cause of Christ the promiser, or to be promising still, but by their ceasing it is now plain that they were signs of a thing to come, which by being gradually forsaken were to be buried with honour, not to be fled from as the sacrileges of the Gentiles.
3 And I testify again to every man circumcising himself that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
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VERS. 3.-- *He is a debtor.* He says this for this reason, that by the terror of observances so innumerable as are written in the law, lest they should be compelled to fulfil them all, which neither the Jews themselves nor their fathers were able to fulfil, as Peter says, they might abstain from those things to which certain men desired to subject them.
4 You are made void of Christ, you who are justified in the law: you are fallen from grace.
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VERS. 4.-- *You are fallen from grace.* Which came for this, that, the burden ceasing, it might justify; and he who brings that back loses this.
5 For we in spirit, by faith, wait for the hope of justice.
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VERS. 5.-- *For we.* He who trusts in the law loses grace, which can be seen from the contrary, because of faith is justice, and hope, that is, external blessedness: and this we do through the spirit, which cannot be deceived nor deceive. *The hope of justice.* That is, that which justice hopes for, namely life everlasting, or, that justice itself which is hoped for. For faith hungering and thirsting after justice hopes to be renewed and to advance in it. Or, the hope of justice is Christ, from whom justice itself is hoped for.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by Charity.
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VERS. 6.-- *For in Christ.* But by those who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus, virtues are to be sought and vices to be fled. But the middle things which are between virtues and vices are neither to be sought nor to be fled, as circumcision and uncircumcision, which avail nothing in Christ *But faith.* Without love faith is empty. Faith with love is the Christian's. Another is the demon's. *For the demons also believe and tremble*. But they who do not believe are slower and worse than the demons. But it matters much whether one believe that he is Christ, or believe in Christ. For the demons believed that he was Christ, and yet they did not believe in Christ. For he believes in Christ who hopes in Christ and loves Christ.
7 You did run well. What hath hindered you, that you should not obey the truth?
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VERS. 7.-- *You did run.* Here he praises the Galatians, and blames those by whom they were led to wish to judaize; and he admonishes them not to consent to those men.
8 This persuasion is not from him that calleth you.
9 A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump.
10 I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will not be of another mind: but he that troubleth you shall bear the judgment, whosoever he be.
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VERS. 10.-- *I have confidence.* He says that he has confidence concerning them for this reason, because they erred not of their own will but circumvented. And therefore, the true way being now shown, he easily believes that they will return. *Troubleth.* That is to say, that, the order being changed, from spiritual you should become carnal. *Whosoever.* Secretly, they say, he rends Peter, whom he wrote above that he had withstood to the face, because he walked not with a right foot to the truth of the Gospel: but neither would Paul speak with so insolent a curse of the prince of the Church, nor was Peter worthy that he should bear the judgment of the Church. Wherefore it is to be thought that these things are said of some other, who either had been with the apostles, or had come from Judaea, or had believed out of the Pharisees, or was some great man so esteemed among the Galatians that he should bear the judgment of the troubled Church. VERS. 11. *But I.* It was laid to his charge by the false apostles that Paul elsewhere preached circumcision, but was not willing easily to open his mind to them. *Why do I yet suffer persecution.* For he endured most frequent persecutions from the Jews, in that he taught that those who out of the Gentiles had believed in Christ ought not to be circumcised. *The scandal of the cross.* The preaching of the cross was a scandal to the Jews, because it made void the sabbath and circumcision. But if he admitted circumcision, it would not be a scandal to them, and they would be peaceable.
11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the scandal of the cross made void.
12 I would they were even cut off, who trouble you.
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VERS. 12.-- *Would that they were cut off.* They themselves trouble you, but would that they were cut off, not carnally, but that they might lose the power of generating among you, or that among others they might profit nothing, not only circumcised but cut off, that they might have no power at all of generating, and with reason I wish this, lest they bring you back into the servitude of the law: *For you have been called by God unto liberty.*
13 For you, brethren, have been called unto liberty. Only make not liberty an occasion to the flesh: but by charity of the spirit serve one another.
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VERS. 13.-- *Give not liberty.* The sense is: Beware lest, having heard the name of liberty, you think that you may sin unpunished. *But by the charity of the Spirit.* Charity is to be had not by the affection of the flesh, but by the spirit.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
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VERS. 14.-- *For all the law.* For both those things which pertain to good morals, and those things which are in the sacraments (since they are well understood by the free, and not carnally observed by servants), must needs be referred to charity. *Thou shalt love thy neighbour.* This is written in Leviticus, in which he rightly says that the whole law is fulfilled, although there are two precepts of charity on which the whole law hangs, and the prophets, because the love of God is contained in the love of the neighbour; and therefore in this precept is the perfection of salvation, because without the neighbour God is not loved: *For he that loveth not his neighbour, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?* Since therefore each precept is such that neither can be held without the other, it suffices to mention one of them. *As thyself.* He cannot love his neighbour who does not love himself. But he does not love himself who loves iniquity. *For he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul*.
15 But if you bite and devour one another: take heed you be not consumed one of another.
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VERS. 15.-- *You devour.* Or *you accuse one another,* that is, laying crimes upon one another. *Lest you be consumed one of another.* By the schism of the Christian religion, by vain glory and vain victory, the occasion of charity being changed, he touched this vice of theirs, because dissension is the enemy of love. For by this vice most of all, of contention and of envy, pernicious quarrels also were nourished among them, by which fellowship and life are consumed.
16 I say then: Walk in the spirit: and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
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VERS. 16.-- *But I say in Christ,* etc. He shows how sufficient the faith of Christ is without the law, because through it they overcome the flesh and its works, and follow the spirit; as if he should say: Give not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but serve through the charity of the spirit. But this I say can be to you in Christ, and never otherwise. *You shall not fulfil,* etc. He does not say, You shall not do, or You shall not have, because they were not able not to have them, but, You shall not fulfil, that is, you shall not fulfil their works by the consent of the will.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh: For these are contrary one to another: so that you do not the things that you would.
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VERS. 17.-- *For the flesh lusteth,* etc. The flesh is said to lust, because the soul does this according to it, as the ear is said to hear, and the eye to see, whereas rather the soul both hears through the ear and sees through the eye. For the flesh lusts nothing save through the soul, but it is said to lust when the soul by carnal concupiscence struggles against the spirit. For the cause of that carnal concupiscence is not in the soul, for it comes to be out of both, because without both no delight is felt.
18 But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
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VERS. 18.-- *But if you are led by the Spirit,* etc. From which it appears that he has not the Holy Spirit who is under the law, not by dispensation, but truly. *You are not under the law.* You have now this advantage, therefore this part is to be chosen. He says that those are damnably under the law whom the law makes guilty, not fulfilling the law while, not knowing grace, they presume upon themselves. Further, he is under the law who abstains from evil by fear, not by love, guilty in will. This law strikes fear, not love.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest: which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury,
20 Idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects,
21 Envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God.
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VERS. 21.-- *The kingdom not of God shall they obtain.* There is no middle place, so that he should not be in punishment who will not be in the kingdom.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity,
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VERS. 22.-- *Charity.* He has set the head first, whence the members follow. For no one rejoices well who does not love the good whence he rejoices. He has not true peace with anyone unless he love him. He is not long-suffering in waiting perseveringly unless he be fervent in loving. He is not kind unless he love him whom he helps. He is not good save by loving. He is not faithful healthfully, save by that faith which works through love. He is not meek who is not governed by love. No one holds himself back from that whereby he is defiled unless he love that whereby he is honoured. With reason therefore he so often commends charity, as though it alone were to be enjoined, which cannot be had without the rest by which a man is made good. *Joy.* Purity of conscience. Whence: *There is no rejoicing for the wicked, saith the Lord*.
23 Mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences.
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VERS. 24.-- *But they who.* As if he should say: Against the evil the law is set; but for the good the cross is set. Which he says thus: *But they who,* etc., *have crucified their flesh,* etc. It befits our devotion that we who celebrate the passion of the crucified Lord should make for ourselves a cross of carnal pleasures to be repressed. On this cross indeed ought always in this life to hang the Christian, that he may be fixed with nails and with the precepts of justice, as Christ was fastened with nails on the cross.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
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VERS. 25.-- *If we live by the spirit.* What he said above in general he turns back upon those to whom he writes, and numbers himself with them, showing by this that he does not say to them what he himself would not be willing to keep. As if he should say: I do not say to you anything which I myself also am unwilling to do.
26 Let us not be made desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
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VERS. 26.-- *Of vain glory.* Vain boasting is to wish to conquer where there is no prize. *Envying.* It is to be known that, although through every vice the venom of the ancient enemy is poured into the human heart, in the zeal of envy the serpent shakes all his own inward parts, and in the impressing of this malice he has as it were moved the door-post. That zeal has no measure, remaining continually without end, whereas other crimes are ended. And by how much he who is envied has advanced with better success, by so much the envious man burns into a greater conflagration with the fires of spite. Hence a threatening countenance, a grim look, pallor in the face, trembling in the lips, gnashing in the teeth, raving words, and unbridled revilings, and a hand ready for violence; and if for the while it is empty of a sword, yet it is armed with the hatred of a maddened mind.