Galatians 5:23 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Meekness’ is a low view of self which is coupled with humility and which arises from a view of the greatness of God and our relative insignificance and smallness. But this same attitude which we have toward towards God is extended to our fellow man, so that we walk meekly before all. This does not mean that we are unable to resist evil, for Moses, the meekest man on earth, was also the messenger of the judgment of God (Numbers 12:3). Meekness made Moses not quick to defend his own reputation but it made him fearful when sin was committed, knowing its destructiveness. God himself defends the reputation of the meek and lifts them up when they do not lift themselves up.‘Temperance’ is self-control. Why should self need controlling? This self is not the self associated with the spiritual nature, but the self that is driven by the old nature. Of course there is only one self, but different forces are trying to dominate it. When therefore we find ourselves tempted to anger, to revenge, to lust, to covetousness, we must recognize the source of these desires and resist it. We do not accept the foolish idea of the world that says it is dangerous to repress such feelings since they will cause more trouble if bottled up inside us, and they should be let out. We rather deny ungodly lusts, seeing the heart as a dam. What comes out of it should be carefully channelled. If a leak starts in the wrong place the flow will soon form a larger and larger hole. We exercise self-control even in legitimate things and we ration them, for to give way constantly to what the flesh desires is to weaken ourselves, for we can overindulge in the very things which God has given us richly to enjoy.‘Against such’, says Paul, ‘there is no law’. He indicates that this is not a complete list; these are selected virtues. The Spirit constantly teaches the believer and prompts him to produce other fruit consistent with love for God and man, and we must be careful to follow this prompting without pedantically limiting good works to a written list. But Paul has not lost track of his argument. The Galatians have insisted on the necessity of the law and argued that only the law can effectively restrain sin and enforce proper behaviour. He answers that the law cannot sanctify any more than it can justify. The law cannot help us in the battle with sin which every Christian is engaged in. Yes, the law sets before us the perfect standard of God, but it has no power to help us to keep that standard, and, without the Spirit within us, the flesh will only resent and rebel inwardly against God’s standard. The Spirit must come and sweetly commend to us those ways that are pleasing to him and incline the new nature of the believer to follow. But the Spirit first justifies and it is not until our sins have been forgiven that we can respond to the Lord in obedience from the heart, for we must first be set free from the righteousness of the law as a requirement for life. The law condemns certain behaviour as sinful, but it has nothing to say against the fruit of the Spirit which Paul has just listed. These virtues are high above the sins which the law explicitly condemns in the wording of the Ten Commandments, strictly understood, so that they are all therefore exempt from its attention. Is this because the law is expressed in negative terms? Yes, partly for this reason. The law prohibits many things, but it says nothing to prohibit any of these virtues. We have to keep in mind that he is arguing against the Judaisers who understood the law to be no more than a list of prohibitions which they had succeeded in avoiding, coupled with various external rituals which they had succeeded in keeping. In their self-righteousness they thought this was enough to please God, but the law rightly understood includes positive heart virtues also, ‘For we know that the law is spiritual’ (Romans 7:14). Believers understand the law to teach the opposite positive virtue to all that it prohibits, but this is the law of Christ - that is the law of Moses as it is understood by the Christian who no longer looks to it for justification but still sees it as a rule for life. Where the Spirit is at work there is no need for a list of external prohibitions; the Spirit must produce those things in us which are acceptable to the law, for something much greater than the restraining influence of the law is at work. To look to the law again when the Spirit dwells in our hearts is like having a policeman on duty to prevent a man stealing his own goods, or like a social worker permanently placed in the home to ensure that a mother who is kind and gentle does not abuse her own children. It is foolishness and totally unnecessary.