Galatians 6:16 Commentary and Bible Study

What he had bound himself by in the previous two verses, he now proposes as a rule or principle by which all believers should live. Those who do so will be proof against the flattery of the world, and will not fall victim to its invitation to place confidence in worthless things that cannot save. The immediate application of this to the Galatians was that they should not submit to circumcision.Those who follow this rule will have ‘peace and mercy’ from God. Peace is possible in this life despite its trials and hardships. Peace is knowing that our lives are hid with God in Christ. It enables us to be cheerful and full of hope though surrounded by enemies. It gives us patience to put up with losses and disadvantages. It sets our hearts in heaven and not on earth. Where God has forgiven us then it matters little that men refuse to forgive us. Before peace must come mercy. We cannot have peace while we know that God is still angry with us. Peace is knowing that we are loved in spite of our sin.‘And upon the Israel of God’ - this phrase must is read in the light of Galatians 3:29 spoken to the Gentile Galatians: ‘If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.’ Israel was a name dear to the Judaizers; they were proud of their ancestry, and they believed that they were favoured by God on account of their descent from Abraham. They were right to see their nation as favoured by God, but they were wrong to think that God’s outward and temporal favour was all that they needed. They rested content with this outward favour by physical descent, but made no effort to obtain the eternal favour of God through conformity to the character of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By qualifying the Israel which he refers to – ‘the Israel of God’ – Paul shows he has in mind an Israel more restrictive than national Israel. He means the true Israel, which he elsewhere calls ‘the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles’ (Romans 9:23-24).