CHAPTER LIBERTY AND PRACTICAL LOVE The law of Christ is love, revealed practically in His cross (1 Cor. 9:21-23). By participating in it we are crucified of our self and of the world. 1. Gentleness towards weak persons [1]: 2. Sowing to the Spirit: 3. Sincere and spiritual love 4.Have the feature of Jesus crossified 5. conclusion 1. Gentleness towards weak persons [1]: “Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual such a one” [1]. Here we notice the following remarks: * As he asks them to be very gentle towards weak persons he calls them brethren. * He does not say, “a man who commits a trespass,” but “be overtaken,” that is, if he is carried away, and we will lose him. We are in of him as a member of the same body. * He says, “You who are strong,” for in helping others we have to take care that we are strong in Christ so that we ourselves may not fall down together with the weak. For a weak man will never support a weak man, nor can one who is suffering in the same way, bear or cure one in feeble health, but one who is himself not subject to infirmity brings remedies to one in weak health. For it is rightly said to him, “Physician, heal yourself” (Luke 4:23)1. Abbot Joseph The beginning of divine wisdom is clemency and gentleness, which arise from greatness of soul and the bearing of the infirmities of men. For he says, “let the strong bear the infirmities of the weak” (cf. Rom. 15:1)2 St. Isaac the Syrian St. Chrysostom states, [He does not say “in meekness,” but “in a spirit of meekness,” signifying thereby that this is acceptable to the Spirit, and that to be able to administer correction with mildness is a spiritual gift3.] * The apostle gives a reason for kindness, “looking to yourself, lest you also be tempted.” * Bear you one another’s burdens [2]: It being impossible for man to be without failings, he exhorts them not to scrutinize severely the offenses of others, but even to bear their failings, that their own may in turn be borne by others. As, in the building of a house, all the stones hold not the same position, but one is fitted for a corner not for the foundation, another for the foundations, and not for the corner, so too is it in the body of the church4. 1 Cassian, Conferences, 16:23. 2 Hom. 51. 3 In Galat., Chapter 6. 4 In Galat., Chapter 6. 2 ST. John Chrysostom Humbleness in our conduct with others “For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself [3]. Here again he reflects on their arrogance. He that thinks himself to be something is nothing, and exhibits at the outset a proof of his worthlessness by such a disposition. “But let each man prove his own work” [4]. Here he shows that we ought to be critics of our own lives, and this not lightly, but carefully to weigh our actions; as for example, if you have performed a good deed, consider whether it was not from vain glory, or through necessity, or malevolence, or with hypocrisy, or from some other human motive... “And then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone and not of his neighbor” [4]... Boasting is sense less, but if you will, do not boast against your neighbor, as the Pharisee did... He corrects the boaster, so that he may no more entertain high thoughts of himself, by bringing to his remembrance his own errors, and pressing upon his conscience the idea of a burden, and of being heavily laden [5] 1. ST. John Chrysostom 2. Sowing to the Spirit: “A man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows” [7]. If we sow to the Spirit, we will reap a spiritual harvest. If we sow to the flesh (our own sinful desires), we will reap moral weakness [6:7-8]. We must sow the seed of our life in the soil of the Spirit, not the soil of the flesh. Christian work is not buying and selling but sowing and reaping, we are to plant the living Word. The harvest will not be according to how much we know but how much we sow. We may have a large supply of seed in the hollow of the mind, but unless it is planted in suitable soil it will bear no harvest. Sow the seed of thoughts in word and deeds, God’s Word always brings forth seed after its kind. He that sows unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life... He that plants in the flesh, wantonness, drunkenness, or inordinate de sire, shall reap the fruits of these things. And what are these fruits? Punishment, retribution, shame, derision, destruction... But the fruits of the Spirit are of a nature not similar but contrary in all respects to these. For consider, have you sown alms-giving? the treasures of heaven and eternal glory await you; have you sown temperance? honor and reward, and the applause of angels, and a crown from the Judge awaits you2. ST. John Chrysostom He makes his discourse general, and opens the door of this charitable zeal to all; nay, he carries it to such a height, as to command us to show mercy both to Jews and Greeks, in the proper gradation indeed, but still to show mercy. And what is this gravitation? it consists in bestowing greater care upon the faithful... He sets them free 1 In Galat., Chapter 6. 2 In Galat., Chapter 6. 3 from the narrow-mindedness of the Jews1. ST. John Chrysostom 3. Sincere and spiritual love St. Paul wrote the whole letter by his own hand [11] as a proof of his great sincerity. In his other letters he himself only dictated and another wrote (Rom. 16:22). It is generally held by modern commentators that at this point, St. Paul adds the concluding words with his hand. He draws attention to the large letters he makes, perhaps because he was handicapped by defective eye sight. There is no reference in Greek texts to a large or small hand but there is a passage of some interest in the biography of a Coptic saint. It relates that St. Symphronius, as a small boy, learned first the “small hand” and six months later the “large hand;” which certainly suggests that in Coptic, very similar to Greek, the large hand was more difficult2. False teachers desire to make a fair show in the flesh, by compelling them to be circumcised [12], instead of boasting of the cross [14]. They did not behave this way out of respect to God; but to boast. This procedure is not founded in piety, all this is done through human ambition; in order that the unbelievers may be gratified by the mutilation of the faithful, they choose to offend God that they may please men. False teachers ignore the glory of the cross while the apostle says, “But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” [14]. What is the boast of the cross? That Christ for my sake took on Him the form of a slave, the enemy, the unfeeling one; yea He so loved me as to give Himself up to a curse for me. What can be comparable to this!... Let us then not be ashamed of His unspeakable tenderness; He was not ashamed of being crucified for your sake, and shall you be ashamed to confess His infinite solicitude? It is as if a prison who had not been ashamed of his king, should after that king had come to the prison and himself loosed of the chains, become ashamed of him on that account. Yet this would be the height of madness, for this very fact would be an especial ground for boasting3. ST. John Chrysostom What he here calls the world is not the heaven nor the earth, but the affairs of life, the praise of men, retinues, glory, wealth, and all such things as have a show of splendor. To me these things are dead... And I am dead to them, neither do they captivate nor overcome me, for they are dead once for all, nor can I desire them, for I too am dead to them. Nothing can be more blessed than this putting to death, for it is the foundation of the blessed life4. ST. John Chrysostom Let us hear the declaration which Ezekiel the so called “son of man” (2:1) makes concerning the virtue of him who is to be the true son of man, the Christian, “I will take you,” he says, “from among the heathen... then will I sprinkle clean water upon 1 In Galat., Chapter 6. 2 A New Catholic Comm. p. 118. W. Till, Koptish Heiligen-une. Martyrerlegenden, Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 102, Roma, 1935, vol. 1, p. 57. 3 In Galat., Chapter 6. 4 In Galat., Chapter 6. 4 you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness... a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit” (36:24-26)... Wherefore the song also which we sing is a new song (rev. 14:3), and putting off the old man (Eph. 4:22)we walk not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit (Rom. 7:6). This is the new stone wherein the new name is written, “which no man knows saving he that receives it” (Rev. 2:17)1. St. Jerome For he, who was able to make himself known by miracles so many and so great, says, “God forbid that I should glory in anything else, than in the Cross of Christ.” And to the Corinthians he says that the word of the Cross is “the power of God to them that are in a state of salvation” (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18). To the Ephesians, more over, he describes by the figure of the Cross the power that contand holds together the universe2. St. Gregory of Nyssa If any one is ashamed of the cross of Christ, he is ashamed of the dispensation on account of which these powers were triumphed over (Col. 2:15)3. Origen For wondrous indeed it was, that one who was blind from his birth should receive sight in Siloam, but what is this compared with the blind of the whole world?... The glory of the cross led those who were blind through ignorance into light, loosed all who were held fast by sin, and ransomed the whole world of mankind4. St. Cyril of Jerusalem 4.Have the feature of Jesus crossified He calls the Church in general “the Israel of God Bearing the marks (stigma) of Jesus: The apostle asks that nobody troubles him for he bears the stigma of our Lord Jesus Christ [17]. St. Paul bore in his body the slave marks of our Lord Jesus. He says that he bore them and not he had them, for he looks like a man priding himself on trophies and royal ensigns. These were marks of: 1. Ownership: “I belong to Him.” The Greek word “stigma” means a brand, a mark, sometimes burnt into the face, body, or arm of a slave or a soldier. The reference is probably to the scars of his apostolic sufferings (2 Cor. 6:4-10; 11:23-29). 2. Devotion: He works on behalf of others. 3. Commission. 4. Perhaps the marks of the ill-treatment he had already received from the Galatians. These signs reveal the sincerity of the apostle. St. Chrysostom says on behalf of the apostle, [More clearly by those wounds than by any argument, than by any language, do I vindicate myself. For these wounds utter a voice louder than a trumpet against my opponents, and against those who say that I play the hypocrite in my teaching, and 1 Ep. 69:7. 2 Against Eunomius 5:3. 3 Comm on Matt., book 12:18. 4 Catech. Lect. 13:1. 5 speak what may please men. For no one who saw a soldier retiring from the battle bathed in blood and with a thousand wounds, would dare to accuse him of cowardice and treachery, seeing that he bears on his body the proofs of his valor, and so ought you, he says to judge of me1. St. John Chrysostom 5.CONCLUSION For a final time he repeats his criticism of the Judaizers who continue to pressure the Galatians to be circumcised for failing themselves to obey the entire Torah. St. Paul’s boast and pride is in the redemption wrought by the passion and death of our Lord Jesus. He has rejected a way of life measured by external observances of the Law and has been created afresh. His final lines are as terse as the salutation of this letter. His body already shows the physical effects of his labors and sufferings in the ministry (2 Cor. 11:23-25). He pleads with the Galatians not to add any more by troubling him2. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen” [18]. By this last word he has sealed all that preceded it. He says not merely, “with you,” as elsewhere, but “with your spirit,” thus withdrawing them from carnal things, and displaying throughout the beneficence of God, and reminding them of the grace which they enjoyed, whereby he was able to recall them from all judaizing errors3. St. John Chrysostom 1 In Galat., Chapter 6. 2 Collegeville Bible Comm., p. 1079. 3 In Galat., Chapter 6.
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