Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Galatians 5

1Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

2Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.

3Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

4You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

5For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.

6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.

7You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?

8This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

9A little yeast grows through the whole lump.

10I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

11But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.

12I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

13For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.

14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

15But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.

17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.

18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,

20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies,

21envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

25If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

26Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

Early Christian commentary

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

1. [The apostle], foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers, has particularized the works which he terms carnal; and he explains himself, lest any room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly pervert his meaning, thus saying in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are; adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts, hatreds, contentions, jealousies, wraths, emulations, animosities, irritable speeches, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and such like; of which I warn you, as also I have warned you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more explicit manner what it is [he means when he declares], "Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God." For they who do these things, since they do indeed walk after the flesh, have not the power of living unto God. And then, again, he proceeds to tell us the spiritual actions which vivify a man, that is, the engrafting of the Spii'it; thus saying, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, benignity, faith, meekness, continence, chastity: against these there is no law." As, therefore, he who has gone forward to the better things, and has brought forth the fruit of the Spirit, is saved altogether because of the communion of the Spirit; so also he who has continued in the aforesaid works of the flesh, being truly reckoned as carnal, because he did not receive the Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of heaven. As, again, the same apostle testifies, saying to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err," he says: "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor rapacious persons, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And these ye indeed have been; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." He shows in the clearest manner through what things it is that man goes to destruction, if he has continued to live after the flesh; and then, on the other hand, [he points out] through what things he is saved. Now he says that the things which save are the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 11, section 1 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.