விரிவுரை தற்போது ஆங்கிலத்தில் மட்டுமே கிடைக்கிறது. தமிழ் மொழிபெயர்ப்பு நடைபெறுகிறது.
Galatians 6 — God Forbid That I Should Glory, Save in the Cross
Paul closes practically. Restore the fallen brother gently, bear one another's burdens, do not be deceived — what a man sows, he reaps. Be not weary in well doing. He takes the pen for the closing greeting and writes in large letters his refusal to glory in anything but the cross. By the cross the world has been crucified to him and he to the world. He prays peace and mercy on as many as walk by the rule of the new creation.
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
— Galatians 6:14
- v.1-5 Restore the fallen — bear burdens; bear your own load
- v.6-10 Sowing and reaping; be not weary in well doing
- v.11-16 Paul writes large — no glory but the cross; the new creature
- v.17-18 I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus
The law of Christ is love (John 13:34). To bear another's weight is to fulfill it.
A community where burdens are borne corporately fulfills more law than a community that ticks every Sabbath rule alone.
Apparent contradiction with verse 2 — resolved by two different Greek words. Verse 2 (baros) means an oppressive weight that one cannot lift alone. Verse 5 (phortion) means a soldier's pack, the load each is responsible to carry. Bear what is yours; help bear what is too much for another.
A universal law of moral consequence. The harvest comes after the sowing — sometimes long after, which is why people imagine they can sow without consequence.
God is not mocked — Greek muktērizō, "turn up the nose at." Cynical defiance does not change the harvest.
The promised harvest comes in due season, His season, not ours. The believer's temptation is to quit between the sowing and the seeing.
If we faint not — the condition is endurance, not perfection.
Two scopes: all men (a generous outward life) and especially the household of faith (a particular care for fellow believers). The two are not opposed; both are commanded, with priority noted.
Paul usually dictated to a scribe and added a closing greeting in his own hand. Here he takes up the pen for the conclusion and writes in large letters — perhaps because of poor eyesight (cf. 4:15), perhaps for emphasis.
One of the most majestic verses Paul ever wrote. He boasts in nothing else — not his pedigree, not his apostolic standing, not his sufferings, not his successes. Only the cross.
The world crucified unto me, and I unto the world — the cross severs the believer's mutual attraction with the present age. Each is dead to the other.
The chapter's summary. The Galatian battle was about whether circumcision mattered. Paul's closing answer: neither it nor its opposite. A new creature — that alone counts.
Marks — Greek stigmata, the brands or scars borne by slaves or soldiers showing ownership. Paul carried the scars of his ministry sufferings (cf. 2 Cor 11:23-27) as the seal of who owned him.
A pastor's authority, finally, is shown not by titles but by what he has suffered for his Lord.
Find one believer overtaken in a fault and try verse 1 today: come to them with the spirit of meekness, conscious of your own vulnerability. Bear one burden you have been letting them carry alone. Then end the day reading verse 14 aloud as your own creed. Let nothing else compete with the cross for the heart's glory.
The chapter ends at the cross because the letter has been about the cross from the beginning. Paul's singular boast is His. The marks Paul bore in his body were the visible signature of the One whose marks once and forever rescued him. The new creature exists only in Christ Jesus (v.15).
Restore — Greek katartizō, used elsewhere of mending fishing nets and setting broken bones. The aim of confronting another believer's sin is healing, not punishment.
Considering thyself — Paul will not let the restorer feel superior. The next temptation may be yours.