ACC ~ Galatians 5 v13 - 18

OVERVIEW:

Love constrains the abuse of freedom (CHRYSOSTOM). Paul equates freedom and true virtue (THEODORET). The goodness of the law is shown in its commendation of love (EPIPHANIUS), which renders circumcision irrelevant (CHRYSOSTOM) but also excludes all wrongdoing (MARIUS VICTORINUS). The Galatians have been set at odds by this dispute (THEODORET), which legalistic attitudes have exacerbated (JEROME).

The Spirit intends to free us from law (MARIUS VICTORINUS) and reveal to us the way of love. We retain the choice between Spirit and the sinful nature, which is not the created nature as such but the mind that is fixated on the flesh (CHRYSOSTOM). It is the proper function of the human spirit to rule the flesh. The Spirit makes slow headway against the sinful nature in this life (AUGUSTINE), sometimes remarkably so (CASSIAN). All Christians struggle with the old nature, but the aim is to make virtue a second nature (AUGUSTINE). Scripture is to be read spiritually (JEROME). We obey the law spiritually when we act out of love, not fear (AUGUSTINE), remembering that the law is good (CHRYSOSTOM) and the patriarchs were saved under it (JEROME). Only the resurrection can complete sanctification (AUGUSTINE).

5:13a | Called to Freedom

LOVE CONSTRAINS CHRISTIAN FREEDOM. THEODORET: He now shifts to ethical exhortation and commends the practice of virtue. “For it was not in order to sin without fear,” he says, “that we have been freed from the law.” From this it is clear that in rejecting the superfluous parts of the ceremonial law he is commending the observance of the moral law and, above all, love. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.13.

5:13b | Misusing Freedom

USING FREEDOM AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SIN NATURE. ORIGEN: One who is free and follows the spirit and the truth in the higher sense may look beyond the mere letter of Scripture with its types and precursors. But he should not therefore despise the less mature nor give some cause to lose hope to those who cannot grasp the deeper sense. For even if they are weak and fleshly in comparison with those who are spiritual, they remain the body of Christ. STROMATA 10.1.

CALLED TO FREEDOM BUT NOT AS AN OCCASION FOR SIN. AUGUSTINE: From this point Paul begins to discuss those works of the law which … no one denies also pertain to the new covenant, but with another aim, appropriate to those who perform good works “in freedom.” These acts aim for the rewards of a love that hopes for eternal things and looks forward in faith. This is quite unlike the Jews, who were forced to fulfill these commandments from fear, and not that righteous fear which endures to eternity but one that made them fear for the present life. The result: they fulfill certain works of the law which consist in ceremonies but are completely unable to fulfill those that consist in good conduct. For nothing fulfills these except love. … And so the apostle now says, “You are called into freedom, brethren, but on condition that you do not let your freedom be an opportunity for the sin nature. Do not suppose, upon hearing the word freedom, that you can sin with impunity.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 43 [1B.5.13].

5:13c | Be Slaves to One Another

BE OBEDIENT TO LOVE IN THE MOST RADICAL SENSE. CHRYSOSTOM: He then also shows the way by which this rectification may be easily accomplished. “Be slaves to one another in love,” Paul says. Here again he hints that love of strife, faction, ladder climbing and folly were the causes of their error. The mother of heresies is desire for power. From this foolishness and conceit he is calling them to “be slaves to one another.” Therefore Paul applies this corresponding remedy: “Since you have been torn apart by your desire to rule one another, be slaves to one another. In this way you will be brought together again.” He does not openly state their fault, but he states the remedy openly, so that through the remedy they may also better grasp the fault. … He did not say “love one another” but “be slaves to one another,” to express the most intense possible love. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.13.

5:14a | The Whole Law Fulfilled in One Word

BOTH COVENANTS FROM THE ONE LORD. EPIPHANIUS: What need is there for the holy apostle to make use of the law, if the new covenant is foreign to the old legislation? He wants to show both covenants are from the one Lord. They are best perceived as sharing the same intent. The fulfillment of the law is through the love of one’s neighbor, because love is that which effects the perfect good. He therefore says that love is the fulfilling of the law. PANARION 42.12.3, FIFTH REFUTATION OF MARCION.

5:14b | Loving One’s Neighbor as Oneself

THE WHOLE LAW FULFILLED BY LOVE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The whole work of the law is fulfilled by this one command: love. For one who loves another neither murders nor commits adultery nor steals. … Now Paul himself adds a text: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But we ought to understand by “neighbor” every human being and then constantly view Christ as our neighbor. “And you too must love one another but in the spirit.” Here he now seems, as if neglecting the previous question and discussion, to urge them to avoid discord. And this can happen if you love one another in the Spirit, not in the flesh nor for the works of the flesh nor in natural observances. For he who loves another feels no envy, nor steals from another, nor despises or abuses him. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5.14.

THE LAW IS OBSERVED NOT IN CIRCUMCISION BUT IN LOVE. CHRYSOSTOM: “Since I have turned the law upside down, if you wish to fulfill it, do not be circumcised; for it is fulfilled not in circumcision but in love.” Notice that he does not forget his grief. He keeps on touching upon what troubled him even as he turns to ethical issues. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.14.

5:15 Take Heed That You Are Not Consumed

THE LAW ALONE WILL EAT YOU UP. JEROME: Paul is not here erupting suddenly into ad hoc legal precepts against the tenor and sequence of the whole letter. He is still discussing circumcision and the observance of the law. … If you read the whole Old Testament and understand it according to the text “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” … what appears as justice will eat you away, not avenging anything but consuming everything. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.15.

BITING AND DEVOURING. CHRYSOSTOM: He does not accuse explicitly, but he speaks hypothetically, so as not to irk them. He has said not “Since you bite one another” but “If you bite.” Again, he has not said explicitly here, “You will be destroyed by one another,” but instead he says “Take care lest you be destroyed by one another.” He is expressing his concern and admonition rather than his condemnation. … He does not refer only to biting, as the act of a person out of control, but also to devouring, which implies malice. For the one who bites satisfies the immediate passion of anger, but the one who devours proves he is acting like an animal. By “bitings and devourings” he does not mean a literal biting and devouring. He refers to something more pernicious. The harm done by one who tastes human flesh is not so great as that done by the one who sinks his teeth into the soul. In proportion as the living soul is more precious than the corruptible body, so much the worse is the harm done to it. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.15.

LOVE OVERCOMES ALL DIFFERENCES. THEODORET: Here Paul hints that, while some had been circumcised under duress, others had relied on their faith and stood firm. Nevertheless, they were at odds, some praising the legalistic way of life, others showing due admiration for the gifts of grace. For this reason Paul focuses his attention on the exhortation to love. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.15.

5:16 | Walk by the Spirit

WALK IN THE SPIRIT. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The whole essence of the gospel is to think according to the Spirit, to live according to the Spirit, to believe according to the Spirit, to have nothing of the flesh in one’s mind and acts and life. That means also having no hope in the flesh. “Walk, then,” he says, “in the Spirit”—that is, “Be alive. If you do so you will not consummate the desire of the flesh. You will admit into consciousness no sin, which is born of the flesh.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5.16.

THE SPIRIT ABIDES AS THE STRENGTH OF LOVE. CHRYSOSTOM: See how he also shows a better way. It makes virtue uncomplicated and rightly accomplishes what he has previously said—a way that brings forth love and is sustained by love. For nothing, nothing makes people so lovable as to be formed by the Spirit. And nothing so causes the Spirit to abide in us as the strength of love. … After having stated the cause of the illness, he also shows the remedy that bestows health. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.16.

5:17a | The Desires of the Flesh Are Against the Spirit

NOT A CONDEMNATION OF THE BODY. CHRYSOSTOM: The body as such does not cause motion but is moved. It is not an agent but is acted upon. For desire is not of the body but of the soul. … How then does Paul say “the flesh struggles against the spirit?” By “flesh” he means not the physical body but the evil choice. … What then? Ought one to suppress the flesh? Was not the one who said this himself clothed with flesh? … By “flesh” here he means earthly thoughts that are apathetic and heedless. This is not a condemnation of the body but a reproach of the apathetic soul. For the flesh is an instrument, and no one repudiates and hates the instrument as such, but only the one who handles the instrument badly. … Yet, one may argue, even this is a condemnation of the body, to call the faults of the soul by the name of the flesh. Now I agree that the body is less precious than the soul, yet it is itself good as created. For what is less than truly good may remain proximately good. Evil is not less than the good but opposed to it. … The eucharistic mysteries too, and the whole church, are customarily called by the name of “flesh” in Scripture, which is called “the body of Christ” … But if he says “the flesh struggles against the Spirit,” he is speaking of two opposing ways of thinking. The things that oppose each other are virtue and wickedness, not the soul and the body. For if the latter are opposed, each is the destruction of the other … but if the soul cares for the body … and the body serves the soul … how can they be contraries and at war with one another? HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.17.

THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF SCRIPTURE STRUGGLES AGAINST BEING REDUCED TO ITS HISTORICAL SENSE. JEROME: The “flesh struggles against the Spirit:” that is, the literal and flat understanding of Scripture fights against allegory and spiritual doctrine. … And the carnal sense of Scripture, which cannot be fulfilled (since we cannot do all that is written), shows that we do not have it in our power to fulfill the law when even if we wish to follow the letter we are prevented by its impossibility. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.17.

BOTH FLESH AND SPIRIT ARE GOOD AS CREATED. AUGUSTINE: The fact is that both are good: the spirit is good and the flesh too is good. And the whole person who consists of both, one ruling and one obeying, is indeed good but a changeable good. Yet these changing goods could not arise were it not for the immutable good, which is the source of every created good, whether small or great. But however small might be one particular good, it is nonetheless made by the one incomparably good. Yet however great, it is in no way comparable to the greatness of its Maker. But in this human nature, good as it is in origin and constitution, there is now war, because there is not yet salvation. ON CONTINENCE 18.

5:17b | The Desires of the Spirit Are Against the Flesh

WHETHER THE SPIRIT SUCCEEDS. AUGUSTINE: The “flesh struggles against the spirit” yet does not subdue it, since the spirit also “struggles against the flesh.” Although that same law of sin holds something of the flesh as its prisoner and thereby resists the law of the mind it does not, however, reign in our body, mortal though it is, if our body does not voluntarily obey its desires. ON MARRIAGE AND CONCUPISCENCE 1.35.

AGAINST THE FLESH. JOHN CASSIAN: An inward war is being waged every day within us. The desires of the flesh and of the spirit are within one and the same person. The lust of the flesh rushes headlong into vice, delights in the worldly enjoyments that seem to satisfy. By contrast the opposed desire of the spirit is so eager to cleave entirely to spiritual pursuits that it in an exaggerated way chooses even to exclude the necessary uses of the flesh. By wishing to be so inseparably attached to spiritual things it refuses to take care of its own bodily fragility. CONFERENCES 4.11.2.

5:17c | Flesh and Spirit Are Opposed

NO IMPLANTED SINLESSNESS. AUGUSTINE: Now this, I think, he writes to the Galatians, to whom he says, “Who gave you the Spirit.” … From this it is apparent that he is speaking to Christians, people to whom God had given the Spirit, and therefore to the baptized. See, the sinful nature is an adversary even within the baptized, and there is not in them that possibility [of sinlessness] which [Pelagius] says is so implanted in our nature that it cannot be annulled. ON NATURE AND GRACE 61.

UNDER NATURE, LAW AND GRACE. AUGUSTINE: People think that the apostle here denies that we possess free will. They do not perceive what he is saying to them: If they refuse to hold fast to the grace they have received, through which alone they are able to walk in the Spirit and avoid fulfilling the desires of the flesh, they will not be able to do as they wish. … It is love that “fulfills the law.” But “the wisdom of the flesh” by following temporal goods opposes spiritual love. How can it be made subject to the law of God (that is, freely and obediently fulfill righteousness and not be opposed to it) when even as it tries it must be vanquished? The flesh imagines that it can procure a greater temporal good by iniquity than by maintaining righteousness. The first stage, the natural life of a human being, precedes the law, when no wrongdoing or malice is prohibited. The natural being makes no resistance at all to base desires, since there is no one to prohibit them. The second stage is under law before grace, when he is indeed prohibited and tries to abstain from sin but is overcome because he does not yet love righteousness for God’s sake and its own but wishes to observe it in the hope of earthly acquisitions. And therefore, when he sees righteousness on one side and temporal good on another, he is dragged by the weight of his temporal desire and thus forsakes righteousness, which he was trying to maintain only in order to have that which he now sees that he is going to lose by maintaining it. The third stage of life is the one under grace, when no temporal good is preferred to righteousness. This cannot happen except by spiritual love, which the Lord has taught by his example and be-stowed by grace. For in this life, even if there remain desires of the flesh from the mortality of the body, yet they do not subdue the mind to consent to sin. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 46 [1B.5.17].

5:18 | Led by the Spirit, Not Under the Law

TWO WAYS OF LIFE. AUGUSTINE: A person is “under the law” when he is conscious of abstaining from works of sin through fear of the torments threatened by the law rather than by love of righteousness. He is not yet free, not yet a stranger to the will to sin. For he does wrong by his very willing, since he would prefer if it were possible that there should be nothing for the will to fear, so that he might do freely what he secretly desires. … By the law which he has used to instill fear [God] has not imparted love. Godly love is suffused in our hearts not through the letter of the law but through the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. ON NATURE AND GRACE 67.

THE LAW NOT DISPARAGED. CHRYSOSTOM: Yet it seems to me that here he has pronounced a great and remarkable eulogy on the law. For the power of the law was such as to put it in the place of the office of the Spirit before the Spirit came to us. That is not to say that one should therefore cleave to this custodian. For then we were properly under the law, so that by fear we might restrain our desires, the Spirit not yet having appeared. But what need is there now of the law when the Spirit has been given? This grace does not merely bid us to abstain from the commands of the old covenant but also quenches them and leads us on to a higher rule of life. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.18.

WHETHER THE PROPHETS WERE UNDER THE LAW. JEROME: The holy prophets and Moses, walking in the Spirit and living in the Spirit, were not under the law. But they lived as if under the law, so that they appeared indeed to be under the law, but only in order to benefit those who were under the law and spur them on from the lowliness of the letter toward the heights of the Spirit. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.18.

PERSEVERANCE UNDER GRACE. AUGUSTINE: He did not say “Walk in the Spirit so that you will not have desires of the flesh” but “so that you will not gratify them.” Not to have them at all, indeed, is not the struggle but the prize of struggle, if we shall have obtained the victory by perseverance under grace. For it is only the transformation of the body into an immortal state that will no longer have desires of the flesh. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 47 [1B.5.18].

FRUITS AND WORKS GALATIANS 5:19-26

OVERVIEW: The works of the sin nature are easily detected (JEROME). They are the offspring of the world (AMBROSIASTER). They come from the mind, not the body as such (THEODORET). Love is the first of Christian virtues (JEROME). The others are correlated with Scripture’s list of evil works. There is no complete list of fruits (AUGUSTINE). This list has the same number as the Decalogue (AMBROSIASTER). It is not exhaustive (JEROME), nor does it exclude repentance (FULGENTIUS). The Spirit produces fruit whereas flesh as such is fruitless (JEROME). Neither flesh nor spirit can be alive without the soul. We must mortify our sinful passions (CHRYSOSTOM), taking our baptism as an act of crucifixion (BASIL OF CAESAREA), not refusing to suffer in the flesh (EPIPHANIUS). Zeal for truth may breed strife among saints (JEROME). Spiritual Christians must persevere in rejecting the law (CHRYSOSTOM) but not let this perseverance lead to quarrels (THEODORET). Love and peace are the sources of all spiritual goods (AMBROSIASTER). Paul condemns witchcraft (JEROME). Envy and jealousy are real though different faults (AUGUSTINE).

5:19 | Works of the Flesh: Fornication, Impurity, Licentiousness

WORKS OF THE FLESH. AMBROSIASTER: These and others like them are the members of sin, which the apostle calls “the works of the flesh” because these errors come from the world, from which also the flesh comes. For all these sins arise from the side of the flesh, not from that of the Spirit. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.21.

THE WORKS OF THE FLESH ARE PLAIN. JEROME: By saying that “the works of the flesh are plain,” he means that they are known to all because they are so self-evidently bad and abhorrent, so much so that even those who do them desire to hide their deeds. Or else it may mean that they are plain only to believers in Christ. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.19-21.

5:20 | Works Not of Flesh Alone

THESE WORKS NOT ASCRIBED TO THE FLESH ALONE. THEODORET: Now it is clear that idolatry and sorcery and things of that kind belong not to the flesh but to the soul. In fact it is not the flesh that he is condemning but the wayward mind. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.19-21.

SORCERY FORBIDDEN. JEROME: So that poisoning and sorcery might not appear to be condoned in the New Testament, they are included among the works of the flesh. This happens when people love and are loved through magical arts. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.19-21.

ENMITY, STRIFE AND FALSE DOCTRINE. JEROME: It often happens that dissensions arise in the interpretation of Scripture, from which heresies, here numbered among the works of the flesh, boil over. For if “the wisdom of the flesh is at enmity with God” (and all false doctrines, being repugnant to God, are at enmity), heresies also, being at enmity with God, are consequently included among the works of the flesh. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.19-21.

5:21a | Envy, Drunkenness, Carousing

ENVY DISTINGUISHED FROM JEALOUSY. AUGUSTINE: Let no one suppose that envy is the same thing as jealousy. For they are indeed neighbors and because of that very neighborhood either of them is often freely substituted for the other. … But because each is distinguished here they require us to make a distinction. Jealousy is the mind’s anguish when someone achieves something that two or more were seeking but which can be had only by one. Jealousy is cured by peace, in which all may obtain that which is sought and thus become one. Envy on the other hand is the grief one feels in one’s mind when an unworthy person appears to have obtained something, even if it is not being sought by others. Envy is overcome by meekness, when all who yearn appeal to the judgment of God and do not resist his will, trusting rather in the justice of what he does than in one’s own estimate of what people deserve. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 52.

THE CATALOG OF VICES. JEROME: It would have been a long task to enumerate all the works of the flesh and make a catalog of vices, so Paul has wrapped this all up in one phrase: “and the like.” I wish that we could avoid these vices as easily as we can see them! PISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.19-21.

5:21b | A Warning About Inheriting God’s Kingdom

MUST INHERITORS OF THE KINGDOM BE PERFECT. FULGENTIUS: Since God is righteous, such people do not obtain the kingdom of heaven so long as they do such things. But since God is merciful, the wicked, if they cease doing revolting things by which they try God’s patience and turn to God in humble amendment, they do without doubt obtain the kingdom of God. ON THE REMISSION OF SINS 1.15.3.

5:22 | The Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faith

GOOD WORKS REQUIRE GRACE, WORKS COME FROM DISTORTED FREEDOM. CHRYSOSTOM: He didn’t say “the works of the Spirit” but “the fruits.” Therefore [it may seem that] the soul is superfluous. For if the statement mentions the flesh and the Spirit, where is the soul? Is Paul then speaking of soulless beings? For if the evil belongs to the flesh and the good to the Spirit, then the soul would be superfluous. Not at all; for the ordering of the passions is the work of the soul and concerns the soul. The soul is situated in the middle of the struggle between virtue and vice. If the soul uses the body as it should, it makes itself more spiritual. But if it departs from the Spirit and yields itself to evil desires, it renders it more earthy. Do you see how everywhere he is not speaking of the essence of the flesh but of moral choice that is inclined toward virtue or vice? So why does he refer to “the fruits of the Spirit”? Because evil works come from us alone, and hence he calls them works, while the good works require not only the resolution of our will but the kindness of God. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.22.

FRUIT, NOT WORKS. JEROME: He has spoken elegantly by allotting works to the flesh and fruits to the Spirit. Vices come to nothing and perish in themselves. Virtues multiply and abound in fruit. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.22.

BEGINNING WITH LOVE. JEROME: What deserves to hold the first place among the fruits of the Spirit if not love? Without love other virtues are not reckoned to be virtues. From love is born all that is good. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.22.

JOY, PEACE AND THE SPIRIT’S FRUITS. JEROME: By joy people mean an elation of mind over things that are worthy of exultation, whereas gaiety is an undisciplined elation of mind which knows no moderation. … We should not suppose that peace is limited to not quarreling with others. Rather the peace of Christ—that is, our inheritance—is with us when the mind is at peace and undisturbed by conflicting emotions. Among the “fruits of the Spirit” faith holds the seventh and sacred place, being elsewhere one of three—“faith, hope and love.” Nor is it remarkable that hope is not included in this catalog, since the object of hope is already included as a part of faith. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.5.22.

FORNICATION AND LOVE. AUGUSTINE: He put fornication at the head of carnal vices and love at the head of spiritual virtues. Anyone who takes pains in the study of divine Scripture will be prompted to inquire attentively into the rest. Fornication is love divorced from legitimate wedlock. It roves everywhere in search of an opportunity to fulfill its lust. Yet nothing is so rightly suited for spiritual procreation as the union of the soul with God. The more firmly it adheres, the more blameless it is. Love is what enables it to cleave. Rightly then the opposite of fornication is love. It is the sole means by which chastity is preserved. Now impure acts come from all those disturbances produced from the lust to fornicate, to which the joy of tranquillity is opposed. And bondage to idolatry is the ultimate fornication of the soul. A most furious war is waged against the gospel and against those who have been reconciled to God. The remnants of fornication, though long lukewarm, can nonetheless still be rekindled. The contrary of this war is the peace by which we are reconciled to God. When the same peace of God is maintained toward humans, the vices of poisonings, enmity, strife, deceit, animosity and dissension are healed among us, so others among us may be treated with due moderation. Forbearance fights to endure these vices, kindness to assuage them and goodness to forgive them. Furthermore, faith struggles against heresy, meekness against envy, continence against drunkenness and gluttony. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 51 [1B.5.22-23].

5:23 | Gentleness and Self-Control: Against These There Is No Law

THE ANALOGY OF TEN. AMBROSIASTER: Paul did not mention more than ten excellent behaviors because he is referring to the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits embrace everything in the tablets of God’s covenant, in which no more than ten words of command are succinctly handed down. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.24.2.

AGAINST SUCH THINGS. AUGUSTINE: He did not say “against these,” so that they would not be thought the only ones—though in fact even if he had said this we ought to understand all the goods of this kind that can be imagined. No, he says “against such things,” namely, both these and whatever is like them. ON CONTINENCE 9.

AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW. AUGUSTINE: He has added “against such there is no law” so that we understand that those on whom the law must be imposed are those in whom these excellent behaviors do not already reign. For those in whom they reign are the ones who apply the law legitimately, since the law is not imposed on them with coercive intent, seeing that righteousness is already their overwhelming preference. … These spiritual fruits reign in one in whom sins do not reign. These good things reign if they are so delightful that they themselves uphold the mind in its trials from falling into consent to sin. For whatever gives us more delight, this we necessarily perform. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 49 [1B.5.22-23].

5:24 | Crucifying the Flesh

WHAT SORT OF PERSON IS ONE WHO HAS CRUCIFIED THE FLESH? CHRYSOSTOM: So that no one may ask, “And who is like this?” he points to people who perform such good things by their works. Once again he makes flesh stand for evil deeds. He does not mean that they had destroyed their flesh; otherwise how were they going to live? For the crucified person is dead and inactive. But what he means is strict discipleship. Even if desires press hard they rage in vain. Since the power of the Spirit is such, let us live according to it, and let us be content with it. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.24.

BEGINNING WITH BAPTISM. BASIL OF CAESAREA: We “crucify” the flesh, of course, by being baptized in the water of baptism, which is a likeness of the cross and his death, his entombment and his resurrection, as it is written. ON BAPTISM 1.15.

MUST THE FLESH SUFFER. EPIPHANIUS: If those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, it is therefore clear that the slaves of Christ have presented their flesh in purity along with its desires and passions. They are participating in Christ, thus acknowledging that he crucified the flesh. That is why the faithful, thinking the same thoughts as their Lord, have crucified the flesh. And if believers have crucified the flesh it is unthinkable that those who suffered on Christ’s behalf should not be reigning with him. PANARION 42.12.3, SEVENTH REFUTATION OF MARCION.

5:25 | Live by the Spirit, Walk by the Spirit

LIVING AND WALKING BY THE SPIRIT. CHRYSOSTOM: What he means by “walk by the Spirit” is “let us be content in the power of the Spirit, and let us not seek to augment it with the law.” Then, having shown that those who introduce circumcision are doing this through ambitious motives, he says, “Let us not become proud, which is the cause of evils, calling one another out to factiousness and strife, in jealousy of one another. For jealousy comes from vainglory, and from vainglory all those other evils.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.25.

5:26 | No Self-Conceit, Provoking, Envy

NO ENVY. AMBROSIASTER: What he is saying is that if we live well and honestly we should also express this in good conduct. This is what it is to live in the Spirit: to have an unblemished life. We walk in the Spirit if we study peace. For this is what engenders love. It is, on the other hand, empty glory to seek a victory where there is no prize, so that someone would end up having only a zeal for strife and spiritual competition. These things tend toward discord and wrangling. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.26.

NO PROVOKING. THEODORET: Some who were grounded in faith were showing a constant disdain of their oppressors. They were thereby provoking them to strife. Paul exhorts them to offer their hands to those who have inclined toward the law. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.26.