ACC ~ Galatians 5 v18

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).

Gal