(Audio Version)
Introduction
Introduction
I love springtime
in Colorado. All the ugly gray and brown gives way to an explosion of colors as
trees and flowers begin a new season of life. One of my favorite things is
sitting on by back patio early Sunday morning praying beneath the crabapple
tree that blooms with white blossoms every spring. At peak blossoming season,
the tree looks like a giant white cotton ball. While the other trees are dark
green and the sky is so blue it hurts my eyes, that tree takes my breath away
sometimes. If you’ve experienced something like this, then you know what I’m
talking about. This seasonal beauty is common especially among fruit trees.
While non-fruit trees produce fresh, new, green leaves every year, fruit trees
first regale us with their magnificent beauty before they begin to bear fruit. However,
once a tree begins to produce fruit, the growth process can be precarious until
the fruit becomes ripe enough to harvest. Drought, cold temperature, insect
infestations, poor soil, or any number of other conditions can be a detriment
to the growth of healthy fruit. Nature’s process made me think of Paul’s
teaching about life according the sinful nature as compared to life that is
lived by the Spirit. Paul presents a stark contrast between the dead fruit
produced by the sinful nature as compared to the magnificent fruit produced by
the life of the Spirit. Here’s something interesting though—Not each piece of
fruit, even on the healthiest tree, will be perfectly healthy; some of the
fruit, maybe even most of the fruit, will be exceptional while some of it won’t
be very good and maybe even rotten. A fruit tree might be very healthy even
though some of the fruit might not be very good. But how is this possible?
Remember that sin hasn’t just affected humanity. Sin has impacted all of
creation so that what was once perfect has now been distorted by sin. Humanity
is like this as well. Our spiritual lives can be generally healthy while at the
same time our lives are impacted by sin—our own and that of other people. The
question is: What does healthy fruit look like in our lives and what does
rotten fruit look like? Once you know the difference, you’ll be able to answer
the question: How’s Your Fruit Tree?
And hopefully you’ll do something to insure that your tree produces the
healthiest fruit possible.
Subject Text
Galatians 5:13-26
13You, my
brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to
indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one
another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a
single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If
you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed
by each other. 16So I say, live by the Spirit, and
you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For
the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what
is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each
other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if
you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the
kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against
such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to
Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions
and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not
become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Context
The
inability to reconcile Old Testament theology with New Testament theology is
nothing new. Let me see if I can make it at least a little bit easier—Try to
think of New Testament theology as a continuation of the story of God that
began in the Old Testament. Just like any story, the second part of the story
is not the same as the first part of the story. However, without the first part
of the story, the second part doesn’t make sense. And without the second part
of the story, the first part is incomplete. And like any good story, not all the
elements of the first part continue into the second part of the story. Similarly,
new elements are introduced into the second part of a story that would be out
of place in the first part of the story. It’s like this with the relationship
between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It’s like this with the
relationship between Judaism and Christianity. It’s like this with the
relationship between the Mosaic Law (“Law”) and Grace. This is the context for
Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The Judaizers were teaching the Gentile
believers that grace was not enough for salvation; they also needed to follow
the Law. When Paul founded the churches in southern Galatia during his first
missionary journey, he taught the new believers that they were saved by grace
alone and were set free from the slavery produced by trying to follow the Law
and trying be justified by following the Law. However, some Judaizers entered
their group and were confusing them with the added burden of needing to follow
the Law in order to be saved. In the verses that immediately precede our Subject Text, Paul calls those causing the confusion, “agitators.” Paul is
very angry because of the conflict these agitators are causing in the church in
Galatia. Paul wanted the believers to understand that they were free from the
yoke that the Law places on people; the yoke that we can somehow earn our
salvation through the meticulous keeping of religious rules; The yoke that
salvation by grace removes—true freedom that is only possible through salvation
by grace. However freedom from the obligation to obey the Law as a means of
salvation does not mean the freedom to live life without restraint. This is
where Paul dives into the teaching we find in our Subject Text.
Text Analysis
Paul
recognizes in v. 13 that with freedom comes opportunity; opportunity to indulge
in sinful behavior or the opportunity to give ourselves to the service of
others out of love. Paul knows that there is a battle that rages inside every
believer; a battle between good and bad; right and wrong. A battle between the
sinful nature that is part of every human being and the Holy Spirit that rides
within every believer. The dichotomy between the two is represented in opposing
lifestyles described as “indulge” and “serve.” “Indulge” obeys the sinful
nature and nurtures selfishness while “serve” obeys the Holy Spirit and
nurtures selflessness. “A warning is added that freedom, essential as it is to
spiritual life, is open to abuse by carnal men, and that it is subject to the
demand of the higher Law of mutual love…Christians are freed from the trammels
of outward Law, not that they may please themselves, but that they may become
slaves to the Law of mutual love. The true ideal of the Christian is not
freedom, but unfettered service to the love of God and man, which annihilates
self, and subordinates all selfish desires to perfect love.”[1]
Paul
reminds us of something that Jesus taught when a Pharisee, an expert in the
law, tried to outsmart Jesus by asking Him a question that he thought would
surely trap Jesus into giving a wrong answer (Mt 22:34-40). The Pharisee asked
Jesus which command was the greatest. In other words, God gave ten commands and
the Pharisee wanted Jesus to identify which one was the best as though the
other nine that came directly from God as well were not as good as the one he
was evidently expecting Jesus to identify. Jesus’ answer was, of course,
brilliant as he summarized the first four commandments with the command to love
God above all else and with everything we have (Deut 6:5). Thereafter, He
summarized the final six commandments with the command to love others as
oneself (Lev 19:18) which Jesus taught is just as important as the former
command to love God. These two commands, Jesus said, summed up the entire
teaching of the Law and the Prophets. So why is it that Paul says that the
entire Law is summed up in the command to love one another as oneself? We can
find the answer to that question in v. 15 where Paul warns his audience that
they will destroy each other if their division between the requirements to
follow the Law and their freedom offered by Grace continues. Paul is not
contradicting Jesus. Instead, Paul was addressing a specific problem in Galatia
that was causing division and dissention in the church there. Paul was trying
to demonstrate that those who were insisting on following the Law were actually
breaking the Law because they were causing anger, division, and dissention
within the church. Those causing trouble failed to fulfill the one thing the
Law required—to love others as themselves. Let me try and explain it this way:
The Judaizers expected the people to “do” the Law while Paul expects the people
to “fulfill” the Law. It’s a subtle distinction, I know. However, one is
concerned with external appearances while the other is concerned with internal
transformation. As always, it’s about relationship. For example, when we serve
our neighbor because it is required, we are in a legal relationship with them—We’re
“doing” the Law. When we serve our neighbor because we want to, we are in a
love relationship with them—We’re “fulfilling” the Law. “The Galatian readers
of this letter wanted to be under the law as a way to attain spiritual
perfection. But their preoccupation with keeping the law did not lead them to
spiritual perfection. On the contrary, their bondage to the law produced a
competitive, angry, judgmental spirit…Paul knew from his own experience that
zealous devotion to keep the law can accompany and even intensify destructive
attitudes toward the church. When he saw the Galatian believers biting each
other in their criticism and chewing each other up in the negative reports, he
was reminded of his own attacks on the church during the time in his life when
he was most zealous to keep the law…The tragic irony of the Galatians’
situation was that the more they came under the bondage to keep the law, the
more they violated the basic moral standard of the law: love your neighbor as yourself. Paradoxical as it may sound, that
standard is only fulfilled in the lives of those who resist slavery under the
law and serve as slaves in love to others. Freedom in Christ is freedom to
love.”[2]
Paul sets
the stage for the battle between opposing human tendencies in vv. 16-18. On one
side of the battle line is humanity’s sinful nature and on the other side is
life according to the Spirit. Although you will often find the two together,
they are always in conflict with each other; they never exist in harmony with
one another. One is always attempting to vanquish the other. The sinful nature
prevents the man or woman from fully living a life according to the Spirit. The
sinful nature seeks to keep the Law in order to maintain a Godly outward
appearance but fails to transform sinful lives trapped by sinful behavior while
the Spirit sets us free from the Law and allows us to be transformed into men
and women with Godly character. The sinful nature does not war against sinful
behavior. Instead, it invites sinful behavior while focusing on external
performance. Conversely, life according to the Spirit is constantly at war with
sinful behavior while focusing on internal transformation. True believers are
not ruled by the sinful nature even while our minds and bodies remain distorted
by sin. When we became believers, we became new creations in spirit now and we
will become new creations in mind and body as well after Jesus’ second coming. For
now, our minds and bodies are still prone to rebellion when enticed by sinful
desires. “The claim of Judaizers must have been that the law identified matters
contrary to God’s will, provided the ethical standard for God’s own, and incited
the believer to achieve ethical perfection. Undoubtedly the Judaizers also
referred to the Spirit, but probably as an auxiliary to the law given by God to
aid men and women in their obedience. For Paul, however, the Spirit not only
brings the believer into a new realm of spiritual existence but also (1)
sensitizes the believer to what is contrary to God’s will, (2) gives to the believer
an intrinsic standard of values, and (3) enables the believer to do what is
good, with expression of that goodness being for the benefit of others. The
Spirit alone is able to overcome the flesh [the sinful nature] by imparting the
new life opened up by the work of Christ. And where the new life in Christ by
the Spirit is present, no law is required to command it. It is the Spirit
himself who fills the believer’s life with rich content. For the one ‘in
Christ,’ therefore, relationship with God and life lived as a Christian are
begun, sustained, directed, and completed entirely by the Spirit.”[3]
Paul says
in vv. 19-21 that the acts of the sinful nature are obvious as he provides a
general list of sinful behavior as symptomatic of a life controlled by their
sinful nature. Nothing in the text should lead us to conclude that the list is
exhaustive. Instead, Paul lists these sins probably because his audience would
likely recognize them as existing within themselves and their community of
believers. What is unclear from the text is whether or not the sinful nature still
exists within believers. The text seems to indicate that believers can still be
controlled by the sinful nature as is evidenced by the sin in their lives. But before
I tell you whether or not I believe the sinful nature still exists within
Christians, it’s probably a good idea for us to understand what the sinful
nature actually is.
Sinful Nature
We can find the origin of sin right at the beginning of
the Bible when Adam and Eve disobey God’s command not to eat the fruit from the
tree in the middle of the Garden that was forbidden. Adam and Eve had the free will
to choose obedience or disobedience and they chose not to obey God. As a
result, sin was introduced into God’s created order. And from that point
forward, all aspects of humanity—the mind, body, and soul have been distorted
by sin and no one is immune to its effects. The distortion caused by sin has manifested
itself in humanity throughout history as the desire to satisfy self. From the
time of Adam’s sin until now, humanity has sought to displace God with anything
and everything that will provide self-satisfaction. “Sin is simply failure to
let God be God. It is placing something else, anything else, in the supreme
place which is his. Thus, choosing oneself rather than God is not wrong because
self is chosen, but because something other than God is chosen. Choosing any
finite object over God is wrong, no matter how selfless such an act might be.
This contention is supported by major texts in both the Old and New Testaments.
The Ten Commandments begin with the command to give God his proper place. ‘You
shall have no other gods before me’ is the first and greatest prohibition in
the law. Similarly, Jesus affirmed that the first and greatest command is,
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind and with all your strength.’ Proper recognition of God is primary.
Idolatry in any form, not pride, is the essence of sin. One might ask what the
major factor in our failure to love, worship, and obey God is. I submit that it
is unbelief. Anyone who truly believes God to be what he says he is will accord
to him his rightful status. Failure to do so is sin. Setting one’s own ideas
above God’s revealed Word entails refusal to believe it to be true. Seeking
one’s own will involves believing that one’s own values are actually higher
than those of God. In short, it is failing to acknowledge God as God.”[4]
Some
theologians insist that believers are a new creation as taught by Paul in 2 Cor
5:17 and that the old is now gone. As such the old sinful nature has been
eradicated. However, this does not account for the sin that continues in the
lives of believers. Even Paul, in his letter to the Romans, describes his dire
struggle with his sinful nature in that the things he did not want to do were
the very things he did (Rom 7:15). So what should we conclude about the
existence of the sinful nature in believers? Does it still exist? The answer is
yes…and no. Remnants of humanity’s sinful nature remains within believers until
we pass on to eternity to begin our lives with Christ. However, believers are
now no longer slaves to their sinful nature as they were before. Believers have
a new Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, who sent us the ultimate weapon to fight
the war that rages within them. That weapon is the Holy Spirit and He resides
in all true believers and gives us the strength to fight against the sinful
desires that remain within us all even as their influence in our lives
diminishes with spiritual maturity and growth. As the influence of the Holy
Spirit takes hold in our lives, more and more or our sinful nature is put to
death. This process is referred to theologically as sanctification. It is true
that when we became believers, we became new creations but we are also
constantly being renewed (Col 3:10). As we begin to relinquish control of our
lives to the leading and Lordship of the Holy Spirit, our sinful nature begins
to be displaced with what is commonly referred to as “life in the Spirit.”
Fruit Of The Spirit
Just as the
sinful nature gives birth to sin, life in the Spirit gives birth to the fruit
of the Spirit according to vv. 22-23. Take a moment and try to imagine a
society populated by people with the characteristics of: Love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It
seems like wishful thinking I know. Maybe I’m asking you to imagine too much.
What would your church look like if it was populated with people having such
characteristics? Still wishful thinking? Ok, what would it look like if just
your life displayed these characteristics? These were intended to be the
natural characteristics of humanity as originally created but have been
distorted by sin. However, what was originally intended by God and distorted by
sin is being renewed in the lives of believers by the Spirit. When I speak of a
life lived in the Spirit, I mean a life surrendered to the guidance and
authority of the Spirit. “The metaphor of fruit implies an organic relationship
which is absent from ‘works.’ Indeed whereas ‘works’ are essentially associated
with self-effort, fruit is not. The growth metaphor is admirably suitable to
express complete dependence on the Spirit. The type of quality of which Paul
speaks of cannot be engendered from self-effort. Each needs the fertilizing
activity of the Spirit to bring out its full development. It is not to be
supposed that such qualities as love, joy, peace, for instance, are qualities
which are superimposed upon a Christian’s character independent of his natural
characteristics. Love can exist apart from the Spirit, but a Spirit-prompted
love is of a type which goes beyond natural bounds so as to include, for
instance, love towards enemies. Similarly ‘gentleness’ may be found in some
people more than others, according to temperament, but as a fruit of the Spirit
it is an expression of a regard for others which can transform those who are
not naturally of a gentle disposition and can enhance those whose nature is
conducive to it. Of even greater significance is the fact that some of these
qualities were then (and are still in some quarters) actively despised.
Patience, kindness and goodness were not qualities sought after in contemporary
society and Paul recognizes the need for more than a natural impetus for their
development. What is clear is that he makes no distinction here, either between
the qualities or between different recipients. Moreover, he uses the singular
‘fruit’ to show that all qualities mentioned form a corporate whole. They all
go to make up a Spirit-filled character.”[5]
Paul
explains in vv. 24-26 that believers belong to Christ and have been set free by
Christ so that they are no longer slaves to sin and their sinful nature. When
Paul says that believers have crucified their sinful nature, he is saying that
our sinful nature is no longer the lord of our lives. The true Lord of our
lives is Jesus Christ as is evidenced by a life lived according to the
direction and authority of the Spirit. Paul closes our Subject Text the way he
began, with an exhortation not to behave in such a way so as to promote or
instigate dissension or division in the church. “There may be no fool-proof
method of documenting the Spirit’s presence in human life, but we can follow
his tracks by seeing evidence of love. If one’s so-called ‘Spirit-led’ activity
ends in needless enmity, strife, jealousy, and dissension, then it is a safe
bet that the Sprit has nothing to do with it.”[6]
Application
A number of
years ago, I went to lunch with a friend of mine in the banking business.
Specifically, he was part of the banking division that investigated crimes
involving currency including such things as identifying counterfeit currency.
In the course of our lunch, he said something that has stuck with me all these
years. He said, they don’t teach their bank employees that handle the actually
currency all the different forms of counterfeit currency. Instead, he said they
spend countless hours teaching their employees what authentic currency looks
like. There are too many fakes to try and learn them all but only one real
thing. The principle is that if you become intimately familiar with the real
thing then any fake is easy to spot. In the past, I have often applied this
principle to true Christianity in comparison to false religions claiming to be
Christian (i.e. Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, etc.). Once you are familiar with
true Christianity, the fakes are easy to spot. I’d like to apply this principle
now to this lesson. Instead of trying to identify what, exactly, constitutes
sin, let’s become familiar with the fruit of the Spirit and we’ll be able to
easily identify sin. However, this is not an exercise for you to be able to
identify someone else’s sin. This is an exercise for you to identify what sin
looks like in your own life by identifying the fruit of the Spirit in your life
and seeing where the two are in conflict with each other. Remember, the title
of this lesson is, How’s Your Fruit
Tree? not How’s Your Neighbor’s Fruit Tree? Let’s take a closer look at
each one of the fruits of the Spirit listed by Paul.
Love
The kind of love we’re talking about here is the kind of
love that God demonstrates toward us through His gracious mercy and provision
for us. It’s the kind of love the Jesus models for us in how he interacts with
sinners. It’s the kind of love that Jesus demonstrates by willingly dying on
the cross for our sins. Love takes the initiative to build others up and serve
others in order to meet their needs. Love always seeks to apply what God says
to our lives. “Love is shown by Jesus, whose love is self-sacrificing and
unchanging…Love forms the foundation for all the other fruit listed. Elsewhere,
Paul breaks love itself down into various components (cf. 1 Cor 13), so that
‘love’ turns out to bear little resemblance to the emotional meaning so often
given to the word.”[7]
Joy
Lots of
people confuse joy with happiness. While happiness could be part of joy, joy is
not dependent on happiness. Biblical joy and happiness are not synonymous. Joy
is not wishful thinking or pretending that our circumstances are not painful or
distressing. Joy is recognizing we have hope; a hope that the trials and
tribulations of this life will not last forever. Joy is “an inner rejoicing
that abides despite outer circumstances. This characteristic has little to do
with happiness and can exist in times of unhappiness. It is a deep and
nourishing satisfaction that continues even when a life situation seems empty
and unsatisfying. The relationship with God through Christ remains even in the
deserts and valleys of living.”[8]
Peace
Some people
confuse peace with passivity. The two are really unrelated. Peace is the serenity
of knowing that God is fully in control of all the circumstances in our lives.
Peace is not opposed to aggression. Instead, peace is about how we react in the
face of aggression. There will be times when we have to stand up for what is
right and times when we will have to defend those who cannot defend themselves.
At such times, this will create conflict. However, we can act with an inner
peace knowing that we are acting out of love and service toward others. Peace
is “an inner quietness and trust in God’s sovereignty and justice, even in the
face of adverse circumstances. This is a profound agreement with the truth that
God, not we, remains in charge of the universe.”[9]
Patience
How do you
nurture patience in a fast-food culture? I happen to have the benefit of age on
my side and patience is often something that comes with age and knowing some
things just can’t be rushed. Just like a fine wine is better when we patiently
wait for it to age, our lives and the lives of those we touch are better when
we learn to practice patience. Patience is not measured by how we interact with
people who are agreeable and have a docile personality. Patience is measured in
how we interact with people who are grating and irritate us. Without patience,
God cannot use us effectively in the lives of others. Patience allows us to
wait on God to act in a difficult situation instead of taking matters into our
own hands. Patience gives us the strength to continue praying for others even
when we don’t see God working in their lives. Patience allows us to see hope
when the circumstances of our lives block our view. When we are patient with
people, we model Christ who is patient with us as we fail and have to seek his
forgiveness time and again.
Kindness
In the
course of our hectic lives, we often forget the power that a kind word or
gesture can have in another’s life. You know from personal experience that when
someone is unkind to you either in their words or actions, it can suck the life
out of you if it occurs often enough or if it occurs in conjunction with other
events in your life. Kindness, as you also know from personal experience, is
life giving regardless of the circumstances or stage of your life. A kind word
or gesture is never wasted. Kindness is “acting charitably, benevolently toward
others, as God did toward us. Kindness takes the initiative in responding to
other people’s needs.”[10]
Goodness
We must be
careful not to allow the idea of “goodness” to become subjective. Goodness
toward others must be defined within the context of God’s goodness and the way
he modeled goodness toward humanity. Good becomes objectively good when it is
something that God has done or would do for us. Goodness shows off our
integrity, honesty, and compassion for others. Goodness means doing the right
thing even if it doesn’t feel good or is costly. Goodness is “reaching out to
do good to others, even if they don’t deserve it. Goodness does not react to
evil but absorbs the offense and responds with positive action.”[11]
Faithfulness
My girls will tell you that one of the phrases you didn’t
hear very often in our house was “I promise.” I was kind of a stickler about
the cavalier way the phrase was used. It seemed to have lost the gravity of its
meaning. I always told the girls that they should never make a promise unless
they were absolutely certain they could keep it. Keeping a promise speaks to a
person’s faithfulness. Faithfulness means doing what we said we would do or not
doing what we said we would not do. Faithfulness means we are reliable.
Faithfulness means that people can rely on what we say as being truthful.
Faithfulness doesn’t take into consideration whether or not something is easy.
A person is faithful regardless of the personal cost or sacrifice. Faithfulness
is not only our attitude toward other people, it is also our attitude toward
God. The primary difference is that we are not faithful according to what we do
for God. Instead, we are faithful to God when we allow God to do His work
through us.
Gentleness
My daughter
told me about an elderly patient she was caring for. She told me that her
family left her lying in bed in the same position day after day and she had
developed severe bed sores on her back where her spine was actually protruding
through the skin. My daughter was the perfect caretaker. She told me that when
she saw the woman, it nearly made her cry. She spent extra time care for the
elderly woman, comforting her and tending to her wounds. It was a great
illustration of gentleness. However, gentleness isn’t only about caring for
those who might be helpless victims, gentleness is also about caring for those
who are suffering with the circumstances of some of their life choices. For
example, gentleness visits those in prison to bring them some comfort and hope
found in Jesus Christ. Gentleness is “humble, considerate of others, submissive
to God and his word. Even when anger is the appropriate response…gentleness
keeps the expression of anger headed in the right direction. Gentleness applies
even force in the correct way.”[12]
Self-Control
Self-control is the opposite of surrendering to
selfishness. Although they both have the word “self” in them, self-control
creates a balance between what we want and what is right. For example, selfishness
says I will eat and drink whatever I want, however much I want, and whenever I
want it. Self-control will eat and drink in proper moderation regardless of
what I “want.” Self-control is mastery over sinful human desires and their lack
or restraint. Ironically, our sinful desires, which promise self-fulfillment
and power, inevitable lead us to slavery. When we surrender to the Holy Spirit,
initially we feel as though we have lost control, but He leads to the exercise
of self-control that would be impossible in our own strength.
I don’t
know about you but the exercise of writing out the biblical understanding of
the fruit of the Spirit has served to shine a very bright light into the areas
of my life where the fruit is in conflict with the reality of my life. It has
also been instructive to realize that during the process of focusing on the
individual fruits, certain sins in my life have come into sharp focus. A farmer
knows what healthy fruit looks like so he or she recognizes unhealthy fruit
easily. The objective is not to be able to recognize all the ways that fruit
can be unhealthy. The objective is to know healthy fruit thereby making the
recognition of unhealthy fruit that much easier. The principle holds true for
you as well. Instead of focusing on your sins and all the ways you have fallen
short, focus on the fruit of the Spirit to determine the health of your fruit—I
assure you, your sins will naturally come into sharp focus. Now that you’ve
read the biblical definition of the individual fruits of the Spirit, How’s Your Fruit Tree?
[1] W.
Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s
Greek Testament, Vol. 3, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing,
1983), p. 186.
[2] G.
Walter Hansen, Galatians—The IVP New
Testament Commentary Series, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p.
167.
[3]
Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians—Word
Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Nelson Reference & Electronic, 1990),
pp. 247-248.
[4]
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology,
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), p. 598.
[5]
Donald Guthrie, New Testament Theology,
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981), p. 561.
[6] Charles
B. Cousar, Galatians—Interpretation:
A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox
Press, 1982), pp. 140-141.
[7]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman,
Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), pp. 790-791.
[8]
Ibid., p. 791.
[9]
Ibid.
[10]
Ibid.
[11]
Ibid.
[12]
Ibid.
