A Verse-by-Verse Examination of Galatians
“Brothers, if a man is overtaken in some trespass, you, the spiritual ones, set such a one straight in a spirit of meekness, looking at yourself lest you be tried too.” (6:1).
Brothers. Paul called these men, “brothers.” He called them the spiritual ones. Their troubles did not rob them of this. Paul encourages his brothers to set those who trespass straight, but only in meekness and only after self-examination.
If a brother trespasses … wait a minute. Trespass against what? The traditions of men? The way the Celtics (Galatians) worship? The way the modern day church worships? Portions of sentences from this letter? Or the Torah of Yahoweh? The latter, obviously. If a brother trespasses against the way the Messiah lived, then go to that person and set them straight, but know that they will judge you by a higher standard than they will any others; they will judge you by your judging. You don’t have to be perfect, so long as you know that you are as lost as lost can be without His grace. However, don’t cuss out someone for cussing, or go about gossiping about people who gossip, or, as the case is here, tell someone they need to be circumcised in flesh when they are not in heart. In essence, be it a spec or a log, check your own eye, your own soul, before bringing humble judgment to your brother who is trespassing.
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so complete the Torah of Messiah.” (6:2).
Often, when given the chance to bear one another’s burdens, we refuse to, as we have enough of our own. Yet, we are not to concern ourselves with yesterdays, which are gone and forgiven, or tomorrows, which are ever uncertain. It is an easy thing to do to lend your shoulder to cry on, but this is not the only way. The Messiah bore all burdens upon the cross, yet, He comforted widows, orphaned children sat on His lap, and it is of little doubt that deer ate from His hands. The Messiah talked with prostitutes and supped with thieves. He wept over His bride for He knew she would weep. The blind, the leper, the possessed, none did He turn away. The wise and the simple sought Him, and the Door was ever open. Bear one another’s burdens. Is it money? Is it sickness? Is it loneliness? Is it a long dark tunnel of uncertainty? Bear one another’s burdens. Be the answer to prayer! Bear one another’s burdens, and so complete the Torah of Messiah.
“For if anyone thinks himself to be somebody, when he is not, he deceives himself.” (6:3).
The Messiah knows Who He is. Yet, He knelt down and washed the feet of those who He was indeed above. Who are we? Who are we to turn away another? Who are we to look in the mirror and sing praise? So often we reject the burden of another simply because we are too good for them, or at least we think we are.
A group of Jews didn’t want anything to do with the believers who were yet to be circumcised. Oh, how many times have I heard preachers condemn the Jews who requested that the new believers be circumcised to be accepted, when the very preachers ostracize themselves from other believers based on by-laws unfounded in Torah. I have watched churches split over whether or not an organ should played during their service. I cannot imagine how many times Paul would call them stupid! I cannot fathom the length of insults that he would write had the division not been because of an issue of circumcision, but because of what songs are sung in choir! How foolish! We look down on the Jews for this, and yet in my small town, which doesn’t even have a stoplight, there are over ten churches. If only you assemblies would forfeit your “fathers,” and “pastors,” and “rabbis,” and trade them for brothers who would come together and weigh the weightier matters of Torah! If only each man was obligated to study and be able to present to a group of studiers the Words of Salvation, so that brothers might edify each other in all ways of Messiah. If this would only be! Oh, if this would only be.
“But let each one examine his own work, and then he shall have boasting in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own burden.” (6:4-5).
There is an old story of a Chinese man who was daydreaming one day while tilling his field. Thinking no one would get to see both places, he wished he could know what both Heaven and Hell looked like. The clouds above were immediately opened, and the earth cracked before his feet, allowing him to see both Heaven and Hell. The Chinese man was shocked, as both Heaven and Hell looked the same. In both places he saw men and women sitting at a round table filled with good foods. In Heaven, they were full and merry. In Hell, they were starving and bitter. The man could not understand why, until he saw them try to eat. Oddly enough, they did not have normal chopsticks; rather, each person had six-foot long chopsticks! In Heaven, they fed each other, and were full and filled with courtesy. In Hell, they only tried to feed themselves, and so they starved, consumed by selfishness.
“The same is true,” said the Chinese man, “on earth.”
I read that story when quite young, and a few years back I heard another like it: In Heaven: Moses reads the Torah. In Hell: Moses reads the Torah.
If Paul is meaning for us to boast in ourselves, I must, as a Berean would have, by Scripture, disagree; for I boast not in myself, but in another—I boast in Yahoweh (Psalms 34:2). And, as Paul himself rightly said earlier: we ought bear one another’s burdens. A shared burden is light. A kept one is too heavy to accept another’s.
It could be that Paul was trying to get people to look at all they had done, to realize that without Yahoweh they could have done nothing; thereby, using an odd method of psychology, making people see the Might of Yahoweh in everything. Yet, unless someone humble is reading this, one might become arrogant in saying, “Look at how good I am. Why, haven’t I cast out demons in His Name, and done many great works in His Name?” Rather than by His Might, and for the glory of His Name, thus resulting in no boasting of self. This may well be.
“And He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: ‘When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you and him come and say to you, “Give this one place,” and then you begin with shame to take the last place. Rather, when you are invited, go and sit down in the last place, so that when he who invited you comes he shall say to you, “Friend, come up higher.” Then you shall have esteem in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For everyone who is exalting himself shall be humbled, and he who is humbling himself shall be exalted.’” (Luke 14:7-11).
“But ‘He who boasts, let him boast in Yahoweh. For not he who commends himself is approved, but he whom the Master commends.’” (2 Corinthians 10:17-18).
“it is not by works, so that no one should boast.” (Ephesians 2:9).
Let us look at another example and two men: During a war, each man had no choice but to kill a convoy of people. One man looks at it as his past, a dark time that he had no choice of, and he decides to tell no one so as to not burden them. He can carry it, and so he should. The other man looks at his past, and it haunts him. He is not weaker, or a better or worse man the other, he is simply different. He is bent down by his heavy burden, and only by sharing it, will it become light enough, over time, for him to carry. As Solomon has taught us: There is a time to speak, and a time for silence. A time to keep, and a time remove.
Please read: Psalms 94:4 Proverbs 27:1-2 Isaiah 10:15, and Romans 2:14-15.
“And let him who is instructed in the Word share in all that is good, with him who is instructing.” (6:6).
It is important to share with the person who is instructing. Though church should be an open study that starts at the beginning and works to the end and back again, we ought one another share the Truth bit by bit with those who instruct. Not teach, as only Yahoshuah can teach. Share with those who share. It edifies and it uplifts. It reminds others to study, and that the work is needed and worthy of all toil.
“Do not be led astray: Elohim is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap. Because he who sows to his own flesh shall reap corruption from the flesh, but he who sows to the Spirit shall reap everlasting life from the Spirit. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not grow weary.” (6:7-9).
For the Galatians this meant to not sow their own salvation in the flesh, or circumcision, but to sow their hope in Yahoshuah the Messiah, Giver of the Spirit.
Going right along with the verses above, we ought share all that is good so none grow weary. It is a joy and a privilege unearned to sow the Seed, the Word, in the Spirit. Ah, but let us not become weary in doing good. How, I ask of all, is one able to keep from being weary? Sabbath. Do not, O believer, forget to rest.
“So then, as we have occasion, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of the belief.” (6:10).
Ah, let this be a rule for every household of the assembly. And let it also be known and accepted that daily we have this occasion if we pray for it. I have gone over much on doing good already in the Letters before and the Letters to come, so I will just add this: By doing good to fellow believers, they will be strengthened in their own lives of doing good to others. This chain reaction will cause greater numbers in the household of the belief! Let us, therefore, in our charity of love, never forget our own households, nor ever labour in vanity while there are yet hungry.
“See with what big letters I have written to you with my own hand!” (6:11).
Without knowing that someone else was formerly writing this letter, and that Paul had poor eyesight, this line could make a person laugh. It was previously reported that he had vision problems, which Paul may have developed from one of the times he was nearly stoned to death for saying a Name refused by much of Christianity. Paul could not have proof read this letter, and so perhaps he wanted to leave nothing to error, or perhaps he just wanted to write and nothing more. Either way, it is known that Paul wanted to write the rest of this himself, the closing recap.
Now, more than ever, I an intrigued by what Paul might say to the assembly …
“As many as wish to make a good show in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only so that they should not be persecuted for the stake of Messiah. For those who are circumcised do not even watch over the Torah, but they wish to have you circumcised so that they might boast in your flesh.” (6:12-13).
What does Paul recap? Circumcision! The whole letter was this: You were saved the moment you accepted the Messiah! You can only circumcise yourself once. Don’t do it for men! Wait ‘til your heart is ready—circumcised—to circumcise the flesh for Yahoweh! Don’t … follow … men! … Especially those who don’t even follow the Torah themselves.
Wow. Wonderful! I am literally shaking. Does it remain: Paul preached the Good News without abandoning the Torah, the very Word Who became flesh.
“And for me, let it not be that I should boast except in the stake of our Master Yahoshuah Messiah, through Whom the world has been impaled to me, and I to the world.” (6:14).
Where do we boast? In Messiah! It is true! It is true! HalleluYah!
Was the Torah of Yahoweh “nailed to the cross” to Paul? The Word Who became flesh was nailed to a cross, but death could not keep Him and so the Word rose from the grave—He is Everlasting!
What about the torah of the world? Paul closes his letter proclaiming the teachings of the world are no more. Now! Now we have the Teaching of Yahoweh! And the One in Whom he boasts is the real reason Paul now understands it. The ideas of men are gone. Now we can walk just as the Messiah did. No more rules of men! HalleluYah! Praise to Yah! Praise to Yah! My brother Paul didn’t tell me to do away with the Torah of Yahoweh, but the torah of the world. It is dead! But the Word Who became flesh lives eternal! Death couldn’t hold Him! HalleluYah! Praise be His Name!
“For in Messiah Yahoshuah neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any strength, but a renewed creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and compassion be upon them, and upon the Yisra’el of Elohim.” (6:15-16).
Circumcision, nor un-circumcision, has the strength to save, but a man born again by the power of His Word will know peace and compassion. May all of Israel, may all of us, show compassion! May our Shalom overflow.
Some believed Torah obedience had to come first. Faith must be first. It is the first commandment in the Ten Commandments, and if done in love alone it is, in true Good News, salvation. Many of those who felt circumcision must be done before salvation were astonished in Acts 10:45 when the Spirit fell upon uncircumcised men. Yet, we ought not be astonished if the Spirit falls on those who call Him Jesus, or keep the wrong day as Sabbath, or cusses enough to make a drunkard offended. Let us be joyful, and peacefully encourage our new brothers to grow in faith, rather than pushing them to no avail. Abstain from idols, sexual immoralities, and meat, and hear the Torah on the Sabbath (Acts 15:19-21). His Word and His Spirit will do the changing. Our pushing only closes the open door. The grace of Yahoweh hath saved a wretch like me, think not that He cannot save them as well. Think it not impossible for them to one day pass you in the race … save a fool deny them grace.
“From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the scars of the Master Yahoshuah. The favour of our Master Yahoshuah the Messiah be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.” (6:17-18).
The Word is a double-edged sword. Being familiar with swordplay, I understand the problem with this. A student with a double-edged sword will often rely on only one side of it, and then only near the tip of it. One who is familiar with his sword knows that it is all for him, even the hilt. A double-edged sword can be swung side to side and cut both ways. This is what Paul is doing. He is swinging a sword side to side, cutting to the right and to the left, hacking away the false doctrine of earning salvation, or trampling upon it.
If we do not love Yahoweh enough to love and accept Yahoshuah, then pray tell how can we keep the Word of Yahoweh? He is able to live in us and keep the Torah in us that He kept while on earth! Do not think that He isn’t strong enough to do so! If you forfeit one edge of the sword, you do not know the sword, but with a tutor … you can learn.
“For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards Elohim, for it does not subject itself to the Torah of Elohim, neither indeed is it able,” (Romans 8:6-7).
O beloved Christians, you have the entire Bible, and yet you forfeit the vast majority of it. Hearken the Word: “Trustworthy is the word: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also shall deny us.” (2 Timothy 2:11-12). Do not deny the Word Who became flesh, for the grave could not keep Him down; think not that your doctrines can.
Paul had the scars to prove he firmly believed in the Messiah, so let no one trouble him about this. Yet, again, Paul said brothers, but not sisters. Why is this? You should know why. Women are not circumcised. Had this letter been about any other commandment, Paul would have said brothers and sisters.
Thank you Paul for your letter! Praise be to Yahoweh that we have it! I now wipe the doubt from my brow about you that I once had because of so many using your words in their agendas of false good news. You are a dear brother, and not once foolish enough herein to command men to walk apart from the One true Rabbi, The Good News: Yahoshuah!
Be Blessed and be a Blessing
Shalom
-Valentine Thalken Billingsley
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Additional Scripture References:
Genesis to Revelations
