Or whether according to the Law, 'an eye for an eye,' and the rest of the Law's precepts prepared for retribution, you seek, so that a bite is followed by a return bite, so that what seems to be justice becomes consumption; not avenging the one, but consuming both. 'See that you be not consumed by one another.' While each becomes to the other an occasion of perdition. 'But I say, walk in the Spirit.' By spiritual acts, which below he describes. 'And you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh.' Not that the flesh lusts without the soul: but the soul itself, when it thinks carnal things, is called flesh: when it thinks divine things, it is one spirit with God. As long, therefore, as there is a twofold desire or will in us, we do not accomplish whatever we would. One building, the other, elation, destroying, we do not accomplish.
While we struggle against desires. And this is to be noted, that he did not say, 'do not have,' but 'do not fulfill': that is, do not give your consent, and cease to act. 'For the flesh lusts.' Carnal acts. For the flesh does not lust without the soul, although the flesh is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. For then a man will be just without any sin at all, when there will be no law in his members warring against the law of his mind: but he loves God utterly with his whole soul and mind, which is the first and highest precept. 'Against the spirit; and the spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary to one another.' Against the spiritual act: the flesh desires adultery, the spirit chastity. 'So that you do not do whatever things you would.'
This reason accomplishes, that effect may follow the will, because in this life the flesh fights against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. 'But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.' If you occupy yourselves wholly with spiritual things, you have no need of the Law, which was given for carnal men. 'If,' he says, 'you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.' Under the Law, that is, which strikes fear, not which bestows charity. Because the charity of God is poured out in our hearts, not through the letter of the Law, but through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. This is the law of liberty, not of bondage. Insofar as each is led by the Spirit, he is not under the Law: because insofar as he delights together in the law of God, he is not under the fear of the Law, which fear has torment, not delight.
'Now the works of the flesh are manifest.' Nor is it difficult to discern between carnal works and spiritual. 'Which are fornication.' The beginning of the works of the flesh is fornication. 'Uncleanness, lasciviousness, luxury, the service of idols.' Which Onan, the son of Judah, did. 'Sorceries, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings.' He called enmities and other like things 'carnal,' which belong to the soul, not the flesh: lest they should think, like the Manichaeans, that the flesh is to be accused. But he defined every evil as carnal, because it is effected by thinking carnal things. But every good he called spiritual, because it descends from above. 'And such like.' You yourselves can gather the rest from these.
'Which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' It is therefore to be noted and lamented that he utterly excluded from the kingdom the contentious, the dissenting, and the wrathful, together with idolaters, sorcerers, and murderers. 'But the fruit of the Spirit is charity.' The first of all virtues is charity, which, as we have noted, is divided into four parts: into love of God, of oneself, of the neighbor, and of the enemy. 'Joy.' Spiritual. 'Peace.' If a tranquil mind is disturbed by no passions. 'Longsuffering.' To endure injuries inflicted. 'Goodness.' Always to wish to do good. 'Kindness.' To do injury to no one, but even to bear patiently what is done to oneself. 'Meekness, faith.'
It is to be noted that faith too is given by God; which the Apostle placed among the fruits of the Spirit in the seventh place; and this is to be noted, that faith is from God, whether to believe God, or to fulfill promises made to men. 'Modesty.' Not to be angry. 'Continence, chastity.' Continence is for a time: chastity is everlasting. And to abstain not only from fornication, but from all iniquity. 'Against such there is no law.' For it did not prohibit these things, and he who fulfills the new is not in the Old Testament. 'But those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences.' If all vices are at once crucified, and the flesh, hanging as it were, lusts after nothing, why do we need the Law, which was given to restrain vices?
At the same time this is to be noted, that he said those to be Christ's who crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences: against those who thought faith alone sufficed. CHAP. VI. 'If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.' Through the Spirit we have life, if we live spiritually, and do not serve the Law carnally. But who is he who lives by the Spirit, but our hidden man, who also is wont sometimes to live according to the flesh? But when he has lived by the Spirit, he walks by the Spirit. When he has willed to walk in the flesh, living he is dead. The perfect man in Christ always lives by the Spirit: by the Spirit he obeys, never lives in the flesh. On the contrary, he who has given himself wholly to the flesh, and consigned himself to the passions, never lives in the spirit.
Between these are middle ones, whom we can call neither spiritual nor carnal; but who, wavering between virtues and vices, are now drawn back to better things, and are of the spirit; now are supplanted by the slipperiness of the flesh, and are flesh. 'If,' he says, 'we live by the Spirit, let us comply with the Spirit,' by no means through the Law, but through charity, serving one another. We ought not to contend about the interpretation of the Scriptures, and to say, for example: circumcision is better; no, but uncircumcision. History is to be despised, and allegory to be followed: nay, allegory is empty and shadowy, and supported by no roots of truth. Whence it comes that envies are born mutually. 'For they wish,' he says, 'to shut you out, that you may be zealous for them.'
Not so much wishing to teach the truth of the Law as to conquer. 'Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.' These grand expositions are from the commentaries of Saint Jerome on the Galatians. It is vainglory, if it consists in things not commanded in the Law, so that we force ourselves to practice abstinence from all flesh, doing what we do, and when we can no longer do this very thing, we say these things are superfluous. I will speak plainly, nor will I be silent about my passion, the passion almost common to all: one must not glory in riches, nor in power, nor in beauty and comeliness of bodies: for these are manifestly numbered among the works of the flesh. Almsgiving, if it be done for praise, is vainglory: a long prayer, the pallor that follows fasting.
These are not my words, but the Savior's, thundering in the Gospel. Chastity itself too, in marriage, in widowhood, in virgins, often seeks human applause: and what I have long feared to say, but must be said: martyrdom itself, if it be done that we may be held in admiration and praise by the brethren, the blood is shed in vain. The Apostle speaks, let the Vessel of election speak: 'If I deliver my body that I may glory, but have not charity, it profits me nothing.' He who had said: 'I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, whether in the body or out of the body I know not, God knows, caught up even to the third heaven,' and the rest.
He, I say, who labored more than all, lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt him, was given a thorn of his flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet him, that he should not be exalted. And indeed thrice he besought the Lord that it might depart from him: but it was said to him: 'My grace is sufficient for you: for strength is made perfect in weakness.' What is so much the work of God as to read the Scriptures, to preach in the church, to receive the priesthood, to minister before the altar of the Lord? But these things, unless one guards his heart with all diligence, arise from the desire of praise. You may see very many (as Cicero also says) inscribe their books 'On Despising Glory,' and for the sake of glory prefix the titles of their own names.
They often interpret the Scriptures, and we write things worthy to be read, and unless they be done for Christ's sake, but for memory among posterity, and for fame among the peoples, the whole labor will become vain: and we shall be as a sounding drum and a clashing cymbal. You may see very many contending among themselves about the Scriptures, and making the word of God an athletic wrestling-ground: they provoke one another, and if they are conquered, they envy: for indeed they are desirous of vainglory. 'Brethren, and if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness.' Human frailty is forestalled in lighter matters, which happen unexpectedly.
Moreover there is no forestalling where something is committed after long premeditated deliberation; he does not say this to those who had not been persuaded, so that they should not gently correct those overtaken by a fault. Paul, knowing that he is a worshipper of that God who wills not the death of the sinner but repentance, and knowing that every creature, though it may not sin, is nevertheless able to sin, exhorts even the one who is spiritual by the fear of himself, lest he sin and lest he fail to stretch out a hand to one who is falling. And beautifully he calls a man overtaken in a fault one who is able to die, showing from the very word the frailty of the human condition, so that he may be worthy of pardon who, as a man deceived by error and plunged into the abyss, is unable to raise himself up without help and a helper.
It is to be noted that he directs the spirit of gentleness and meekness, not toward those who sin repeatedly, but toward one who has erred, being overtaken by some vice, in the correction of a spiritual sin; lest, being harsh, angry, or bitter, one should desire to correct the erring man, but rather should draw him of his own accord to salvation, promising pardon; and let him bring forward the testimony of Christ, by which He invites those weighed down by the heavy burden of the law and of sins to His yoke which is sweet and His burden which is light, that a man may learn that He is humble and gentle and meek of heart, and may find rest for his soul. Let us use this testimony against the heretics, who, inventing various fables, say that a spiritual tree is such by nature and never bears evil fruit.
Behold, the Apostle, whose authority they themselves also follow, says that those who are spiritual can sin, if they are puffed up by the loftiness of their heart and fall. This we also confess, and confess likewise that they too can become spiritual again, if they return to better things. There can be set against this what is written to the Corinthians: 'What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and in the spirit of meekness?' For if there he says that he will come to sinners not in the spirit of meekness but with a rod, how is it that now he applies to those who have been overtaken in some sin not a rod, but the spirit of meekness?
But that is said to those who, after sinning and not perceiving their error, were unwilling to submit to their elders and to be corrected by repentance. But where the sinner, understanding his wound, hands himself over to the physician to be healed, there no rod is necessary, but the spirit of gentleness. Yet perhaps this too is asked: If one ought to instruct the sinner in the spirit of gentleness because he should consider himself, lest he too be tempted, then the just man, who is sure of his own mind and knows he cannot fall, should he not instruct the sinner in the spirit of gentleness? To this we say: even if the just man has conquered, knowing with how great labor he overcame, he will the more readily grant pardon to the one who sins. So then, if anyone has remained in virginity even unto old age, let him forgive one who...
...one who was deceived by a certain ardor of youth, knowing with what great difficulties he himself passed through that age. If anyone, tormented for the confession of the name of Christ, has seen someone in torments deny Him, let him have compassion on the wounds of the denier, and let him marvel not so much that that one was conquered, as that he himself has conquered. Attend also to the caution of the writer, for he did not say, 'Considering thee, lest thou also fall,' but 'lest thou be tempted.' For to be conquered or to conquer is in our power, with God as helper; but to be tempted is in the power of the tempter. For if the Savior was tempted, who can be secure of crossing the seas of this life untempted? Therefore Paul does not despair of salvation;
but he stretches out a hand to the one who entreats him, and, as far as lies in him, he weeps with the one who weeps, is made weak with the weak, and judges the sins of others as his own. Such a man fulfills through charity the law of Christ, which law is: 'This is my commandment, that you love one another.' What is the law of the Son of God? 'Love one another, as I also have loved you.' He who has no clemency, and is not clothed with the bowels of mercy and of tears, though he be spiritual, does not fulfill the law of Christ. But also, if anyone is weak in faith and is still nourished with the milk of infancy, and cannot so quickly pass from legal observance to spiritual mysteries, you who are stronger, bear his burdens, lest through your knowledge a brother perish, for whom Christ died.
He also bears a brother's need who helps the poor man weighed down by the burden of poverty, and makes for himself friends of the unrighteous mammon. 'Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted': because thou too art a man, and canst be overtaken in something and stand in need of help. For the sound sustain the sick and bury the dead, because they too believe that they can be made sick and can die. 'Bear one another's burdens.' For example: thou wilt bear a brother's anger when thou art not angry against him; and again, in the time when anger has overtaken thee, let him support thee with gentleness and tranquility. Surely, or if anyone has conquered talkativeness in himself but has not yet conquered obstinacy, while another is still talkative but is now not obstinate:
the former ought in charity to bear the latter's talkativeness, and the latter the former's obstinacy, until that fault is healed in the one and this in the other. 'And so you shall fulfill the law of Christ.' The law of Christ is charity, for He says: 'A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.' 'For if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself.' He who thinks he cannot be tempted, or trusts more to praise of himself than to his own conscience, deceives himself. If anyone is unwilling to bear the burdens of others, and, being merciless, is content only with his own work and virtue, not seeking the things which are of others but which are his own—that is, being a lover only of himself and not also of God—he deceives himself. 'But let every one prove his own work.'
He who has the conscience of a good work, and, considering it, does not reproach his own work, ought not to boast of this before another, and pour out his praise abroad, and share it with all, and seek boasting from the favor of men; but let him have his glory in himself, and say: 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.' He who seeks glory from another—to him neither is the world crucified, nor is he himself crucified with Christ. For indeed he has received his reward, which he sought from men. And so he shall have his glory in himself alone, and not in another—in his own conscience, not in another's flattery. Likewise otherwise: this is to carry one's oil with oneself:
not to depend on another's praise; but what glory shall he have in himself, save in Him to whom it is said: 'My glory, and the lifter up of my head'? He who glories in his own righteousness, not in another's sin. For no one profits by another's loss, nor from another's fault will he appear the more righteous in the day of judgment. 'For every one shall bear his own burden.' If every one shall bear his own burden, no one will be able to bear the burdens of another. But it must be observed that there he commanded that in this life we sustain one another as we sin, and that in the present age we be a help to one another. Here, however, let him speak of the Lord's judgment in the resurrection, that we shall receive not according to another's sin, but according to our own work; in the day of judgment this shall be so.
For here in this life let us sustain one another as we sin; and therefore he said: 'Bear one another's burdens,' etc. 'Each shall bear his own burden.' For his burden, that is, praise, will not carry off the one who is being deceived. 'But let him that is instructed in the word communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things.' Let him communicate whether in obedience, in word and deeds, in imitation, or in the substance of food; you who receive spiritual things from your masters, provide carnal things to your masters. 'Be not deceived: God is not mocked.' A man can be mocked by a serpent that denies God's vengeance, as Eve was. For God renders what He promises. For, that He might exclude every craft of the devil, He gave back more to Adam and Eve than He had promised. And to Lot's wife He did even what He had not foretold.
'For whatsoever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap.' And as much as he shall have sown. 'For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption.' He who places his hope in carnal circumcision, or who sows vices in a spiritual manner of life, or in faith. 'But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.' Everything that we speak, do, or think, is sown in two fields, flesh and spirit: if the things that proceed from hand, heart, and mouth are good, being sown in the spirit, they will overflow with the fruits of eternal life; if evil, received from the field of the flesh, they will sprout for us a harvest of corruption. Likewise otherwise: he who understands the law carnally awaits also carnal promises, and things that perish in the present age;
but he who is a spiritual helper sows in the spirit, and of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. This too is to be observed, that he who sows in the flesh is set down with the addition 'his own'; but of him who sows in the spirit it is not said 'in his own spirit,' but simply 'in the spirit': for he who sows good things sows not in his own spirit, but in the Spirit of God; and therefore let no one attribute anything to himself, for whatever good things there are, are gifts of God. 'And in doing good let us not fail.' As it is written in Ecclesiasticus: 'Be not hindered from praying always, and be not afraid to be justified even unto death; for the reward of God endureth for ever.' Therefore an unfailing reward shall follow unfailing righteousness: for he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved.
He exhorts to the zeal of perseverance those who in this life await the reward of good work, not knowing that, just as in sowing there is one time of planting and another of harvest, so also in the present life is the labor of sowing, whether things be reaped in the spirit or in the flesh; but the harvest is the future judgment; and according to the quality or diversity of the sowing, the reapings differ—the hundredfold, the sixtyfold, and the thirtyfold fruit—which crop no one who fails can reap. For he who shall persevere, as was said above, unto the end, he shall be saved. But what a thing it is, that while sinners are daily increased in evil works, we grow weary in good work! 'For in due time we shall reap, not failing.'
Now is the time of sowing, not of reaping: let us not therefore seek to receive our reward here; nor, when the tender blade is left in winter in the present, let it be so that this blade be not pressed down, and there be nothing to be reaped in the future. For it will be said to us: 'You have received your good things in your way.' And again: 'You have received your reward.' Therefore, while we have time, let us work good toward all. The time of sowing, as we have said, is the present time, and the life which we run: in this it is granted us to sow what we will. When this life has passed, the time of working will be taken away, whether we be sick or healthy, humble or powerful, ignoble or honored,
hungering or feasting: let us do all things in the name of the Lord with patience and equanimity, and there shall be fulfilled in us that which is written: 'To them that love God all things work together unto good.' But if we ought to loosen the reins of liberality indifferently toward all, how much more toward those of the household of faith, and toward Christians, who have the same Father and are reckoned by the appellation of the same Master? It seems to me that this passage can cohere with the foregoing, so that he names the masters as those of the household of faith, to whom he had commanded that above all the things reckoned good be ministered by their hearers. This is the last time of sowing; let us hasten therefore to sow all the fields, and above all let us fill those which are most fertile:
lest, in the time of harvest, we begin to hunger while others feast. But above all toward those of the household of faith. Let us show mercy both to Jews and to pagans, and to Christians, and to the good and the evil, lest we deny to them what God does not deny; yet most of all to those who render a special service to the faith. 'See what a letter I have written to you with my own hand.' Understand with what confidence I have written, and that I have feared no one, I who have written the letter with my own hand. 'For as many as desire to please in the flesh': those who desire to please carnal Jews, fearing to endure the persecution of the cross of Christ, providing nothing for your salvation—'these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ.'
Gaius, who is also Julius Caesar, and Octavianus Augustus, and Tiberius the successor of Augustus, had promulgated laws, that the Jews, who were dispersed throughout the whole Roman world, should live by their own rite and by their ancestral ceremonies. Whoever therefore was circumcised, although he believed in Christ, was held by the Gentiles as a Jew, and no one persecuted him; which circumcision the Apostle now names 'confidence'; and therefore he says: 'As many as wish to please in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ. For neither do they who are circumcised keep the law, but they wish you to be circumcised.' As if, were circumcision to cause the law to be kept, that persuasion would seem to have some reason;
but it is for earthly felicity, either the desire of gaining or the fear of losing; and therefore they do not truly keep it, since the carnal desire by which one sins is rather changed than increased—it is not healed by another desire: because carnal fear and desire make them slaves, since they believe they observe all things carnally. 'That they may glory in your flesh': either because they have drawn disciples over to themselves. 'But God forbid that I should glory'—among the Jews—'save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Not in my own righteousness or doctrine, but in the faith of the cross, by which all sins are forgiven me, so that I might die to the world:
and he alone can glory in the cross of Christ, who takes it up and follows the Savior, who has crucified his flesh with its vices and concupiscences; who has died to the world, and contemplates not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. 'By whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.' Dead. 'For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.' At this time neither does circumcision profit, nor uncircumcision harm. But this alone profits, if anyone, being reborn, uses a new manner of life, as the prophet says: 'Renew for yourselves fresh ground, and sow not among thorns; circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart.'
'And as many as shall follow this rule'—this rule by which hope is to be placed in faith alone—'peace upon them, and mercy'—upon Christians: for the Jews are Israel according to the flesh. 'And upon the Israel of God.' For there is an Israel that is not of God, that is, the carnal; for not all who are of Israel are Israelites. 'From henceforth let no man be troublesome to me'—let no one question me further, as if in doubt, for I have expounded all the truth. 'For I bear the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ in my body.' For I carry about in my body the signs and characters not of circumcision, but of the cross, through suffering, and the wounds or scourgings which I have endured for Christ. 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.'
Such is Paul's subscription. He wishes that the grace of the Lord, not the works of the law, may accompany them: 'With your spirit,' he says, not in the flesh, in whose circumcision the carnal glory; but you have been spiritually circumcised, and you conduct yourselves spiritually.