Galatians 5:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

GALATIANS CHAPTER 5 Galatians 5:1 Paul exhorteth the Galatians to maintain their Christian liberty, Galatians 5:2-6 and showeth that by being circumcised they would forfeit their hopes in Christ, Galatians 5:7-12 he disclaimeth the preaching of circumcision himself, and condemneth it in others. Galatians 5:13-15 He adviseth them not to abuse their liberty, but to serve one another in love, which comprehendeth the whole law. Galatians 5:16-18 The opposition between the flesh and the Spirit, Galatians 5:19-21 the works of the flesh, Galatians 5:22-24 the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:25,26 Advice to walk in the Spirit, and not in vain glorious emulation. The liberty here spoken of, is a right which a person hath to action, that he may do or forbear the doing of things at his pleasure, as he apprehends them suitable or not, without the let or hinderance of another. This is either in things of a civil nature, or of a spiritual nature. The former is not understood here, for it is none of the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, for subjects to be free from the lawful commands of princes, or children to be free from the laws of their parents, or servants to be free from the commands of masters. There is hardly any book in the New Testament wherein obedience of this nature, in things that are lawful, is not either exemplified as our duty in Christ and the apostles, or urged by very strong arguments. The liberty here, is that freedom from the law, of which the apostle hath been speaking all along this Epistle: from the curse of the moral law, and from the co-action of it; and principally from the ceremonial law contained in ordinances. This is the liberty which Christ hath purchased for us, and in which the apostle willeth all believers to stand fast; not being again entangled with a yoke, which God had taken off from their necks. The apostles, in their synod, Acts 15:10, had called it a yoke, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.