CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Galatians 6:16. As many as walk according to this rule.—Of life: a straight rule to detect crookedness. Upon the Israel of God.—Not the Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual seed of Israel by faith.
Galatians 6:17. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.—The Judaising teachers gloried in the circumcision marks in the flesh of their followers; St. Paul in the scars or brands of suffering for Christ in his own body—the badge of an honourable servitude.
Galatians 6:18. Brethren.—After much rebuke and monition, he bids them farewell with the loving expression of brotherhood as his last parting word, as if Greatheart had meant to say, “After all, my last word is, I love you, I love you.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Galatians 6:16-18
A Dignified and Touching Farewell—
I. Supplicates the best blessings on the truly righteous.—“As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). Jewish discipline and pagan culture are for ever discredited by the new creation of moral virtue. The rule of the renewed inward life supersedes the works of the condemned flesh. On all who seek to regulate their lives according to this rule the apostle invokes the peace and mercy of God. “Peace is followed by the mercy which guards and restores it. Mercy heals backslidings and multiplies pardons. She loves to bind up a broken heart or a rent and distracted Church. For the betrayers of the cross he has stern indignation and alarms of judgment. Towards his children in the faith nothing but peace and mercy remains in his heart. As an evening calm shuts in a tempestuous day, so this blessing concludes the epistle so full of strife and agitation. We catch in it once more the chime of the old benediction, which through all storm and peril ever rings in ears attuned to its note: “Peace shall be upon Israel” (Psalms 125:5).
II. Pleads the brand of suffering for loyalty to Christ as conclusive proof of authority.—“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). The apostle has sufficiently vindicated his authority by facts and arguments, and he would effectually silence all quibbles on this subject by triumphantly pointing to the marks of suffering on his own body received in his Master’s service. These marks he carried wherever he went, like the standard-bearer of an army who proudly wears his scars. No man would have suffered as Paul did unless he was convinced of the importance of the truth he had received and of his supernatural call to declare the same. Suffering is the test of devotion and fidelity. For a picture of the harassed, battered, famished sufferer in the cause of Christ and His gospel read 2 Corinthians 4:8-10; 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. Marks of suffering are more eloquent than words. The highest eminence of moral perfection and influence cannot be reached without much suffering. It is a callous nature indeed that is not touched with the sight of suffering heroically endured. The calm bravery of the early Christians under the most fiendish persecution won many a convert to the truth.
III. Concludes with an affectionate benediction.—“Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Galatians 6:18). Placing the word “brethren” at the end of the sentence, as in the Greek, suggests that, after much rebuke and admonition, the apostle bids his readers farewell with the warm-hearted expression of brotherhood. Notwithstanding fickleness on their part, his love towards them remains unchanged. He prays that the grace of Christ, the distinctive and comprehensive blessing of the new covenant, may continue to rest upon them and work its renewing and sanctifying power upon their spirit, the place where alone it can accomplish its most signal triumphs. Forgiveness for their defection and confidence in their restoration to the highest Christian privileges and enjoyment, are the last thoughts of the anxious apostle. Between them and moral bankruptcy is the prayerful solicitude of a good man.
Lessons.—
1. When argument is exhausted prayer is the last resource.
2. Prayer links divine blessing with human entreaty.
3. Last words have about them a solemn and affecting efficacy.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Galatians 6:16. The True Israel of God—
I. Are those who personally enjoy the inward righteousness that comes through faith.
II. Who live consistently with their spiritual profession and the truth they have embraced.
III. Enjoy the divine benedictions of mercy and peace.
Galatians 6:17. Marks of the Lord Jesus.
I. The word-picture here presented.—
1. The figure—slave-brands, στίγματα.
2. The facts—Paul’s historic experiences (1 Corinthians 4:9-15; 2 Corinthians 11:23-30).
3. The challenge—“Let no man trouble me.”
II. The suggestion the picture makes.—
1. He who follows the Lord Jesus must expect some will try to trouble him.
2. He whose marks are most conspicuous will be troubled the least.
3. He who has marks may take comfort in knowing how much his Master paid for him.
4. He who is owned may remember that his Master owns and recognises the marks also.
5. He that has no marks is either a better or a poorer Christian than the apostle Paul.
6. Satan outwits himself when he gives a believer more marks.
7. A sure day is coming when the marks will be honourable, for the body of humiliation will be like the glorious body of Christ.—Homiletic Monthly.
Marked Men.
I. Ill-marked men.—Think of the marks left on men by sickness, intemperance, impurity, crime, sin of any kind. Evil will always leave its mark.
II. Well-marked men.—
1. Christian marks—the marks of Christ. Paul was the slave of Christ. Some of his marks for Christ were literal, as the weals caused by the rods of the Roman Cæsars, the red lines caused by scourging in Jewish synagogues, the scars caused by repeated stonings. The marks of the Christian are mainly spiritual—marked by trustfulness, gentleness, purity, unselfishness.
2. Distinct marks.—Marked that he may be recognised. If you have the marks of Jesus, confess and obey Him.
3. Deep marks.—Branded on the body, not lines that can easily be removed, but going down to the flesh. Our Christian life is often feeble because it is not deep.
4. Personal marks.—The marks of Jesus of no avail unless you possess them. No man can really trouble you if you bear branded on your body the marks of Jesus.—Local Preacher’s Treasury.
Suffering for Jesus.
I. The scars of the saints for the maintenance of the truth are the sufferings, wounds, and marks of Christ Himself, seeing they are the wounds of the members of that body whereof He is the Head.
II. They convince the persecutors that they are the servants of Christ who suffer thus for righteousness’ sake.
III. If men be constant in their profession—in faith and obedience—the marks of their suffering are banners of victory.—No man ought to be ashamed of them, no more than soldiers of their wounds and scars, but rather in a holy manner to glory of them. Constantine the Great kissed the holes of the eyes of certain bishops who had them put out for their constant profession of the faith of Christ, reverencing the virtue of the Holy Ghost which shined in them.
1. By suffering bodily afflictions we are made conformable to Christ.
2. They teach us to have sympathy with the miseries of our brethren.
3. Our patient enduring of affliction is an example to others and a means of confirming them in the truth.
4. They serve to scour us from the rust of sin.—Perkins.
Galatians 6:18. Concluding Benediction.
I. The apostle invokes the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—
1. Because He is the fountain of it.
2. Because He is the conduit or pipe by which it is conveyed to us.
II. Christ is called our Lord—
1. By right of creation.
2. Of inheritance.
3. Of redemption.
4. Of conquest.
5. Of contract and marriage.
III. Observe the emphasis with which the apostle concludes the epistle.—
1. Opposing Christ, the Lord of the house, to Moses, who was but a servant.
2. The grace of Christ to inherent justice and merit of works.
3. The spirit in which he would have grace to be seated, to the flesh in which the false teachers gloried so much. 4. Brotherly unity one with another—implied in the word “brethren”—to the proud and lordly carriage of the false teachers.—Ibid.