I. We must do good with that only which is our own.—We may not cut a large and liberal shive off another man’s loaf; we may not steal from one to give to another, or deal unjustly with some that we may be merciful to others.
II. We must do good with cheerfulness and alacrity.—What more free than gift; therefore we may not play the hucksters in doing good, for that blemishes the excellency of the gift.
III. We must so do good as that we do not disable ourselves for ever doing good.—So begin to do good as that we may continue.
IV. We must do all the good we can within the compass of our calling and hinder all the evil.
V. We must do good to all.—1. From the grounds of love and beneficence. 2. God is good and bountiful to all. 3. Do good to others as we would they should do to us. 4. Our profession and the reward we look for require us to do this.
VI. There is no possibility of doing good to others after this life.—Perkins.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 11–13.
Apostolic Exposure of False Teachers.
I. The apostle gives special emphasis to his warning by concluding his epistle in his own handwriting.—“Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand” (ver. 11). The apostle usually dictated his epistle to an amanuensis, except the concluding salutation, which he wrote himself by way of authentication. At this point of the epistle to the Galatians he appears to have taken the pen from the hand of the amanuensis, and with his own hand written the concluding sentences in clear, bold characters, thus giving the utmost possible emphasis and solemnity to his words. They are a postscript, or epilogue, to the epistle, rehearsing with incisive brevity the burden of all that it was in the apostle’s heart to say to these troubled and shaken Galatians. He wishes to reimpress upon his emotional readers the warnings he had already expressed against the false teachers, to assure them of his intense regard for their welfare, and to lay additional stress upon the peril of their hesitating attitude. The more apparent and imminent the danger, the louder and more earnest is the warning expressed.
II. It is shown that the policy of the false teachers was to avoid the suffering connected with the ignominy of the cross of Christ.—“They constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.” (ver. 12). The false teachers were really cowards, though this accusation they would be the first indignantly to resent. They wanted to mix up the old faith with the new, to entangle the new Christian converts with Mosaic observances. If they succeeded in persuading the Gentile Christians to be circumcised, they would propitiate the anger of their Israelite kindred, and dispose them to regard the new doctrine more favourably. They would, with heartless recklessness, rob the believer of all his privileges in Christ in order to make a shield for themselves against the enmity of their kinsmen. Cowards at heart, they were more afraid of persecution than eager to know and propagate the truth. If a man will be a Christian, he cannot avoid the cross; and to attempt to avoid it will not release from suffering. It is a craven fear indeed that refuses to espouse the truth because it may bring pain. “No servant of Christ,” says Augustine, “is without affliction. If you expect to be free from persecution, you have not yet so much as begun to be a Christian.”