3. Rendering suffering on behalf of the truth meaningless.—“Have ye suffered so many things in vain?” (ver. 4). The Galatians on their conversion were exposed to the fiercest persecution from the Jews and from their own countrymen incited by the Jews. No one could come out of heathen society and espouse the cause of Christ in those days, nor can he do so to-day, without making himself a mark for ridicule and violence, without the rupture of family and public ties, and many painful sacrifices. But if the truth may be so easily abandoned, all early struggles against opposition and all the educative influence and promised reward of suffering must go for nothing. It is disappointing and disastrous when a youthful zeal for religion degenerates in maturer life into apathy and worldliness, when the great principles of right and liberty, for which our fathers fought and suffered, are treated by their descendants with supine indifference.
III. Creates misconceptions as to the Divine method of ministering spiritual blessing.—“He that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (ver. 5). One of the most subtle effects of error is to suspend the mind in a state of hesitation and doubt. It is a dangerous mood. Confidence in the truth is shaken, and for the moment the soul has nothing stable on which to lay hold. It is the opportunity for the enemy, and damage is done which even a subsequent return to the truth does not wholly efface. Paul saw the peril of his converts, and he suggests this test—the Spirit of God had put His seal on the apostle’s preaching and on the faith of his hearers. Did any such manifestation accompany the preaching of the legalists? He takes his stand on the indubitable evidence of the work of the Spirit. It is the only safe ground for the champion of experimental Christianity (1 Cor. ii. 14, 15).
Lessons.—1. Every error is the distortion of some truth. 2. The cross is the central truth of Christianity. 3. The highest truths are spiritually discerned.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Ver. 1. Faithful Reproof.—1. The minister when he is called to insist upon the clearing up of truth, whether positively by showing what is revealed in Scripture or controversially by refuting errors, should mix his discourse with exhortation and reproof, to excite and quicken the affections of his hearers. 2. False teachers, who by fair words deceive the simple, are spiritual sorcerers, and error is spiritual witchcraft. As sorcerers by deluding the senses make people apprehend that they see what they see not, so false teachers, by casting a mist of seeming reason before the understanding, delude it, and make the deluded person to believe that to be truth which is not. 3. Though Christ and His sufferings are to be vividly represented and pictured by the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel, yet it does not follow they are to be artificially painted with colours on stone or timber for religious use. The graven image is a teacher of lies (Hab. ii. 18).—Fergusson.
The Folly of Disobedience.
I. We are wise in matters of the world, but in matters concerning the kingdom of heaven the most of us are fools, besotted and bewitched with worldly cares and pleasures, without sense in matters of religion; like a piece of wax without form, fit to take the form and print of any religion.
II. The truth here mentioned is the heavenly doctrine of the Gospel, so called because it is absolute truth without error, and because it is a most worthy truth—the truth according to godliness.
III. The office of the minister is to set forth Christ crucified.—1. The ministry of the Word must be plain, perspicuous, and evident, as if the doctrine were pictured and painted out before the eyes of men. 2. It must be powerful and lively in operation, and as it were crucifying Christ within us and causing us to feel the virtue of His passion. The Word preached must pierce into the heart like a two-edged sword. 3. The effectual and powerful preaching of the Word stands in three things: (1) True and proper interpretation of the Scripture. (2) Savoury and wholesome doctrine gathered out of the Scriptures truly expounded. (3) The application of the said doctrine, either to the information of the judgment or the reformation of the life.
IV. The duty of all believers is to behold Christ crucified.—And we must behold Him by the eye of faith, which makes us both see Him and feel Him, as it were, crucified in us. 1. By beholding Christ crucified we see our misery and wickedness. 2. This sight brings us true and lively comfort. 3. This sight of Christ makes a wonderful change in us. The chameleon takes the colours of the things it sees and that are near to it; and the believing heart takes to it the disposition and mind that was in Christ—Perkins.