II. Personal apologia: an autobiographical retrospect.—The apostle’s teaching derived from God and not man, as proved by the circumstances of: 1. His education (ch. i. 13, 14). 2. His conversion (ch. i. 15–17). 3. His intercourse with the other apostles (ch. i. 18–24, ii. 1–10). 4. His conduct in the controversy with Peter at Antioch (ch. ii. 11–14). The subject of which controversy was the supersession of the law by Christ (ch. ii. 15–21).
III. Dogmatic apologia: inferiority of Judaism, or Legal Christianity, to the doctrine of faith.—1. The Galatians bewitched into retrogression from a spiritual system into a carnal system (ch. iii. 1–5). 2. Abraham himself a witness to the efficacy of faith (ch. iii. 6–9). 3. Faith in Christ alone removes the curse which the law entails (ch. iii. 10–14). 4. The validity of the promise unaffected by the law (ch. iii. 15–18). 5. Special pædagogic function of the law (iii. 19–29). 6. The law a state of tutelage (ch. iv. 1–7). 7. Meanness and barrenness of mere ritualism (ch. iv. 8–11). 8. The past zeal of the Galatians contrasted with their present coldness (ch. iv. 12–20). 9. The allegory of Isaac and Ishmael (ch. iv. 21–31).
IV. Hortatory application of the foregoing.—1. Christian liberty excludes Judaism (ch. v. 1–6). 2. The Judaising intruders (ch. v. 7–12). 3. Liberty not licence, but love (ch. v. 13–15). 4. The works of the flesh and of the Spirit (ch. v. 16–26). 5. The duty of sympathy (ch. vi. 1–5). 6. The duty of liberality (ch. vi. 6–10).
V. Autograph conclusion.—1. The Judaisers’ motive (ch. vi. 12, 13). 2. The apostle’s motive (ch. vi. 14, 15). 3. His parting benediction and claim to be freed from further annoyance (ch. vi. 16–18). (Findlay and Sanday.)
CHAPTER I.
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
Ver. 1. Paul, an apostle.—He puts his own name and apostleship prominent, because his apostolic commission needs to be vindicated against deniers of it. Not of, or from, men, but by, or from, Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Divine source of his apostleship is emphatically stated, as also the infallible authority for the Gospel he taught.
Ver. 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed.—So quickly removed; not so soon after your conversion, or soon after I left you, but so soon after the temptation came; so readily and with such little persuasion (cf. ch. v. 7–9). It is the fickleness of the Galatians the apostle deplores. An early backsliding, such as the contrary view assumes, would not have been matter of so great wonder as if it had taken place later.
Vers. 8, 9. Any other gospel.—The apostle is here asserting the oneness, the integrity of his Gospel. It will not brook a rival. It will not suffer any foreign admixture. Let him be accursed.—Devoted to the punishment his audacity merits. In its spiritual application the word denotes the state of one who is alienated from God by sin.
Ver. 11. Not after man.—Not according to man; not influenced by mere human considerations, as it would be if it were of human origin.