Galatians 5:11–21

Since he speaks of a stumbling block here, he is reminding them that the principal reason for the Jews' taking offense at Christ was that they often saw him ignoring and disdaining those ceremonial observances which they believed themselves to have for their very salvation. What he says here, then, is as much as to say: "It was therefore in vain that the Jews in their indignation crucified Christ when he disdained these commandments. Now they still try to enjoin such things on those for whom he was crucified."

(Verse 11.) But if I still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished (or, as it is better expressed in Greek, ceased). We read in the Acts of the Apostles, and the apostle Paul himself frequently mentions in his Epistles, that he endured frequent persecutions from the Jews because he taught that those who believed in Christ from the Gentiles should not be circumcised. Therefore, concerning those mentioned above, he says: Whoever disturbs you will bear judgment, whoever he may be, in order to deceive the Galatians. They also added this: Not only Peter, James, John, and the other apostles in Judea observe circumcision and other precepts of the Law, but even Paul himself, who taught you differently than the truth of the matter, circumcised Timothy and often became a Jew among the Jews, compelled by the truth. Wanting now to remove the opinion about the minds of the Galatians, Paul says: But I, brothers, if I preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In saying this, all the hatred of the Jews is against me, and the madness with which they rage against me is for no other reason than that I teach that the Gentiles should not be circumcised and that they should not keep the burdens of the law, which are now superfluous and abolished. However, if I am persecuted, it is evident that I am not preaching circumcision, which I destroy. For I suffer not so much persecution from the Jews because I preach the crucified, and say that Jesus is the Christ, whom the Law and the Prophets foretold, as because I teach that the Law is complete. But that the cross is a stumbling-block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, our Lord Himself shows, Who is called a stone of offense and a rock of scandal; for no other reason, I think, than because when the preaching has advanced with full sails to the hearers, as soon as it comes to the cross, it strikes against it and can by no means proceed further in an unimpeded course. But this Cross, which is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, is to us who believe, power and wisdom. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), so that what was called foolishness by the world might become wiser than the wisdom of men in the sight of God. And what was considered weakness and a stumbling block, became stronger than the power of men in the sight of God. But even though, he says, the scandal of Christ's Cross remains, I will endure persecution, which I would not endure if the scandal did not remain. It is in vain, indeed, that some boast of preaching circumcision, which I endure persecution for opposing.

Observe how clearly he exonerates himself from the charge, that in every place he judaized and played the hypocrite in his preaching. Of this he calls them as witnesses; for ye know, he says, that my command to abandon the Law was made the pretext for persecuting me. "If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? for this is the only charge which they of the Jewish descent have to bring against me. Had I permitted them to receive the Faith, still retaining the customs of their fathers, neither believers nor unbelievers would have laid snares for me, seeing that none of their own usages were disturbed. What then! did he not preach circumcision? did he not circumcise Timothy? Truly he did. How then can he say, "I preach it not?" Here observe his accuracy; he says not, "I do not perform circumcision," but, "I preach it not," that is, I do not bid men so to believe. Do not therefore consider it any confirmation of your doctrine, for though I circumcised, I did not preach circumcision.

That is, if this which ye assert be true, the obstacle, the hindrance, is removed; for not even the Cross was so great an offence to the Jews, as the doctrine that their father's customs ought not to be obeyed. When they brought Stephen before the council, they said not that this man adores the Crucified, but that he speaks "against this holy place and the Law." (Acts vi: 13.) And it was of this they accused Jesus, that He broke the Law. Wherefore Paul says, If Circumcision be conceded, the strife you are involved in is appeased; hereafter no enmity to the Cross and our preaching remains. But why do they bring this charge against us, while waiting day after day to murder us? it is because I brought an uncircumcised man into the Temple (Acts xxi: 29.) that they fell upon me. Am I then, he says, so senseless, after giving up the point of Circumcision, vainly and idly to expose myself to such injuries, and to place such a stumbling-block before the Cross? For ye observe, that they attack us for nothing with such vehemence as about Circumcision. Am I then so senseless as to suffer affliction for nothing at all, and to give offence to others? He calls it the offence of the Cross, because it was enjoined by the doctrine of the Cross; and it was this which principally offended the Jews, and hindered their reception of the Cross, namely, the command to abandon the usages of their fathers.

"Now, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision." Since they were insulting him they said, "He is a hypocrite," but elsewhere he does not say that he is persecuted by the Jews, and you yourselves know it. Therefore if I preach circumcision, it is unnecessary for me to be persecuted. What then? Did he not circumcise Timothy? But this we say was done according to a practical convenience, in order that he might be well received by the Jews. See, however, he did not say, If I wrought circumcision, but, if I am still preaching. For do not, Paul says, treat what was done for practical convenience as a doctrinal rule.

"Then the offense of the cross has been abolished." Indeed, he says, if one must be circumcised, and I proclaim this as well, the Jews' combative opposition to the cross and their fight against it is ended, and they no longer struggle with it. For now they detest the cross because circumcision and the law are being undone by it.

And, of course, it had been meet that the mystery of the passion itself should be figuratively set forth in predictions; and the more incredible (that mystery), the more likely to be "a stumbling-stone," if it had been nakedly predicted; and the more magnificent, the more to be adumbrated, that the difficulty of its intelligence might seek (help from) the grace of God.

Since the slanderers were saying that he is a hypocrite and preaches circumcision in one place but not in another, he says: you are witnesses that the Jews persecute me. If I preach circumcision, then why do others persecute me? Clearly, they persecute me for violating their ancestral ordinances. But if I preach circumcision and uphold the ancestral ordinances, why then do they persecute me? But what of it, they say? Did you not circumcise Timothy? Yes, but that was with a special purpose. And besides, it is one thing to circumcise, and another to preach circumcision. For he who preaches teaches that this must always be done, as something unconditionally good, whereas he who does something for special purposes does it not because it is unconditionally good, but because it is useful in the given case.

If I were preaching circumcision, there would be no scandal which the cross produces in the Jews. And they are scandalized by the preaching of the cross and do not accept it for no other reason than because it abolishes circumcision and the law. Likewise, if I were preaching circumcision, the enmity of the Jews toward the cross and the scandal which it arouses in them would cease and disappear.

Then when he says, "And I brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?", he removes the obstacle on his part. First, he presents his defense; Secondly, he rebukes his slanderers (v. 12). He refutes the false charge against him. First, a charge that pertains to himself alone; Secondly, one that pertains to all (v. 11).

With respect to the first, it should be noted that the false brethren, when the Galatians excused themselves from observing the legal ceremonies because they had been so taught by the Apostle, declared that the Apostle misled them and that he persuaded them to this in order to lord it over them. As confirmation of this they alleged that when he preached in Judea, Paul taught that the legal ceremonies should be observed. But the Apostle clears himself of this, when he says, "And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution" from the Jews? "We are persecuted and we suffer it" (1 Cor 4:12). For the Jews persecuted Paul precisely because he taught that the legal ceremonies should not be observed. Indeed in Acts (21:21) James says to Paul: "They have heard of thee that thou teachest those Jews who are among the Gentiles to depart from Moses; saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor walk according to custom." It is plain, therefore, that their charge is not true; otherwise, he would not have suffered their persecutions.

False, too, is that which they impute to me because of something generally held by others; because if I preach circumcision, "Then is the scandal of the cross made void." For not only I but all the apostles "Preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block and unto the Gentiles, foolishness," as is said in 1 Corinthians (1:23). And the main reason why they are scandalized is because we preach that through the Cross of Christ the legal ceremonies are made void. Therefore, if I preach circumcision, the stumbling-block is removed, i.e., there will no longer be a stumbling-block for the Jews from the Cross. For they would endure it patiently; indeed, they would welcome it, if along with the Cross we preached the obligation to observe the legal ceremonies. Or, according to Augustine (on this passage) "the scandal of the cross is made void," i.e., the Cross is made void; which is a scandal. As if to say: The Cross has lost its effect and its power: "If justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain" (2:21). Now the Apostle specifically says, the scandal of the cross is made void, to denote that the reason the Jews killed Christ was because He did not observe the legal ceremonies and taught that they were not to be observed: "This man is not of God who keepeth not the sabbath" (Jn 9:16).

[The point is] that those who had deprived the Galatians of the grace of God should themselves be cut off from the grace of God.

It is asked how Paul, a disciple of him who said, "Bless those who curse you," … now curses those who were disturbing the churches of Galatia.… The words that he speaks are prompted not so much by anger against his opponents as by affection for the churches of God.… Nor is it any wonder that the apostle, as a man still enclosed in a frail vessel and seeing the law in his own body taking him captive and leading him into the law of sin, should have spoken like this once, when we observe such lapses to be frequent in holy people.

(Verse 12.) I wish that those who trouble you may be cut off. It is asked how Paul, his disciple, said: Bless those who curse you. And he himself speaking: Bless and do not curse (Rom. XII, 14). And in another place: Neither shall the revilers possess the kingdom of God (I Cor. XV): now if he has cursed them, who trouble the Galatian churches, and with a wishful prayer he has cursed: I wish that those who trouble you may be cut off. For the passion of castration is so detestable that both the one who inflicts it against someone's will is punished by the public laws, and the one who castrates himself is considered infamous. For as they say, this is true: Christ lives in me (II Cor. XIII, 3); and this: Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? Surely the voice of curse cannot be understood of him who says: Learn from me, for I am humble, and meek, and gentle in heart (Matth. XI, 29). And it is believed to be more of a Jewish fury, and a certain unrestrained madness that could not be restrained, than to have imitated him who, like a lamb before his shearer, did not open his mouth, and did not curse those who cursed him (Isaiah 53). However, he delivered himself to death as one condemned. But to those who will defend Paul, they will say this: the words he spoke were not so much words of fury against his adversaries, but of love for the Churches of God. For he saw indeed the whole province, which he himself had led through his own blood and dangers from idolatry to the faith of Christ, suddenly troubled by a sudden persuasion and apostolic grief, and as a grieving father, he could not hold himself: he changed his voice and grew angry with those whom he had charmed, so that he might at least retain them by reproach whom he could not retain by kindness. And no wonder if the Apostle, as a man and still enclosed in a frail vessel, seeing another law captivating him in his body and leading him in the law of sin, spoke this once, in which we frequently see holy men falling. But this can also be said (although it may seem superfluous to some) that Paul did not so much curse them as he prayed for them, that they may lose those parts of their body through which they were compelled to sin. And as it is said in the Gospel: it is better for someone to enter the kingdom of heaven without an eye, without a hand, without a foot, or any other part of the body, than to go into hell completely (Matthew XV): so now he wishes for them to lose one part of their body rather than be perpetually damned by the fire within the entire body. We have shown how this argument can be answered when it is made by the pagans. Now let's bring it forth against the heretics, namely Marcion, and Valentinus, and all those who attack the Old Testament. We must show how those who criticize the Creator as bloodthirsty, a stern warrior, and a mere judge can reconcile this with the Apostle of the good God. And certainly, I think there is no sentence in the Old Law as cruel, as bloody, as the one that says, 'May those who disturb you be cut off.' They cannot say that the Apostle prayed for the enemies of Christ, who were disturbing his Churches. Nor can it be called an expression of love, because it is evident from the weight of the words themselves that it is full of arrogance and indignation. Therefore, whatever excuses they may bring forward on behalf of the Apostle, we will not defend this according to the Old Law.

Observe how bitterly he speaks here against their deceivers. At the outset he directed his charge against those who were deceived, and called them foolish, once and again. Now, having sufficiently corrected and instructed them, he turns to their deceivers. And you should remark his wisdom in the manner in which he admonishes and chastens the former as his own children, and as capable of receiving correction, but their deceivers he cuts off, as aliens and incurably depraved. And this he does, partly, when he says, "he shall bear his judgment whosoever he be;" partly when he utters the imprecation against them, "I would that they which unsettle you would even cut themselves off." And he says well "that unsettle you." For they had compelled them to abandon their own fatherland, their liberty, and their heavenly kindred, and to seek an alien and foreign one; they had cast them out of Jerusalem which is above and free, and compelled them to wander forth as captives and emigrants. On this account he curses them; and his meaning is as follows, For them I have no concern, "A man that is heretical after the first and second admonition refuse." (Tit. iii: 10) If they will, let them not only be circumcised, but mutilated. Where then are those who dare to mutilate themselves; seeing that they draw down the Apostolic curse, and accuse the workmanship of God, and take part with the Manichees? For the latter call the body a treacherous thing, and from the evil principle; and the former by their acts give countenance to these wretched doctrines, cutting off the member as being hostile and treacherous. Ought they not much rather to put out the eyes, for it is through the eyes that desire enters the soul? But in truth neither the eye nor any other part of us is to blame, but the depraved will only. But if you will not allow this, why do you not mutilate the tongue for blasphemy, the hands for rapine, the feet for their evil courses, in short, the whole body? For the ear enchanted by the sound of a flute hath often enervated the soul; and the perception of a sweet perfume by the nostrils hath bewitched the mind, and made it frantic for pleasure. Yet this would be extreme wickedness and satanic madness. The evil spirit, ever delighting in slaughter, hath seduced them to crush the instrument, as if its Maker had erred, whereas it was only necessary to correct the unruly passion of the soul. How then does it happen, one may say, that when the body is pampered, lust is inflamed? Observe here too that it is the sin of the soul, for to pamper the flesh is not an act of the flesh but of the soul, for if the soul choose to mortify it, it would possess absolute power over it. But what you do is just the same as if one seeing a man lighting a fire, and heaping on fuel, and setting fire to a house, were to blame the fire, instead of him who kindled it, because it had caught this heap of fuel, and risen to a great height. Yet the blame would attach not to the fire but to the one who kindled it; for it was given for the purpose of dressing food, affording light, and other like ministries, not for burning houses. In like manner desire is implanted for the rearing of families and the ensuring of life, not for adultery, or fornication, or lasciviousness; that a man may become a father, not an adulterer; a lawful husband, not a seducer; leaving heirs after him, not doing damage to another man's. For adultery arises not from nature, but from wantonness against nature, which prescribes the use not the misuse. These remarks I have not made at random, but as a prelude to a dispute, as skirmishing against those who assert that the workmanship of God is evil, and who neglecting the sloth of the soul, madly inveigh against the body, and traduce our flesh, whereof Paul afterwards discourses, accusing not the flesh, but devilish thoughts.

"I wish those who are unsettling you." Concerning you I care; but concerning those who have raised themselves against you, as though suffering from incurable diseases, no longer. Therefore let them not only be circumcised, but would that they had also cut themselves off.

"would even." Would that they had also utterly cut themselves off, those who offer you the deceit of circumcision.

How should he not, when he himself experiences the same? "I would," says he, "that they were even cut off which trouble you." In perfect agreement with reason was that indignation which resulted from his desire to maintain discipline and order.

"When I was a child," he says, "as a child I spake, as a child I understood; but when I became a man, those (things) which had been the child's I abandoned: " so truly did he turn away from his early opinions: nor did he sin by becoming an emulator not of ancestral but of Christian traditions, wishing even the precision of them who advised the retention of circumcision. And would that the same fate might befall those, too, who obtruncate the pure and true integrity of the flesh; amputating not the extremest superficies, but the inmost image of modesty itself, while they promise pardon to adulterers and fornicators, in the teeth of the primary discipline of the Christian Name; a discipline to which heathendom itself bears such emphatic witness, that it strives to punish that discipline in the persons of our females rather by defilements of the flesh than tortures; wishing to wrest from them that which they hold dearer than life! But now this glory is being extinguished, and that by means of those who ought with all the more constancy to refuse concession of any pardon to defilements of this kind, that they make the fear of succumbing to adultery and fornication their reason for marrying as often as they please-since "better it is to marry than to burn.

Those who had been led astray he called at first foolish and rebuked them no more than children, but the deceivers themselves, as incurably sick, he curses and says: oh, if only they would not merely circumcise themselves, but cut up their whole body entirely! And notice, he called them "those who unsettle you" (in Slavonic "those who pervert," in Greek "those who compel you to leave your homeland and freedom"), leading them into captivity. Because they truly were depriving them of freedom and, leading them away from the heavenly Jerusalem, were settling them like exiles under the law and the pettiness of Judaism. Note also concerning those who castrate themselves, that they bring upon themselves the curse of the apostle.

Then he rebukes the false brethren who had slandered him, saying, "I would they were even cut off who trouble you". As if to say: They trouble you on one matter, namely, they want you to be circumcised; but I would that they be not only circumcised but wholly emasculated.

But this is contrary to Romans (12:14): "Bless, and curse not." To this there are two responses: first, that the Apostle was not calling down an evil on them but rather a blessing; because he was wishing them to be emasculated spiritually, i.e., abolish the legal ceremonies, that they might preserve spiritual chastity: "There are eunuchs who have made themselves such for the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:12). The second is that he is wishing them the impotence that eunuchs have, so that they might not procreate. Hence he says: "I would they were even cut off who trouble you", i.e., that they lose the power of engendering among you and others. And this deservedly, because they engender sons unto error and subject them to the bondage of the Law: "Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts" (Hos. 9:14).

From this point Paul begins to discuss those works of the law which … no one denies also pertain to the new covenant, but with another aim, appropriate to those who perform good works "in freedom." These acts aim for the rewards of a love that hopes for eternal things and looks forward in faith. This is quite unlike the Jews, who were forced to fulfill these commandments from fear, and not that righteous fear which endures to eternity but one that made them fear for the present life. The result: they fulfill certain works of the law which consist in ceremonies but are completely unable to fulfill those that consist in good conduct. For nothing fulfills these except love.… And so the apostle now says, "You are called into freedom, brethren, but on condition that you do not let your freedom be an opportunity for the sin nature. Do not suppose, upon hearing the word freedom, that you can sin with impunity."

He who indulges his pleasures gratifies his body; but he who is controlled liberates from its passions his soul which is master of the body. And if they tell us that we are called to freedom, only let us not use our freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, as the apostle says.

(V. 13.) For you were called to freedom, brothers: only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh (understood); because that is not found in Greek, the Latin translator added it. This passage is very obscure, so it was decided to transfer it word for word from the tenth book of the Stromata. Not that each part cannot be explained in its own place and meaning; but in order to separate it from the previous matter and make it one difficult body: and if they are understood in a way that is consistent, they seem to contradict each other and be full of abruptness. Therefore, these are the words of Origen: 'The place is difficult: and so it seems to us it must be discussed. The book is one that follows a higher meaning and the truth, and it despises the preceding types and figures and the letter: therefore, one should not look down upon the minor matters and give an opportunity to those who cannot perceive things in a more sublime manner, to completely despair of themselves. For though they may be weak and be called carnal in comparison to the spirit, they are still of Christ's flesh.' For if you understand the mystery of charity serving the weaker ones, do something for the weak: lest your brother perish in his own knowledge, for whom Christ died. Therefore, pay careful attention to whether this sense is woven into the following. You, brothers, have been called to freedom: perhaps because not everyone was able to receive the call to freedom. For this reason, you now hear: Only do not use freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. For through love it is fitting to serve the lesser to the greater: because whoever wants to be greater, will be the servant of all (Matthew XX; Mark X). Therefore, let not the spiritual person wound the flesh of Christ, nor give them occasion to bite and devour each other. Therefore, the one who walks in the Spirit and follows the words of the Scriptures, should not fulfill the desires of their flesh. But if we understand simply what is said: Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, as many believe, against the argument and hypothesis of the whole Epistle, Paul suddenly bursts forth into this: For if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. And since up until now some part of his discourse has cohered, if we once again follow a simple understanding, he suddenly transfers us to disorderly precepts, speaking about flesh and spirit, that is: The works of the flesh are obvious and those [works] too. And on the contrary: But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, and the rest. But neither should we despair of consistency in these [teachings]; for the history of divine books contains the works of the flesh, not very helpful to those who understand it in this way, as it is written. For who will not be taught to serve luxury, and to regard fornication as nothing: when he reads that Judah went to a prostitute (Gen. 28); and that the patriarchs had many wives together? How can he not be provoked to idolatry, who believes that the blood of bulls and the other Levitical sacrifices indicate no more than what is written? And that enmities, as Scripture openly declares, are taught, and from this passage it is proved: O daughter of Babylon, miserable, blessed is he who will repay you for what you have done to us. Blessed is he who holds and dashes your little ones against the rock (Ps. CXXXVI, 8, 9). And also: In the morning I would slay all the sinners of the earth (Ps. C, 8), and similar things to these: namely, about quarrels, envy, anger, fights, and dissensions. Indeed, historical examples more often provoke us rather than prevent us from such things (if we don't understand anything deeper). Many consider that heresies have arisen more from a carnal understanding of Scripture rather than from the work of our flesh. Moreover, we learn about envy and drunkenness through the letter of the Law. Noah becomes drunk after the flood, and the patriarchs feast with Joseph in Egypt (Gen. IX and XLIII). But even banquets are written about in the book of the Kings; David dances and plays the tambourines before the Ark of the Covenant of God (1 Kings VI), and similar things. It is asked how the simple divine discourse of Scripture, which is called flesh, incites us to witchcraft and dark arts, unless we transcend to the same spirit of Scripture. I think this means that Daniel, along with three boys, were found to be wiser than the magicians, enchanters, and astrologers of Babylon and the Chaldeans. Moses was also educated in all the wisdom and knowledge of the Egyptians. Therefore, it is the cause of many evils if someone remains in the flesh of Scripture. Those who do so will not inherit the kingdom of God. Let us therefore seek the spirit and fruits of Scripture, which are not said to be hidden. For indeed, with much labor and sweat, and with worthy devotion, the fruits of the spirit are found in the Scriptures. Where I think that Paul spoke carefully and cautiously about the senses of Scripture: But the works of the flesh are manifest (Galatians 5:19). But he did not put the spiritual ones there as he did the carnal ones; the fruit of the spirit is clear: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and the rest (ibid., 22). Therefore, if we set aside the types and move on to the truth of Scripture and the spirit, immediately the first love is revealed to us, and as we progress to joy, we reach peace, through which we obtain patience. But who is not educated in compassion and goodness, when even those things which are considered sad by some, such as punishments, battles, the destruction of nations, and threats to the people through the prophets, are understood to be more remedies than punishments? For the Lord will not be angry forever. (Isaiah 57) Therefore, when these things have been made clear to us, we will have a more reasonable faith, and temperance will accompany corrected morals, followed by self-control and chastity: and after all these things, the Law will begin to be for us. So far to Origins. To which we can add, that we may say that those called from legal servitude to the liberty of the Gospel (of whom it is said above: Stand, and do not again be burdened with the yoke of servitude) are also now warned, that while embracing the light yoke of Christ and the pleasant precepts of the Gospel, they by no means think it is allowed for them to use this very liberty of living as an opportunity for the flesh: that is, to live according to the flesh, to be circumcised according to the flesh; but rather to walk according to the Spirit, to be circumcised in spirit, and, aiming at higher things of the Spirit, to abandon the humbleness of the letter. But it can also be understood in another way. Someone may ask: If I have ceased to be under the Law, and have been called to freedom from slavery, then I ought to live in a manner that is fitting for freedom, not being bound by any commandments, but rather doing whatever pleases and is suggested by one's own will, following it. To this, the Apostle responded: indeed we have been called to freedom in the Spirit, but in such a way that this freedom does not serve the flesh. Let us not think that everything is allowed to us, everything is expedient for us: on the contrary, let us serve one another through love, now that we have become free, having ceased to be servants of the Law, so that the multifarious precepts of the Law may be summed up in one chapter of love.

Henceforward he appears to digress into a moral discourse, but in a new manner, which does not occur in any other of his Epistles. For all of them are divided into two parts, and in the first he discusses doctrine, in the last the rule of life, but here, after having entered upon the moral discourse, he again unites with it the doctrinal part. For this passage has reference to doctrine in the controversy with the Manichees. What is the meaning of, "Use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh?" Christ hath delivered us, he says, from the yoke of bondage, He hath left us free to act as we will, not that we may use our liberty for evil, but that we may have ground for receiving a higher reward, advancing to a higher philosophy. Lest any one should suspect, from his calling the Law over and over again a yoke of bondage, and a bringing on of the curse, that his object in enjoining an abandonment of the Law, was that one might live lawlessly, he corrects this notion, and states his object to be, not that our course of life might be lawless, but that our philosophy might surpass the Law. For the bonds of the Law are broken, and I say this not that our standard may be lowered, but that it may be exalted. For both he who commits fornication, and he who leads a virgin life, pass the bounds of the Law, but not in the same direction; the one is led away to the worse, the other is elevated to the better; the one transgresses the Law, the other transcends it. Thus Paul says that Christ hath removed the yoke from you, not that ye may prance and kick, but that though without the yoke ye may proceed at a well-measured pace. And next he shows the mode whereby this may be readily effected; and what is this mode? ...

Here again he hints that strife and party-spirit, love of rule and presumptousness, had been the causes of their error, for the desire of rule is the mother of heresies. By saying, "Be servants one to another," he shows that the evil had arisen from this presumptuous and arrogant spirit, and therefore he applies a corresponding remedy. As your divisions arose from your desire to domineer over each other, "serve one another;" thus will ye be reconciled again. However, he does not openly express their fault, but he openly tells them its corrective, that through this they may become aware of that; as if one were not to tell an immodest person of his immodesty, but were continually to exhort him to chastity. He that loves his neighbor as he ought, declines not to be servant to him more humbly than any servant. As fire, brought into contact with wax, easily softens it, so does the warmth of love dissolve all arrogance and presumption more powerfully than fire. Wherefore he says not, "love one another," merely, but, "be servants one to another," thus signifying the intensity of the affection. When the yoke of the Law was taken off them that they might not caper off and away another was laid on, that of love, stronger than the former, yet far lighter and pleasanter; and, to point out the way to obey it, ...

"For you were called to freedom." For we are no longer under the law but serve in freedom.

"as an opportunity for the flesh." Since he calls freedom both upward and downward, and that we have been freed through Christ from the law, he feared they might assume that the yoke of the law had been loosened and that from this time it is permissible to do whatever we wish. This is therefore corrected and he says: Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, to serve its desires and passions.

"but through love." Since he removed the yoke of the law, he imposes another, that of love, both lighter and stronger than that. And the phrase, "serve," indicates the command essential in love. And rightly so the "one another." For they had been infected with love of glory, those who stirred up opposition to circumcision.

One who is free and follows the spirit and the truth in the higher sense may look beyond the mere letter of Scripture with its types and precursors. But he should not therefore despise the less mature nor give some cause to lose hope to those who cannot grasp the deeper sense. For even if they are weak and fleshly in comparison with those who are spiritual, they remain the body of Christ.

For the blessed Apostle also warns thee against lusting with thoughts of freedom, whilst thou art still a slave, saying, "Ye have been called unto freedom, my brethren;" but let not your freedom be for the eating of flesh, and if thou art still a slave, let not only the laws which are external direct thee, but also the laws of thy discretion. For the external laws are kept for many reasons, for appearance, for fear, for praise, for the love of honour, for imagination, for the growth of other passions, that a man may humble his enemies, and that he may shew unto others who are slack the comparison of his wickedness, and similarly there are many other reasons for the keeping of the external law; but let the law of thy discretion be unto thee, so that if thou lustest after anything thou must restrain thyself from making use thereof.

Nay, rather banish quite away from your "free" head all this slavery of ornamentation.

He now shifts to ethical exhortation and commends the practice of virtue. "For it was not in order to sin without fear," he says, "that we have been freed from the law." From this it is clear that in rejecting the superfluous parts of the ceremonial law he is commending the observance of the moral law and, above all, love.

We were not called by Christ, he says, in order to become slaves of the law, but to be freed from the yoke of servitude under the law. Then, lest anyone think that since we are free, we may do whatever we wish, he corrects this and says: let not our freedom be an occasion for indulging the flesh, that is, fleshly desires. For we were not freed from the yoke of the law in order to commit transgressions, but so that even without the yoke we might walk in good order, as is fitting for those who have received a good upbringing. And we did not receive freedom in order to break the law, but to surpass even the law.

Having removed the yoke of the law, he imposes another yoke, the yoke of love, both lighter and at the same time stronger than the former. He also hints that these deceivers appeared among them out of a desire for power, for love of power is the mother of heresies. Therefore, since love of authority produced division among you, "through love serve one another," and by the word "serve" he denotes love that is intense and strong. Then turning to moral instructions, he shows the way by which one can eliminate enslavement to fleshly desires.

Having proposed an example of standing, and eliminated an obstacle thereto, he now establishes its mode. First, he establishes the mode of standing; Secondly, he gives an explanation (v. 14). As to the first he does three things: First, he sets down the condition of a state; Secondly, he describes its abuse; Thirdly, he asserts its mode (v. 13).

The condition of standing is liberty. For the condition of any given state pertains either to liberty or to bondage; but the state of faith in Christ, to which the Apostle urges them, pertains to liberty and is liberty itself. Hence he says: "For you, brethren, have been called unto liberty". As if to say: They are indeed troubling you; for they are drawing you from what is better to what is worse, because you have been called by God unto the liberty of grace: "You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons" (Rom 8:15); "We are not the children of the bondwoman but of the free" (4:31). You, I say, who are free in Christ, they want to lead into bondage. But a state is being misused if it declines and if liberty of the spirit is perverted into slavery of the flesh. Now the Galatians were free of the Law; but lest they suppose this to be a license to commit sins forbidden by the Law, the Apostle touches on abuse of liberty, saying, "Only make not liberty an occasion to the flesh." As if to say: You are free, but not so as to misuse your liberty by supposing that you may sin with impunity: "But take heed, lest perhaps this your liberty become a stumbling-block to the weak" (1 Cor 8:9).

Now the mode of standing is through charity; hence he says: "but by charity of the spirit serve one another." In fact the whole state consists in charity, without which a man is nothing (1 Cor 13:1 ff.). Moreover, it is according to the various degrees of charity that various states are distinguished. Consequently, the state of grace does not exist in virtue of a desire of the flesh but "by charity of the spirit," i.e., a charity which proceeds from the Holy Spirit, through Whom we should be subject to and serve one another: "Bear ye one another's burdens" (6:2); "With honor preventing one another" (Rom 12:10).

But since he said earlier that they have been called unto liberty, why does he now say, "serve one another"? I answer that charity requires that we serve one another; nevertheless, it is free. Here one might interject that, as the Philosopher says, he is free who is for his own sake; whereas he is a slave who is for the sake of another as of a mover or an end. For a slave is moved to his work not by himself but by a master and for the benefit of his master. Charity, therefore, has liberty as to its movent cause, because it works of itself: "The charity of Christ presseth us" spontaneously, to work (2 Cor 5:14). But it is a servant when, putting one's own interests aside, it devotes itself to things beneficial to the neighbor.

That charity and brotherly affection are to be religiously and stedfastly practised. In Malachi: "Hath not one God created us? Is there not one Father of us all? Why have ye certainly deserted every one his brother? " Of this same thing according to John: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." Also in the same place: "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love than this has no man, than that one should lay down his life for his friends." Also in the same place: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." Also in the same place: "Verily I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth concerning everything, whatever you shall ask it shall be given you from my Father which is in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I am with them." Of this same thing in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "And I indeed, brethren, could not speak unto you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I have given you milk for drink, not meat: for while ye were yet little ye were not able to bear it, neither now are ye able. For ye are still carnal: for where there are in you emulation, and strife, and dissensions, are ye not carnal, and walk after man? " Likewise in the same place: "And if I should have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods for food, and if I should deliver up my body to be burned, but have not charity, I avail nothing. Charity is great-souled; charity is kind; charity envieth not; charity dealeth not falsely; is not puffed up; is not irritated; thinketh not evil; rejoiceth not in injustice, but rejoiceth in the truth. It loveth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, beareth all things. Charity shall never fail." Of this same thing to the Galatians: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and accuse one another, see that ye be not consumed one of another." Of this same thing in the Epistle of John: "In this appear the children of God and the children of the devil. Whosoever is not righteous is not of God, and he who loveth not his brother. For he who hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." Also in the same place: "If any one shall say that he loves God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he who loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? " Of this same thing in the Acts of the Apostles: "But the multitude of them that had believed acted with one soul and mind: nor was there among them any distinction, neither did they esteem as their own anything of the possessions that they had; but all things were common to them." Of this same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew: If thou wouldest offer thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave thou thy gift before the altar, and go; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift at the altar." Also in the Epistle of John: "God is love l and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Also in the same place: "He who saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is a liar, and walketh in darkness even until now."

What need is there for the holy apostle to make use of the law, if the new covenant is foreign to the old legislation? He wants to show both covenants are from the one Lord. They are best perceived as sharing the same intent. The fulfillment of the law is through the love of one's neighbor, because love is that which effects the perfect good. He therefore says that love is the fulfilling of the law.

The whole work of the law is fulfilled by this one command: love. For one who loves another neither murders nor commits adultery nor steals.… Now Paul himself adds a text: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But we ought to understand by "neighbor" every human being and then constantly view Christ as our neighbor. "And you too must love one another but in the spirit." Here he now seems, as if neglecting the previous question and discussion, to urge them to avoid discord. And this can happen if you love one another in the Spirit, not in the flesh nor for the works of the flesh nor in natural observances. For he who loves another feels no envy, nor steals from another, nor despises or abuses him.

(Verse 14) But serve one another through love; for the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' When he was free from all, he made himself a servant of all for the sake of love, so that he might gain more (I Cor. XIII). He rightly exhorts others to serve him through love, which does not seek its own, but that of the neighbor. For whoever wants to be first, shall be the servant of all (Mark, X, 44): just as the Savior, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of a human. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Philippians II): so likewise, whatever we appeared to do under the necessity of the Law, let us now know that it should be done more through love, for us who are free. But love is the only good, so that all the law is summed up in it. The Apostle also enumerates the goods of charity in another place, saying: Love is not jealous, does not act improperly (I Cor. XIII, 7, 8). After listing many other qualities, he concludes: Love hopes for all things, endures all things, love never fails. And the Savior in the Gospel, as a sign of his disciples, says that they should love their neighbors (Matthew XX). I think that this is not only suitable for humans but also for angels. In other words, the same thing is said: What you do not want to be done to you, do not do to others, and what you want others to do to you, do the same to them. (Ibid., VII, 12). I do not want my wife to be adulterated, I do not want my property to be plundered, I do not want to be falsely oppressed by testimony, and to summarize everything in a brief statement, I do not deserve to have anything unjust done to me. If I do these same things through charity working in me, either for another or willingly, the whole law is fulfilled. And it is not difficult to teach how all the precepts, 'You shall not kill,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' and the like, are held together by the observance of charity. It is difficult, however, to show how the sacrifices also, which are commanded in Leviticus, and the distinction between clean and unclean foods, as well as the cycle of annual solemnities, are recapitulated in one precept of charity. Unless someone moved to that place, to assert that the Law is spiritual, and that we serve the heavenly things with images and examples, before the true Pontiff arrives: who, having once offered himself as a victim, redeemed us with his own blood, all of that variety and difficulty of the ancient Law is completed in his love for mankind. Indeed, the Father loved the world so much that he gave his beloved and only Son for us. But he who once lived by the Spirit, mortified the works of the flesh, and was chosen by the Savior, is no longer called a servant, but a friend. And he is no longer under the Law, which was established for the impious, the sinners, the rebellious, and the wicked. But now, when we do all things that are more difficult or even a little bit, we only do not do this, which is easier to do and without which everything we do is in vain. The body feels the injury of fasting, the flesh is weakened by abstinence, alms are sought through effort, and blood is shed in martyrdom, although the faith burns, it is not poured out without pain and fear. All these things are what people do: love alone without work is possible. And because only a pure heart makes the world, it is conquered in us by the devil, so that we do not see God with a pure mind. For when I am sitting and speaking against my brother, and I put a stumbling block in front of the son of my mother (Ps. XLIX, 20), when I am tormented by someone else's happiness, and I make another's good my own evil, is not this what follows fulfilled in me: If you bite and devour each other, watch out that you do not consume each other? Charity is a rare possession. Who wants to be cursed by Christ himself for his brothers, following the apostle? Who mourns with mourners, rejoices with those who rejoice, and is wounded by another's wound? Who is destroyed by his brother's death? We are all more lovers of ourselves than lovers of God. See how great the good of charity is. If we have done martyrdom in such a way that we desire our remains to be honored by men: if we, following the opinion of the crowd, have shed our blood fearlessly, and have given our substance all the way to our own poverty, to this work not so much a reward as a punishment is owed: and the torments of betrayal are more so than the crown of victory.

Seeing that they made so much of the Law, he says, "If you wish to fulfill it, do not be circumcised, for it is fulfilled not in circumcision but in love." Observe how he cannot forget his grief, but constantly touches upon what troubled him, even when launched into his moral discourse.

"For the whole law." If you really, he says, wish to fulfill the law, do not do so by circumcising, but by loving one another; in this way you fulfill it.

Now, if none other but the Creator shall be found to execute judgment, it follows that only He, who has determined on the cessation of the law, shall be able to condemn the defenders of the law; and what, if he also affirms the law in that portion of it where it ought (to be permanent)? "For," says he, "all the law is fulfilled in you by this: `Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' " If, indeed, he will have it that by the words "it is fulfilled" it is implied that the law no longer has to be fulfilled, then of course he does not mean that I should any more love my neighbour as myself, since this precept must have ceased together with the law.

Are we to paint ourselves out that our neighbours may perish? Where, then, is (the command), "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself? " "Care not merely about your own (things), but (about your) neighbour's? " No enunciation of the Holy Spirit ought to be (confined) to the subject immediately in hand merely, and not applied and carried out with a view to every occasion to which its application is useful.

If fully, he says, you desire to fulfill the law, then fulfill it not by circumcision, but by love, because in this consists the fullness of the law. See, while setting forth moral instructions, he does not forget dogmatic teaching either. So greatly did he grieve over their error.

Then when he says, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word," he explains what he says: First, about charity; Secondly, about not making liberty an occasion to the flesh (v. 16). As to the first he admonishes them to follow charity: First, because of the benefit we obtain in fulfilling charity; Secondly, because of the injury incurred by neglecting charity (v. 15).

Now the benefit we obtain in fulfilling charity is of the highest order, because in it we fulfill the whole law; hence he says, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word." As if to say: Charity must be maintained, because the whole law is fulfilled in one word, namely, in the one precept of charity: "He that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law" (Rom 13:8) and "Love is the fulfillment of the law" (13:10). Wherefore he says in 1 Timothy (1:5): "The end of the commandment is charity."

However, it is said in Matthew (22:40): "On these two commandments," namely, of the love of God and of neighbor, "dependeth the whole law and the prophets." Therefore, it is not fulfilled in the one precept alone. I answer that in the love of God is included love of neighbor: "This commandment we have from God, that he, who loveth God, love also his brother" (1 Jn 4:21). Conversely, we love our neighbor for the love of God. Consequently, the whole law is fulfilled in the one precept of charity. For the precepts of the law are reduced to that one precept. Indeed, precepts are either moral or ceremonial or judicial. The moral are the precepts of the decalogue: three concern the love of God, and the other seven the love of neighbor. The judicial are, for example, that whosoever steals anything shall restore fourfold, and others like this; and they pertain absolutely to the love of neighbor. The ceremonial concern sacrifices and related matters which are reduced to love of God. And so it is plain that all are fulfilled in the one precept of charity, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," which is also written in Leviticus (19:18).

He says, "as thyself", not "as much as thyself," because according to the order of charity a man should love himself more than his neighbor. Now this is explained in three ways: First, as referring to the genuineness of the love. For to love is to will good to someone: hence we are said to love both the one to whom we will a good and the very good which we will to someone; but not in the same way. For when I will a good to myself, I love myself absolutely for myself, but the good which I will to myself, I do not love for itself but for myself. Accordingly, I love my neighbor as myself in the same way that I love myself, when I will him a good for his sake, and not because it is useful or pleasant for me.

In a second way, as referring to the justice of love. For each thing is inclined to want for itself that which is most eminent in it; but in man, understanding and reason are the most eminent. He, therefore, loves himself who wants for himself the good of understanding and reason. Accordingly, you then love your neighbor as yourself, when you will him the good of understanding and reason.

In a third way, as referring to order, i.e., that just as you love yourself for the sake of God, so you love your neighbor for the sake of God, namely, that he may attain to God.

What, then, is that-how execrable should it appear to you-which I have learnt with extreme anguish and grief of mind, to wit, that there are not wanting those who defile the temples of God, and the members sanctified after confession and made glorious, with a disgraceful and infamous concubinage, associating their beds promiscuously with women's! In which, even if there be no pollution of their conscience, there is a great guilt in this very thing, that by their offence originate examples for the ruin of Others. There ought also to be no contentions and emulations among you, since the Lord left to us His peace, and it is written, "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." "But if ye bite and find fault with one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." From abuse and revilings also I entreat you to abstain, for "revilers do not attain the kingdom of God; " and the tongue which has confessed Christ should be preserved sound and pure with its honour. For he who, according to Christ's precept, speaks things peaceable and good and just, daily confesses Christ. We had renounced the world when we were baptized; but we have now indeed renounced the world when tried and approved by God, we leave all that we have, and have followed the Lord, and stand and live in His faith and fear.

Paul is not here erupting suddenly into ad hoc legal precepts against the tenor and sequence of the whole letter. He is still discussing circumcision and the observance of the law.… If you read the whole Old Testament and understand it according to the text "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" … what appears as justice will eat you away, not avenging anything but consuming everything.

(Verse 15) But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not consumed by one another. This can be understood simply as not tearing each other down, not seeking revenge with curses, not wanting to cause sorrow to the sorrowful, and being like animals, biting and being bitten, leading to destruction and consumption. However, it is better to understand this in the context of the entire letter and according to reason, rather than suddenly breaking into extraordinary commands. Let us refer everything to circumcision and observance of the Law. If others, he says, disturb you, but you are also disturbed. If you read the whole old Scripture, understand it in the way it is written: Eye for eye, tooth for tooth (Deut. XIX, 21), and anger desires revenge, but revenge imposes pain: which the Law not only does not prohibit, but even commands, restoring justice in talion, it follows that the stripped should strip, and the wounded should wound again, and the consumed should bite back, and what seems to be justice should be consumption, not avenging one, but consuming both.

That he may not distress them, he does not assert this, though he knew it was the case, but mentions it ambiguously. For he does not say, "Inasmuch as ye bite one another," nor again does he assert, in the clause following, that they shall be consumed by each other; but "take heed that ye be not consumed one of another," and this is the language of apprehension and warning, not of condemnation. And the words which he uses are expressly significant; he says not merely, "ye bite," which one might do in a passion, but also "ye devour," which implies a bearing of malice. To bite is to satisfy the feeling of anger, but to devour is a proof of the most savage ferocity. The biting and devouring he speaks of are not bodily, but of a much more cruel kind; for it is not such an injury to taste the flesh of man, as to fix one's fangs in his soul. In proportion as the soul is more precious than the body, is damage to it more serious. "Take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." For those who commit injury and lay plots, do so in order to destroy others; therefore he says, Take heed that this evil fall not on your own heads. For strife and dissensions are the ruin and destruction as well of those who admit as of those who introduce them, and eats out every thing worse than a moth does.

"But if you bite and devour one another." And by "to bite" he says even more emphatically "to devour," inserting doctrines of this sort. For not so much body is expended by being devoured as the soul is corrupted by such doctrines.

"be careful for fear that." But he was terrified by this.

"that you be consumed by one another." For this faction, he says, also has it in its power to harm you who are causing the disturbance. It is reasonable that he indicates this not only concerning doctrines, but also regarding clashes, and greed, and other injustices.

Here Paul hints that, while some had been circumcised under duress, others had relied on their faith and stood firm. Nevertheless, they were at odds, some praising the legalistic way of life, others showing due admiration for the gifts of grace. For this reason Paul focuses his attention on the exhortation to love.

That which he knows for certain, he expresses with doubt, and the following expression: "take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" – is a warning and caution, not a condemnation. He did not simply say "ye bite" (which is characteristic of anger), but added "devour," which serves as a manifestation of extreme savagery. By this he also points to corrupted teaching, and implies also the plotting against one another, plundering and covetousness. And since they, in doing evil and plotting, thought only of harming others, he says: take heed lest this matter turn against you yourselves.

Then when he says, "But if you bite and devour one another, take heed you be not consumed one of another", he urges them to follow charity, because of the harm we incur if we neglect it. Here he continues to speak to the Galatians as to spiritual men, not bringing up their greater vices but mentioning ones that seem to be minor, such as sins of the tongue. Hence he says: "If you bite and devour one another, take heed you be not consumed one of another". As if to say: All the law is fulfilled in love; "but if you bite one another", i.e., partially destroy the good name of your neighbor by slander (for one who bites takes not the whole but a part) "and devour", i.e., destroy his good name entirely, and completely shame him by slander (for he that devours, consumes all): "Detract not one another, my brethren; he that detracteth his brother detracteth the law" (Jam 4:11). If you neglect charity in that way, I say, "take heed" for the calamity that threatens you, namely, "you might be devoured one of another:" "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision" (Phil 3:2); "I have spent my strength without cause and in vain" (Is 49:4). For as Augustine says, by the vice of contention and envy pernicious rivalries are bred among men, and both life and society are thereby brought to ruin.

He also said, 'Fasting is the monk's control over sin. The man who stops fasting is like a stallion who lusts the moment he sees a mare.'

Abraham, who was a disciple of Agatho, once asked Poemen, 'Why do the demons attack me?' Poemen said to him, 'Is it the demons who attack you? It is not the demons who attack me. When we follow our self-will then our wills seem like demons and it is they who urge us to obey them. If you want to know the kind of people with whom the demons fight, it is Moses and those like him.'

A brother asked a hermit, 'What shall I do, for I am troubled by many temptations, and I do not know how to resist them?' He said, 'Do not fight against them all at once, but against one of them. All the temptations of monks have a single source. You must consider what kind of root of temptation you have, and fight against that and in this way all the other temptations will also be defeated.'

The whole essence of the gospel is to think according to the Spirit, to live according to the Spirit, to believe according to the Spirit, to have nothing of the flesh in one's mind and acts and life. That means also having no hope in the flesh. "Walk, then," he says, "in the Spirit"—that is, "Be alive. If you do so you will not consummate the desire of the flesh. You will admit into consciousness no sin, which is born of the flesh."

(Verse 16) But I say: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And this is to be understood in two ways according to what was said before: first, that those who have mortified the works of the flesh by the spirit, have sown in the spirit, so that they may reap eternal life from the spirit, whenever they feel the pleasures of the flesh tempting them, not to fulfill their desires (which, if fulfilled, seems pleasing for a time), but to restrain them by the spirit; and second, according to the opinion of the Historian (Sallust): to live more by the control of the mind and the service of the body. And moreover, the reason is that the Law is spiritual (Rom. VII), not for those who are Jews in a visible sense, but for those who are Jews in a hidden sense, and circumcision of the heart is in the spirit, not in the letter, and we say that they walk in the spirit and do not fulfill the desire of the flesh, those who spiritually leave Egypt and drink the spiritual food and drink from the spiritual rock, who are not judged in eating or drinking or in a part of a festive day, or of a new moon, or of the Sabbath, but walk in all things spiritually, not fulfilling the desires of the carnal law, or the desires of the letter, but reaping the fruits of spiritual intelligence. A third interpretation has also been given in this place by some, but it does not differ much from the second interpretation. They assert that the desire of the flesh is present in those who are young in Christ, while the journey of the spirit is for mature men, and it signifies the seriousness of the spirit, that is, walking on the way as perfect men, and not fulfilling the desires of the young.

Here he points out another path which makes duty easy, and secures what had been said, a path whereby love is generated, and which is fenced in by love. For nothing, nothing I say, renders us so susceptible of love, as to be spiritual, and nothing is such an inducement to the Spirit to abide in us, as the strength of love. Therefore he says, "Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh:" having spoken of the cause of the disease, he likewise mentions the remedy which confers health. And what is this, what is the destruction of the evils we have spoken of, but the life in the Spirit? hence he says, "Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."

"walk by the Spirit." Live and conduct yourselves according to the Spirit, he says, and do what seems to belong to it, and you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh.

Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its nature in Adam until it is born again in Christ; moreover, it is unclean all the while that it remains without this regeneration; and because unclean, it is actively sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their conjunction) with its own shame. Now although the flesh is sinful, and we are forbidden to walk in accordance with it, and its works are condemned as lusting against the spirit, and men on its account are censured as carnal, yet the flesh has not such ignominy on its own account.

Having said that biting and devouring is destructive, he points out the remedy against this as well, which both preserves love and is itself preserved by it, namely, that they should be spiritual. For if we are spiritual, we will love more strongly, and if we love, we will be spiritual and then will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

After indicating what the spiritual state consists in, namely, in charity, the Apostle then deals with the cause of the state, namely, of the Holy Spirit Whom he says they must follow. And he mentions three benefits obtained from the Holy Spirit. First, freedom from the bondage of the flesh; Secondly, freedom from the bondage of the Law (v. 18); Thirdly, the conferring of life, or security from the damnation of death (v. 25). As to the first, he does two things: First, he sets down the first benefit of the spirit; Secondly, he shows the need for this benefit (v. 17).

He says therefore: I say that you are obliged by charity of spirit to serve one another, because nothing profits without charity. But this "I say in Christ," i.e., by the faith of Christ, "walk in the spirit", i.e., in the mind and reason. For sometimes our mind is called a spirit, according to Ephesians (4:23): "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind," and "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding" (1 Cor 14:15). Or, "walk in the spirit," i.e., make progress in the Holy Spirit, by acting well. For the Holy Spirit moves and incites hearts to do well: "Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom 8:14). One should walk, therefore, by the spirit, i.e., the mind, so that one's reason or mind is in accord with the Law of God, as it is said in Romans (7:16). For the human spirit is fickle, and unless it is governed from elsewhere, it turns now in one direction and now in another, as is said in Sirach (34:6): "The heart fancieth as that of a woman in travail. Except it be a vision sent forth from the most High, set not thy heart upon them." Hence Ephesians (4:17) says of certain ones: "They walk in the vanity of their mind." Therefore the human reason cannot stand perfectly except to the extent that it is governed by a divine spirit.

Accordingly the Apostle says, "walk in the spirit," i.e., under the rule and guidance of the Holy Spirit, Whom we should follow as one pointing out the way. For knowledge of the supernatural end is in us only from the Holy Spirit: "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him," and immediately is added, "But to us God hath revealed them by his Spirit" (1 Cor 2:9). Also as one who inclines us. For the Holy Spirit stirs up and turns the affections to right willing: "Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom 8:14); "Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land" (Ps 142:10).

Now one ought to walk in the spirit, because it frees him from the defilement of the flesh. Hence he follows with: "and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," i.e., the pleasures which the flesh suggests. This the Apostle yearned for, saying: "Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). Later he concludes: "There is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh" (Rom 8:1). And at once he gives the reason for this: "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death" (Rom 8:2). And this is the special desire of the saints, that they not fulfill the desires to which the flesh stirs them, but always understanding that in this are not included desires which pertain to the necessities of the flesh, but those that pertain to superfluities.

The fact is that both are good: the spirit is good and the flesh too is good. And the whole person who consists of both, one ruling and one obeying, is indeed good but a changeable good. Yet these changing goods could not arise were it not for the immutable good, which is the source of every created good, whether small or great. But however small might be one particular good, it is nonetheless made by the one incomparably good. Yet however great, it is in no way comparable to the greatness of its Maker. But in this human nature, good as it is in origin and constitution, there is now war, because there is not yet salvation.

The "flesh struggles against the spirit" yet does not subdue it, since the spirit also "struggles against the flesh." Although that same law of sin holds something of the flesh as its prisoner and thereby resists the law of the mind it does not, however, reign in our body, mortal though it is, if our body does not voluntarily obey its desires.

Now this, I think, he writes to the Galatians, to whom he says, "Who gave you the Spirit." … From this it is apparent that he is speaking to Christians, people to whom God had given the Spirit, and therefore to the baptized. See, the sinful nature is an adversary even within the baptized, and there is not in them that possibility [of sinlessness] which [Pelagius25] says is so implanted in our nature that it cannot be annulled.

People think that the apostle here denies that we possess free will. They do not perceive what he is saying to them: If they refuse to hold fast to the grace they have received, through which alone they are able to walk in the Spirit and avoid fulfilling the desires of the flesh, they will not be able to do as they wish.… It is love that "fulfills the law." But "the wisdom of the flesh" by following temporal goods opposes spiritual love. How can it be made subject to the law of God (that is, freely and obediently fulfill righteousness and not be opposed to it) when even as it tries it must be vanquished? The flesh imagines that it can procure a greater temporal good by iniquity than by maintaining righteousness. The first stage, the natural life of a human being, precedes the law, when no wrongdoing or malice is prohibited. The natural being makes no resistance at all to base desires, since there is no one to prohibit them. The second stage is under law before grace, when he is indeed prohibited and tries to abstain from sin but is overcome because he does not yet love righteousness for God's sake and its own but wishes to observe it in the hope of earthly acquisitions. And therefore, when he sees righteousness on one side and temporal good on another, he is dragged by the weight of his temporal desire and thus forsakes righteousness, which he was trying to maintain only in order to have that which he now sees that he is going to lose by maintaining it. The third stage of life is the one under grace, when no temporal good is preferred to righteousness. This cannot happen except by spiritual love, which the Lord has taught by his example and bestowed by grace. For in this life, even if there remain desires of the flesh from the mortality of the body, yet they do not subdue the mind to consent to sin.

There can be a desire (like mine) with no carnal element in it at all which is nevertheless, in St. Paul's sense, "flesh" and not "spirit". That is, there can be a merely impulsive, headstrong, greedy desire even for spiritual things. It is, like our other appetites, "cross-fodder". Yet, being crucified, it can be raised from the dead, and made part of our bliss.

Thus the organs, no longer governed by man's will, fell under the control of ordinary biochemical laws... And desires began to come up into the mind of man, not as his reason chose, but just as the biochemical and environmental facts happened to cause them... And the will, caught in the tidal wave of mere nature, had no resource but to force back some of the new thoughts and desires by main strength, and these uneasy rebels became the subconscious as we now know it.

There are two ways in which the human machine goes wrong. One is when human individuals drift apart from one another, or else collide with one another and do one another damage, by cheating or bullying. The other is when things go wrong inside the individual—when the different parts of him (his different faculties and desires and so on) either drift apart or interfere with one another. You can get the idea plain if you think of us as a fleet of ships sailing in formation. The voyage will be a success only, in the first place, if the ships do not collide and get in one another's way; and, secondly, if each ship is seaworthy and has her engines in good order. As a matter of fact, you cannot have either of these two things without the other. If the ships keep on having collisions they will not remain seaworthy very long. On the other hand, if their steering gears are out of order they will not be able to avoid collisions.

Surrender to all our desires obviously leads to impotence, disease, jealousies, lies, concealment, and everything that is the reverse of health, good humour, and frankness. For any happiness, even in this world, quite a lot of restraint is going to be necessary; so the claim made by every desire, when it is strong, to be healthy and reasonable, counts for nothing. Every sane and civilised man must have some set of principles by which he chooses to reject some of his desires and to permit others. One man does this on Christian principles, another on hygienic principles, another on sociological principles. The real conflict is not between Christianity and "nature", but between Christian principles and other principles in the control of "nature". For "nature" (in the sense of natural desire) will have to be controlled anyway, unless you are going to ruin your whole life. The Christian principles are, admittedly, stricter than the others; but then we think you will get help towards obeying them which you will not get towards obeying the others.

The two kinds of life are now not only different (they would always have been that) but actually opposed. The natural life in each of us is something self-centred, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of other lives, to exploit the whole universe. And especially it wants to be left to itself: to keep well away from anything better or stronger or higher than it, anything that might make it feel small. It is afraid of the light and air of the spiritual world, just as people who have been brought up to be dirty are afraid of a bath. And in a sense it is quite right. It knows that if the spiritual life gets hold of it, all its self-centredness and self-will are going to be killed and it is ready to fight tooth and nail to avoid that.

And perhaps the two tables themselves may be the prophecy of the two covenants. They were accordingly mystically renewed, as ignorance along with sin abounded. The commandments are written, then, doubly, as appears, for twofold spirits, the ruling and the subject. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."

Through the corporeal spirit, then, man perceives, desires, rejoices, is angry, is nourished, grows. It is by it, too, that thoughts and conceptions advance to actions. And when it masters the desires, the ruling faculty reigns. The commandment, then, "Thou shalt not lust," says, thou shalt not serve the carnal spirit, but shall rule over it; "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," and excites to disorderly conduct against nature; "and the Spirit against the flesh" exercises sway, in order that the conduct of the man may be according to nature.

For he hates the inordinate affection of the flesh, which possess the powerful spell of pleasure; and entertains a noble contempt for all that belongs to the creation and nutriment of the flesh. He also withstands the corporeal soul, putting a bridle-bit on the restive irrational spirit: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit."

Moreover, we ask that the will of God may be done both in heaven and in earth, each of which things pertains to the fulfilment of our safety and salvation. For since we possess the body from the earth and the spirit from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven; and in both-that is, both in body and spirit-we pray that God's will may be done. For between the flesh and spirit there is a struggle; and there is a daily strife as they disagree one with the other, so that we cannot do those very things that we would, in that the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, while the flesh lusts after earthly and temporal things; and therefore we ask that, by the help and assistance of God, agreement may be made between these two natures, so that while the will of God is done both in the spirit and in the flesh, the soul which is new-born by Him may be preserved. This is what the Apostle Paul openly and manifestly declares by his words: "The flesh," says he, "lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, murders, hatred, variance, emulations, wraths, strife, seditions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, continence, chastity." And therefore we make it our prayer in daily, yea, in continual supplications, that the will of God concerning us should be done both in heaven and in earth; because this is the will of God, that earthly things should give place to heavenly, and that spiritual and divine things should prevail.

What are those carnal things which beget death, and what are the spiritual things which lead to life. Paul to the Galatians: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the other, that ye cannot do even those things which ye wish. But the deeds of the flesh are manifest, which are: adulteries, fornications, impurities, filthiness, idolatries, sorceries, murders, hatreds, strifes, emulations, animosities, provocations, hatreds, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: with respect to which I declare, that they who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, continency, chastity. For they who are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with its vices and lusts."

But the third angel (Naas), by the soul which came from Edem upon Moses, as also upon all men, obscured the precepts of Baruch, and caused his own peculiar injunctions to be hearkened unto. For this reason the soul is arrayed against the spirit, and the spirit against the soul.

The "flesh struggles against the Spirit: " that is, the literal and flat understanding of Scripture fights against allegory and spiritual doctrine.… And the carnal sense of Scripture, which cannot be fulfilled (since we cannot do all that is written), shows that we do not have it in our power to fulfill the law when even if we wish to follow the letter we are prevented by its impossibility.

(Verse 17.) For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These indeed are opposed to one another, so that you may not do the things that you wish. The flesh takes pleasure in present and short-lived things, while the spirit is concerned with eternal and future things. In the midst of this conflict, the soul stands, having in its power both good and evil, to will and not to will, but not having the very will and not will itself as perpetual: because it is possible that, when it has consented to the flesh and has done its works, it may, by repentance, unite itself to the spirit and perform its works. This is therefore what he says: These things oppose each other, that is, flesh and spirit, so that you do not do whatever you want. Not because we have our own judgment, by which we agree either with the flesh or with the spirit, but because what we do is not properly ours, but the work itself is attributed to either the flesh or the spirit. It is a great labor and dispute to find some middle ground, having shown the works of the flesh and the spirit, which seem to pertain to neither the flesh nor the spirit. We are called carnal when we give ourselves entirely to pleasure. We are called spiritual when we follow the Holy Spirit, that is, when we are instructed and taught by Him. I consider philosophers to be animalistic, as they believe that their own thoughts are wisdom, about which it is rightly said: But the natural man does not receive what belongs to the Spirit. For it is foolishness to him. To make this clearer, let us consider some examples: Flesh, earth, soul, gold, spirit, fire. As long as gold is in the earth, it loses its name, and is called by the earth with which it is mixed. But when separated from the soil, it takes on both the appearance and the name of gold, yet it is not yet proven. However, if it is heated by fire and purified, then it receives the splendor of gold and the dignity of its adornment. In the same way, the soul, existing between earth and fire, that is, between flesh and spirit, when it surrenders to the flesh, is called flesh; when it belongs to the spirit, it is called spirit. But if he believes in his own thought and thinks that he can find truth without the grace of the Holy Spirit, he is marked as a base metal, by the animal nature of man. This place can be better explained as a single series and body, connecting and not disagreeing with itself. Brothers, you have been called from the servitude of the Law to the freedom of the Gospel. But I beg you, do not abuse your freedom as a license, and do not think that everything that is allowed is beneficial to you, and do not provide opportunity for the flesh and for indulgence. Rather, learn that this liberty is greater than servitude, so that what before the Law forced from the unwilling, now you may serve one another through charity. For indeed, all that burden of the Law and its many precepts have not been so much abolished by the grace of the Gospel as they have been condensed into one short command of charity, that we may love our neighbor as ourselves. For whoever loves their neighbor fulfills the whole law (Matthew 22), giving them good and not causing harm. But if love ceases, and there is no charity, through which the whole law is fulfilled, there will be a kind of public robbery among men, as they rage against each other, devouring and devouring themselves. But you, brothers, according to the spiritual law, must live, so that you do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the flesh fears cold, rejects hunger, weakens through sleeplessness, flames with lust, and desires soft and pleasant things. On the other hand, the spirit desires the things that are contrary to the flesh and that can weaken it. And so it happens that, not because you have ceased to be under the slavery of the Law, you think you are free: but know rather that you are retained by the law of nature, because even if the law does not command, and nature has ceased, your will, namely your actions, are not immediately followed, but you are often compelled to do them, the flesh resisting against the spirit, which you do not want to do. From which, brothers, I beseech you, not to give your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but rather to serve the Spirit, so that you may begin to do those things which you desire, and owe nothing to the law, that is, not to be under the flesh. For you will be able to truly have the freedom of the law abolished in the Gospel, when the flesh no longer compels you to do what you do not desire, but serving the Spirit, you have taught yourselves not to be under the Law. And because we have begun to explain this passage with a twofold understanding above, what we have omitted must be addressed. The flesh desires against the spirit, that is, a carnal understanding of the stories and scriptures, which resists allegory and spiritual teaching. But the spirit desires against the flesh, that is, it opposes higher things to lower things, the eternal to the fleeting, and truth to shadows. And the carnal understanding of scripture, which cannot be fulfilled (for we are not able to do everything that is written), shows us that we are not in control of fulfilling the law, even if we want to follow the letter, impossibility does not permit it.

An inward war is being waged every day within us. The desires of the flesh and of the spirit are within one and the same person. The lust of the flesh rushes headlong into vice, delights in the worldly enjoyments that seem to satisfy. By contrast the opposed desire of the spirit is so eager to cleave entirely to spiritual pursuits that it in an exaggerated way chooses even to exclude the necessary uses of the flesh. By wishing to be so inseparably attached to spiritual things it refuses to take care of its own bodily fragility.

Here some make the charge that the Apostle has divided man into two parts, and that he states the essence of which he is compounded to be conflicting with itself, and that the body has a contest with the soul. But this is not so, most certainly; for by "the flesh," he does not mean the body; if he did, what would be the sense of the clause immediately following, "for it lusteth," he says, "against the Spirit?" yet the body moves not, but is moved, is not an agent, but is acted upon. How then does it lust, for lust belongs to the soul not to the body, for in another place it is said, "My soul longeth," (Ps. lxxxiv: 2.) and, "Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee," (1 Sam. xx: 4.) and, "Walk not according to the desires of thy heart," and, "So panteth my soul." (Ps. xlii: 1.) Wherefore then does Paul say, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit?" he is wont to call the flesh, not the natural body but the depraved will, as where he says, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," (Rom. viii: 8, 9.) and again, "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." What then? Is the flesh to be destroyed? was not he who thus spoke clothed with flesh? such doctrines are not of the flesh, but from the Devil, for "he was a murderer from the beginning." (John viii: 44.) What then is his meaning? it is the earthly mind, slothful and careless, that he here calls the flesh, and this is not an accusation of the body, but a charge against the slothful soul. The flesh is an instrument, and no one feels aversion and hatred to an instrument, but to him who abuses it. For it is not the iron instrument but the murderer, whom we hate and punish. But it may be said that the very calling of the faults of the soul by the name of the flesh is in itself an accusation of the body. And I admit that the flesh is inferior to the soul, yet it too is good, for that which is inferior to what is good may itself be good, but evil is not inferior to good, but opposed to it. Now if you are able to prove to me that evil originates from the body, you are at liberty to accuse it; but if your endeavor is to turn its name into a charge against it, you ought to accuse the soul likewise. For he that is deprived of the truth is called "the natural man." (1 Cor. ii: 14.) and the race of demons "the spirits of wickedness." (Eph. vi: 12.)

Again, the Scripture is wont to give the name of the Flesh to the Mysteries of the Eucharist, and to the whole Church, calling them the Body of Christ. (Col. i: 24.) Nay, to induce you to give the name of blessings to the things of which the flesh is the medium, you have only to imagine the extinction of the senses, and you will find the soul deprived of all discernment, and ignorant of what it before knew. For if the power of God is since "the creation of the world clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made," (Rom. i: 20.) how could we see them without eyes? and if "faith cometh of hearing," (Rom. x: 17.) how shall we hear without ears? and preaching depends on making circuits wherein the tongue and feet are employed. "For how shall they preach, except they be sent?" (Rom. x: 15.) In the same way writing is performed by means of the hands. Do you not see that the ministry of the flesh produces for us a thousand benefits? In his expression, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit," he means two mental states. For these are opposed to each other, namely virtue and vice, not the soul and the body. Were the two latter so opposed they would be destructive of one another, as fire of water, and darkness of light. But if the soul cares for the body, and takes great forethought on its account, and suffers a thousand things in order not to leave it, and resists being separated from it, and if the body too ministers to the soul, and conveys to it much knowledge, and is adapted to its operations, how can they be contrary, and conflicting with each other? For my part, I perceive by their acts that they are not only not contrary but closely accordant and attached one to another. It is not therefore of these that he speaks as opposed to each other, but he refers to the contest of bad and good principles. (Compare Rom. vii: 23.) To will and not to will belongs to the soul; wherefore he says, "these are contrary the one to the other," that you may not suffer the soul to proceed in its evil desires. For he speaks this like a Master and Teacher in a threatening way.

For there are two motions in us, the lust of the flesh and that of the soul, differing from each other,

"For the flesh desires against the Spirit." By flesh here he means the fleshly and evil desires. And by spirit, the grace of the Holy Spirit toward virtue. And he says: Evil opposes virtue, and virtue in turn opposes evil, fulfilling the role of a certain guardian, and not allowing us to follow the wicked desires.

— [PHOTIUS] Virtue opposes vice, so that the fleshly will, stirred by vice, may not immediately, as if unrestrained and uncontrolled, be carried headlong toward sin. Again, vice opposes virtue, so that the practice of virtue may not be entirely effortless and unmerited, and as if joined to us by nature and necessity, and accomplished merely by thinking, without any earnestness or struggle.

He himself briefly says this: "so that you may not do what you wish," neither the bad, he says, easily at all and without hindrance, nor indeed the good readily altogether and carelessly. Things therefore done would not even be good. [end of the excerpt by Photius] —

For each of these, whether it be the body, or the soul, draweth the other unto its own will, because they are contrary to each other in their natures, and also in their wills, according to the word of the Apostle, who said, "The body lusteth for that which injureth the spirit, and the spirit lusteth for that which injureth the body; and the two are contrary each to each." Now if, according to the word of the wise Apostle, all the lusts of the body are contrary to the soul, the lust of the belly must be more contrary than they all, because it is the door of all lusts, and among them all there is none so heavy as it is. For as a weight which is light and volatile by nature, if suspended, inclineth downwards, even so is this lust of the belly, for it is composed of moisture and weight, and although the body naturally possesseth weight—for its nature is so to do—yet by a superabundance of food, other weight is added thereunto, and when weight is added unto weight, and body is doubled upon body, that is to say, the body of food upon the body of nature, the weight upon the soul increaseth, and the mistress becometh a handmaid in subjection; for the soul cannot henceforth rule over the body like a free thing, but it beareth the weight thereof like a slave.

In this manner then are also the soul and body towards each other, and as their natures are contrary to each other, even so also are their wills, and concerning this hath Paul also said, "The body lusteth after that which will harm the spirit, and the spirit lusteth after that which will harm the body, and both are contrary, each to each." And so long as they stand in this measure of equality, they will be at constant and unceasing war, and at one time the body will conquer the soul, and at another the soul will overcome the body; and whosoever fighteth thus must stand in his place, for although he step forward even so little towards that which belongeth to the soul, the body hangeth on to him and turneth him back, and, moreover, it will even thrust him from his position, and drag him down into the abyss of sin.

For although he says that "in his flesh dwelleth no good thing; " although he affirms that "they who are in the flesh cannot please God," because "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit; " yet in these and similar assertions which he makes, it is not the substance of the flesh, but its actions, which are censured.

Thus, so long as the things which are the Spirit's please them not, the things which are of the flesh will please, as being the contraries of the Spirit. "The flesh," saith (the apostle), "lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." But what will the flesh "lust" after, except what is more of the flesh? For which reason withal, in.

On the basis of these words, the Manichaeans and all heretics of this sort say that man consists of two opposing natures and that the apostle confirms this with the present words. But no: he is reasoning not about nature, but by "flesh" he means earthly thoughts, careless and heedless, and not the body, and by "spirit" he means spiritual thoughts, and not the soul. Earthly thoughts, he says, oppose spiritual ones, and spiritual ones oppose earthly ones. Thus, he acknowledges the struggle of evil and good thoughts, but not of body and soul. For to desire and not to desire is a matter of the reasoning soul. He adds, "you do not do the things you would wish," because the body also cooperates with the soul and does not oppose it, and the soul clings to the body and endures everything so as not to leave it, and when torn from it, grieves. How then can they be opponents when they have such a bond with one another?

Then when he says, "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit," he tells why this benefit is needed, namely, because of the struggle between flesh and spirit. First, he asserts that there is a struggle; Secondly, he elucidates this by an obvious sign (v. 17).

He says therefore: It is necessary that by the spirit you overcome the desires of the flesh, "for the flesh lusteth against the spirit." But one might have a doubt here, because, since lusting is an act of the soul alone, it does not seem to come from the flesh. I answer that, according to Augustine, the flesh is said to lust inasmuch as the soul lusts by means of the flesh, just as the eye is said to see, when as a matter of fact, it is the soul that sees by means of the eye. Consequently, the soul lusts by means of the flesh, when it seeks, according to the flesh, things which are pleasurable. But the soul lusts by means of itself, when it takes pleasure in things that are according to the spirit, as virtuous works, contemplation of divine things, and mediation of wisdom: "The desire of wisdom bringeth to the everlasting kingdom" (Wis 6:21).

But if the flesh lusts by means of the spirit, how does it lust against it? It does so in the sense that the lusting of the flesh hinders the desires of the spirit. For since the pleasures of the flesh concern goods which are beneath us, whereas the pleasures of the spirit concern goods which are above us, it comes to pass that when the soul is occupied with the lower things of the flesh, it is withdrawn from the higher things of the spirit.

But his further statement that "the spirit lusts against the flesh" may cause a problem. For if we take "spirit" for the Holy Spirit, and the desire of the Holy Spirit is against evil things, it seems to follow that the flesh against which the spirit lusts is evil—which is the Manichean error. I answer that the spirit does not lust against the nature of the flesh, but against its desires, namely, those that concern superfluities; hence he said above, "you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh" (v. 16), i.e., superfluous things. For in things necessary the spirit does not contradict the flesh, as we are told in Ephesians (5:29): "No man hateth his own flesh."

Then when he says, "For these are contrary one to another," he gives evidence of the struggle. As if to say: It is obvious from experience that they fight and struggle against one another, so far forth "that you do not," i.e., are not suffered to do, "the things", good or evil, "that you would:" "The good which I will I do not: but the evil which I will not, that I do" (Rom 7:19). However, free will is not taken away. For since free will consists in having choice, there is freedom of the will with respect to things subject to choice. But not all that lies in us is fully subject to our choice, but only in a qualified sense. In specific cases we are able to avoid this or that movement of lust or anger, but we cannot avoid all movements of anger or lust in general—and this by reason of the "fomes" introduced by the first sin.

Here it should be noted that with respect to lusts there are four categories of men who do not that which they would. For intemperate men, who of set intention follow the passions of the flesh—according to Proverbs (2:14): "They are glad when they have done evil"—do, indeed, what they will, inasmuch as they follow their passions; but inasmuch as their reason complains and is displeased, they are doing what they would not. But incontinent persons, who resolve to abstain but are, nevertheless, conquered by their passions, do what they would not, inasmuch as they follow such passions contrary to what they resolved. As between these two types the intemperate do more of the things that they would. Those, however, who are continent, i.e., who would prefer not to lust at all, do what they intend, as long as they are not subject to lust; but because they cannot completely repress lust, they do what they would not. Finally, those who are temperate do what they would, inasmuch as there is no lust in the tamed flesh; but because it cannot be totally tamed so as never to rise up against the spirit—just as neither can malice so abound that reason would never complain—therefore, in those instances in which they do lust, they are doing what they would not; but for the most part they do what they would.

A person is "under the law" when he is conscious of abstaining from works of sin through fear of the torments threatened by the law rather than by love of righteousness. He is not yet free, not yet a stranger to the will to sin. For he does wrong by his very willing, since he would prefer if it were possible that there should be nothing for the will to fear, so that he might do freely what he secretly desires.… By the law which he has used to instill fear [God] has not imparted love. Godly love is suffused in our hearts not through the letter of the law but through the Holy Spirit, which is given to us.

He did not say "Walk in the Spirit so that you will not have desires of the flesh" but "so that you will not gratify them." Not to have them at all, indeed, is not the struggle but the prize of struggle, if we shall have obtained the victory by perseverance under grace. For it is only the transformation of the body into an immortal state that will no longer have desires of the flesh.

The holy prophets and Moses, walking in the Spirit and living in the Spirit, were not under the law. But they lived as if under the law, so that they appeared indeed to be under the law, but only in order to benefit those who were under the law and spur them on from the lowliness of the letter toward the heights of the Spirit.

(Ver. 18.) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. The spirit referred to here is not the one about which the Apostle speaks elsewhere: The Spirit itself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. VIII, 16), that is, it does not signify the spirit of man that is in him, but the Holy Spirit. By following Him, we become spiritual, and we cease to be under the Law. It should be noted that this spirit is not referred to with an article or any addition, as we read in other cases, the spirit of gentleness and the spirit of faith, but it is simply called the Spirit: this distinction seems to have some significance, which is more observed in Greek than in our language (since we don't have articles at all). It is asked in this place whether whoever is led by the Spirit is not under the Law, whether Moses and the prophets, being inspired by the Spirit, lived under the Law, which the Apostle denies, or whether, having the Spirit, they were not under the Law, which the Apostle affirms here, or whether, while living under the Law, they did not have the Spirit, which it is wicked to believe about such men. To this we will respond briefly: It is not the same thing to be under the Law and to be as if under the Law, just as it is not the same in the likeness of sinful flesh and in being sinful flesh. And the true serpent does not sound the same. And the likeness of the brazen serpent, which Moses hung up in the desert (Num. XXI). Therefore, the holy prophets and Moses, walking in the Spirit and living in the Spirit, did not live under the Law, but as if under the Law, so that they seemed to be under the Law; but they profited those who were under the Law and provoked them from the humility of the letter to the height of the spirit. For even Paul, who became a Jew to the Jews and all things to all people, that he might gain all (I Cor. IX): he did not say he became under the Law, but became as if under the Law, to show that he kept not the truth of the Law, but the likeness. It seems to us that we have solved the proposed question. But what shall we do with that passage of Paul, which says: 'When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law' (Galatians 4:4-5)? For if Christ was under the Law, and not merely as under the Law, the whole preceding argument will be in vain. But this objection will be solved in its proper place. For the very reason why he was made under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law, was surely that, while being free from the Law, he submitted to it willingly; and much freer was Paul, who testified that he was not under the Law, but as if under the Law. And in order to descend into the filth and abyss of death for us, who were praying and saying: Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. VII, 14). In this way, He also willed to be born of a woman and to be under the Law, in order to save those who were born of a woman and under the Law. And surely He was not born of a woman, that is, of a married woman, but of a virgin. However, she was incorrectly called a virgin woman, because those who did not know her to be a virgin. And so, because of those who thought that the holy Mary had a husband, the woman is considered to be a virgin; thus, because of those who believed that Christ was under the Law, not knowing that he had become like those who were under the Law, he himself is said to have become under the Law.

If it be asked in what way are these two connected, I answer, closely and plainly; for he that hath the Spirit as he ought, quenches thereby every evil desire, and he that is released from these needs no help from the Law, but is exalted far above its precepts. He who is never angry, what need has he to hear the command, Thou shalt not kill? He who never casts unchaste looks, what need hath he of the admonition, Thou shalt not commit adultery? Who would discourse about the fruits of wickedness with him who had plucked up the root itself? for anger is the root of murder, and of adultery the inquisitive gazing into faces. Hence he says, "If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the Law;" wherein he appears to me to have pronounced a high and striking eulogy of the Law, if, at least, the Law stood, according to its power, in the place of the Spirit before the Spirit's coming upon us. But we are not on that account obliged to continue apart with our schoolmaster. Then we were justly subject to the Law, that by fear we might chasten our lusts, the Spirit not being manifested; but now that grace is given, which not only commands us to abstain from them, but both quenches them, and leads us to a higher rule of life, what more need is there of the Law? He who has attained an exalted excellence from an inner impulse, has no occasion for a schoolmaster, nor does any one, if he is a philosopher, require a grammarian. Why then do ye so degrade yourselves, as now to listen to the Law, having previously given yourselves to the Spirit?

"But if you are led by the Spirit." If, he says, you walk according to the will of the Holy Spirit, you will not go astray. But the one who does not stumble in anything does not need the law and its guidance that follows from it. And the one who does not need it is not under it, as he says elsewhere, the law does not apply to the righteous.

He who has the Spirit extinguishes evil desires, and he who is free from them has no need of the counsel of the law and is not subject to it. For he who does not grow angry, what need has he of the commandment not to kill? And he who has no lustful desires, what need has he of the counsel not to commit adultery? This is the same as what he said elsewhere: "the law is not made for a righteous man" (1 Tim. 1:9). He also seems to speak in praise of the law, since it served in place of the Spirit, fulfilling to the extent of its power the duty of a guide until an appointed time. How then do you again submit yourselves to a tutor, having abandoned the Spirit who makes you perfect — as if someone who is already a philosopher were to need a tutor?

After showing that through the spirit we are freed from the desires of the flesh, the Apostle here shows that through it we are released from the bondage of the Law. First, he mentions a benefit of the spirit; Secondly, he manifests it by certain effects (v. 19).

He says therefore: I say that if you walk in the spirit, not only will you not carry out the desires of the flesh, but, what is more, "if you are led by the spirit" (which happens when you do what the spirit suggests, as director and guide, and not what your sense desires urge), you are not "under the law": "Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land," not by compelling, but by guiding (Ps 142:10).

Jerome infers from these words that after the coming of Christ no one having the Holy Spirit is obliged to observe the Law. But it should be recognized that the saying, "if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law," can be referred either to the ceremonial or to the moral precepts of the Law. If it is referred to the ceremonial precepts, then it is one thing to observe the Law and another to be under the Law. For to observe the Law is to carry out the works of the Law without putting any hope in them; but to be under the Law is to put one's hope in the works of the Law. Now in the early Church there were some just men who observed the Law without being under the Law, inasmuch as they observed the works of the Law; but they were not under the Law in the sense of putting their hope in them. In this way even Christ was under the Law: "Made under the law" (4:4). Thus Jerome's opinion is excluded.

But if it is referred to the moral precepts, then to be under the Law can be taken in two ways: either as to its obliging force, and then all the faithful are under the Law, because it was given to all—hence it is said: "I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it" (Mt 5:17)—or as to its compelling force, and then the just are not under the Law, because the movements and breathings of the Holy Spirit in them are their inspiration; for charity inclines to the very things that the Law prescribes. Therefore, because the just have an inward law, they willingly do what the Law commands and are not constrained by it. But those who would do evil but are held back by a sense of shame or by fear of the Law are compelled. Accordingly, the just are under the Law as obliging but not as compelling, in which sense the unjust alone are under it: "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor 3:17); "The law," as compelling, "is not made for the just man" (1 Tim 1:9).

These and others like them are the members of sin, which the apostle calls "the works of the flesh" because these errors come from the world, from which also the flesh comes. For all these sins arise from the side of the flesh, not from that of the Spirit.

Nemesianus of Thubunae said: That the baptism which heretics and schismatics bestow is not the true one, is everywhere declared in the Holy Scriptures, since their very leading men are false Christs and false prophets, as the Lord says by Solomon: "He who trusteth in that which is false, he feedeth the winds; and the very same, moreover, followeth the flight of birds. For he forsaketh the ways of his own vineyard, he has wandered from the paths of his own little field. But he walketh through pathless places, and dry, and a land destined for thirst; moreover, he gathereth together fruitless things in his hands." And again: "Abstain from strange water, and from the fountain of another do not drink, that you may live a long time; also that the years of life may be added to thee." And in the Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ spoke with His divine voice, saying, "Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." This is the Spirit which from the beginning was borne over the waters; for neither can the Spirit operate without the water, nor the water without the Spirit. Certain people therefore interpret for themselves ill, when they say that by imposition of the hand they receive the Holy Ghost, and are thus received, when it is manifest that they ought to be born again in the Catholic Church by both sacraments. Then indeed they will be able to be sons of God, as says the apostle: "Taking care to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, as ye have been called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God." All these things speaks the Catholic Church. And again, in the Gospel the Lord says: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; because God is a Spirit, and he is born of God." Therefore, whatsoever things all heretics and schismatics do are carnal, as the apostle says: "For the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornications, uncleannesses, incest, idolatries, witchcrafts, hatreds, contentions, jealousy, anger, divisions, heresies, and the like to these; concerning which have told you before, as I also foretell you now, that whoever do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." And thus the apostle condemns, with all the wicked, those also who cause division, that is, schismatics and heretics. Unless therefore they receive saving baptism in the Catholic Church, which is one, they cannot be saved, but will be condemned with the carnal in the judgment of the Lord Christ.

[The apostle], foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers, has particularized the works which he terms carnal; and he explains himself, lest any room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly pervert his meaning, thus saying in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts, hatreds, contentions jealousies, wraths, emulations, animosities, irritable speeches, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and such like; of which I warn you, as also I have warned you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more explicit manner what it is [he means when he declares], "Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God." For they who do these things, since they do indeed walk after the flesh, have not the power of living unto God. And then, again, he proceeds to tell us the spiritual actions which vivify a man, that is, the engrafting of the Spirit; thus saying, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, benignity, faith, meekness, continence, chastity: against these there is no law." As, therefore, he who has gone forward to the better things, and has brought forth the fruit of the Spirit, is saved altogether because of the communion of the Spirit; so also he who has continued in the aforesaid works of the flesh, being truly reckoned as carnal, because he did not receive the Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

By saying that "the works of the flesh are plain," he means that they are known to all because they are so self-evidently bad and abhorrent, so much so that even those who do them desire to hide their deeds. Or else it may mean that they are plain only to believers in Christ.

(Verses 19-21.) The works of the flesh are evident, which are: fornication, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now when we explained about the flesh and the spirit earlier, we said there are three possible interpretations: that there are those who are carnal, who are like infants and unable to receive solid food in Christ and the nourishment of mature age; or that there are those who are carnal, who follow only the Jewish way and the literal interpretation of the history; or that, according to the simple sense, flesh and spirit coexist in the makeup of a person, and, according to the difference in substance, they are either the works of the flesh or of the spirit. Now therefore, the works of the flesh which are mentioned here, namely fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, and other things which follow, seem to me to pertain more to the simple understanding of the flesh and spirit than to the flesh of the Law, and to be referred to little ones in Christ, although it is expressed in that place where we translated the word from the tenth of Origen's Stromate word for word, what can also be thought about them. But what he says: But the works of the flesh are evident, or shows that they are known to everyone: because they are inherently known to be evil and to be avoided, to the extent that even those who do them, desire to hide what they do. Certainly, these things are clear only to those who believe in Christ. For many of the pagans boast in their own shame and believe that if they have fulfilled their pleasure, they have achieved some kind of victory over vices. But it is also elegantly stated that He accomplished works in the flesh and fruits in the spirit: for vices end and perish within themselves, while virtues sprout and abound in abundance. And let us not think that the soul has no function if vices are attributed to the flesh and virtues to the spirit. Because the soul (as we have said above) is placed in a certain middle part and is joined to the flesh, and it is said about it: My spirit will not remain in these men, because they are flesh (Gen. VI, 3); or it is united to the spirit and passes into the name of spirit. For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit (I Cor. VI, 17). Therefore, the first work of the flesh is fornication. He clearly stated this in the beginning, so that we do not have doubt about the middle parts. For whatever a man does, is outside the body; but he who commits fornication, sins in his own body. And we are not our own: for we are bought with a price, let us glorify and bear God in our body. In this is a fornicator of greater crime: because he takes away the members of Christ and makes them the members of a harlot. For there shall be two in one flesh. He who is not faithful, nor believes in Christ, makes his members the members of a harlot; he who believes and commits fornication, makes his members the members of a harlot. On the contrary, an unbeliever in fornication either does violence to himself or builds a temple to an idol, I do not know. For indeed, through vices or even the greatest demons are cultivated. This one thing I know: that whoever commits fornication after the faith of Christ violates the temple of God. According to the works of the flesh, it is called uncleanness, and it is followed by lust. For as in the old Law concerning unspeakable crimes that are done in secret, and it is most disgraceful to even mention them (lest both the mouth of the speaker and the ears of the hearers be defiled), the Scripture has generally included them, saying: 'Make the children of Israel be reverent and worthy of respect, free from all uncleanness' (Lev. XV, 31). So in this place, it has named the other extraordinary pleasures, as well as the very works of marriage, if they are not done reverently and with modesty, as if under the eyes of God, so that only to their own children will they serve, uncleanness and lust. Fourth, in the catalog of the works of the flesh, idolatry holds a place. For whoever once allows themselves to indulge in luxury and pleasure does not look towards the Creator. Moreover, all idolatry, revelry, gluttony, catering to the desires of the belly, and those things that lie beneath the belly, are enjoyed. And lest it should happen that sorcery and the practices of evil were not seen as prohibited in the new Testament, they are also mentioned among the works of the flesh. For often it happens that both loving and being loved occurs through the use of magical arts. Enmity, which arises after the infliction of harm, declares who is guilty, as a clear evidence of the crime. For as much as it lies within us, we ought to have no enemies, but rather be at peace with all. However, if by speaking the truth, we earn enemies, it is not so much that we are their enemies, as they are enemies of the truth. For what is said in Genesis to Abraham, 'I will be an enemy to your enemies and I will oppose those who oppose you', should be understood as not so much Abraham being their enemy, but rather they being enemies of Abraham's virtues and religion, through which he worshipped and revered God after trampling upon the idols and having come to know God. Moreover, what is commanded to the people of Israel, that they be enemies with Madian forever, and perpetuate the discord to future generations (Num. XXXI), it is said as if to those who were under the control of a tutor and deserved to be punished in another way: 'You shall have hatred for your enemy' (Matth. V, 43). Or certainly not so much of persons as of manners, there has been a disagreement made: just as God wisely placed enmity between the serpent and the woman, so that their friendship would be useless to man, through which he was cast out of paradise, in the same way in the lives of the Israelites and the Madianites, there is more dissimilarity than that they are two condemned nations. In the seventh place among the works of the flesh, contention holds a certain quasi-sacred and prominent position among the number of vices. However, it is not fitting for the servant of the Lord to engage in quarrels, but rather to be gentle towards all, a teacher, patient, instructing with gentleness even those who argue against him (2 Timothy 2:24-25). After contention, the eighth place is filled by emulation, which is more significantly and notably referred to by the Greek word ζῆλος. Indeed, I do not know who among us lacks that particular evil. For they were jealous, even Joseph's brothers: and Mary, Aaron the prophet of God and priest, were deceived by such a passion against Moses (Gen. XXXVII, Num. XII): to the extent that the one of whom the Scripture narrated, saying: But Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel (Exod. XV. 20), etc., afterwards having been cast out of the camp, she became defiled with the stain of leprosy, and marked out a longer repentance by a seven-day separation (Num. XII). Then anger follows, which does not accomplish the justice of God (James 1), and it is a kind of madness. Between irritability and anger, there is this difference: that the irritable person is always angry, while the angry person is only temporarily provoked. And I do not know who can possess the kingdom of God: for the one who is angry is separated from the kingdom (Matthew 5). Moreover, the quarrels, which the Greeks signify as something different, they call ἐριθείας (since rixa is called μάχη) are prohibited from the kingdom of God. But contention is when someone is always ready to contradict, delights in the anger of others, and engages in quarrels like a woman, provoking the one who disagrees. This is called 'φιλονεικία' among the Greeks. There are also divisions of the flesh: when someone, with the same feeling and opinion, says 'I am of Paul,' 'and I of Apollos,' 'and I of Cephas,' 'and I of Christ' (1 Corinthians 1:12). And this same dissension is found within households: between husband and wife, father and son, brother and brother, master and servant, soldier and comrade, craftsman and fellow craftsman. Sometimes it happens that even in the explanations of Scriptures there arises dissension, from which heresies also, which are now put forth in the work of the flesh, bubble up. For if the wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God (Rom. VIII) (but all doctrines of falsehood that are contrary to God are hostile), consequently, heresies are also hostile to God and are attributed to the works of the flesh. Αἵρεσις, however, means choice in Greek: namely, each person chooses for themselves the discipline that they believe is better. Therefore, whoever understands Scripture in a way contrary to the meaning demanded by the Holy Spirit by whom it was written, even though they may not have departed from the Church, they can be called a heretic and they are focused on the works of the flesh, choosing what worsens. Envy follows heresies, which we cannot think is the same as zeal. Because zeal can be understood in a good sense, when someone strives to imitate those things that are better. Envy, however, is tormented by the happiness of others, and it is divided into two passions: either when someone sees himself as something in which he does not want another to be, or when he sees another as better and is upset that he is not like that person. A certain person, skillfully translating a Greek verse, composed an elegiac meter about envy, saying:

There is nothing more unjust than envy: it immediately gnaws at the author himself and torments his soul. Blessed Cyprian wrote a very excellent book on Zeal and Envy: whoever reads it will not hesitate to include envy among the works of the flesh. However, there is a difference between an envious person and a person who is envied: the envious person envies someone who is more fortunate. The envied person, on the other hand, is the one who suffers envy from someone else. Intoxication holds the fourteenth place among the works of the flesh. Indeed, the drunken will not inherit the kingdom of God. And the Lord said to the disciples: Take heed, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life (Luke 21:34). Wine confuses a man's senses: his feet stumble, his mind wavers, his desire is kindled. Hence the Apostle cries out: And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery (Ephesians 5:18). Everyone has the power to decide for themselves. I follow the Apostle: in wine there is debauchery, in wine there is drunkenness. But drunkenness and excess are counted among the works of the flesh, and he cannot deny it who is overcome by these passions. And though some may criticize me in that book, which I wrote about the preservation of virginity, for saying that young women should avoid wine as if it were poison, I do not regret my opinion. For in that work, wine is more of a curse than a creation of God for us, and we allowed the virgin, who was fervent with the heat of her own youth, the indulgence of drinking a little more so that she would not drink too little and suffer harm. Moreover, we knew that wine is consecrated into the blood of Christ, and it was commanded to Timothy to drink wine. However, drunkenness can occur from both wine and other types of alcoholic beverages that are made in different ways; from which it is also said about the holy ones: He shall not drink wine or strong drink (Luke 1:15). Strong drink is interpreted as drunkenness. And so that no one, not drinking wine, would think that he should drink something else, the cause is excluded; since everything that can cause intoxication is equally removed with wine. The fifteenth, which is also the last, of the works of the flesh, is revelry. For the people ate and drank, and they rose up to play (Exod. XXXII, 6). Drunkenness is always accompanied by debauchery. Indeed, a certain noble and eloquent orator, when describing a person awakened from sleep while intoxicated, said: "Neither awakened could he sleep, nor intoxicated could he stay awake." With this sentiment, he expressed that in a way, the person was neither alive nor dead. It would be lengthy to repeat all the works of the flesh and to make a list of vices. Therefore, he concluded everything in his speech, saying these and similar things. Oh, if only we could avoid these things as easily as we understand them. I foretell to you, as I have foretold before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Where he had previously said: Sin shall not reign, he said, in your mortal body, to obey its desires (Rom. VI, 12). All these things have sin, in which we have perhaps lingered too much in distinguishing them. Therefore, in the soul in which sin reigns, the kingdom of God cannot reign. For what participation is there between righteousness and iniquity? What communication is there between light and darkness? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial (II Cor. VI, 14, 15)? And we think that we will attain the kingdom of God if we are free from fornication, idolatry, and sorceries. Behold, enmities, strife, anger, quarrels, dissensions, drunkenness, and other things that we consider small, they exclude us from the kingdom of God. It does not matter whether one person or many are excluded from happiness, since they are all similarly excluded. In Latin codices, adultery, impurity, and murder are also written in this catalogue of vices. But it should be known that no more than fifteen acts of the flesh are named, about which we have already discussed.

Answer me now, thou that accusest thine own flesh, and supposest that this is said of it as of an enemy and adversary. Let it be allowed that adultery and fornication proceed, as you assert, from the flesh; yet hatred, variance, emulations, strife, heresies, and witchcraft, these arise merely from a depraved moral choice. And so it is with the others also, for how can they belong to the flesh? you observe that he is not here speaking of the flesh, but of earthly thoughts, which trail upon the ground. Wherefore also he alarms them by saying, that "they which practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If these things belonged to nature and not to a bad moral choice, his expression, "they practice," is inappropriate, it should be, "they suffer." And why should they be cast out of the kingdom, for rewards and punishments relate not to what proceeds from nature but from choice?

"are evident." Therefore he seemed to say: From their own fruits you will recognize the wicked and base society.

But "flesh" he speaks of again, of the corrupting imagination and of the earthy and fleshly life.

"the works of the flesh." It is therefore clear that by "flesh" he calls the fleshly mindset, that is, the soul's tendency toward worse things; and by "spirit" the given grace.

"uncleanness, filthiness." He says unclean and shamelessness, shameful practices of prostitution.

He means the works of the flesh and blood, which, in his Epistle to the Galatians, deprive men of the kingdom of God. In other passages also he is accustomed to put the natural condition instead of the works that are done therein, as when he says, that "they who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It is not indeed the flesh which he bids us to put off, but the works which he in another passage shows to be "works of the flesh." He brings no accusation against men's bodies, of which he even writes as follows: "Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

What are these? Among the first he has set "fornication, impurity, lasciviousness: "" (concerning) which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that whoever do such acts are not to attain by inheritance the kingdom of God." The Romans, moreover,-what learning is more impressed upon them than that there must be no dereliction of the Lord after believing? "What, then, say we? Do we persevere in sin, in order that grace may superabound? Far be it.

But what do we understand "the sense of the flesh" and "the life of the flesh" (to mean), except whatever "it shames (one) to pronounce? " for the other (works) of the flesh even an apostle would have named. Similarly, too, (when writing) to the Ephesians, while recalling past (deeds), he warns (them) concerning the future: "In which we too had our conversation, doing the concupiscences and pleasures of the flesh.

These, he says, are the works of the corrupt carnal will, among which are recognized adultery and fornication. And it is clear how much adultery differs from fornication.

He hints at shameless customs which he did not even dare to name.

Then when he says, "the works of the flesh are manifest," he proves what he has said through certain effects. First, he mentions the works of the flesh which are opposed to the Holy Spirit; Secondly, he shows how the works of the Spirit are not forbidden by the Law (23b). As to the first, he does two things: First, he mentions the works of the flesh that are forbidden by the Law; Secondly, the works of the Spirit which are not forbidden by it (v. 22). As to the first, he does two things: First, he enumerates the works of the flesh; Secondly, he mentions the harm that follows from them (v. 21).

With respect to the first, two doubts arise. First, as to the Apostle's mentioning things that do not pertain to the flesh, but which he says are works of the flesh, such as idolatry, sects, emulations, and the like. I answer that, according to Augustine in The City of God (Bk. 14), he lives according to the flesh who lives according to himself. Hence flesh is taken here as referring to the whole man. Accordingly, whatever springs from disordered self-love is called a work of the flesh. Or, one should say that a sin can be called "of the flesh" in two ways: namely, with respect to fulfillment, and in this sense only those are sins of the flesh that are fulfilled in the pleasure of the flesh, namely, lust and gluttony; or with respect to their root, and in this sense all sins are called sins of the flesh, inasmuch as the soul is so weighed down by the weakness of the flesh (as is written in Wisdom 9:15) that the enfeebled intellect can be easily misled and hindered from operating perfectly. As a consequence, certain vices follow therefrom, namely, heresies, sects and the like. In this way it is said that the "fomes" is the source of all sins.

The second doubt is that, since the Apostle says that "they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God," whereas no one is excluded from the kingdom of God except for mortal sin, it follows that all the sins enumerated are mortal sins. But the contrary seems to be the case, because in this list he enumerates many that are not mortal sins, such as contention, emulation, and the like. I answer that all the sins listed here are mortal one way or another: some are so according to their genus, as murder, fornication, idolatry, and the like; but others are mortal with respect to fulfillment, as anger, whose fulfillment consists in harm to neighbor. Hence if one consents to that harm, there is mortal sin. In like manner, eating is directed to the pleasure of food, but if one places his end in such pleasures, he sins mortally; accordingly, he does not say "eating" but revellings. And the same must be said of the others that are like this.

Thirdly, there is a doubt about the order followed in this list. However, it should be recognized that when the Apostle varies his enumeration of various vices in various texts, it is not his intention to enumerate all the vices in perfect order and according to the rules of the art, but only those in which the persons to whom he is writing abound and in which they are excessive. Therefore in these lists one should look not for completeness but for the cause of the variation.

Having settled these doubts, we should next observe that the Apostle lists certain vices of the flesh that concern things not necessary to life and others that concern things necessary to life. As to the first, he mentions certain vices that a man commits against himself; then those that are against God; finally, those that are against the neighbor. Against the self are four. These he mentions first, because they obviously spring from the flesh. Two of these pertain to the carnal act of lust, namely, "fornication," when an unmarried man becomes one with an unmarried woman with respect to the natural use of lust. The other is "uncleanness" as to a use which is contrary to nature—"No fornicator or unclean... hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph 5:5); "They have not done penance for the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness that they have committed" (2 Cor 12:21). The other two are ordained to the aforesaid acts: one is performed outwardly, as touches, looks, kisses and the like; as to these he says, "immodesty": "Who despairing, have given themselves up to immodesty unto the working of all uncleanness" (Eph 4:19). The other inwardly, namely, unclean thoughts; as to this he says, "luxury": "When they have grown wanton in Christ, they will marry" (1 Tim 5:11).

Now it is adultery, if one, abandoning the ecclesiastical and true knowledge, and the persuasion respecting God, accedes to false and incongruous opinion, either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from, knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry, in following the prophet, who says: "[My people] hath committed fornication with stock and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me."

So that poisoning and sorcery might not appear to be condoned in the New Testament, they are included among the works of the flesh. This happens when people love and are loved through magical arts.

It often happens that dissensions arise in the interpretation of Scripture, from which heresies, here numbered among the works of the flesh, boil over. For if "the wisdom of the flesh is at enmity with God" (and all false doctrines, being repugnant to God, are at enmity), heresies also, being at enmity with God, are consequently included among the works of the flesh.

"enmities." The unjust. For there are also just enmities, those arising from faithfulness. For he says that if it were possible for you to be at peace with all people, it is clear that there are times when this is not possible.

"jealousy." For one must not be jealous, but rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

"rivalries." As in quarrels arising from conflict.

On this point, however, we dwell no longer, since it is the same Paul who, in his Epistle to the Galatians, counts "heresies" among "the sins of the flesh," who also intimates to Titus, that "a man who is a heretic" must be "rejected after the first admonition," on the ground that "he that is such is perverted, and committeth sin, as a self-condemned man.

Now it is clear that idolatry and sorcery and things of that kind belong not to the flesh but to the soul. In fact it is not the flesh that he is condemning but the wayward mind.

Let those who slander the flesh tell us. Granted that shamelessness and adultery are sins of the body, but how do enmity, heresies, and the like depend on the flesh? Therefore it is clear that all these are the work of a corrupted will. If they were works of the flesh, like our natural properties, how would they deprive us of the Kingdom of God? For punishments and rewards belong not to nature, but to the will. Moreover, if the passions were properties of nature, he would not have said "those who do such things," but "those who suffer them," because action presupposes will. By "enmity" he means unjust enmity. For there is also a righteous hostility, which arises in the name of faith and is directed against all who deviate from the straight path. By jealousy he means another manifestation of it (zelotypia). Because jealousy can also be good, when someone imitates one who does good (is zealous for good). But he excellently placed heresies alongside strife and dissensions, because every heresy arises from envy, and revelries from drunkenness. For revelries are the insolent songs of drunkards. Therefore he first pointed out the causes that produce these things, then what results from them.

Against God he lists two: one of these is that whereby divine worship is hindered by the enemies of God; as to this he says, "idolatry": "Neither become ye idolaters as some of them" (1 Cor 10:7); "For the worship of abominable idols is the cause and beginning and end of all evil" (Wis 14:27). The other is that in which a pact is struck with demons; as to this he says, "witchcrafts", which are performed through magical arts, and are called in Latin veneficia, from venom, because they result in great harm to man: "I would not that you should be made partakers with devils" (1 Cor 10:20); "Without are dogs and sorcerers" (Rev 22:15).

Against one's neighbor he enumerates nine, the first of which is "enmity" and the last "murder", because from the former, one comes to the latter. The first, therefore, is animosity in the heart, which is hatred toward one's neighbor: "And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household" (Mt 10:36); hence he says "enmities": from which arise verbal disputes. And so he says, "contentions," which are attacks on the truth with the confidence of shouting: "It is an honor for a man to separate himself from quarrels" (Prov 20:3).

The second is "emulation," which consists in contending with another to obtain a same thing; hence he says, "emulations", which arise from contention. The third arises when one is hindered by someone else who is tending to a same thing, so that on this account anger arises against him. Hence he says, "wraths": "The anger of men worketh not the justice of God" (Jam 1:20); "Let not the sun go down on your anger" (Eph 4:26).

The fourth is when anger of spirit leads to blows; and with respect to this he says, "quarrels": "Hatred stirs up strifes" (Prov 10:12). The fifth, namely, "dissensions", arise from quarrels: if they concern human matters they are called dissensions: for example, when factions arise in the Church—"Mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them" (Rom 16:17)—if they concern divine matters, they are called "sects", i.e., heresies: "They shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them," and "They fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming" (2 Pet. 2:1, 10). From these "envy" follows, when those they vie with prosper: "Envy slayeth the little one" (Job 5:2). And from these follow "murders" in heart and deed: "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 Jn 3:15).

Let no one suppose that envy is the same thing as jealousy. For they are indeed neighbors and because of that very neighborhood either of them is often freely substituted for the other.… But because each is distinguished here they require us to make a distinction. Jealousy is the mind's anguish when someone achieves something that two or more were seeking but which can be had only by one. Jealousy is cured by peace, in which all may obtain that which is sought and thus become one. Envy on the other hand is the grief one feels in one's mind when an unworthy person appears to have obtained something, even if it is not being sought by others. Envy is overcome by meekness, when all who yearn appeal to the judgment of God and do not resist his will, trusting rather in the justice of what he does than in one's own estimate of what people deserve.

Those, furthermore, who commit those sins whereof the apostle says, "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God"

Since God is righteous, such people do not obtain the kingdom of heaven so long as they do such things. But since God is merciful, the wicked, if they cease doing revolting things by which they try God's patience and turn to God in humble amendment, they do without doubt obtain the kingdom of God.

But as to themselves, they hold that they shall be entirely and undoubtedly saved, not by means of conduct, but because they are spiritual by nature. For, just as it is impossible that material substance should partake of salvation (since, indeed, they maintain that it is incapable of receiving it), so again it is impossible that spiritual substance (by which they mean themselves) should ever come under the power of corruption, whatever the sort of actions in which they indulged. For even as gold, when submersed in filth, loses not on that account its beauty, but retains its own native qualities, the filth having no power to injure the gold, so they affirm that they cannot in any measure suffer hurt, or lose their spiritual substance, whatever the material actions in which they may be involved. Wherefore also it comes to pass, that the "most perfect" among them addict themselves without fear to all those kinds of forbidden deeds of which the Scriptures assure us that "they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." For instance, they make no scruple about eating meats offered in sacrifice to idols, imagining that they can in this way contract no defilement. Then, again, at every heathen festival celebrated in honour of the idols, these men are the first to assemble; and to such a pitch do they go, that some of them do not even keep away from that bloody spectacle hateful both to God and men, in which gladiators either fight with wild beasts, or singly encounter one another. Others of them yield themselves up to the lusts of the flesh with the utmost greediness, maintaining that carnal things should be allowed to the carnal nature, while spiritual things are provided for the spiritual.

It would have been a long task to enumerate all the works of the flesh and make a catalog of vices, so Paul has wrapped this all up in one phrase: "and the like." I wish that we could avoid these vices as easily as we can see them!

"revelries." To hurl hecklings and to taunt the convictions of others in a state of drunkenness.

"will not inherit the kingdom of God." Meanwhile all will fall from power, yet there will be diversity in their punishments.

It is after displaying to the Galatians these pernicious works that he professes to warn them beforehand, even as he had "told them in time past, that they which do such things should not inherit the kingdom of God," even because they bore not the image of the heavenly, as they had borne the image of the earthy; and so, in consequence of their old conversation, they were to be regarded as nothing else than flesh and blood.

Finally, of vices that pertain to the ordering of the necessaries of life he mentions two: one concerns drink; hence he says, "drunkenness," i.e., continual: "Take heed lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life" (Lk 21:34). The other concerns food, touching which he says, "revellings": "Not in rioting and drunkenness" (Rom 13:13).