Jesus turns the dispute about tradition in a completely unexpected direction. The washings mentioned in the text were one of those expanded interpretations...
Jesus turns the dispute about tradition, about handed-down practice, in a completely unexpected direction. The washings mentioned in the text were one of those expanded interpretations of the norms and rules of ritual purity, of which many appeared in the Second Temple period. A cleansing washing, even of the hands alone after returning from the marketplace, was one of these newly established rules.
There was a desire here for a kind of "super-purity": anything could happen in the marketplace, all kinds of people are encountered there, and there is enough uncleanness of every sort. So it was better, just in case, to perform a washing, even a partial one, even only of the hands, before sitting down at the table where one would have to break, and therefore bless, the bread. Meanwhile all these traditions, as Jesus testifies, could not prevent essential distortions connected with spiritual life, with such fundamental things as keeping the commandments. The Savior Himself gives an example of such a violation: promise to donate to the Temple what is needed to help elderly parents, and you no longer have to help them, since God is more important.
Formally everything is correct and pious, but in substance it is a violation of the fifth commandment. How is that possible? Jesus gives the answer immediately, reducing it to an aphoristic formulation: a person is defiled not by what enters him, but by what comes out of him. Other Gospels speak directly of a person's mouth. The point is evidently, on the one hand, the food that enters a person and, on the other hand, words. Of course, behind words there are always intentions, and it is those intentions that defile a person. In the Kingdom this is really so, because the fallen world and its elements no longer have their former power over a person.
Why, then, do people so often shift the emphases of spiritual life from what is primary to what is secondary? Jesus answers this question too. He says that what a person eats does not defile him. On the contrary, if a person lives a normal, full spiritual life, he is able to sanctify any food that enters his body. As for what comes out of the body, the intentions and words, that is exactly where the question is decided: will a person preserve purity or be defiled? This is understandable. Physically, a person is what he eats, but only physically; spiritually, he is what his soul desires and strives for. Where the treasure is, there the heart is also. If a person does not have a normal spiritual life, then of course every kind of uncleanness will cling to him. In that case, however, no cleansings will help, just as no medicines help someone who has no immunity at all. Jesus reminds the people listening to Him of all this as of things fundamental to spiritual life.
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5:11 But if I still preach circumcision - As that troubler seems to have affirmed, probably taking occasion from his having circumcised Timothy.Why do I still suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased - The grand reason why the Jews were so offended at his preaching Christ crucified, and so bitterly persecuted him for it, was, that it implied the abolition of the law. Yet St. Paul did not condemn the conforming, out of condescension to the weakness of any one, even to the ceremonial law; but he did absolutely condemn those who taught it as necessary to justification.
5:12 I would they were even cut off - From your communion; cast out of your church, that thus trouble you.
5:13 Ye have been called to liberty - From sin and misery, as well as from the ceremonial law. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh - Take not occasion from hence to gratify corrupt nature. But by love serve one another - And hereby show that Christ has made you free.
5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself - inasmuch as none can do this without loving God, Jo1 4:12; and the love of God and man includes all perfection. Lev 19:18.
5:15 But if - On the contrary, in consequence of the divisions which those troublers have occasioned among you, ye bite one another by evil speaking. And devour one another - By railing and clamour. Take heed ye be not consumed one of another - By bitterness, strife, and contention, our health and strength, both of body and soul, are consumed, as well as our substance and reputation.
5:16 I say then - He now explains what he proposed, Gal 5:13.Walk by the Spirit - Follow his guidance in all things.And fulfil not - In anything.The desire of the flesh - Of corrupt nature.
5:17 For the flesh desireth against the Spirit - Nature desires what is quite contrary to the Spirit of God. But the Spirit against the flesh - - But the Holy Spirit on his part opposes your evil nature. These arecontrary to each other - The flesh and the Spirit; there can be no agreement between them. That ye may not do the things which ye would - - That, being thus strengthened by the Spirit, ye may not fulfil the desireof the flesh, as otherwise ye would do.
5:18 But if ye are led by the Spirit - Of liberty and love, into all holiness. Ye are not under the law - Not under the curse or bondage of it; not under the guilt or the power of sin.
5:19 Now the works of the flesh - By which that inward principle is discovered. Are manifest - Plain and undeniable. Works are mentioned in the plural because they are distinct from, and often inconsistent with, each other. But "the fruit of the Spirit" is mentioned in the singular, Gal 5:22, as being all consistent and connected together.Which are these - He enumerates those "works of the flesh" to which the Galatians were most inclined; and those parts of "the fruit of the Spirit" of which they stood in the greatest need. Lasciviousness - The Greek word means anything inward or outward that is contrary to chastity, and yet short of actual uncleanness.
5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft - That this means witchcraft, strictly speaking, (not poisoning,) appears from its being joined with the worship of devil - gods, and not with murder. This is frequently and solemnly forbidden in the Old Testament. To deny therefore that there is, or ever was, any such thing, is, by plain consequence, to deny the authority both of the Old and New Testament. Divisions - In domestic or civil matters.Heresies are divisions in religious communities.
5:21 Revellings - Luxurious entertainments. Some of the works here mentioned are wrought principally, if not entirely, in the mind; and yet they are called "works of the flesh." Hence it is clear, the apostle does not by "the flesh" mean the body, or sensual appetites and inclinations only, but the corruption of human nature, as it spreads through all the powers of the soul, as well as all the members of the body. Of which I tell you before - Before the event, I forewarn you.