NOTES for Gal 5:22-6:2

Here there are very difficult words that require a very careful approach: they crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. These words are generally seen as a basis for every kind of asceticism. This theme itself appears very often in the Apostle Paul. There are many other words related to these: "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:14). I have heard it said that these words mean: I have died to the world and the world to me. But if the apostle had wanted to say that, he would have said exactly that, whereas he said something different.

Here is what Fr. Georgy Chistyakov says: "The point is that the Bible has no orientation toward fighting the passions. The New Testament, through the mouths of the holy apostles, calls us not to fight anger, rage, malice, and so on, but to 'put off,' that is, to take off like old clothing, or to 'strip off' all these vices from ourselves. These two words are used many times in Scripture when it speaks of passions and vices, but nowhere here is there talk of fighting the passions. One must think that everything concerning the struggle with the passions that rule over us and nest inside us entered Christian literature from Stoic and, more generally, ancient philosophy at a later time.

The holy apostles see the Christian's path not as a road of fighting the passions, but precisely as the throwing off of old clothing, as growing out of that clothing... But if we begin to take sin apart bone by bone and subject it to analysis, then we are inevitably seized or sucked in by the very process of struggle, we turn into fighters, and at that point our Christianity simply comes to an end. From the depths of our consciousness we transfer the struggle into the outside world and begin to fight everyone who, as it appears to us, thinks the wrong way, does the wrong thing, and so on."

Let us feel the important circumstance that our Lord Jesus did not derive pleasure from His suffering, the pleasure that we at times derive from our own asceticism. After all, there is such a mental disorder as masochism - that is where Freud had grounds to accuse us. And this is, in fact, essential.

The apostle Paul writes in Galatians not so much about discerning spirits as about the fact that every Christian is called to live by the Holy Spirit. St. Seraphim of Sarov calls the acquisition of Him the goal of our life. And in these words of the apostle we read about simple and understandable things whose presence can indicate that the direction toward this goal has been chosen rightly. Both in the context of Paul's letters and in the context of contemporary life, it is important that the apostle does not include in this list what in the letter to the Corinthians he calls gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here he speaks precisely about what should testify to the action of the Holy Spirit in the life of every Christian; extraordinary gifts, according to the apostle's teaching, are not obligatory for all. Therefore there is no mention here of the "gift of tongues," of mystical illuminations, or of artistic inspiration. Nor is there any mention of emotional experiences, which are changeable and not obligatory.

The apostle speaks, in essence, of very simple things that, when we meet them in people, we usually attribute to pleasantness of character. In reality this is not so: only the Spirit of God can bring all this to birth in human hearts, and this is important for understanding the ways of the Lord. The fruits of the Holy Spirit's action listed by Paul have several common traits. First, they are not traits of character, but everything listed requires an effort of the will. Even joy, which requires the ability to give importance to what is good, needs the help of the will. Still more are efforts needed for faith, patience, and the other things listed. Second, all these things are very practical: one can check one's heart by this list when preparing for confession. In addition, one can consciously strive for what is listed. It is clear that only the Lord can fulfill this striving, and we ourselves are powerless to attain anything of what the apostle speaks about. But without our will, hardly anything can happen.

It is also very important for the apostle that acquiring these fruits of the Holy Spirit frees us from slavery to the law. Indeed, if a person labors in order to bear these fruits for God, he simply cannot do anything unlawful. The law is thus fulfilled by itself, while the efforts of the will are directed not toward fulfilling it but toward God. In this, for the apostle, lies the radical difference between the New Covenant and the Old.

Paul formulates the essence of Christian life briefly and concisely: if we live by spirit, then we must also walk by spirit. That is how the corresponding Greek text sounds literally. What does he mean? The answer depends on what one understands by "spiritual life." Often even Christians mean by it something more or less figurative. By "spirit" they understand certain new principles of life or a changed worldview. At the same time it is supposed that one or the other appears in a person when he becomes "spiritual." And a life corresponding to these new principles or this new worldview is called "life according to the spirit."

Meanwhile, that spirit, or more precisely, that breath of which the apostle speaks, has no direct relation to any principles or to any worldview. Of course, a person who lives by this breath may have his own principles and his own worldview. And as long as the person remains consistent, both will correspond to the life he is living. But what is primary is still life itself, not principles. It is life in accordance with the divine breath that permeates the Kingdom. That is what Paul is speaking about: this breath. It is not principles, not rules, not a worldview or a way of sensing the world. It is a real experience of the real, living presence of God. It is the experience of that presence in one's own life, outer and inner. This presence is what makes a person a Christian. Contact with it makes life spiritual in the proper sense.

Of course, a certain measure of spiritual life was opened to the human person even before Christ came into the world. After all, the breath of life that God breathes into the human person at creation is also presence. God's breath can be nothing else. And if such breath is in everyone, this means only one thing: every person, regardless of what he thinks about this breath, or whether he thinks about it at all, lives in the presence of God. Not an external presence, but an internal one. And it already depends on the person himself how much this God-given breath will define his life, how much it will be spiritual in the proper sense of the word. But the breath of the Kingdom, which entered the world with Christ, is not given to everyone, but only to the one who has entered into real and living relationship with Christ. Yet it is still the same breath, only in a greater, one may say absolute, fullness. In such fullness that it can make a person's life spiritual also in all fullness, up to the complete transfiguration of human nature that makes it an inseparable part of the Kingdom.

Continuing the conversation about the Kingdom and about the relationships that take shape among the inhabitants of the Kingdom, Paul formulates a fundamental rule of spiritual life, one close to the well-known saying, "You reap what you sow" (vv. 7-9). The apostle understands perfectly well that spiritual life is a process just as ordinary life is, but unlike ordinary life, it unfolds not according to the laws of our world, not yet transformed, but according to the laws of the Kingdom. And if, in the untransformed world, a person who violates the Torah and every moral norm may still succeed in certain respects, in the Kingdom this is impossible in principle. It is not because someone will specially prevent a violator of the Torah from succeeding, but because the very nature of the Kingdom does not allow it. That is why Paul reminds them of the senselessness, from the point of view of the laws of the Kingdom, of boasting and self-exaltation (vv. 3-5): the point is not only that it is deception, but also that it is useless deception. In the Kingdom, deception is not only impossible but also pointless. The very nature of the Kingdom allows a person to be only what he really is.

One could say that the Kingdom is a world where all illusions are scattered and all mirages disappear, both frightening and comforting. It is no surprise that, speaking about correction, the apostle advises those who correct others to show gentleness and to watch themselves (v. 1). Of course, it is important to watch oneself also because anyone can sin, and, once carried away by correcting a neighbor's sin, one can do so very easily: during correction, the attention of the one correcting is inevitably transferred from himself to his neighbor, so that there is usually little or no time left to watch himself. But that is not the only point. It is easy to become carried away by correction in another sense too, forgetting that in the Kingdom, where everyone is in one spiritual space, the spiritual condition of each person concerns not only himself but also all who share the life of the Kingdom with him. Another's sin in the Kingdom ceases to be merely another's; it becomes a common problem, a problem for the whole fullness of the Kingdom, which it destroys and with which one therefore cannot make peace. But the struggle against sin can also become destructive for the Kingdom, especially if it becomes a struggle not only against sin but also against the sinner himself.

Of course, if the sinner identifies himself with his sin and refuses to repent, the situation truly becomes critical: sometimes it turns out that an unrepentant sinner may lose the Kingdom altogether. But in all other cases, a person must be helped to free himself from the sin that hinders him, not pushed out merely because his presence causes everyone else too much trouble. This is evidently what Paul has in mind when he speaks of the need to bear one another's burdens (v. 2). As we can see, everything the apostle says about Christians' relationships to themselves and to one another has only one purpose: to reorient the members of the Galatian church from the laws of our world, not yet transformed, to the laws of the Kingdom.

At first glance, the passage is full of contradictions. But only at first glance, because, as always, every verse in Paul is logical and clear. The general rule is this: bear one another’s burdens, but each individual must attend to his own affairs, do his own work, and not demand that someone else carry his burden. Watch yourself, your words, and your deeds; and when correcting someone together with others, do so only in a spirit of gentleness. Watch yourself. A spirit of gentleness will not allow you to judge and accuse the people around you; you will not be able to think yourself something exceptional. And as you live each day in labor, bearing what the Lord has laid upon you, in a spirit of gentleness you will be able to help those around you.

The division between spirit and flesh is a theme that occupied the minds of many ancient philosophers, but the apostle Paul speaks of an entirely new understanding of this question. What Christ offers does not fit within the framework of even the most coherent philosophical system. The spirit and human nature are directed in opposite directions, and reconciling them is practically impossible. This can be seen clearly in the absolutely incompatible fruits they bear. This is the law to which everything must be subject. Acting according to the flesh, a person must inevitably begin committing murders, adulteries, idol worship...

Only by living in the Holy Spirit is a person able to break this circle. If we are "led by the Spirit," then little by little He transforms us so that no laws have power over us any longer. For together with Christ we "crucify" our flesh "with its passions and desires," and we begin to live in the fullness of our whole being in such a way that our deeds can be called "fruits of the spirit."

Continuing the theme of the Torah, Paul writes to the Galatian Christians that refusing circumcision does not mean refusing the Torah at all. He reminds them of a well-known rabbinic saying, which the Savior Himself quoted more than once: love your neighbor as yourself, and you may consider that you have fulfilled the Torah (v. 14). Freedom in our world, not yet transformed, is only a potential; it can be used for good or for evil. In the Kingdom, however, freedom is not only a possibility but its realization, the embodiment of love that every relationship in the Kingdom becomes, if it truly belongs to the Kingdom. It is no accident that the apostle speaks of love as the only right use of freedom and, for Christians, the only possible use of freedom (v. 13). He calls the Galatian Christians to the simplest and at the same time most difficult thing: to life in the Kingdom, to walking by the Spirit (vv. 16-17).

The apostle reminds the Galatian church of the same thing he had said more than once to other churches: in love is the whole fullness of the Torah. Love is the very foundation of the Kingdom, the substance that permeates everything there, including all the relationships that bind its inhabitants to God and to one another. The Torah ceases to be a fence protecting from sin; its protective function is no longer needed in the Kingdom. Instead another function appears, one almost unused in our world, which has not yet been fully transformed: it becomes the form that allows the love permeating the Kingdom to take shape and quality. Paul does not list the works of the spirit and the works of the flesh in such detail by accident, setting them against each other (vv. 19-28). He wants to remind his readers that the system of relationships among people forms a definite environment, and that environment can be formed either according to the laws of our world, not yet transformed, or according to the laws of the Kingdom. He calls the Galatian Christians to make the formation of an environment living by the laws of the Kingdom their chief task. This, and not playing religious games, is truly spiritual work, work worthy of the inhabitants of the Kingdom.