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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Galatians 5:18 - 5:18
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Gal_5:18. If, however, of these two conflicting powers, the Spirit is that which rules you, in what blessed freedom ye are then! Comp. 2Co_3:17; Rom_8:2 ff.
πνεύματι ἄγεσθε ] See on Rom_8:14. Comp. also 2Ti_3:6.
οὐκ ἐστὲ ὑπὸ νόμον ] namely, because then the law can have no power over you; through the ruling power of the Spirit ye find yourselves in such a condition of moral life (in such a καινότης ζωῆς , Rom_6:4, and πνεύματος , Rom_7:6), that the law has no power to censure, to condemn, or to punish anything in you. Comp. on Rom_8:4. In accordance with Gal_5:23, this explanation is the only correct one; and this freedom is the true moral freedom from the law, to which the apostle here, in accordance with Gal_5:13, attaches importance. Comp. 1Ti_1:9. There is less accuracy in the usual interpretation (adopted by Winer, Rückert, Matthies, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius; comp. de Wette): ye no longer need the law; as Chrysostom: τίς χρεία νόμου ; τῷ γὰρ οἴκοθεν κατορθοῦντι τὰ μείζω ποῦ χρεία παιδαγωγοῦ ; or: you are free from the outward constraint of the law (Usteri, Ewald); comp. also Hofmann, who, in connection with his mistaken interpretation of Gal_5:14, understands a subjection to the law as a requirement coming from without, which does not exist in the case of the Christian, because in him the law collectively as an unity is fulfilled.