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Gal_5:6. Warrant for the ἐκ πίστεως : for in Christ Jesus, in fellowship with Christ (in the relation of the ἐν Χριστῷ εἶναι ), neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail; the fact of a man being or not being circumcised is of no influence, but faith, which is operative through love, sc. ἰσχύει τι . The τι ἰσχύει is to be left in the same general and unlimited form in which it stands. Circumcision and uncircumcision are circumstances of no effect or avail in Christianity. And yet they were in Galatia the points on which the disturbance turned! On the faith active in love, which is the effective saving element in the state of the Christian, comp. 1Ti_1:5; 1Th_1:3; 1 Corinthians 13; also Jam_2:22. By means of this faith man is καινὴ κτίσις , Gal_6:15. Bengel well says: “Cum fide conjunxit Gal_5:5, spem, nunc amorem; in his stat totus Christianismus.” How very necessary it was for the Galatians that prominence should be given to the activity of faith in love, may be seen from Gal_5:15; Gal_5:20; Gal_5:26. The passive view of ἐνεργουμ ., which is given by the Fathers and many Catholics, such as Bellarmine, Estius, Reithmayr, in whom the interest of dogmatic controversy against the Protestants came to a great extent into play, is erroneous, because ἐνεργεῖσθαι in the N.T. is always middle (vim suam exserere). See on 2Co_1:6; Fritzsche, ad Rom. vii. 6, II. p. 18. It does not mean, “having been rendered energetic through love” (Reithmayr), but working through love, expressing thereby its vital power. Moreover, our passage is not at variance with justification solely by faith: “opera fieri dicit ex fide per caritatem, non justificari hominem per caritatem,” Luther. Comp. Calovius: “Formatam[225] etiam fidem apostolus refellit, cum non per caritatem formam suam accipere vel formari, sed per caritatem operosam vel efficacem esse docet. Caritatem ergo et opera non fidem constituere, sed consequi et ex eadem fluere certum est.” It must, however, be observed that love (the opposite of all selfishness) must be, from its nature, the continuous moral medium of the operation of faith in those who are thereby justified,[226] 1Co_13:1 ff. Comp. Lipsius, Rechtfert. p. 192; Romang, in Stud. u. Krit. 1867, p. 90 ff., who, however, concedes too much to the idea of fides formata.
[225] The “fides formata” is also found here by Bisping, and especially Reithmayr, following the Trid. Sess. vi. 7, de justif. See, on the other hand, Apol. Conf. Aug. p. 81 f.
[226] Comp. also Dorner, Gesch. d. prot. Theol. p. 232 ff.