Paul’S Final Warning And Reminder
PAUL’S FINAL WARNING AND REMINDER
GALATIANS 6:11-18
The ultimate test is not a religious ritual but whether a person has become a new creation.
The apostle now takes over from his assistant, a professional scribe whom he employed to write what he dictated, according to ancient letter-writing procedures (see Romans 16:22 for the name of one such writer). Sometimes Paul added only a final greeting and his signature (2 Thessalonians 3:17), but to these readers at Galatia what William Neil terms “a final salvo” is fired. The apostle wishes his errant church to be in no doubt as to the issues involved in their danger of “deserting him who called you … and turning to a different gospel” (1:6).
These closing verses then are by way of summary, warning and reminder. The futility of any blind trust in religious ceremonial is reiterated; especially the Judaizers’ insistence on circumcision (6:12-13) comes in for a final condemnation. There is a subtle play on words here, chiefly on the term “flesh.” The Jewish-Christians were harping on about circumcision, ie a surgical operation to remove a piece of human flesh (6:12). Paul retorts, by inference, that this is something of deeper significance; it is a confidence in one’s own religious achievements which are to be renounced once and for all, at the foot of the cross (6:14; see also Philippians 3:2-11 for a full statement of this theme).
In any case, two things are clear. First, the important matter in the spiritual life is not an outward form or display, but a new spirit which derives from sharing in the risen life of Christ (6:15; 1 Corinthians 7:19; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Corinthians 6:17). And secondly the only bodily marks which interest Paul are those scars obtained in suffering for the gospel’s sake (6:17). Memories of his treatment at Lystra (Acts 14:19) would no doubt be in his mind; indeed, they were as permanently impressed on him as the scars themselves, as his witness in later life recalled (2 Timothy 3:11).
Note 6:17: this verse has given rise to the notion of the stigmata (brands), so turning Paul into a mystic. But the plain sense is against this. The “marks of Jesus” are signs of his courageous service for Christ and the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:30-32; 2 Corinthians 4:8-12; 11:23-30). A slave was usually tattooed as a sign of his belonging to his master, and Paul is a slave (eg Romans 1:1) of Christ, whose service is perfect freedom.