64 lines
3.7 KiB
XML
64 lines
3.7 KiB
XML
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<div2 id="Gal.i" n="i" next="Gal.ii" prev="Gal" progress="54.74%" title="Introduction">
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<div class="Center" id="Gal.i-p0.1"><h2 id="Gal.i-p0.2">Galatians</h2>
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<p id="Gal.i-p1">Completed by <span class="smallcaps" id="Gal.i-p1.1">Joshua Bayes</span>.</p>
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</div>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Gal.i-Page_647" n="647"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Gal.i-p1.3">
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<p id="Gal.i-p2"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Gal.i-p2.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Gal.i-p2.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Gal.i-p2.3">OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO</h5>
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<h2 id="Gal.i-p2.4">T H E G A L A T I A N
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S.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Gal.i-p3"><span class="smallcaps" id="Gal.i-p3.1">This</span> epistle
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of Paul is directed not to the church or churches of a single city,
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as some others are, but of a country or province, for so Galatia
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was. It is very probable that these Galatians were first converted
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to the Christian faith by his ministry; or, if he was not the
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instrument of planting, yet at least he had been employed in
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watering these churches, as is evident from this epistle itself,
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and also from <scripRef id="Gal.i-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Acts.18.23" parsed="|Acts|18|23|0|0" passage="Ac 18:23">Acts xviii.
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23</scripRef>, where we find him going over all the country of
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Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.
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While he was with them, they had expressed the greatest esteem and
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affection both for his person and ministry; but he had not been
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long absent from them before some judaizing teachers got in among
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them, by whose arts and insinuations they were soon drawn into a
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meaner opinion both of the one and of the other. That which these
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false teachers chiefly aimed at was to draw them off from the truth
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as it is in Jesus, particularly in the great doctrine of
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justification, which they grossly perverted, by asserting the
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necessity of joining the observance of the law of Moses with faith
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in Christ in order to it: and, the better to accomplish this their
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design, they did all they could to lessen the character and
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reputation of the apostle, and to raise up their own on the ruins
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of his, representing him as one who, if he was to be owned as an
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apostle, yet was much inferior to others, and particularly who
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deserved not such a regard as Peter, James, and John, whose
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followers, it is likely, they pretended to be: and in both these
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attempts they had but too great success. This was the occasion of
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his writing this epistle, wherein he expresses his great concern
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that they had suffered themselves to be so soon turned aside from
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the faith of the gospel, vindicates his own character and authority
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as an apostle against the aspersions of his enemies, showing that
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his mission and doctrine were both divine, and that he was not,
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upon any account, <i>behind the very chief of the apostles,</i>
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<scripRef id="Gal.i-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.11.5" parsed="|2Cor|11|5|0|0" passage="2Co 11:5">2 Cor. xi. 5</scripRef>. He then sets
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himself to assert and maintain the great gospel doctrine of
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justification by faith without the works of the law, and to obviate
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some difficulties that might be apt to arise in their minds
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concerning it: and, having established this important doctrine, he
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exhorts them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made
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them free, cautions them against the abuse of this liberty, gives
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them several very needful counsels and directions and then
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concludes the epistle by giving them a just description of those
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false teachers by whom they had been ensnared, and, on the
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contrary, of his own temper and behaviour. In all this his great
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scope and design were to recover those who had been perverted, to
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settle those who might be wavering, and to confirm such among them
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as had kept their integrity.</p>
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</div2>
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