Galatians 6:11 - Meaning and Application

The apostle had already laid out the gospel and urged these Christians to live in a way that fit it. At this point, he seems ready to end the letter, especially after telling them that he had written this long message in his own hand as a special sign of respect, instead of using a scribe and only signing his name, as he usually did in other letters. Yet his love for them is so strong, and his concern to pull them back from the wrong influence of false teachers, that he keeps going.

He wants to give one more clear picture of those teachers, and then show his own very different spirit. By setting the two side by side, the Galatians could more easily see how little reason they had to leave the doctrine Paul had taught them and follow the false teachers instead.

The false teachers wanted to make a good outward showing, especially in the flesh, that is, in outward religion and visible ceremony (Galatians 6:12). They were eager about the outward parts of religion and quick to urge the ceremonial law on others, but they cared little for true godliness. As Paul says next, they did not even keep the law themselves. Proud and worldly hearts often settle for enough religion to keep up appearances, and those people often have the least real substance of faith.

They were also afraid of suffering. They forced Gentile Christians to be circumcised only so they would not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Their concern was not really the law, but themselves. They wanted to avoid pain, protect their reputation, and keep peace with the Jews, even if that meant hurting faith and a good conscience.

Another mark of them was their party spirit. They wanted these Christians circumcised so they could boast about them and say they had won them to their side, marking them in the flesh as their followers (Galatians 6:13). While claiming to promote religion, they were actually harming it. Few things have damaged religion more than faction and party-making.

Paul then turns from them to himself, and gives his own clear confession. His chief glory was in the cross of Christ, meaning the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross, and the message of salvation through a crucified Savior (Galatians 6:14). The Jews stumbled at this message, and the Greeks thought it foolish. Even the Judaizing teachers, though they called themselves Christians, were ashamed of the cross and tried to add Moses’ law to faith in Christ so they would not be opposed by the Jews.

Paul was completely different. He was not ashamed of the cross, afraid to speak of it, or willing to put anything beside it as equal. He rejoiced in it, and he wanted to glory in nothing else. This was the ground of his hope as a Christian, and the message he was determined to preach as an apostle. However much suffering that brought him, he was ready to bear it and even rejoice in it. The cross of Christ is the true glory of a believer, because all our hope and joy come through it.

He also says that he was dead to the world. Through Christ, or through the cross of Christ, the world had been crucified to him, and he to the world. The power of the cross had turned his heart away from the world’s values and pleasures, and that was one reason he gloried in it. The false teachers were worldly men, mostly concerned with their own advantage, so they shaped religion to fit their interests. Paul was different. Since the world had no real kindness for him, he no longer cared much for the world either. He had risen above its praise and its anger.

This is the kind of mindset all Christians should seek. The best way to grow in it is to spend much time thinking about the cross of Christ. The more we value Christ, the less we will value the world. And the more we consider the sufferings our dear Redeemer endured from the world, the less we will love the world ourselves.

Finally, Paul says he did not place the weight of religion on either side of the controversy about circumcision and uncircumcision, but on true Christianity (Galatians 6:15). At that time, Christians were sadly divided over these matters. Some wanted circumcision treated as necessary for salvation, and they pressed Gentile believers to submit to it. Paul had strongly opposed that, because it threatened the freedom of the gospel.

Still, whether a person had been a Jew or a Gentile before coming to Christ, and whether they continued or did not continue circumcision, mattered little to Paul as long as they did not make it the ground of their religion. Under the Christian way, circumcision means nothing, and uncircumcision means nothing, as far as acceptance with God is concerned. What matters is being a new creature, a person made new by God.

Here he shows us both what true religion is not and what it is. It is not found in circumcision or uncircumcision, or in belonging to one Christian group rather than another. It is found in being a new creation, not just in having a new name or putting on a new outward form, but in being renewed in the spirit of our minds and having Christ formed in us. This mattered most to God, and it mattered most to Paul as well.

If we compare this verse with other passages, we can see more clearly what makes us most acceptable to God and what we should care about most. Here Paul says it is being a new creation. In Galatians 5:6 he says it is faith that works through love. In 1 Corinthians 7:19 he says it is keeping God’s commandments. All of this shows that true religion is a change of mind and heart. That change makes us willing and able to believe in the Lord Jesus and to live in devoted service to God.

Where this inward, living, practical religion is missing, no outward profession or special name will help us with God. If Christians were truly concerned to experience this in themselves and encourage it in others, they might still keep their distinct names, but they would at least stop placing so much weight on them, as they often do. Christians should be careful to put the weight of religion where God has put it, on the things that matter for our acceptance with him. Paul did this, and it is wise and good for us to follow his example.

Paul has shown what matters most in religion, not a bare name or outward profession, but a real and saving change. Now in Galatians 6:16 he speaks a blessing on all who walk by this rule: “Peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” This rule may mean the whole word of God, which is the full and perfect guide for faith and life. It may also mean the gospel teaching he has set out in this letter, namely, justification, which means being accepted by God, and salvation through faith in Christ, apart from the works of the law. Or it may point more directly to the new creation he has just described.

The blessings he desires for those who walk by this rule, or the blessings he holds out to them as a promise, are peace and mercy. Peace means peace with God and a peaceful conscience, along with all the comforts of this life as far as they are needed. Mercy means a share in the free love and favor of God in Christ, which is the source of every other blessing. A good foundation for these blessings is laid in that gracious change worked in them. As long as they live as new creatures and guide their lives and hopes by the gospel rule, they may be fully sure of them.

He says these blessings belong to all the Israel of God, meaning all sincere Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles. They are the true Israelites, not by natural birth, but by spiritual grace. Though they may not be Abraham’s children by blood, they become his spiritual seed. Since they share his faith, they also share the promise, and so peace and mercy belong to them. The Jews and the teachers who insisted on circumcision wanted to limit these blessings to those who kept Moses’ law. Paul says the opposite. They belong to all who walk by the gospel rule, the rule of the new creation. In that way he shows that the true Israel of God is made up of those who live by this rule, not by the rule of circumcision, which his opponents prized so highly.

Real Christians are people who walk by rule, not by a rule they made for themselves, but by the rule God has given. Even those who walk by this rule still need God’s mercy. Yet all who truly seek to walk by it may be sure that peace and mercy will be theirs. This is the best way to have peace with God, with ourselves, and with others. It also gives us confidence now of God’s favor, and later of mercy with him forever.

Paul also says that he has cheerfully suffered persecution for the sake of Christ and Christianity, in Galatians 6:17. The cross of Christ, or the message of salvation through a crucified Savior, was what he most rejoiced in. He was willing to face any danger rather than betray that truth or let it be corrupted. The false teachers feared persecution, and that was a major reason they pushed circumcision, as we see in Galatians 6:12. But Paul did not worry about such things. He was not shaken by the hardships he suffered, and he did not count his life as too precious, as long as he could finish his course with joy and carry out the ministry he received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).

He had already suffered much for Christ. He bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus, the scars left by wounds from persecutors because he held firmly to Christ and to the gospel he had received from him. This showed that he was fully persuaded of the truth and importance of the gospel, and that he was far from supporting circumcision, as his enemies falsely claimed. So with fitting strength and earnestness, Paul says that no one should trouble him any longer, meaning by opposing his teaching or authority, or by spreading the insults and accusations that had been thrown at him. Since both his words and his sufferings showed those charges were deeply unfair, it was unreasonable for anyone to make them or believe them.

It is fair to assume that people are fully convinced of the truths they are willing to suffer for. It is also very wrong to accuse others of things that go against not only their teaching, but also their sufferings.

Paul has now finished what he meant to write for the correction and recovery of the churches of Galatia. So he closes the letter with his apostolic blessing in Galatians 6:18. He calls them brothers, showing both his humility and the tender love he still had for them, even after the poor treatment he had received from them. He leaves them with this serious and affectionate prayer, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with their spirit. This was a familiar farewell wish from Paul, as we see in Romans 16:20, Romans 16:24, and 1 Corinthians 16:23.

He asks that they would enjoy the favor of Christ, both in its special results and in the clear signs of it. He wants them to receive from Christ all the grace they need to guide their steps, strengthen their work, steady them in the Christian life, and comfort them through every trial of life, even the approach of death itself.

This is rightly called the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, since he alone purchased it and he is the one appointed to give it. These churches had done enough to lose such favor by letting themselves be drawn into a view and practice that dishonored Christ and put them in danger. Yet, out of deep concern for them, and knowing how much they needed it, Paul earnestly asks this grace for them.

He also asks that it would be with their spirit, so they would keep feeling its work in their souls. Then they would be shaped and strengthened to live with sincerity and honesty in religion. We need nothing more to make us truly happy than the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul asks this for these Christians, and in doing so he shows us what we should chiefly seek. For their encouragement and ours, he closes with his Amen.