Galatians 5:15 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Paul now addresses one area that many if not most churches and individuals struggle with at some point. This is the opposite of love and is one of the obvious examples of what happens when persons have not sanctified themselves completely before God. Paul uses vivid imagery of a wild animal like a snake, biting a person and then swallowing in a ferocious way. This is the potential danger of the situation in the Galatian churches.
This is a conditional warning. Judgmentalism and selfishness could result if they pursue self-righteousness. Legalism represented by circumcision puts human effort in front of God’s grace. This indicates deeper spiritual issues related to sin and the flesh. One way that the person bound by sin reacts to others is by lashing out verbally. Sometimes people do not speak their intent but act it out in mean-spirited responses. Minimally, people hide in their own minds and think poorly of others. They think that no one will know and that it is only their own thoughts and that they are not hurting anyone. Unkind thoughts, however, will eventually leak out and affect relationships. This is all the opposite of what it means to love our neighbor and is a direct contradiction and thus rebellion against God’s law. In seeking to keep the law, as they were being taught by the agitators, the Galatians were actually breaking the law.
The outcome of this distorted self-love is that the Galatians would consume and destroy one another, like fire burns up chaff. Wrong attitudes and speech could destroy the church and cause the spiritual ruin of those who were part of it. There are deeper issues behind this type of behavior. Paul wants the Galatians to get down to the fundamentals and remember the gospel he preached to them. The gospel calls people to love and freedom, not selfishness, legalism, or fleshly living.
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