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Exhoration Vs. 16-18 Analysis

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Introduction Holy living is one of the more difficult aspects of the Christian life, and in chapter five in his epistle to the church in Galatia, Paul exhorts this living. This exhortation is especially seen in verses 16-18, when Paul contrasts a life in walking in the Spirit as opposed to the flesh. The difficulty for a Christian, Paul points out, is that there will always be a struggle between the desires of the flesh and fruits of the spirit. He sets up this exhortation in v.16-18 with a statement in v.13, he says “For you were called to freedom….do not use your freedom for an opportunity for the flesh, but through love.” This is message that would have contrasted a false teaching of works of the flesh at that time in Galatia, and this message would have been a correction of that teaching. Differences from Today …show more content…

This was an attempt to keep new Christians living under the law. Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians rightly states that Paul gets to the heart of the matter, and establishes that love is the rule for believers. In the present day, there is no pressure to keep a law of circumcision or any traditional law necessarily. The time in which this letter took place, the gospel had been introduced into Galatia and was newly accepted. This was a time in which strong doctrine had not been established or taught, and it would have been easy for these new Christians to be influenced by false

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