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Welcome back! Let’s dig right into what I found in my review of cross-references, other translations, and relevant commentaries.

Last Week’s Work

CROSS-REFERENCES

These references stood out this week:

• Matthew 16:6-12. Jesus told his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which, He explained, meant they needed to be wary of what those Jewish leaders taught. Depending on which commentary you follow, it seems Paul might have used the proverb that way also (see below).
• Luke 12:1-3. In Luke’s version, Jesus calls out specifically the Pharisees’ hypocrisy as the leaven he warns against.
• 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. Here, Paul chastises the Corinthian congregation for tolerating sexual immorality and arrogance, exhorting them to clean out the old leaven of malice and evil and, instead, be like the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

OTHER TRANSLATIONS

The first thing I noticed in this comparison was punctuation in the New International Version and the Good News Translation: both included quotation marks around this statement. I interpreted that as an indication this statement didn’t originate with Paul; it was likely a proverb he quoted. In fact, the GNT version even adds as they say at the end of the verse to make that clearer.

The Amplified Bible went a little further into an explanation, identifying possible comparisons Paul might have intended his audience to consider: A little leaven [a slight inclination to error, or a few false teachers] leavens the whole batch [it perverts the concept of faith and misleads the church].  Though it doesn’t stay true to the actual verbiage of the verse, based on my research and review of other commentaries on this verse, I think it does the best job of stating what Paul probably intended his audience to hear: that the church should strictly adhere to the gospel as Paul proclaimed it to them and not listen to those who argued salvation also required compliance with all law.

COMMENTARY

This time, I first narrowed the list of commentaries to those applicable to my focus verse (Galatians 5:9). Then, I searched for my key term from that verse: leaven (Hint: pressing Ctrl+F on your Windows keyboard—or Command+F on Apple—enables a word search box where you can enter any terms you want to locate on the page).

After focusing my review on the sections of commentary featuring that word, I made these observations:

• Not all the commentators I reviewed agreed on what Paul intended leaven to represent in this context: some suggested it was doctrinal error (for example, you’re saved by grace, but you still need to keep the whole law, too), and others thought it referred to false teachers (though there might only be a few of these pseudo leaders, their influence spread enough confusion to taint the whole community). Some even felt it might represent both—or any other type of influence that threatened to lead the Galatians astray or dilute the gospel.
• Regardless of who or what leaven represents, though, they agreed that the gospel (the way of grace) and the (way of) law are incompatible: one cannot be saved by grace if he chooses to depend on his own works for salvation.

Considering this, it seems to me humans can never succeed in keeping the whole law—the standard of behavior is just too high for us to clear. But faith is something we can manage with the help of the Spirit (who will also help us manifest love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control, according to v22).  Thank God for the Holy Spirit!

Dig-In Challenges

This coming week, let’s wrap up our study of Galatians 5 and align with what we’ve discovered here:

1. PRAY: Read the prayer created in Step 1.
2. ALIGN: Review our study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what we’ve learned in this study.
3. ALIGN: Then, considering those “lessons learned,” think about how the Spirit has convicted us through this study. In other words, where has He shown us misalignment between what we’ve discovered and how we practice our faith?
4. ALIGN: Next, let’s look to God’s Word for guidance to correct that misalignment. This is often—but not always—a verse from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
5. ALIGN: And finally, reflect on how we can change thoughts or actions to align more closely with what we’ve discovered here. To make this work, I commit to change something and do my best to act on that commitment every day for at least three weeks.

If you haven’t been able to work through everything with me in the last seven weeks, I encourage you to read through my previous posts in this series and ask the Holy Spirit to work with you on steps 3-5 above. I know the Lord will bless your efforts to understand and apply His Word!

GO TO WEEK 8 >