Galatians 3:3

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Foolish.—See the Note on Galatians 3:1.

Having begun in the Spirit.—Begun your career as Christians in a manner so entirely spiritual—with the spiritual act of faith on your part, and with an answering gift of spiritual graces and powers.

Made perfect by the flesh.—Do you wish to finish and complete the career thus auspiciously begun under a system of things entirely different—a system carnal and material, narrow, slavish, and literal—the Law in place of the Gospel? By “the flesh” is here meant the Law, which, though described as spiritual in Horn. vii. 14, and though it really was spiritual in view of its origin, in another aspect—as imposing a system of literal obedience upon its adherents—was carnal, “earthly,” rigid, petty, and low. It had none of that sublime expansiveness and aspiration which belongs to faith. It was a grievous reversing of the whole order of progress—to begin with faith, and, instead of completing with faith that which faith had begun, to fall back upon a condition of things which was shared with the Christian by the unemancipated Jew.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-5 Several things made the folly of the Galatian Christians worse. They had the doctrine of the cross preached, and the Lord's supper administered among them, in both which Christ crucified, and the nature of his sufferings, had been fully and clearly set forth. Had they been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, by the ministration of the law, or on account of any works done by them in obedience thereto? Was it not by their hearing and embracing the doctrine of faith in Christ alone for justification? Which of these had God owned with tokens of his favour and acceptance? It was not by the first, but the last. And those must be very unwise, who suffer themselves to be turned away from the ministry and doctrine which have been blessed to their spiritual advantage. Alas, that men should turn from the all-important doctrine of Christ crucified, to listen to useless distinctions, mere moral preaching, or wild fancies! The god of this world, by various men and means, has blinded men's eyes, lest they should learn to trust in a crucified Saviour. We may boldly demand where the fruits of the Holy Spirit are most evidently brought forth? whether among those who preach justification by the works of the law, or those who preach the doctrine of faith? Assuredly among the latter.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Are ye so foolish? - Can it be that you are so unwise? The idea is, that Paul hardly thought it credible that they could have pursued such a course. They had so cordially embraced the gospel when he preached to them, they had given such evidences that they were under its influence, that he regarded it as hardly possible that they should have so far abandoned it as to embrace such a system as they had done.

Having begun in the Spirit - That is, when the gospel was first preached to them. They had commenced their professedly Christian life under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and with the pure and spiritual worship of God. They had known the power and spirituality of the glorious gospel. They had been renewed by the Spirit; sanctified in some measure by him; and had submitted themselves to the spiritual influences of the gospel.

Are ye now made perfect - Tyndale renders this, "ye would now end." The word used here (ἐπιτελέω epiteleō) means properly, to bring through to an end, to finish; and the sense here has probably been expressed by Tyndale. The idea of perfecting, in the sense in which we now use that word, is not implied in the original. It is that of finishing, ending, completing; and the sense is: "You began your Christian career under the elevated and spiritual influences of Christianity, a system so pure and so exalted above the carnal ordinances of the Jews. Having begun thus, can it be that you are finishing your Christian course, or carrying it on to completion by the observance of those ordinances, as if they were more pure and elevating than Christianity? Can it be that you regard them as an advance on the system of the gospel?"

By the flesh - By the observance of the carnal rites of the Jews, for so the word here evidently means. This has not ever been an uncommon thing. Many have been professedly converted by the Spirit, and have soon fallen into the observance of mere rites and ceremonies, and depended mainly on them for salvation. Many churches have commenced their career in an elevated and spiritual manner, and have ended in the observance of mere forms. So many Christians begin their course in a spiritual manner, and end it "in the flesh" in another sense. They soon conform to the world. They are brought under the influence of worldly appetites and propensities. They forget the spiritual nature of their religion; and they live for the indulgence of ease, and for the gratification of the senses. They build them houses, and they "plant vineyards," and they collect around them the instruments of music, and the bowl and the wine is in their feasts, and they surrender themselves to the luxury of living: and it seems as if they intended to perfect their Christianity by drawing around them as much of the world as possible. The beautiful simplicity of their early piety is gone. The blessedness of those moments when they lived by simple faith has fled. The times when they sought all their consolation in God are no more; and they now seem to differ from the world only in form. I dread to see a Christian inherit much wealth, or even to be thrown into very prosperous business. I see in it a temptation to build himself a splendid mansion, and to collect around him all that constitutes luxury among the people of the world. How natural for him to feel that if he has wealth like others, he should show it in a similar manner! And how easy for the most humble and spiritually-minded Christian, in the beginning of his Christian life, to become conformed to the world (such is the weakness of human nature in its best forms); and having begun in the spirit, to end in the flesh!

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. begun—the Christian life (Php 1:6).

in the Spirit—Not merely was Christ crucified "graphically set forth" in my preaching, but also "the Spirit" confirmed the word preached, by imparting His spiritual gifts. "Having thus begun" with the receiving His spiritual gifts, "are ye now being made perfect" (so the Greek), that is, are ye seeking to be made perfect with "fleshly" ordinances of the law? [Estius]. Compare Ro 2:28; Php 3:3; Heb 9:10. Having begun in the Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit ruling your spiritual life as its "essence and active principle" [Ellicott], in contrast to "the flesh," the element in which the law works [Alford]. Having begun your Christianity in the Spirit, that is, in the divine life that proceeds from faith, are ye seeking after something higher still (the perfecting of your Christianity) in the sensuous and the earthly, which cannot possibly elevate the inner life of the Spirit, namely, outward ceremonies? [Neander]. No doubt the Galatians thought that they were going more deeply into the Spirit; for the flesh may be easily mistaken for the Spirit, even by those who have made progress, unless they continue to maintain a pure faith [Bengel].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The doctrine of their false teacthers was, that to faith in Christ, an obedience also to the law of Moses was necessary to justification; they did not deny Christ, or the doctrine of the gospel, only they pleaded for the works of the law as necessary to be superadded. The apostle calls this first owning of Christ, and embracing the doctrine of faith, a beginning

in the Spirit; their adding the necessity of obedience to the law of Moses, a being

made perfect in the flesh; and argueth the unreasonableness of it, that their justification should be begun by a more noble, and made perfect by a more ignoble cause. He calls the doctrine of the gospel,

Spirit, because (as he said in the former verse) they had received the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith; that is, by hearing and receiving the gospel. The works of the law he calls flesh, because the ordinances of the law were (as the apostle calls them, Hebrews 9:10) carnal ordinances, imposed on the Jews till the time of reformation. He elsewhere calls them the rudiments of the world, Colossians 2:8,20; and in this Epistle, Galatians 4:9, he calls them beggarly elements. For though the ordinances of the law were in their season spiritual, they being commanded by God; yet they being but temporary constitutions, never intended by God to continue longer than the coming of Christ, and the law being but a schoolmaster to lead to Christ; Christ being now come, and having died, and rose again from the dead, they became useless. Besides that God never intended them as other than rudiments and first elements, the end of which was Christ; and the observance of which, without faith in Christ, was weak and impotent, as to the noble end of justification. It spake great weakness, therefore, in the Galatians, to begin with what was more perfect, (the embracing of the gospel, and Christ there exhibited for the justification of sinners), and to end in what was more imperfect, thinking by that to be made perfect; or else the apostle here chargeth them with a defection from Christ, as Galatians 4:9-11, and Galatians 5:4: and so calleth them foolish, for beginning in the Spirit, (the Holy Spirit inwardly working in them the change of their hearts, and regenerating them), and then apostatizing from their profession to a carnal life. But I had rather interpret Spirit in this text, of the doctrine of the gospel, dictated by the Spirit; and with the receiving of which the Holy Spirit was given. And so their folly is argued from their thinking to be made perfect by the beggarly elements and worldly rudiments of the law, whenas they had first begun their profession of Christianity with embracing the more perfect doctrine of the gospel.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Are ye so foolish?.... Is it possible you should be so stupid? and do you, or can you continue so?

having begun in the Spirit; that is, either in the Spirit of God, whom they had received through the preaching of the Gospel. They set out in a profession of religion in the light, under the influence, and by the assistance of the Spirit; they began to worship the Lord in spirit, and in truth, without any confidence in the flesh; they entered upon the service of God, and a newness of life, a different conversation than before, a spiritual way of living in a dependence on the grace and help of the divine Spirit: or in the Gospel, which is the Spirit that gives life, is the ministration of the Spirit of God, and contains spiritual doctrines, and gives an account of spiritual blessings, and is attended with the Holy Ghost, and with power. This was first preached unto them, and they embraced it; this they begun and set out with in their Christian profession, and yet it looked as if they sought to end with something else:

are you now made perfect by the flesh? or "in" it; not in carnality, in the lusts of the flesh, as if they now walked and lived after the flesh, in a carnal, dissolute, wicked course of life; for the apostle is not charging them with immoralities, but complaining of their principles: wherefore, by "the flesh" is meant, either the strength of mere nature, in opposition to the Spirit of God, by which they endeavoured to perform obedience to the law; or else the law itself, in distinction from the Gospel; and particularly the ceremonial law, the law of a carnal commandment, and which consisted of carnal ordinances, and only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh; and also their obedience to it; yea, even all their own righteousness, the best of it, which is but flesh, merely external, weak, and insufficient to justify before God. This is a third aggravation of their folly, that whereas they begun their Christian race depending upon the Spirit and grace of God, now they seemed to be taking a step as if they thought to finish it in the mere strength of nature; and whereas they set out with the clear Gospel of Christ, and sought for justification only by his righteousness, they were now verging to the law, and seeking to make their justifying righteousness perfect, by joining the works of the law unto it, which needed them not, but was perfect without them.

Geneva Study Bible

{2} Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the {d} flesh?

(2) The fourth argument mixed with the former, and it is twofold. If the Law is to be joined with faith, this were not to go forward, but backward, seeing that those spiritual gifts which were bestowed upon you are more excellent than any that could proceed from yourselves. And moreover, it would follow, that the Law is better than Christ, because it would perfect and bring complete that which Christ alone began.

(d) By the flesh he means the ceremonies of the Law, against which he sets the Spirit, that is, the spiritual working of the Gospel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Galatians 3:3. Are ye to such a degree irrational?—pointing to what follows. The interrogative view (in opposition to Hofmann) is in keeping with the fervour of the language, and is logically justified by the indication of the high degree implied in οὕτως. On οὕτως, comp. Soph. Ant. 220, οὐκ ἔστιν οὕτω μῶρος: John 3:16; Galatians 1:6; Hebrews 12:21; and see Voigtländer, ad Luc. D. M. p. 220; Jacob, ad Luc. Alex. p. 28.

ἐναρξάμενοι πνεύματι, νῦν σαρκὶ ἐπιτελεῖσθε;] After ye have begun by means of the Spirit, are ye now brought to completion by means of the flesh? The second part of the sentence is ironical: “After ye have made a beginning in the Christian life by your receiving the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2), are ye now to be made perfect by your becoming persons whose life is subject to the government of the σάρξ? Do ye lend yourselves to such completion as this?” In the same measure in which the readers went back to the legal standpoint and departed from the life of faith, must they again be emptied of the Holy Spirit which they had received, and consequently be re-converted from πνευματικοί into σαρκικοί (Romans 7:5; Romans 7:14), that is, men who, loosed from the influence of the Holy Spirit, are again under the dominion of the σάρξ which impels to sin (Romans 7:14 ff; Romans 8:7 f., et al.). For the law cannot overcome the σάρξ (Romans 8:3-4; 1 Corinthians 15:56). According to this view, therefore, πνεῦμα and σάρξ[116] designate, not Christianity and Judaism themselves, but the specific agencies of life in Christianity and Judaism (Romans 7:5-6), expressed, indeed, without the article in qualitative contrast as Spirit and flesh, but in the obvious concrete application meaning nothing else than the Holy Spirit and the unspiritual, corporeal and psychical nature of man, which draws him into opposition to God and inclination to sin (see e.g. Romans 4:1; John 3:6).

ἐναρξάμενοι] What it is which they have begun, is obvious from πνεῦμα ἐλάβετε in Galatians 3:2, namely, the state into which they entered through the reception of the Spirit—the Christian life.[117] This reception is “the indisputable sign of the existence and working of true Christianity,” Ewald.

ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΕ] is understood by most modern expositors (including Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Hilgenfeld, Ewald, Wieseler, Hofmann) as middle (comp. Luther, Castalio, and others); although Koppe (with whom Rückert agrees) entirely obliterates the literal sense by the assumption, that it is put so only for the sake of the contrast and denotes “tantum id, quod nunc inter Gal. fieri solebat, contrarium pristinae eorum sapientiae,” etc. Winer explains more definitely: “carne finire, h. e. ita ad τὴν σάρκα se applicare, ut in his studiis ΣΑΡΚΙΚΟῖς plane acquiescas;” and Wieseler: “instead of your advancing onward to the goal, ye make the most shameful retrogression;” comp. Hofmann. But ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΝ and ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΑΙ always denote ending in the sense of completion, of accomplishing and bringing fully to a conclusion (consummare): see especially Php 1:6, ὁ ἐναρξάμενος … ἐπιτελέσει; 1 Samuel 3:12, ἌΡΞΟΜΑΙ ΚΑῚ ἘΠΙΤΕΛΈΣΩ: Zechariah 4:9; Luke 13:32; Romans 15:28; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 8:11; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:6. Comp. Thucyd. iv. 90. 4, ὍΣΑ ἮΝ ὙΠΌΛΟΙΠΑ ἘΠΙΤΕΛΈΣΑΙ: Xen. Anab. iv. 3. 13. If, therefore, the word is taken as middle, it must be explained: “After ye have begun (your Christian life) with the Spirit, do ye now bring (that which ye have begun) to completion with the flesh?” Comp. Holsten. But the active to complete is always in the N.T. represented by ἐπιτελεῖν, not by ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΑΙ in the middle (comp., on the contrary, 1 Peter 5:9), however undoubted is the occurrence of the medial use among Greek authors (Plat. Phil. p. 27 C; Xen. Mem. iv. 8. 8; Polyb. i. 40. 16, ii. 58. 10, v. 108. 9). Moreover, the τοσαῦτα ἐπάθετε εἰκῆ which follows (see on Galatians 3:4) makes the subject of ἘΠΙΤΕΛΕῖΣΘΕ appear as suffering, and thereby indicates the word to be passive, as, following the Vulgate (consummamini), Chrysostom, and Theophylact, many of the older expositors have understood it,[118]—viz., so that the Judaistic operations, which the readers had experience of and allowed to be practised on themselves, are expressed by antiphrasis, and doubtless in reference to their own opinion and that of their teachers, as their Christian completion (τέλειοι ποιεῖσθε!). Comp. also Matthias, Vomel, Reithmayr. But how cutting and putting to shame this irony is, is felt at once from the contradictory juxtaposition of carne perficimini! Nearest to our view (without, however, bringing forward the ironical character of the words) comes that of Beza, who says that perficimini applies to the teaching of the pseudo-apostles, who ascribed “Christo tantum initia, legi perfectionem justitiae.” Comp. Semler. The present denotes that the Galatians were just occupied in this ἐπιτελεῖσθαι. Comp. Galatians 1:6. The emphatic ΝῦΝ (“nunc, cum magis magisque deberetis spirituales fieri relicta carne,” Bengel) should have prevented it from being taken as the Attic future (Studer, Usteri).

[116] Following Chrysostom, Theophylact, and many ancient expositors, Rückert, Usteri, and Schott believe that σαρκί is chosen with special reference to circumcision (Ephesians 2:11). But the context by no means treats specially of circumcision, and the contrast of itself necessarily involved σαρκί.

[117] Bos, Wolf, and others, as also Schott, assume the figurative idea of a race in the stadium. But this reference would require to be suggested by the context (as in v. 7); for although ἐπιτελεῖσθαι is used of the completion of a race, as of every kind of completion (Herodian. viii. 8. 5, iii. 8. 17 f., iv. 2. 7), it has not this special meaning of itself, but acquires it from the context.

[118] Some of them indeed translating it passively, but in the interpretation (comp. Erasmus, Calvin, and others, also Bengel) not strictly maintaining the passive sense.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Galatians 3:3. πνεύματι … σαρκὶ. These two datives denote the two internal spheres susceptible of moral influence. Conversion had brought about a spiritual change as its immediate result: it was folly to look for a consummation of this change from an ordinance of the flesh like circumcision. This was to exalt flesh above spirit instead of rising from flesh to spirit.—ἐνάρχεσθαι and ἐπιτελεῖν are coupled together in 2 Corinthians 8:6 and Php 1:6 to express the beginning and consummation of works of mercy and sanctification. Greek authors use ἐνάρχεσθαι with reference to the initial ceremony of a sacrifice (Eur., Iph., A. 147, 435, 955), ἐπιτελεῖν in Hebrews 9:6 refers to the performance of ritual. The middle voice ἐπιτελεῖσθε is used here because the spiritual process is to be wrought by them upon themselves.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. The contrast is still maintained in other terms. Here the ‘flesh’ is used for that which is external and material, compliance with outward observances, as opposed to the spiritual principle of faith. These two “are contrary the one to the other”. It is folly, having begun your Christian life spiritually (Galatians 3:2), to finish it carnally—to descend from the higher to the lower, from the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to the law of sin and death. The same collocation of the verbs ‘begin’ and ‘finish’ is found, Php 1:6; comp. 2 Corinthians 8:6.

Bengel's Gnomen

Galatians 3:3. Οὕτως ἀνόητοι, so foolish) οὕτως, makes an [Epitasis] emphatic addition [in Galatians 3:1 it was merely ἀνόητοι]; you not only neglect the evangelical portraiture of Christ [referring to προεγραφη, Galatians 3:1], but also the gift of the Spirit, which came much more under your notice; see at 1 Corinthians 1:6.—ἐναρξάμενοι, having begun) The progress corresponds to the commencement. There is no second [subsequent] justification given by the works of the law.—νῦν, now) Whereas having left the flesh, you ought to have become more and more spiritual.—σαρκὶ), in the flesh) Hebrews 9:10. [Php 3:2; Romans 2:28]. No doubt the Galatians thought that they were going more deeply into the Spirit. The flesh may be easily taken for the Spirit, even by those who have made progress, unless they continue to maintain a pure faith.—ἐπιτελεῖσθε, are you consummated [made perfect?]) when verging to [aiming at] the end [τέλος, contained in ἐπιτελεῖσθε, the end or consummation], you follow the flesh. All things are estimated by the end and issue.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (οὕτως ἀνόητοί ἐστε ἐναρξάμενοι, πνεύματι νῦν σαρκὶ ἐπιτελεῖσθε); are ye so foolish? having begun with the Spirit, are ye now finishing with the flesh? Πνεύματι, as contrasted with σαρκί, means the element of spiritual existence (comp. the use of πνεῦμα in Romans 1:4; 1 Peter 3:18) into which they had been brought at their conversion by the Holy Spirit's influence; including the spiritual sensibility and spiritual activity which had at first marked their Christian life, as e.g. joy in God in the sense of pardon, adoption (Galatians 4:6), love to God, affectionate attachment to their spiritual teacher (Galatians 4:14, 15), brotherly love among themselves: at that hour all their soul was praise, joy, love. Σαρκὶ denotes a lower, merely sensuous kind of religiousness, one busying itself with ceremonial performances, observance of days and festivals (Galatians 4:10), distinctions of meats, and other matters of ceremonial prescription; with petty strivings and disputings, of course, about such points, as if they really mattered at all; in which kind of religiousness the former tone of love, joy, sense of adoption, praise, had evaporated, leaving their souls dry, earthly (comp. "weak and beggarly rudiments," Galatians 4:9; and for the use of σάρξ, Hebrews 9:10). Perhaps the apostle includes also in his use of the term the loss of spiritual victory over sin. if in place of surrendering themselves to the leading of the Spirit (comp. Galatians 5:18) they put themselves under the Law, then they fell back again under the power of the "flesh," which the Law could only command them to control, but could of itself give them no power to control (Romans 8:3). The Authorized Version, "begun in," is doubtless faulty, in taking πνεύματι as governed by the ἐν of the compound verb. The two verbs ἐνάρχομαι and ἐπιτελεῖν are balanced against each other in 2 Corinthians 8:6; Philippians 1:6. Ἐπιτελεῖσθε may be either a passive, as it is rendered in the Authorized Version, "Are ye made perfect," i.e. "Are ye seeking to be made perfect;" so the Revised Version, "Are ye now perfected;" or a middle verb, as ἐπιτελοῦμαι is often used in other writers, though nowhere in the New Testament or Septuagint. The latter seems the more suitable, with the understood suppletion of "your course" or "your estate," as in our English word "finishing." The apostle is partial to the deponent form of verbs. Galatians 3:3

Vincent's Word Studies

So foolish

Explained by what follows. Has your folly reached such a pitch as to reverse the true order of things? Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:46.

Having begun (ἐναρξάμενοι)

Po. Comp. Philippians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 8:6. Having commenced your Christian life. The verb is common in Class. in the sense of the beginning a sacrifice or other religious ceremony; but it is not likely that any such figurative suggestion is attached to it here, as Lightfoot.

In the Spirit (πνεύματι)

Or, by means of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as the inspirer and regulator of the life.

Are ye made perfect (ἐπιτελεῖσθε)

The word is found in connection with ἀνάρχεσθαι to begin, in 2 Corinthians 8:6; Philippians 1:6. The A.V. and Rev. render here in the passive voice. The active voice, always in N.T. with the object expressed, means to bring to completion. See Romans 15:28; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 8:5. The passive only 1 Peter 5:9. It is true that the verb in the middle voice is not found in either N.T. or lxx; but it is not uncommon in Class. and answers better to the middle ἀναρξάμενοι having begun. It implies more than bringing to an end; rather to a consummation. Rend.: having begun in the spirit are ye coming to completion in the flesh? The last phrase has an ironical tinge, suggesting the absurdity of expecting perfection on the Jewish basis of legal righteousness. The present tense indicates that they have already begun upon this attempt.

The flesh

The worldly principle or element of life, represented by the legal righteousness of the Jew.