Galatians 5:15
But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
But if you keep on biting and devouring one another
This phrase uses vivid imagery to describe the destructive behavior that can occur within a community. The Greek word for "biting" (δάκνω, daknō) suggests a harmful, aggressive action, akin to an animal attack. Historically, this metaphor would resonate with the Galatian audience, familiar with the dangers of wild animals. The term "devouring" (κατεσθίω, katesthiō) implies a complete consumption, indicating that such behavior can lead to the total destruction of relationships and community. In a scriptural context, this serves as a warning against internal strife and division, which can undermine the unity and mission of the church. The Apostle Paul is urging the Galatians to avoid such destructive interactions, emphasizing the importance of love and unity as foundational Christian principles.

watch out
The Greek word here is βλέπετε (blepete), which means to be vigilant or to take heed. This is a call to awareness and caution. Paul is urging the Galatians to be mindful of their actions and the potential consequences. In a broader biblical context, vigilance is a recurring theme, often associated with spiritual alertness and readiness. This exhortation serves as a reminder that believers must be constantly aware of their conduct and its impact on the community, aligning with the Christian call to live in a manner worthy of the gospel.

or you will be consumed by one another
The phrase "you will be consumed" (ἀναλίσκω, analiskō) carries the connotation of being utterly destroyed or wasted. This is a dire warning of the potential outcome if the Galatians continue in their divisive behavior. The historical context of the early church, which faced both internal and external challenges, underscores the importance of unity and mutual edification. Scripturally, this echoes the teachings of Jesus on love and reconciliation, highlighting that division and conflict can lead to the downfall of a community. Paul is emphasizing that the church must embody the love of Christ, avoiding behaviors that lead to mutual destruction, and instead fostering an environment of support and growth.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the letter to the Galatians, addressing the churches in the region of Galatia. Paul is concerned with the behavior and spiritual health of the believers there.

2. Galatian Churches
The recipients of the letter, located in the region of Galatia. These churches were dealing with internal conflicts and divisions, partly due to false teachings.

3. Judaizers
A group influencing the Galatian churches, advocating for adherence to Jewish law, which was causing division and strife among the believers.
Teaching Points
Guard Against Division
The imagery of "biting and devouring" suggests a destructive cycle of conflict. Believers must be vigilant against behaviors and attitudes that lead to division within the church.

Pursue Unity and Peace
In contrast to destructive behavior, Christians are called to pursue peace and unity, reflecting the love of Christ in their interactions with one another.

The Danger of Unchecked Conflict
Paul warns that unchecked conflict can lead to mutual destruction. It is crucial for believers to address issues promptly and biblically to prevent escalation.

The Role of the Holy Spirit
The broader context of Galatians 5 emphasizes living by the Spirit. Believers should rely on the Holy Spirit to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit, which counters the fleshly tendencies to "bite and devour."

Reflect Christ's Love
As followers of Christ, believers are called to reflect His love and grace in their relationships, avoiding behaviors that harm the body of Christ.
Bible Study Questions
1. What are some practical ways we can guard against division in our church community?

2. How can we actively pursue unity and peace in our relationships with fellow believers?

3. Reflect on a time when unchecked conflict led to negative consequences. What could have been done differently to prevent escalation?

4. How does living by the Spirit help us overcome the tendency to "bite and devour" one another?

5. In what ways can we better reflect Christ's love in our interactions with others, especially when disagreements arise?
Connections to Other Scriptures
James 3:14-16
This passage warns against bitter envy and selfish ambition, which can lead to disorder and every evil practice, similar to the destructive behavior Paul warns about in Galatians 5:15.

Ephesians 4:31-32
Paul encourages believers to put away bitterness, wrath, and anger, and instead be kind and forgiving, contrasting the destructive behavior mentioned in Galatians 5:15.

Proverbs 26:20-21
These verses highlight how strife and conflict can be fueled by gossip and quarrels, akin to the "biting and devouring" Paul describes.
Consumed One of Another: Strife in the FoldGalatians 5:15
Dissensions in the ChurchR. A. Bertram.Galatians 5:15
Evils of StrifeSpencer.Galatians 5:15
Good Results from Cessation of Party StrifeG. Bowden.Galatians 5:15
How to Defeat StrifePersian FablesGalatians 5:15
How to End BickeringsC. Neil.Galatians 5:15
Satanic Origin of Quarrels Among ChristiansW. Gurnall.Galatians 5:15
The Evil of DissensionsT. Fuller, D. D.Galatians 5:15
The Ideal BrotherhoodGalatians 5:15
Uncharitable Contentions in the Church of GodGalatians 5:15
Unity Among Christians to be Sought AfterGalatians 5:15
Wranglings Destroy ChurchesAmerican.Galatians 5:15
Liberty and not LicenceW.F. Adeney Galatians 5:13-15
The Liberty of LoveR.M. Edgar Galatians 5:13-15
Freedom Sustained by the SpiritR. Finlayson Galatians 5:13-26
People
Galatians, Paul, Philippians
Places
Galatia
Topics
Beware, Bite, Biting, Care, Careful, Cause, Consume, Consumed, Destroyed, Destruction, Devour, Devouring, Fighting, Heed, Lest, Perpetually, Snapping, Snarling, Watch
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Galatians 5:15

     5132   biting
     5821   criticism, among believers
     8765   grudge

Galatians 5:2-25

     6511   salvation

Galatians 5:9-21

     6026   sin, judgment on

Galatians 5:13-16

     6679   justification, results
     8452   neighbours, duty to

Galatians 5:13-18

     5380   law, and gospel

Galatians 5:14-16

     3209   Holy Spirit, and love

Library
March 28. "The Fruit of the Spirit is all Goodness" (Gal. v. 22).
"The fruit of the Spirit is all goodness" (Gal. v. 22). Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit. Goodness is just "Godness." It is to be like God. And God-like goodness has special reference to the active benevolence of God. The apostle gives us the difference between goodness and righteousness in this passage in Romans, "Scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die." The righteous man is the man of stiff, inflexible uprightness; but he may be
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 1. "The Fruit of the Spirit is Gentleness" (Gal. v. 22).
"The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness" (Gal. v. 22). Nature's harshness has melted away and she is now beaming with the smile of spring, and everything around us whispers of the gentleness of God. This beautiful fruit is in lovely harmony with the gentle month of which it is the keynote. May the Holy Spirit lead us, beloved, these days, into His sweetness, quietness, and gentleness, subduing every coarse, rude, harsh, and unholy habit, and making us like Him, of whom it is said, "He shall not strive,
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Works of the Flesh and Fruits of the Spirit.
Text: Galatians 5, 16-24. 16 But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths,
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Church Officers Warned of Vain-Glory.
Text: Galatians 5, 25-26 and 6, 1-10. 25 If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. 26 Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another. 1 Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

'Walk in the Spirit'
'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.'--GAL. v. 16. We are not to suppose that the Apostle here uses the familiar contrast of spirit and flesh to express simply different elements of human nature. Without entering here on questions for which a sermon is scarcely a suitable vehicle of discussion, it may be sufficient for our present purpose to say that, as usually, when employing this antithesis the Apostle means by Spirit the divine, the Spirit of God, which he triumphed
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

What Makes a Christian: Circumcision or Faith?
'In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.'--GAL. v. 6. It is a very singular instance of imaginative misreading of plain facts that the primitive Church should be held up as a pattern Church. The early communities had apostolic teaching; but beyond that, they seem to have been in no respect above, and in many respects below, the level of subsequent ages. If we may judge of their morality by the exhortations and dehortations which
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Fruit of the Spirit
'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23. Meekness, temperance'--GAL. v. 22, 23. 'The fruit of the Spirit,' says Paul, not the fruits, as we might more naturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted; all this rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of as one. The individual members are not isolated graces, but all connected, springing from one root and constituting an organic whole. There is further to
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Faith the Sole Saving Act.
JOHN vi. 28, 29.--"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." In asking their question, the Jews intended to inquire of Christ what particular things they must do, before all others, in order to please God. The "works of God," as they denominate them, were not any and every duty, but those more special and important acts, by which the creature might secure
William G.T. Shedd—Sermons to the Natural Man

Walking with God.
(Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.) GALATIANS v. 16. "Walk in the Spirit." The life of a Christian must be one of progress. S. Paul says, "Walk in the Spirit;" he does not say, stand still. It is not enough for us to have been born again of Water and the Holy Ghost, and to have received the Gifts of the Spirit from time to time through the different means of grace. We are bidden "to stir up the gift that is in us;" we are told to "grow in grace." God has set us upon our feet in the right
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Sixth Day for the Spirit of Love in the Church
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Spirit of Love in the Church "I pray that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and Thou in Me; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me ... that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."--JOHN x"The fruit of the Spirit is love."--GAL. v. 22. Believers are one in Christ, as He is one with the Father. The love of God rests on them, and can dwell in them. Pray that the power of the Holy
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Brokenness
We want to be very simple in this matter of Revival. Revival is just the life of the Lord Jesus poured into human hearts. Jesus is always victorious. In heaven they are praising Him all the time for His victory. Whatever may be our experience of failure and barrenness, He is never defeated. His power is boundless. And we, on our part, have only to get into a right relationship with Him, and we shall see His power being demonstrated in our hearts and lives and service, and His victorious life will
Roy Hession and Revel Hession—The Calvary Road

The Dove and the Lamb
Victorious living and effective soul-winning service are not the product of our better selves and hard endeavours, but are simply the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We are not called upon to produce the fruit, but simply to bear it. It is all the time to be His fruit. Nothing is more important then, than that we should be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit, or to keep to the metaphor, that the "trees of the Lord should be continuously full of sap"--His sap. How this may be so for us is graphically
Roy Hession and Revel Hession—The Calvary Road

The Holy Spirit Bringing Forth in the Believer Christlike Graces of Character.
There is a singular charm, a charm that one can scarcely explain, in the words of Paul in Gal. v. 22, 23, R. V., "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." What a catalogue we have here of lovely moral characteristics. Paul tells us that they are the fruit of the Spirit, that is, if the Holy Spirit is given control of our lives, this is the fruit that He will bear. All real beauty of character, all real Christlikeness in us,
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Joy
'The fruit of the Spirit is joy.' Gal 5:52. The third fruit of justification, adoption, and sanctification, is joy in the Holy Ghost. Joy is setting the soul upon the top of a pinnacle - it is the cream of the sincere milk of the word. Spiritual joy is a sweet and delightful passion, arising from the apprehension and feeling of some good, whereby the soul is supported under present troubles, and fenced against future fear. I. It is a delightful passion. It is contrary to sorrow, which is a perturbation
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Routing of Giant Doubt
THE ROUTING OF GIANT DOUBT Doubts! doubts! doubts! Just a company of them around me all the time worse than Job's miserable comforters. What can I do with them? I should like to dismiss them, but it seems I can not. They make me much trouble, but it seems I can not get them to leave me. Especially are the doubts concerning my entire consecration aggravating, and those, too, concerning my entire cleansing. I fear to come out boldly and declare that I believe that Christ fully saves me now. I believe
Robert Lee Berry—Adventures in the Land of Canaan

Conflicts with Giant Mistake
CONFLICTS WITH GIANT MISTAKE I make so many mistakes, it seems I am just a bundle of contradictions. I try to do good; but at times my efforts are so crude that I seem to do more harm than good. What shall I do? And though all the time I try hard not to make mistakes, yet I still make them. It seems to me that surely I am not sanctified, or else I should be more perfect. Do not the Scriptures command us to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect? I am not perfect; far from it. Really I
Robert Lee Berry—Adventures in the Land of Canaan

I have Said This, Lest Haply Married Fruitfulness Dare to vie with virgin Chastity...
7. I have said this, lest haply married fruitfulness dare to vie with virgin chastity, and to set forth Mary herself, and to say unto the virgins of God, She had in her flesh two things worthy of honor, virginity and fruitfulness; inasmuch as she both continued a virgin, and bore: this happiness, since we could not both have the whole, we have divided, that ye be virgins, we be mothers: for what is wanting to you in children, let your virginity, that hath been preserved, be a consolation: for us,
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

The Inward Warfare. Gal 5:17

John Newton—Olney Hymns

And on this Account That, Which, the Parts that Beget Being Bridled by Modesty...
5. And on this account that, which, the parts that beget being bridled by modesty, is most chiefly and properly to be called Continence, is violated by no transgression, if the higher Continence, concerning which we have been some time speaking, be preserved in the heart. For this reason the Lord, after He had said, "For from the heart go forth evil thoughts," then went on to add what it is that belongs to evil thoughts, "murders, adulteries," and the rest. He spake not of all; but, having named
St. Augustine—On Continence

All we Therefore, who Believe in the Living and True God...
18. All we therefore, who believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any evil, nor suffers any evil, from Whom is every good, even that which admits of decrease, and Who admits not at all of decrease in His own Good, Which is Himself, when we hear the Apostle saying, "Walk in the Spirit, and perform ye not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: For these are opposed
St. Augustine—On Continence

And Also, when He Exhorts Us, that we Live not after the Flesh...
9. And also, when he exhorts us, that we live not after the flesh, lest we die, but that by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh, that we may live; surely the trumpet which sounds, shows the war in which we are engaged, and enkindles us to contend keenly, and to do our enemies to death, [1832] that we be not done to death by them. But who those enemies are, it hath set forth plainly enough. For those are they, whom it willed should be done to death by us, that is to say, the works of the
St. Augustine—On Continence

Here Therefore These Men Too Evil, While they Essay to Make Void the Law...
9. Here therefore these men too evil, while they essay to make void the Law, force us to approve these Scriptures. For they mark what is said, that they who are under the Law are in bondage, and they keep flying above the rest that last saying, "Ye are made empty [1715] of Christ, as many of you as are justified in the Law; ye have fallen from Grace." [1716] We grant that all these things are true, and we say that the Law is not necessary, save for them unto whom bondage is yet profitable: and that
St. Augustine—On the Profit of Believing.

The Daily Walk with Others (iii. ).
Thrice happy they who at Thy side, Thou Child of Nazareth, Have learnt to give their struggling pride Into Thy hands to death: If thus indeed we lay us low, Thou wilt exalt us o'er the foe; And let the exaltation be That we are lost in Thee. Let me say a little on a subject which, like the last, is one of some delicacy and difficulty, though its problems are of a very different kind. It is, the relation between the Curate and his Incumbent; or more particularly, the Curate's position and conduct
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

How those that are at Variance and those that are at Peace are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 23.) Differently to be admonished are those that are at variance and those that are at peace. For those that are at variance are to be admonished to know most certainly that, in whatever virtues they may abound, they can by no means become spiritual if they neglect becoming united to their neighbours by concord. For it is written, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (Gal. v. 22). He then that has no care to keep peace refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Hence Paul
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

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