Galatians 5:7
You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth?
You were running well
This phrase uses the metaphor of a race, which is a common motif in Paul's writings. The Greek word for "running" is "τρέχω" (trechō), which implies not just movement, but purposeful and vigorous effort. In the context of the Galatian church, Paul is acknowledging their initial enthusiasm and commitment to the Gospel. Historically, the early Christian communities faced numerous challenges, including persecution and doctrinal confusion. The "running well" suggests that the Galatians had started their Christian journey with zeal and adherence to the truth of the Gospel, much like an athlete who begins a race with energy and focus.

Who hindered you
The Greek word for "hindered" is "ἐνέκοψεν" (enekopsen), which can mean to cut in or impede. This suggests an external force or influence that has disrupted their progress. In the historical context of Galatians, this refers to the Judaizers, who were advocating for adherence to Jewish law as necessary for salvation. This hindrance is not just a minor distraction but a significant obstacle that has altered their course. The imagery here is of a runner being cut off or blocked, which would have been a vivid picture for the Galatians, who were familiar with athletic competitions.

from obeying the truth
The phrase "obeying the truth" underscores the importance of adherence to the Gospel message. The Greek word for "obeying" is "πειθαρχεῖν" (peitharchein), which implies a willingness to be persuaded or to follow. The "truth" here is the core message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from the works of the law. In the scriptural context, truth is not just a set of beliefs but a way of life that aligns with God's revelation in Christ. The Galatians' deviation from this truth indicates a serious theological and spiritual issue, as they were being led away from the simplicity and purity of the Gospel. This phrase serves as a call to return to the foundational truths of the Christian faith, emphasizing the necessity of faith and grace over legalistic practices.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the letter to the Galatians, addressing the churches in the region of Galatia. He is concerned about their spiritual well-being and their adherence to the true Gospel.

2. Galatian Churches
The recipients of the letter, who were initially following the teachings of Paul but were being led astray by false teachings.

3. False Teachers (Judaizers)
Individuals who were promoting a distorted version of the Gospel, insisting that Gentile believers must adhere to Jewish laws, such as circumcision, to be truly saved.

4. The Race Metaphor
Paul uses the metaphor of a race to describe the Christian life, emphasizing perseverance and adherence to the truth.

5. The Truth of the Gospel
The core message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone, without the need for adherence to the Old Testament law.
Teaching Points
Stay Focused on the Truth
Just as the Galatians were led astray, we must be vigilant against teachings that deviate from the Gospel. Regular study of Scripture and prayer are essential to discern truth from falsehood.

Identify and Remove Obstacles
Reflect on what or who might be hindering your spiritual progress. It could be false teachings, sinful habits, or distractions. Take steps to address these obstacles.

Persevere in the Race
The Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. Endurance is key. Encourage one another and draw strength from the Holy Spirit to keep running faithfully.

Guard Against Legalism
The Galatians were tempted to add to the Gospel. Remember that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works. Avoid the trap of legalism in your walk with Christ.

Encourage One Another
Just as Paul wrote to encourage the Galatians, we should support and uplift fellow believers, helping each other stay on the path of truth.
Bible Study Questions
1. What are some modern-day "obstacles" that might hinder a believer from obeying the truth of the Gospel?

2. How can the metaphor of a race help us understand the nature of the Christian life and our daily walk with Christ?

3. In what ways can we guard against false teachings and ensure we are adhering to the true Gospel?

4. How does understanding the concept of grace versus legalism impact your personal relationship with God?

5. What practical steps can you take to encourage and support others in their spiritual race?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Hebrews 12:1-2
This passage also uses the metaphor of a race, encouraging believers to run with endurance and keep their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Paul speaks about running the race to win the prize, emphasizing discipline and self-control in the Christian life.

Philippians 3:13-14
Paul talks about pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly calling in Christ Jesus, highlighting the forward momentum in the Christian journey.
A Difficult RaceG. S. Bowes.Galatians 5:7
A Sailor RemarksCheever.Galatians 5:7
A Wrong MaximThe ChristianGalatians 5:7
Christian AdvancementRuskin.Galatians 5:7
FicklenessW. Gurnall., W. Gurnall.Galatians 5:7
Gradual Back-SlidingH. Melvill, B. D., J. Hamilton, D. D.Galatians 5:7
HinderedW.F. Adeney Galatians 5:7
Hindered ChristiansJames Hamilton, D. D.Galatians 5:7
HinderersPGalatians 5:7
HindrancesHadji.Galatians 5:7
HindrancesRev. Dr. Plumer., From the German., Felix Neff., C. Nell.Galatians 5:7
Hindrances -- Novel ReadingGalatians 5:7
Hindrances -- RichesGalatians 5:7
Hindrances to a Godly LifeR. D. B. Rawnsley, M. A.Galatians 5:7
Hindrances to Religious LifeH. W. Beecher.Galatians 5:7
Obeying the TruthW. Nevins, D. D.Galatians 5:7
Obstructions to Spiritual ProgressDean Goulburn.Galatians 5:7
Religious DeclineH. Melvill, B. D.Galatians 5:7
RunningW. Perkins.Galatians 5:7
Signs of BackslidingC. Buck.Galatians 5:7
Spasmodic ReligionS. Charnock.Galatians 5:7
Spiritual DeclensionD. L. Moody.Galatians 5:7
Spiritual Declension InsidiousH. Melvill, B. D.Galatians 5:7
The Nature of BackslidingC. Buck.Galatians 5:7
Various HindrancesC. H. Spurgeon.Galatians 5:7
Want of PerseveranceT. Adams.Galatians 5:7
Warning Against DefectionJames Fergusson.Galatians 5:7
CircumcisionR. Finlayson Galatians 5:2-12
Falling from GraceR.M. Edgar Galatians 5:2-12
People
Galatians, Paul, Philippians
Places
Galatia
Topics
Cause, Caused, Cut, Ear, Giving, Hinder, Hindered, Interfered, Kept, Nobly, Obey, Obeying, Race, Ran, Run, Running, Stopped, Swerve, Truth
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Galatians 5:7

     5178   running
     8110   athletics
     8140   prize

Galatians 5:1-10

     4432   dough

Galatians 5:1-12

     7334   circumcision
     8316   orthodoxy, in NT

Galatians 5:2-12

     4554   yeast

Galatians 5:2-25

     6511   salvation

Galatians 5:7-9

     6746   sanctification, means and results

Galatians 5:7-10

     8707   apostasy, personal

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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