Circumcision Profits Nothing; Faith Working Through Love (Galatians 5:2–6)

After the persuasiveness of faith, which awakens and draws desire, holy Paul points to its necessity – an inescapable one, which compels one to decide on the proposed action whether you wish it or not. What is absurd to the mind, this inevitability is to the will. Awareness of it fills one with the feeling of being trapped, forcing one to act at once and to the deed, whatever sacrifice it may cost. When a house is engulfed in flames and a person trapped in it has only one window for escape, he does not deliberate but hurls himself through it. So powerfully and decisively does the evidence act upon the tension of the will – that either ruin or act according to the proposed instruction. To clarify this, the Apostle now turns. He speaks as though to the Galatians: one of two things lies before you – either Christ the Lord with salvation, or the Law with perdition. You have turned to the Lord Jesus Christ in the conviction that there is no salvation save in Him. In Him it is granted you fully and completely. When, however, you turn to the Law as a means of salvation, you then have a different savior, and thereby remove yourselves from what you once confessed. Since He alone is the one true Savior, removing yourselves from Him, you lose the salvation that comes from Him, and your new savior, the Law, does not grant it. Thus you, turning to the Law, deprive yourselves of the salvation you sought and which was in your hands and remains so still, and fall into the universal ruin of all, everywhere outside of Christ and grace.

Gal. 5:2. Behold, I, Paul, say to you, that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.

“Behold, I, Paul, say to you”. He wishes to speak a decisive and at the same time authoritative word, to pronounce a final judgment. At the beginning of the Epistle holy Paul already said that he was appointed an Apostle by God the Father Himself and the Lord Jesus Christ – to proclaim to the peoples the truth of God. These words point to this and were meant to dispose the Galatians to receive the following decision not as Paul’s but as the Lord’s Himself. For the Lord Himself determined: “the one who listens to you listens to me” (Lk. 10:16). And Paul himself was aware that in him not only lives but also speaks Christ (2 Cor. 13:3). Therefore this turn of speech will correspond to the prophetic: “thus” – or “thus says the Lord” (blessed Jerome, in brief).

What decision then does he issue? If you become circumcised, then Christ will be of no benefit to you, that is, the fact that you call yourselves believers in Christ, Christians, will be of no use to you. He softens the judgment. He says only: you will not receive what you hope to receive; but in essence this is the same as saying you are lost. For from Christ comes salvation. If Christ will profit those who are circumcised not; then he will not give them salvation. Consequently, they will remain in that same perdition in which all those remain who are outside Christ the Savior.

The false teachers certainly persuaded the Galatians, as they had previously persuaded the Antiochians: you will not be saved unless you are circumcised (Acts 15:1). Directly against this the Apostle sets his Apostolic determination: I, as an Apostle, in the name of the Lord who gave me power and strength to proclaim His truth, say that if you are circumcised, then you are lost. He singles out circumcision alone for the reason that it is the beginning; after it all the rest will necessarily follow, as the following, third verse explains, placed there expressly for this purpose. And for this reason he mentioned circumcision first, to warn against it. The Galatians have already accepted something of Judaism, but they have not yet been circumcised. Let them permit circumcision to themselves, and then inevitably they will become entangled in all the rest, will become full Jews. Seeing that such a calamity lies ahead, yet they have not yet plunged into it, the Apostle cries out to them as quickly as possible: do not be circumcised, do not be circumcised; otherwise you will perish.

If you are circumcised, Christ will not profit you in any way. Those who cling to Christ as to the one Savior are saved without doubt. And you did well to resort to Him; but if you are circumcised, you will have no benefit from Christ whatsoever. Circumcision will destroy the good received in Christ and received by you. Everything that you hoped to receive in Christ and truly have received will disappear at once as soon as you are circumcised. There is no fellowship: either Christ and salvation, or circumcision and the ancient perdition in which you were. Those would say: believe in Christ, but most importantly – be circumcised. The Apostle says: no, circumcision has no place where Christ is; and the salvific power of Christ does not enter into those who rely on circumcision.

Circumcision formerly served as a seal of God’s election, but now has become a cause of rejection. Even among physicians there are compositions which at one time (in illness) bring health; but at another time (when one is healthy) disturb it. The same happened with circumcision: before the coming of the Lord to earth it was good, but after this condescension it became harmful. Not in itself is it such, but by the hopes connected with it. When they rely on circumcision, believing that as soon as they are circumcised they have entered the number of the saved, they do the same as those who lean on a bruised reed, which breaks at the slightest pressure upon it and wounds the hand of the one leaning on it. If circumcision is still necessary with Christ, then according to their conviction Christ is not complete and not the one Savior. This scarcity of conviction comes from scarcity of faith. But faith impoverished empties the soul of all the graces sent down into it by faith in Christ the Lord.

“Christ does not profit those who are circumcised if they place their hope of salvation in circumcision” (blessed Augustine) “The one who is circumcised (in this spirit) belittles the grace of Christ, believing to be saved by the Law. But whoever does not fully believe in Christ cannot receive salvation from Him” (Ecumenius) “Because such a one rejects grace and resorts to the Law as a benefactor; but does not at all believe in Christ, as though He did not at all bestow benefits on him. But the one who does not believe will receive nothing from Him in whom he does not believe” (blessed Theophylact).

“See,” cries out holy Chrysostom, “what danger threatens! Therefore rightly did he anathematize even the angels themselves (Gal. 1:8). In what way does ‘Christ’ profit them ‘nothing’? He did not set out to prove this, but simply said it, because the dignity of his person is more persuasive than any other proof. For this reason he said beforehand: ‘Behold, I Paul say to you’. For it is fitting to speak thus when one is confident in the goodwill of those one addresses. But we, as far as we are able, will from ourselves set forth something as an explanation of why Christ profits nothing to one who is circumcised. The one who is circumcised is circumcised as though fearing the Law; and the one who fears the Law does not believe in the power of grace; and the one who does not believe receives no benefit from grace in which he does not believe. Furthermore, whoever is circumcised makes the Law his master, and whoever considers the Law his master, though he violates most of it while observing only a small part, again subjects himself to the curse; and being subject to the curse and rejecting freedom from the curse, brought by faith, how can he be saved? And one might even say, though it is frightening, that such a one believes neither in Christ nor in the Law, and has placed himself in the middle between the two, and, wishing to gain benefit from both places, obtains nothing from anywhere.”

In this (2nd) verse the main thought of the Apostle is expressed clearly enough. The following two verses (3–4) only express more broadly what is said here. The third verse shows how wide are the consequences of circumcision; and the fourth describes more fully how one who is circumcised is deprived of the salvific power of Christ.

Gal. 5:3. But I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole Law.

When you are circumcised, then you must keep the whole Law. For circumcision is the door into legalism, is an obligation to the whole Law. This is clear in itself and was known to all. But why does holy Paul say this here, and with such intensity: “but I testify again” – that is, I, Paul, again affirm with that same Apostolic authority? Either to explain that to be circumcised is certainly not so difficult; but when you are circumcised, then you must keep the whole Law, and we nor our fathers were able to keep it; whoever does not keep all the Law is under a curse (Gal. 3:10). Thus through circumcision you will go straight under the curse and instead of benefit will receive ruin from it. Or, perhaps, to oppose this truth to the assurances of the false teachers, who perhaps were saying: you just be circumcised, and all the rest you can leave alone, as we ourselves do not keep everything (he reproaches them for this in holy Paul (Gal. 6:13). No, the holy Apostle says against this: this is not so. Whoever is circumcised, whoever he may be – not only a Jew, but also a Gentile, every man without exception must keep the whole Law. Thus it is established in the Law itself; on this it stands. If they interpret it differently to you, then it is to deceive you; they lie and hide the truth. And circumcision itself alone, for its completion, how much does it require? A special day, washings, sacrifices, a special manner of performance, and a priest to perform it. This warning needed to be made by holy Paul out of fear that the smallness of the deed might lead the Galatians astray. They might have thought: it is not a great thing – we will be circumcised. To be circumcised, the Apostle speaks as though to them, is truly not a great deed in itself, but see where it will lead. To complete Judaism, and Judaism has been definitively ended by the coming of Christ.

Holy Chrysostom speaks on this place: “Having said that it profits ‘nothing’ – further, though not in a direct and brief way, he brings proof to that by speaking thus: ‘I testify…’ and so on. So that you may not think that this is said from hostile disposition; it is not only to you, he says, that I testify this, but ‘to every man who is circumcised that he is obligated to keep the whole Law’. For the commandments of the Law are closely bound together. And just as one who, having been free, has given himself into slavery, now does not do what he wishes but is subject to all the laws of slavery: the same must be said with respect to the Law. If you accept even one part of it and submit yourself even somewhat to its yoke; you will thereby draw upon yourself all its power. – And not in this way alone, but in another way too one can prove the truth of what is said about the Law. The commandments of the Law are bound together. For example, circumcision is connected with sacrifice and observance of days; sacrifice is also bound to observance of days and place; place with various kinds of purification, purifications are inseparable from many different rites; and it is not permitted to the unclean to offer sacrifices, or to enter into sacred places, or to do anything else like that. Thus the Law requires much for one commandment. So if you were circumcised, but not on the eighth day, or even on the eighth day but without sacrifice, or with sacrifice but not in the place that is appointed, and not according to the prescriptions of the Law, or according to the prescriptions of the Law but unclean, or clean but purified not by the prescribed rites: then all your labors are lost. Therefore he also says: ‘he is obligated to keep the whole Law’ – that is, not part of the Law but the whole Law; and if it no longer has dominion, then neither does any part of it need to be kept.”

Gal. 5:4. You have been severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the Law; you have fallen away from grace.

Here is explained how “Christ profits nothing” to those who hold to the Law – with emphasis. He profits nothing because He departs from you and leaves you idle, empty. The condition of fellowship with Christ the Savior with souls is faith, expressing itself in such dispositions: I am perishing by my own guilt and there is for me no other hope of salvation save You alone, O God incarnate and crucified for our sake; to You therefore I flee and cling with all my thoughts and feelings and dispositions: save me too, O only Savior of all. The one who thus flees to the Lord is received by Him and in baptism receives the grace of regeneration and power for new life in Christ. Continued clinging to the Lord and the placing of hope in Him alone sustains and preserves such a life, and the Christian proceeds in this way as appointed until he passes from death into life and is crowned with the crown of righteousness. In this order nothing can be added or taken away without destroying everything. But the chief thing here is the hope of salvation solely in Christ Jesus the Lord. This is the heart of Christianity. Whoever strikes at it ends the life in Christ. Christ the Lord is present only in the one who is such. In whom the hope in the Lord alone grows weak, in him the bond with the Lord is weakened. Whoever leans with hope on something else besides Him, from Him He departs as unnecessary, not required by the needs and sighs of a contrite heart. Here is the calamity that befell the Galatians. They have not yet been circumcised and have not yet bound themselves to the Law, but their will was already inclined to it (blessed Augustine) and the hope of salvation in the Lord alone was shaken. For this the Lord departed from them. “You have been severed”, he says, “from Christ”, emptied by Him, become void, He is no longer in you. God’s judgment does not tarry. Deeds have not yet followed, only internally in their thoughts have they settled to Judaize; but God’s judgment has already been rendered on them, and punishment by deed is produced: Christ has departed from them. Or here the Apostle expresses only the general principle, that those who seek justification in the Law are severed from Christ, threatening that the same will happen to them if they lean their hopes on the Law.

“You have fallen away from grace”. This can be considered both as a consequence and as a cause of the preceding. Christ departed from you, who before fulfilled and sustained you; and you remain without Him; fell from Him and from all the grace granted in Him. Or thus: since you have fallen away by hope from grace and began to hope to receive salvation apart from it, Christ has therefore departed from you: for in Him is all grace.

Grace is either God’s favor, by which all that is needful for a believer’s salvation is poured out, or the very power itself for salvation, sent down into the heart and working there the structure of salvation and sustaining it. Both are inseparable in reality; both – in the one Lord Jesus Christ. Both loses whoever has been severed from Christ. By the fact that they have hoped in the Law, the Galatians have internally fallen away from grace, from that law of salvation by which it is given only to those who hope in God’s favor in Christ Jesus; in consequence of this the very favor itself was withdrawn from them, and with it the powers for salvation – and they remained with nothing. “By this the Apostle shows the extreme danger of their position. If the one who resorts to the Law does not find salvation in it, and meanwhile falls away from grace, what remains for him but inevitable punishment, when the Law has no power and grace does not receive him?” (holy Chrysostom).

Gal. 5:5. For by the Spirit we wait for the hope of righteousness through faith.

Having shown the Galatians the danger of their position, the Apostle now points out how to escape from it. It was not enough to say: see, fire all around; or your ship is breaking up; it was necessary to show also the window to throw yourself from the fire, or the lifeboat and harbor where to be saved from drowning. This is what the Apostle does with the aforesaid words. Into such a relation to the preceding verses does holy Chrysostom set this verse: “Having thus strengthened (that is, by the words: ‘you have been severed from Christ, you have fallen away from grace’) fear in them, shaking their thoughts and pointing to the threatening shipwreck, he then opens to them the nearby harbor of grace, as he always does, promising here the surest and most reliable salvation: ‘for we’, he says, ‘by the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness through faith’. That is, we have no need of any provisions and rites of the Law; for faith is sufficient to give us the Spirit, and through Him justification and many other great goods.”

But one can also see in these words the reason for the severity of the judgment pronounced. So it has happened or will happen to you (that is, that you are deprived or will be deprived of grace and Christ), because by your inclination toward the Law you cease to be what you ought to be. For “we”, true Christians, Christians by the ideal of Christianity, this is what we are, this is what we rely on with our hopes. And you entered into the fellowship of Christians; and you ought to be the same. As long as you are such, you remain partakers of all the goods of true Christianity; you cease to be such, you are deprived of everything.

What are we or should we be by the ideal of Christianity? We lean our hope on nothing, base our salvation on nothing save faith in the Lord the Savior, who was incarnate and suffered for our sake, who because of faith through holy mysteries sends down His grace of the Holy Spirit to us, making us righteous, holy, pleasing to God, and worthy of eternal blessedness.

“The words: ‘we wait for the hope’ – do not point to the future but to the present sought and mean: we are firmly assured that we will receive. This firm assurance lies at the foundation of life in Christ, just as in the trader there is assurance in the success of his operations at the foundation of his commercial activity. And truly the one who thus hopes is one who has found the treasure hidden in a field, or a pearl of great price. – In what is he firmly assured? In that he will be saved. For the hope of righteousness is the hope of righteousness, of pleasing God, of holiness and salvation. What productive forces of this good in us and for us are there? Faith and the grace of the Spirit, as the words indicate: ‘by the Spirit through faith’ we await salvation. Faith is from us, the Spirit of grace is from God; the heavenly and the earthly, the natural and the supernatural, combined together in a way beyond our comprehension, make us righteous before God, pleasing to Him, saved. Theophylact says: “It is necessary that faith precede; then by the descent of the Holy Spirit in baptism there is obtained the cleansing of sins and new life.” “It is well said,” adds Ecumenius, ‘through faith’. For we must contribute our faith and thus through the mediation of the Spirit obtain justification and salvation.”

The Western ancient interpreters see, moreover, in the word: “Spirit” – the opposition of the Spirit to the letter and of spiritual service to elemental, fleshly service. Blessed Jerome writes: “the word: ‘Spirit’ – is placed here in opposition to the letter.” Blessed Augustine: “on spiritual service our hopes rest, not on fleshly service.” Ambrosiaster: “in faith we spiritually serve God with the reverence of the mind and the purity of the heart. Therefore the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: ‘God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth’ (Jn. 4:24).” Such a thought is not contrary to the course of the Apostle’s speech. Previously he spoke that the Galatians are turning toward the Law, which commanded elemental, fleshly service; and for this they are deprived of grace and Christ. Now he says: and rightly so; for we, true Christians, serving God spiritually, with inner dispositions and movements of the heart and resolutions of will, firmly hope to be saved. But this understanding can easily be united with the previous one, because spiritual service to God is impossible otherwise than under the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Gal. 5:6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any force, but faith working through love.

A continuation of the preceding thought and a more precise definition of the essence of Christianity. As though holy Paul hears the inquiry of the Galatians seeking understanding: in what then consists this spiritual service to God, opposed to elemental service under the Law, or in what consists that inner disposition which by faith through the grace of the Holy Spirit is built up in the spirit of a Christian. And he answers: in faith working through love. Have this, and you are saved. Do not be concerned with anything else: do not think that you are closer to Christ the Lord by being circumcised (beforehand, that is, before faith); and do not be troubled, as though something is lacking to you because you were uncircumcised. Both one and the other before the face of the Lord have no significance, no value, and He gives neither one nor the other any weight. He does not draw near with more favor to the circumcised because he is circumcised, and He does not turn away His face from the uncircumcised because he is uncircumcised. With Him everything is decided by faith joined with love. You have come to the Lord, have been enlightened by holy baptism, have received the pledge of the Spirit that builds you: preserve now your faith and live in love – that is all that is required of you. By this path you will attain the end of life and pass over to the Lord, so that dwelling in His abodes, you may be eternally blessed with Him. Why should you bind yourselves with these statutes of legalistic life? All away with them. Serve God in the Spirit and please Him spiritually, entangled in nothing external. In the Christian, built up by the Spirit of God, everything proceeds from a heart full of faith, breathing love. This inner necessity expresses itself outwardly; but this external thing in itself is nothing before God. Its value comes from the spirit with which it is done; so that if you take all life together, if you have only the inner, though it is impossible to act correspondingly externally, you have everything; if you have only the external, by custom or imitation, without the inner, you have nothing. All your external deeds, however beautiful they may appear, profit nothing in Christ Jesus.

So here is who is Christ’s chosen one, here is who is God’s beloved in Christ Jesus: the one who is full of faith and breathes love. But circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing here. Holy Chrysostom says: “See how he has rejected circumcision by placing it on the same level as uncircumcision. For only faith makes the distinction. If someone is gathering wrestlers, whether they are black or white, this makes no difference in the selection; but one must seek in them that they be strong and skilled in their craft. So also to one wishing to enter into the New Covenant, the fact that he has not observed all those bodily rites does not harm him in the least; and it will bring no benefit either if he has observed them. Here everything is decided by faith with love.”

“Faith working through love” – ενεργουμενη. This word can mean: “working and being worked upon”. The first meaning gives the thought that faith leads to love, awakens and vivifies it; the second – that faith is awakened and enlivened by love. Both show that faith and love in the life of a Christian are inseparable. Love in faith, faith in love find vivifying principles. Hearing the Gospel, they believe in the Lord; having believed, they love Him and all for His sake; having loved, they believe even more and are established in faith; faith strengthened in its turn elevates love. Thus the life of a Christian ripens. From the moment of their separation the true life will begin to fade; and with complete separation the life grows quiet altogether. The Christian remains only in name Christian and by certain external works; in reality he has become a Jew, expecting to be justified by external belonging to the Church of God.

“Ecumenius writes: “It is not enough merely to believe in Christ, but it is necessary that this faith be worked upon, kept, and as it were warmed by love toward Christ. Those who believe in Christ but are not filled with love for Him, these pass over to the Law” (one may also understand: become numbered among those under the Law).”

Whom is love here understood to refer to? Since it is not added – to whom, one must understand both love toward the Lord and toward fellow Christians. By the grace of the Spirit, joined with the Lord by faith, the Christian draws from Him the fullness of love, which, by its very nature requiring outpouring, all pours forth upon the members of the one body in Christ, the brotherhood of Christians, with self-forgetfulness or self-denial. Everything here builds itself and joins together. Not external precepts force it, but the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is such.

Holy Chrysostom speaks only of love toward Christ: “What does ‘working through love’ mean? By these words the Apostle strongly wounds them, showing that this deviation of theirs from the truth came about because they did not yet establish themselves in love toward Christ. For here not only faith is required, but also abiding in love. As though he said: if you loved Christ as you ought, you would not have turned to slavery, you would not have abandoned the Redeemer, you would not have insulted the Liberator.” Blessed Theophylact also points to love of neighbor: “Or the Apostle also impresses upon them love of neighbor, saying as though: know that faith is worked by love, that is, shows itself alive through love. But faith that does not have love is without power. This is the same as the words: ‘faith without works is dead’ (Jas. 2:26).” And blessed Jerome understands by love the whole sum of virtues: “Those wishing to live in Christ must seek all virtues and flee all vices. The Apostle Paul in another place says: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (see Rom. 13:9). So if all commandments are contained in one: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ – then, inserting this concept into the words: ‘faith working through love’ – we clearly see that this working of faith by love embraces the fullness of all commandments. Conversely, just as by the Apostle James faith without works is dead, so good deeds without faith must be considered dead. Those not believing in Christ but good in their conduct – what do they have besides the works of virtue (that is, consequently, they are nothing before the Lord, being unbelievers)? An example of faith working through love is presented by the sinful woman of the Gospel, concerning whom, when she washed the feet of the Lord with tears in the house of the Pharisee and, wiping them with her hair, anointed them with ointment, the Lord said: ‘Her many sins have been forgiven her, because she loved much.’ But to her herself He said: ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace’ (see Lk. 7:47, 50). It is evident that by this it is shown that the woman had faith working through love: which alone has value in Christ Jesus.”