[5,4-12] Those who put justice in the law, he says, have emptied yourselves of Christ. It is about the prohibition referred to in saying before that Christ had been banned among them. In this way, if they were left empty of Christ or, what is the same thing, if Christ withdrew from them as the domain of their possession, once dispossessed, the works prescribed by the law could enter as a useless possession. As that does not harm Christ, but to them, he added: You have moved away from grace. Since it is the work of the grace of Christ to free from the obligation to fulfill the works prescribed by the law to those who were subject to it, those ingrates for with such great grace, they wanted to see themselves in the duty of fulfilling the entire law. It had not yet come true, but as the will had begun to move (in that direction), in many passages it expresses itself as if it were already. For we, he says, await from the faith, by the work of the Spirit, the justice we expect. Here it shows that the things expected of a spiritual nature correspond to the faith in Christ, not those that the flesh desires, whose promise maintained that slavery. It is the same thing that says in another passage: We do not put our eyes on the things that are seen, but on those that are not seen (2Co 4,18). Those that are seen are temporary; those that are not seen are eternal. Then he added: Well, in Christ Jesus neither the circumcision nor the uncircumcision, to highlight the indifference alluded to before and show that there is nothing pernicious in this circumcision, unless waiting for it salvation. He affirms that for those who are in Christ nothing is worth the circumcision or the uncircumcision, but the faith that works through love. And here he touched on the theme that slavery under the law acts through fear. You were running well, he says; Who has put obstacles in your way, so that you do not obey the truth? It is the same thing that he had said before: Who has bewitched you? (Ga 3,1) Your persuasion does not come from the one who called you; This persuasion is carnal, while he has called you to freedom. He called his persuasion to what they were persuaded (to accept). On the other hand, to those few who approached them in order to persuade them, he called them ferment in view of their meager number, compared with the multitude of Galatians who had believed. They will receive, however, the ferment. If, welcoming them, honored them as if they were righteous and faithful, (then) the whole mass, all their Church, would ferment (to become) in a certain way in the corrupted mass of carnal slavery. I, I say, trust the Lord that you will not think otherwise. It is clear from this that such had not yet seized the Galatians. But he who causes you trouble, he says, will bear his punishment, whoever he may be. It is the disturbance contrary to the order that seeks to convert the spiritual into carnal. Admittedly, there were some who, wanting to persuade the Galatians to submit to such slavery and realize that the authority of the Apostle Paul was withdrawing them, affirmed that Paul also thought so, but that he had not wanted to express to them clearly his opinion. . (Hence) he would be extremely opportune when he added: Brothers, if I still announce the circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In fact, he suffered persecution even from those who plotted to persuade such ideas, nevertheless leaving the impression of having already accepted the gospel. To these he alludes in another passage when he says: Dangers from false brethren (2Co 11,26), and in this same Letter, at the beginning, when he says: Because of the intruders, the false brothers who infiltrated slyly to spy on our freedom, the one we have in Christ Jesus, with the aim of reducing us to slavery (Ga 2,4). If he announced the circumcision, they would have stopped pursuing him. However, lest they be feared by those to whom Christian liberty was announced or who did not think that the Apostle himself was afraid of them, full of confidence and freedom, he made public revelation of his name shortly before, saying: I, Paul, tell you that if you are circumcised, Christ will not be of any benefit to you (Ga 5,2). It is as if he had said: "See me; imitate me in not feeling fear (of them); or, if you fear, make the motive fall on me. " The words: Then the scandal of the cross has been left without content, repeat that other affirmation: If justice comes from the law, then Christ died in vain (Ga 2,21). But as the scandal mentions here, it reminds us that the Jews were scandalized about Christ especially because they warned that he often skipped and despised those carnal observances that they judged had to be maintained at the service of salvation itself. It is as if he had said: The scandalized Jews crucified Christ for no reason to despise these things, if he is still persuaded to accept them by those for whom he was crucified. And with an ambiguity of exquisite literary taste attached a blessing under one as a curse appearance, saying: I wish they mutilated those who disturb you! Not only do you want them to be circumcised, they even mutilate themselves. Thus they will become eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven (Cf Mt 19,12) and will cease to sow fleshly doctrines.

[5,13] Because you, brothers, have been called to freedom. He says this because, by diverting them from spiritual goods to the carnal ones, that disturbance dragged them into servitude. But from here it begins to deal with those works prescribed by law, which I said earlier that deals with the final section of the Charter. Works that no one doubts that also correspond to the New Testament, if they are made for the purpose with which it should be done by the free people, the end of charity, which awaits such works the eternal prizes and the expectation of faith. Not like the Jews who were forced to fulfill them out of fear, but not the chaste fear that endures for centuries, (Ps. 18,10) but the one that led them to fear for the present life. They performed works prescribed by law that are counted among the figurative rites and, on the other hand, were not at all capable of carrying out those that refer to good morals, which only charity accomplishes. Because if someone avoids killing a man so they do not kill him, he is not fulfilling the precept of justice; he fulfills it if he does not kill him because it is an unjust action, even if his action could go unpunished, not only by human justice, but also by divine justice. For example, David, in whose hands God put King Saul, could have killed him with impunity: neither would the men, who loved him intensely, ask him to account, nor God, who, according to his confession, had given him power so that I did what I wanted (Cf 1S 24,4-8). Loving his neighbor as himself, preferring his correction to his death, he spared the life of those who not only had persecuted him, but also persecuted him. David was a man located in the Old Testament, but not an Old Testament man; the faith in the future inheritance of Christ that had been revealed to him and in which he had believed, gave him salvation and called to imitate him. That is why the Apostle says: You have been called to freedom, brothers; just do not take liberty as a pretext for the flesh. This is, when you hear the term "freedom", do not think that you can sin with total impunity. Before, on the contrary, serve for love one another. Whoever serves out of love, serves from freedom, and, obeying God with generosity, makes out of love what he is taught to do, not out of fear what he is forced to do.

[5,14] The whole law reaches its fullness in a single precept: you will love your neighbor as yourself. Speaking now of the whole law, think about these works related to good morals, since also those that exist as figurative rites, when they understand them as they should be free people and not carnally observe them slaves, necessarily refer to those two precepts , that of love of God and love of neighbor. And so, with good reason is accepted as referring to this what the Lord also says: I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Mt 5,17), since it was to eliminate carnal fear and to grant, through the Spirit, charity, an indispensable condition to be able to comply with the law. Charity is the fullness of the law. Consequently, if faith gets the Holy Spirit, who spreads the charity of God in the hearts of those who do justice (Cf Rm 5,5), no one can boast of doing good works before receiving the grace of faith. This is the reason why the Apostle refutes in that way those who boast of their works, pointing out at the same time that the works of the Old Testament were shadows of hidden realities, shadows that he showed were no longer necessary, once the Lord had come , to the free heir, and that works related to good morals can only be fulfilled through the love for which faith works (Cf Ga 5,6). From which it is deduced that, if certain works are superfluous after receiving the faith, others are non-existent before it. Long live the righteous man of faith, so that, invigorated by the gentle charge of Christ, he will lay down the heavy burden of slavery, (Cf Mt 11,30) and, submitted to the soft yoke of charity, will not go beyond the limits of justice.

[5,15-16] The question of why here also the Apostle mentioned only the love of neighbor, by which, he said, the law is fulfilled, and in the Letter to the Romans, dealing with the same question, can be raised wrote: He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. In effect, "you shall not commit adultery," "you shall not kill," "you shall not steal," "you shall not desire," and any other precept may be summarized in this formula: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love of neighbor does no harm. But the fullness of the law is charity (Rm 13,8-10). Therefore, if charity only reaches its perfection in the double precept of love for God and neighbor, why does the Apostle, both in the present and in the other Letter, mention only the love of neighbor? The answer is that men can lie about whether they have the love of God, because the tests that verify it are rare; But, regarding love of neighbor, it is easier to leave them convicted that they do not have it when they behave iniquitously with men. It is logical that whoever loves God with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his mind, also loves his neighbor as himself, since he sends him whom he loves with all his heart, with all his soul and with all your mind. In addition, who can love the neighbor, that is, to every man, as to himself, if he does not love God, thanks to whose precept and gift he can carry out the love of his neighbor? Being one and another precept of such nature that none of them can be fulfilled without also fulfilling the other, most of the times it is enough to mention one of them, when the works that seek justice are concerned; but it is more opportune to mention that whose compliance is easier to prove. Hence, John says: Whoever does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? (1Jn 4,20) Some lied when they affirmed that they had the love of God, since the hatred they felt towards their brothers showed them that they did not own it Judging whether or not there is such hatred in the life and customs of each day is easy. But if you chew, keep saying, and you devour each other, look not to destroy each other! It was above all the vice of litigating and that of envy those who fed pernicious disputes among themselves. It led them to speak badly of each other and each one to seek their own glory and a vain victory, desires that end with the social structure of a people, which they divide into factions. And how can you avoid them, unless you walk in the Spirit and stop fulfilling the desires that have their origin in the flesh? The first and great gift of the Spirit is humility and meekness. Hence, what I already mentioned that the Lord proclaims: Learn from me, because I am gentle and humble of heart (Mt 11,29), and those other words of the prophet: On whom does my Spirit rest, but on the humble and the peaceful, and on the one who fears my words? (Is 66,2)

[5,17] For the flesh has desires contrary to those of the spirit and spirit contrary to those of the flesh, so that you do not do what you want. Taking up these words, there are those who think that the Apostle denies that we have the free will of the will. They do not notice that they are told this in case they do not want to maintain the grace of the faith already received, the only one that allows them to walk in the spirit and stop satisfying the desires that come from the flesh. Therefore, if they do not want to keep it, they will not be able to do what they want. They want to seek justice by performing the works prescribed by the law, but they overcome the desires that come from the flesh, following which they abandon the grace of faith. That is why he also says in the Letter to the Romans: The wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. Since charity makes it possible to fulfill the law, while the wisdom of the flesh, in seeking the bodily interests, is opposed to charity, the gift of the Spirit. How can that wisdom be subject to the law, that is, perform with freedom and abide by justice and not oppose it? When you try, you will inevitably be defeated once you have discovered that you can get greater temporal advantage from iniquity than by remaining true to equity. The first vital situation of man is the one before the law, a stage in which no malice or malice is prohibited and there is no resistance on the part of bad desires, since no one forbids them. The second happens under the law and is prior to grace; It occurs when there is a prohibition and man tries to resist sin, but he is defeated because he still does not love justice for God and justice itself, but wants him to be at his service to obtain earthly goods. And so, as soon as he sees justice on one side and temporal advantage on the other, he is dragged by the weight of temporal appetite and abandons justice. Justice that tried to have to possess what she now sees that she is going to lose, if she has her. The third life situation is that which takes place under grace. At this stage no temporal advantage is placed before justice, something that can not be given if it is not through charity, a gift of the Spirit, that the Lord showed us by his example and donated with his grace. In this situation, although there are desires of the flesh coming from the mortality of the body, they do not subjugate the mind until it leads to consent to sin. And so sin no longer reigns in your mortal body (Cf Rm 6,12), although it can not but inhabit it, as long as the body remains mortal. There is, then, a first moment: the one in which sin ceases to reign. It happens when we serve with the mind to the law of God, even though we serve with the flesh the law of sin (Cf Rm 7,25), that is, the custom, the result of a punishment, when desires originate from those we do not obey. In a second moment, it will turn off completely. Because, if the Spirit of Jesus dwells in us, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also vivify our mortal bodies, by virtue of the Spirit that dwells in us (Cf Rm 8,11). Now, therefore, we have to make the stage under grace real, so that we do what we want in the spirit, although it is not possible in the flesh; that is, not obeying the desires coming from the flesh with the consequence of granting our members as weapons to iniquity (Cf Rm 6,13), even if we are not able to make such desires cease to exist. Thus, although we are not yet in that eternal peace and fullness with respect to any human dimension, at least we cease to be under the law, a state in which the mind is held to be guilty of transgression, while the concupiscence of the flesh drag, like a prisoner, to consent to sin. Let us try to find ourselves under grace, a stage in which there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Cf Rm 8,1). The sentence is not received by the one who has fought, but by the one who fell defeated.

[5,18] And so, in perfect logic, he adds: For if you allow yourselves to be guided by the Spirit, you are no longer under the law. We must understand from these words that those whose spirit has, without doubt, contrary desires to those of the flesh, are under the law, so that they do not do what they want; that is to say, they do not remain unconquered in the love of justice, but they are overcome by the flesh that opposes them with their desires. Not only by offering resistance to the law of their mind, but even by making them captive under the law of sin, which resides in the mortal members (Cf Rm 7,23). It is logical that those who are not guided by the Spirit should be guided by the flesh. The sentence does not fall on who suffers the rebellion of the flesh, but on who is allowed to lead by it. That is why he says: Because if you allow yourselves to be guided by the Spirit, you are not already under the law, just as before he did not say: Walk in the Spirit and you will not have the desires of the flesh, but you will not satisfy them (Ga 5,16). In fact, lacking absolutely all those desires is no longer a combat, but a reward for combat, in the case of having achieved victory by persevering under grace. Such desires will cease to have the body when, once transformed, it has achieved immortality.

[5,19-21] Then he begins to list the works of the flesh, so that they would understand that it was the flesh, not the Spirit, that guided them, if they gave their consent to such desires to put them into practice. Now, the works of the flesh are known: fornications, impurities, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, altercations, antipathies, jealousies, discords, heresies, envies, drunkenness, feasts, and the like, about which I warn you, as I warned you, because those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God. All these works are carried out by those who decide that they must make them consenting to the desires of the flesh, even if they do not have the means to carry them out. For the rest, they do not perform such works and, therefore, they will possess the kingdom of God who, although affected by similar impulses, remain immovable in the greatest charity present in them, and not only do they not lend them (in fact) members of his body to work evil, but also do not agree to lend them. In his mortal body no longer reigns the sin that makes him obey his desires, despite the fact that sin dwells in it - since the impulse of the custom rooted in nature, in virtue of which we were born mortals, has not yet been extinguished - and that of our own life, since, by sinning, we ourselves have increased that which we brought from man's sin and initial condemnation. It is one thing not to sin and another not to have sin. He in whom sin does not reign, that is, he who does not submit to his desires, does not sin; but the one in whom those desires do not exist at all, not only does not sin, but also does not have sin. What can be done in this life, in its fullness, can only be expected in the fullness of the resurrection and transformation of the flesh. The words: on which I warn you, as I warned you, because those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God can cause strangeness. It is about knowing where he did it because it does not appear in the present Charter. Consequently, he had warned them by being present in person, or he was aware that the Letter addressed to the Corinthians had arrived. In it he expresses himself in these terms: Do not be deceived; neither the fornicators, nor the idolaters, nor the adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the homosexuals, nor the thieves, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor the revilers, nor the raptors will possess the kingdom of God. (1Co 6,9-10)

[5,22-23] After having enumerated the works of the flesh, to which the kingdom of God is closed, here he also added the works of the spirit, which he designates as fruits of the Spirit. It says: On the other hand, fruits of the Spirit are charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, continence. And he adds: in front of the assimilated to these there is no law, to give us to understand that those who do not reign such virtues are under the law. Those in whom they reign use the law appropriately; those who have not been given the law for coercive purposes. To them justice gives them a greater and more powerful satisfaction. So says Timothy: We know that the law is good, if someone uses it properly; knowing that the law has not been instituted for the righteous, but for the wicked and rebellious, the wicked and sinners, the irreligious, the impure, the parricide and matricidae, the murderers, the fornicators, the homosexuals, the traffickers with human beings, liars, perjurers and anything else that opposes sound doctrine (1Tm 1,8-10). It must be understood: for these the law has been instituted. These spiritual fruits reign in man in which sins do not reign. But these goods reign if they produce so much delight that they retain the soul subject to temptation, preventing it from consenting to sin. By necessity we act in accordance with what delights us the most. For example, the figure of a beautiful woman comes to us, and awakens in us the pleasurable desire of fornication; but if, by virtue of the grace linked to faith in Christ, we are more delighted by the intimate beauty and beauty of chastity, we live in conformity with it and in conformity with it we act. In this way, as the sin that makes us submit to their desires does not reign in us and when justice reigns in virtue of charity, we do with great delight all we know that it pleases God in it. What I have said about chastity and fornication, I wanted to understand the other vices and virtues.

Let no one wonder that he has not listed in this Letter exactly the same works of the flesh, in number and order, as in the Letter to the Corinthians, nor the fact that he has opposed less spiritual goods to the most numerous vices of the flesh , or that does not appear in all of them the direct opposition as fornication is opposed to chastity, impurity to purity. Its purpose was not to indicate its number, but in what way it is necessary to avoid the vices and desire the virtues. When speaking of flesh and spirit it indicated that it was opportune that we should turn from the punishment of sin and of sin itself to the grace and justice of the Lord, lest we, disdaining the grace given to us in time, by virtue of which the Lord died for us, we did not reach the eternal rest in which the Lord lives on our behalf. It was not that, not understanding the punishment that came upon us at the time when the Lord deigned to tame us with the mortality of the flesh, we were to fall into eternal punishment, prepared for pride that does not yield in opposition to the Lord . If, after mentioning many works of the flesh, he added: and others like that, he showed with sufficientness that he had not classified such works looking for their most exact number, but exposed them without being tied to words. He did the same with regard to the spiritual fruits. Well he did not say: In front of these there is no law, but: in front of the assimilated to them. That is, in front of those mentioned and those who resemble them.

However, after a more careful consideration, it is noticed that the contrast between works of the flesh and works of the Spirit, is not lacking in order at all nor is it confused. If this order is not perceived, it is because each of the inferiors in number appears opposed to several of the others. If the list of the vices of the flesh begins with fornications and that of the virtues fruit of the Spirit with charity, will not this call the attention of the scholar of the Holy Scriptures to examine the rest? If fornication is a love that does not abide by legitimate marriage and that wanders seeking to satisfy an excessive carnal passion, is there something that so legitimately unites with God with a view to spiritual fruitfulness as the soul? The more stable his union with him is, the more incorruptible he becomes. Now, union with him is produced by charity. With all reason, then, fornication opposes charity, since only she keeps chastity. By impurity, on the contrary, all the disturbances that have their origin in fornication are understood; to her the joy that causes peace is contrasted. Idolatry, in turn, is the last degree of fornication of the soul, because of which a fierce war against the gospel was also declared in the person of those reconciled with God. Their embers, although trampled for a long time, still give off heat. To that idolatry is opposed the peace by which we reconcile ourselves with God and with that peace, also maintained with men, we cure vices such as sorcery, enmity, altercation, jealousy, antipathy and discord. In the same way, to act with due moderation in the midst of the other vices among which we find ourselves, long-suffering serves to support them, the kindness to cure them and the kindness to forgive them. For the rest, faith struggles against heresies, meekness against envy and continence against drunkenness and binge eating.

Let no one think that envy and jealousy are the same vice. They are neighbors to one another, and because of that neighborhood, they often put one in place of the other, be it jealousy instead of envy, and envy instead of jealousy. But the fact that each one is mentioned here demands a distinction from us. Jealousy is a spiritual pain that arises when another person gets one thing that two or more wanted and only one can. This vice is cured by peace, which makes us want what all those who want it, if they achieve it, become one in it. Envy, on the other hand, consists of a spiritual pain that arises when it is considered unworthy for someone to get something, even if one does not want it. This vice is cured by meekness, when someone, referring to the judgment of God, does not oppose his will, and before he believes him in what has been well done, to himself when judging him undeserved.

[5,24] Those who are in Christ Jesus, he continues, have crucified his flesh with his appetites. With what did they crucify her, but with that chaste fear that endures for ever and ever, (Cf Ps. 18,10) that prevents us from offending the one we love with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind? The fear for which the adulterous wife fears that her husband has her under surveillance is not the same as fearing the caste that he abandons her. The first is sadness the presence of the husband, the second his absence. And, consequently, that fear is corrupted and does not want this world to pass; instead, this chaste fear remains for ever and ever. With [the nails of] this fear the prophet wishes to be crucified when he says: Nail my flesh with the nails of fear of you (Ps. 118,120). The cross is that of which the Lord says: Take your cross and follow me (Mt 16,24).

[5,25] If we live by the Spirit, let us also go with the spirit. It is clear that we live according to what we are after; Now, we will go after what we love. If two opposed realities are given, the precept of justice and the carnal custom, and both love each other, we will go after what we most love. If we love both things equally, we will not go after any of them, but we will be dragged back and forth either by fear or against our will. Or, if we are equally afraid of one another, we will inevitably remain in danger, shaken by the alternating waves of love and fear. But may the peace of Christ win in our hearts! (Cf Col 3,15) Then, invoked the help of the right hand of God's mercy, he does not fail to attend to the prayers and groans, sacrifice of a troubled heart, and through the awareness of the danger of who freed him, stoked a greater love for him. In this Paul's adversaries deceived themselves because, certainly, they could not deny that they were to go after the Holy Spirit, assertor and guide of their freedom; but, turned carnally to the servile works, they did not realize that they were trying to turn back. Therefore, it does not say: If we live by the spirit, let us go after the Spirit, but let us go with the spirit. They recognized that it was appropriate for them to serve the Spirit, but they wanted to go after him not with their spirit, but with the flesh. That is, not by obtaining the grace of God from the Spirit, but by placing his hope of salvation in the circumcision of the flesh and other observances like that.

[5,26] Let us not become greedy for vainglory, envying and provoking one another. In a truly magnificent way and in accordance with a divine order from beginning to end, he first instructed them to confront those who seduced them with the aim of bringing them into bondage to the law. Then he warns them lest that, already instructed and willing to respond to the calumnies of these carnal men, they surrender themselves to strife and, driven by the desire of vainglory, free already faced with the burdens of the law, serve vain appetites.