The Conclusion (Gal 5:1)

Paul now sums up the argument of chapters 3 and 4 in the brief conclusion: “It was with a view to our full freedom (and not for any new kind of slavery) that Christ has set us Christians free from the bondage of sin.1 Stand firm, then, and do not submit yourselves anew to the yoke of slavery.”

The rapid variation between “we” and “you” in the passage Gal 4:21 to Gal 5:1 is full of meaning. The MSS. vary a good deal on this point; but the preponderance of evidence is so clear that all the chief editors adopt the same text so far as that variation is concerned; and the Authorised and Revised Versions agree with them.

At this point Paul would naturally proceed to the warnings set forth in 5:13 ff.; but he turns away for the moment to a digression, Gal 5:2-12.

[1] The marginal reading in R.V. (preferred by the American Revisers) is undoubtedly right. Lightfoot reads: “sons of her who is free with the freedom with which Christ set us free. Stand firm, then, etc.” It is difficult to sympathise with Lightfoot in discarding our text, preferred also by Tischendorf, Weiss, Zöckler, etc., and in saying that that text “is so difficult as to be almost unintelligible”.