Galatians 5:14.[234] Reason assigned for the ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ἈΓΆΠΗς Κ.Τ.Λ. just said: for the whole law is fulfilled in one utterance; that is, compliance with the whole Mosaic law has taken place and exists, if one single commandment of it is complied with, namely, the commandment, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” If, therefore, ye through love serve one another, the whole point in dispute is thereby solved; there can no longer be any discussion whether ye are bound to fulfil this or that precept of the law,—ye have fulfilled the whole law. “Theologia brevissima et longissima; brevissima quod ad verba et sententias attinet, sed usu et re ipsa latior, longior, profundior et sublimior toto mundo,” Luther, Ὁ Πᾶς ΝΌΜΟς (comp. 1 Timothy 1:16; Acts 19:7; Acts 20:18; Soph. El. 1244; Phil. 13; Thuc. ii. 7. 2, viii. 93. 3; Krüger, § 50. 11. 12) places the totality of the law in contradistinction to its single utterance. The view of Hofmann, that it denotes the law collectively as an unity, the fulfilment of which existing in the readers they have in the love which they are to show, falls to the ground with the erroneous reading, to which it is with arbitrary artifice adapted; and in particular, ὁ πᾶς νόμος means not at all the law as unity, but the whole law:[235] comp. also 2Ma 6:5; 3Ma 6:2 et al.; Herod. i. 111. In point of fact, the phrase does not differ from ὅλος ὁ νόμος, Matthew 22:40. Without alteration in the sense, the apostle might also have written πᾶς γὰρ ὁ νόμος, which would only have made the emphasis fall still more strongly on πᾶς.

πεπλήρωται] As to the reading, see the critical notes. The perfect denotes the fulfilment as complete and ready to hand, as in Romans 13:8. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Estius, Baumgarten, Semler, Morus, Rückert, Matthies, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Wieseler, and others, have correctly explained πληροῦσθαι of compliance with the law; for the explanation comprehenditur (Erasmus, Castalio, Luther, Calvin, Rambach, Michaelis, Zachariae, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Winer, Usteri, Olshausen, Reiche, and others), that is, ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται (which, however, in Romans 13:9 is distinguished from πληροῦσθαι), is at variance with the universal usage of πληροῦν τὸν νόμον in the N.T. (comp. ἐκπιμπλάναι τ. νόμον, Herod. i. 199; so also Philo, de Abrah. I. p. 36). See Galatians 6:2; Matthew 3:15; Romans 8:4; Romans 13:8; Colossians 4:17. The thought is the same as in Romans 13:8, ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἕτερον νόμον πεπλήρωκε, and Romans 13:10, πλήρωμα νόμου ἡ ἀγάπη. Grotius interprets πληρ. in the same way as in Matthew 5:17 : “sicuti rudimenta implentur per doctrinam perfectiorem.” This interpretation is incorrect on account of πᾶς, and because a commandment of the Mosaic law itself is adduced.

ἐν τῷ] that is, in the saying of the law; see Winer, p. 103 [E. T. 135].

ἀγάπησεις] Leviticus 19:18. Respecting the imperative future, see on Matthew 1:21; and as to ἑαυτόν used of the second person, see on Romans 13:9; Jacobs, ad Anthol. IX. p. 447. On the idea of the ὡς ἑαυτ., see on Matthew 22:39. Comp. Cic. de Legg. i. 12: “Nihilo sese plus quam alterum homo diligat.” The neighbour is, for the Christian who justly (Matthew 5:17) applies to himself this Mosaic commandment, his fellow-Christian (comp. Galatians 5:13, ἀλλήλοις, and see Galatians 5:14), just as for the Jew it is his fellow-Jew. But how little this is to be taken as excluding any other at all, is shown not only by distinct intimations, such as Galatians 6:10, 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 2 Peter 1:7, but also by the whole spirit of Christianity, which, as to this point, finds its most beautiful expression in the example of the Samaritan (Luke 10); and Paul himself was a Samaritan of this kind towards Jews and Gentiles.

The question, how Paul could with justice say of the whole law that it was fulfilled by love towards one’s neighbour, is not to be answered, either by making νόμος signify the Christian law (Koppe), or by understanding it only of the moral law (Estius and many others), or of the second table of the Decalogue (Beza and others; also Wieseler; comp. Ewald), or of every divinely revealed law in general (Schott); for, according to the connection of the whole epistle, ὁ πᾶς νόμος cannot mean anything else than the whole Mosaic law. But it is to be answered by placing ourselves at the lofty spiritual standpoint of the apostle, from which he regarded all other commandments of the law as so thoroughly subordinate to the commandment of love, that whosoever has fulfilled this commandment stands in the moral scale and the moral estimation just as if he had fulfilled the whole law. From this lofty and bold standpoint everything, which was not connected with the commandment of love (Romans 13:8-10), fell so completely into the background,[236] that it was no longer considered as aught to be separately and independently fulfilled; on the contrary, the whole law appeared already accomplished in love, that is, in the state of feeling and action produced by the Spirit of God (Galatians 5:22 f.; Romans 15:30), in which is contained the culminating point, goal, and consummation of all parts of the law.[237] The idea thus amounts to an impletio totius legis dilectione formata, by which the claim of the law is satisfied (Galatians 5:23). The view of Hofmann, that here the law comes into consideration only so far as it is not already fulfilled in faith; that for the believer its requirement consists in the commandment of love, and even the realization of this is already existing in him, so that he has only to show the love wrought in him by God—simply emanates from the erroneous form of the text and the wrong interpretation of Galatians 5:14 adopted by him. That the apostle, moreover, while adducing only the commandment of love towards one’s neighbour, does not exclude the commandment of love towards God (comp. Matthew 22:37 f.), was obvious of itself to the Christian consciousness from the necessary connection between the love of God and the love of our neighbour (comp. 1 John 4:20; 1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 8:3). Paul was induced by the scope of the context to bring forward the latter only (Galatians 5:13; Galatians 5:15).

[234] Hofmann reads the verse: ὁ γ. πᾶς νόμος ἑν ὑμῖν πεπλήρωται· ἀγαπήσεις κ.τ.λ. A form of the text so destitute of attestation (Tertullian alone has in vobis instead of ἐν ἑνὶ λόγῳ), that it is simply equivalent to a (very strange) conjecture. Also the omission of ἐν τῷ is much too feebly attested. In the text, followed above, A B C א agree.

[235] [This is an approximate rendering of the passage, the meaning of which is not, to me at least, very clear. Hofmann seems to have been conscious of this want of clearness, for in his revised edition just issued he has considerably altered his mode of expression, but still leaves the matter somewhat obscure.—ED.]

[236] Especially the precepts as to cultus, in the apostle’s view, were included among the στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου, Galatians 4:3.

[237] Therein lies the essence of the so-called tertius usus of the law, the further development of which is given in the Epistle to the Romans. Comp. Sieffert, in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol. p. 271 f.

Galatians 5:14. πεπλήρωται. MS. authority is decisive in favour of this perfect against the present πληροῦται. The perfect is likewise adopted in the parallel passage Romans 13:8, ὁ ἀγαπῶν νόμον πεπλήρωκεν. For the very existence of love in the heart attests the completion of a previous inward act of the will.—ἐν ἑνὶ λόγῳ. The single precept which follows embodies in itself the whole duty to man.—τὸν πλησίον. The language of Leviticus 19:18 is here invested with the comprehensive force which Christ attached to the word neighbour by his teaching.

14. ‘You would go back to bondage; there is a servitude which constitutes liberty. You desire to be under the law; there is a law—the law of love—to which ye will do well to submit yourselves; for all the requirements of the law are met by the fulfilment of one precept—Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ Similarly in Romans 13:8-10, ‘He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law … Whatever other commandments there are, all are summed up in this precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself … love is the fulfilling of the law.’

thy neighbour] This term in the original precept (Leviticus 19:18) had reference only to the Jewish people, but our Lord enlarged its scope so as to include everyone whom it is in our power to benefit or injure, i.e. all men. It is so explained in the Church Catechism—‘My duty towards my neighbour is to love him as myself, to do unto all men &c.’

Galatians 5:14. Πληροῦται, is fulfilled) Romans 13:9, note.

Verse 14. - For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (o( ga\r pa = no/mo e)n e(ni\ λόγῳ πεπλήρωται [Receptus, πληροῦται], ἐν, τῷ Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν [Receptus, ἑαυτόν]); for the whole Law hath in one word been fulfilled, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Thus is very briefly enunciated what in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 13:8-10), written a short while after, the apostle more fully develops thus: "Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled (πεπλήρωκε) the Law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up (ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται) in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: love therefore is the fulfilment (πλήρωμα) of the Law." This passage of the Romans may be regarded as a lengthened paraphrase of the one now before us. From the comparison of the two, several things are made clear. We see from it what is meant by the πεπλήρωται, "hath been fulfilled." Some have been disposed to regard it as equivalent to ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται, "it is summed up." Not to urge that it is very doubtful whether the verb admits of this sense, it is enough to observe that in the parallel passage the verb πληροῦν, both in πεπλήρωκε, hath fulfilled, and the verbal πλήρωμα, fulfilment, means to fulfil in actual obedience; and that the perfect tense of the πεπλήρωται of this passage reappears in the πεπλήρωκε of the other. The sentence in Romans, "He that loveth his neighbour (τὸν ἕτερον) hath fulfilled the Law," that is, as the context shows, "the whole Law," makes it clear that, by the words before us, "the whole Law hath been fulfilled in one word," is meant that the whole Law hath been fulfilled in the fulfilling of the one word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The whole Law is regarded as couched in that "one word." In the larger passage the Law, so far as it is explained, is represented as regulating our behaviour to our neighbours, for the apostle cites exclusively commandments of the "second table;" in addition to which, we observe that the immediately preceding context (vers. 1-7) is taken up with the discussion of duties to our fellow-men, sliding into what follows through the words, "Owe no man anything, save to love one another." This suggests the inference that when the apostle says, "He that loveth hath fulfilled the Law;" and at the close of the paragraph, "Love is the fulfilment of the Law," he has in view that part only of the Law which enforces the duties appertaining to human relationships, and not the whole Law as enforcing, together with these, the duties we owe to God; for "love," he says, "his the fulfilment of the Law, because it worketh no evil to his neighbour." And this might seem further to justify the like inference with reference to the passage before us; and here also the immediate context (ver. 13) points only to relations between man and man, making no reference to our relations towards God. And this inference we seem warranted in accepting. Only, we have to bear in mind that the apostle has already taken account of our spiritual relations to God, in stating (ver. 6) that in Christ Jesus the all-important and only thing is faith working through love. For the faith which he means is plainly the principle which unites the soul to Christ Jesus, and in him to God as our reconciled Father, through the vitalizing and actuating power of the Spirit of adoption. And precisely the same consideration presents itself with respect to the parallel passage in the Romans; for there, too, the apostle has been previously engaged in building up the gospel doctrine of Christ's redeeming us from the control of a condemning Law, which is also mere "letter," and can give no spiritual life; and of his handing us over to the law of the Spirit of life, whereby the requirement of the Law is fulfilled in them who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4). The apostle takes it for granted that it is with these views in their minds that his readers will receive what he here writes. Further, account is to be taken of the spiritual sense in which the apostle uses the terms "law" and "love." Under the term "law" he no longer intends the Law of Moses, either as a ceremonial institute or as a letter-Law regulating moral behaviour; but that higher and spiritual law, of which the precepts of the letter-Law are only incomplete hints or adumbrations - the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2). Likewise, by the term "love" he designates a very different thing from that principle of kindness, good nature, benevolence, which an Aristotle or Cicero, an Epictetus or Plutarch, could conceive and describe, and in their own practice exemplify; with St. Paul, as with St. John, it is a fruit of the Spirit, an emanation of Christ's life in the soul, organically and vitally ramifying out of filial love to God. They that were in the flesh could not please God. In order that we may fulfil the Law, the prime and indispensable requisite is that the Spirit of Christ be dwelling in us and leading us. Galatians 5:14All the law (ὁ πᾶς νόμος)

More correctly, the whole law. Comp. Matthew 22:40.

Is fulfilled (πεπλήρωται)

Has been fulfilled. Comp. Romans 13:8. The meaning is not embraced in, or summed up in, but complied with. In Romans 13:9, ἀνακεφαλαιοῦται is summed up, is to be distinguished from πλήρωμα hath fulfilled (Romans 13:8) and πλήρωμα fulfillment (Romans 13:10). The difference is between statement and accomplishment. See on do the law, Galatians 5:3.

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