Galatians 3:3
3 Are ye [este] so [houto] foolish [anoetos]? having
begun [enarchomai] in the Spirit, [pneuma] are ye [epiteleo] now [nun] made perfect [epiteleo] by
the flesh [sarx]? KJV-Interlinear
3 Are you so foolish? Having
begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? NASB
Foolish, ‘anoetos,’ means unintelligent, unwise,
without wisdom, sensual as in emotional fool.
Paul finds it incredible, that these people, had
heard the gospel, ‘Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.’ And together
with hearing of the life of Jesus, who He was, the cross and the purpose of the
cross, and so forth. They were
thoroughly familiar with who and what and why Jesus was, and they thus believed
in Him.
Jesus had promised to send the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the unseen power of God, and the
person through whom divine power is conveyed.
And as such, He reveals the plan of God and is the agent for executing
the Christian life. It is this power
which becomes available to the believer when in fellowship, and by this power
that the spiritual life functions.
The Holy Spirit restrains sin, thus preventing the
destruction of the world, 2 Thes. 2:6-7.
The Holy Spirit makes all things discernible and comprehensible,
2 Cor. 2:14.
The Holy Spirit is the divine author and
communicator of the scriptures and is called the mind of Christ, 1 Cor. 2:16;
Heb. 3:7.
The Holy Spirit teaches the believer, Jn. 14:26;
15:26.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit places every
believer into union with Christ, 1 Cor. 12:13; 1 Pet. 2:9.
The Spirit seals, the believer, guaranteeing
eternal life, Eph. 1:13; 4:30.
Every believer lives by means of the filing of the
Spirit which is accomplished by means of confession, Eph. 5:18; 1 Jn. 1:9.
Confession is the process wherein the believer
lists his sins, in private and personal prayer, to God the Father, via
prayer. The believer confesses to no one
except God the Father.
And this list can go on and on. Needless to say all of these things come as a
result of faith or believing in the gospel when it is heard. They never come by
means of mans works.
And so Paul is shocked that when everyone heard the
gospel, and believed in Christ and simultaneously received the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit, Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6:16; Col. 1:27-29,
and thus began their spiritual life as a saved believer, and then for some
reason they abandoned that idea so as to move on to some other better spiritual
system, works, and so Paul calls them foolish, without wisdom, turning to
emotion rather than the intellect of scriptural knowledge.
And as you can see from the above list, these are
just a few references to the scriptural information that was available to all
believers back in Pauls day. Even though
this information was not in writing back then as it is today, the information
was still available and was taught.
Prior to this letter being written to the Galatians,
they had heard all of these things from Paul and even others.
They have certainly heard teaching from the
apostles. That is why this reprimand is
coming from Paul. And, they have heard
false teachings from others. Another
reason for this letter from Paul.
But, you can see that even though you may have
heard truth at some point in your life, it is still possible to drift away from
truth and adopt false ideas. Especially
if you do not stick with your studies and have a tendency to listen to things
that appeal to your emotions. Thus the emotional
aspect of the term, foolish.
The only way to avoid spiritual failure, is to
stick with doctrine and the truthful and accurate teaching of the word. To float about from teacher to teacher, from
translation to translation, from church to church, and so forth, only points to
a dysfunctional spiritual habit, and opens the door for false teaching.
