BIBLE COMMENTARY/Galatians 5: 26
GALATIANS 5: 26 – Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
– This is a command for Christians to follow. It’s not a suggestion (2Timothy 3: 16-17, James 1: 22). Christians have been called by God to make life on Earth better. Soldiers cannot be effective if their duties are simply suggested. As Christ’s soldiers, we cannot effectively make the world better if we just choose in the Bible what we want to do according to our personal ideas.
– Vain glory is the one that cannot be brought into the eternal life. For example, in eternal life, no one can be proud that they were the funniest person on earth. We know how mankind makes fun in this life. A happy man and a funny man are two different people.
– There are many vain glories that mankind always seeks like money, power, fame, pleasures and so forth. Those things never satisfy mankind completely. On the contrary, they make people turn against each other and cause life to be miserable. They are never good for the soul (Galatians 5: 17).
– We cannot turn back the clock to live those moments that has already passed, so God does not want us to waste our precious time seeking those kinds of glories. There are better ways to live a happy life (Psalm 119: 37) and to help others to be so (1Corinthians 13: 4-5).
QUOTED VERSES:
PSALM 119: 37 – Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
ECCLESIASTES 2: 1 – I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
ECCLESIASTES 2: 11 – Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
1CORINTHIANS 13: 4-5 = Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.
GALATIANS 5: 17 – For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
2TIMOTHY 3: 16-17 – All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
JAMES 1: 22 – But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.