NOTES for Gal 6:14

The apostle Paul seldom speaks about the Cross, and when he speaks, he tries to be laconic. But we can feel in his words that for him, it is particularly the phenomenon of the love of the cross of the Son of God which is most important, which feeds his faith.

There is nothing important, nothing valid, nothing, of which the apostle would have wanted to share with people, except his knowledge that God died for us. Going to people, the apostle carries to them preeminently this news: "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God… For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified" - he writes at the beginning of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians. However for the apostle the Cross is much more, than a sign of love; for him it is an event and history, and his own life.

At the end of the epistle to Galatians, as we read today, the apostle speaks about what’s, from his point of view, people glory. Glory (to boast, in the more direct translation) mean showing in particular something good, relating to you. The Judaising preachers, with whom the apostle Paul was involve in controversy, try to glory themselves for the fact that they address people to a just life under the law. Other people glory for their talents or knowledge, spiritual or common wealth, strength of the body or character. Modern psychology calls it the need to positive self-image.

Each achieves it in his own way, everyone finds in his life how, as it seems to him, would be well to love. In fact, all of us look in such a manner for justifications for our own existence. And well, here the apostle says that for our existence, there is no need for any justifications or even explanations, except the Cross, on which God renders to us His Life. It is a fundamental fact in our relations towards oneself, and towards others.

What do we see when we look at one another? What do we see when we look at ourselves? First of all, without question, outward things. It is exceedingly difficult even to understand the motives of our own actions, let alone the actions of our neighbors... And what can we rely on, what can guide us, if not outward, visible signs? "You and I are of one blood": we look for people like ourselves, or at least very similar to us. When we find a pronounced difference in someone, we become confused... and often try to reshape that person in our own image. How else can we communicate with them? How can we accept them if they are "not of our blood," not like us? The answer is simple. Before God, our human similarities and differences are nothing. In Christ only one Blood matters: the Blood of the Son of God that washes us clean. The only thing we can do is step outside the narrow bounds of our understanding and accept every other person as they are, for the sake of Christ who renews us.

Paul says directly that the teachers who demand mandatory circumcision from the Galatian Christians want, on the one hand, to avoid unnecessary problems and even persecutions, and on the other, to boast about those members of the church community who were circumcised at their urging, as though this were some achievement of their own. The first point was connected with the fact that circumcision was the sign of belonging to the Jewish community.

Circumcised meant Jewish. The synagogue existed quite legally throughout the Roman Empire, and although a certain antisemitism was present both in Roman society and in Roman authority, there was still no question of systematic persecution. The uncircumcised, however, automatically found themselves outside the Synagogue and therefore outside the Roman legal field: the communities that had separated from the Synagogue had no other basis for legal activity. Here one could expect problems, even direct conflict with the authorities.

In this sense, being circumcised was safer than remaining uncircumcised: then any Christian church gathering could pass for a synagogue gathering, especially since the authorities were usually not inclined to go into the subtleties of synagogue life. But there was something else as well: the desire to demonstrate one's own "achievements" as teachers and mentors. Indeed, spiritual work is not quick and often not especially visible; spiritual changes in a person usually happen slowly and cannot be seen from the outside. Moreover, genuine spiritual work is almost always, so to speak, individual work; there is usually no room here for mass scale, which so catches the eye and therefore is so beloved by many.

Religious propaganda and calls to observe one or another religious norm or prescription, even the same circumcision, are a completely different matter: the call is quite concrete, the response is also quite concrete, the result is visible to everyone at once, and it may even become massive if the preacher is active enough. This is probably why religious preaching in all communities and at all times has attracted preachers, especially beginners, far more than properly spiritual work has. But religion does not replace spiritual life, although sometimes it can substitute itself for it. And Paul speaks sharply against such substitution, because it cuts a person off from the Kingdom and from its life.