A helpful thought and some encouragement for anyone preaching through Galatians this year:
“The last sentence of this polemic Epistle is a
benediction and the last word is a word of affection, ‘brethren’ [=brothers and
sisters]... It takes the sting out of the severity. Thus concludes this Epistle
so full of polemical fire and zeal, yet more full of grace – free sovereign
grace, justifying sanctifying grace, and full of forgiving love even to ungrateful
pupils; an Epistle for the time and an Epistle for all times.”
Philip Schaff, quoted in Philip
Schaff, ed., St Chrysostom: Homilies on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Nicene &
Post-Nicene Fathers 13 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 48.