Ver. 13. +For neither they themselves keep the law.+--So far are they from being sincere that they arbitrarily select circumcision out of the whole law, as though observing it would stand instead of their non-observance of the rest of the law. +That they may glory in your flesh.+--That they may vaunt your submission to the carnal rite, and so gain credit with the Jews for proselytising. Ver. 14. +God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross.+--The great object of shame to them, and to all carnal men, is the great object of glorying to me. +By whom the world is crucified unto me.+--By His cross, the worst of deaths, Christ has destroyed all kinds of death. Legal and fleshly ordinances are merely outward and elements of the world. To be crucified to the world is to be free from worldliness, and all that makes men slaves to creature fascinations. Ver. 15. +But a new creature.+--All external distinctions are nothing. The cross is the only theme worthy of glorying in, as it brings about a new spiritual creation. Ver. 16. +As many as walk according to this rule.+--Of life: a straight rule to detect crookedness. +Upon the Israel of God.+--Not the Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual seed of Israel by faith. Ver. 17. +I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.+--The Judaising teachers gloried in the circumcision marks in the flesh of their followers; St. Paul in the scars or brands of suffering for Christ in his own body--the badge of an honourable servitude. Ver. 18. +Brethren.+--After much rebuke and monition, he bids them farewell with the loving expression of brotherhood as his last parting word, as if Greatheart had meant to say, "After all, my last word is, I love you, I love you." _MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5. _Mutual Sympathy in Burden-bearing._ +I. That sympathy towards the erring is a test of spiritual-mindedness.+--1. _Shown in the tenderness with which the erring should be treated._ "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness" (ver. 1). Worldly and self-seeking men are often severe on a neighbour's fault. They are more likely to aggravate than heal the wound, to push the weak man down when he tries to rise than to help him to his feet. The spiritual, moved by genuine compassion, should regard it as their duty to set right a lapsed brother, to bring him back as soon and safely as may be to the fold of Christ. To reprove without pride or acrimony, to stoop to the fallen without the air of condescension, requires the spirit of meekness in a singular degree.