The Meaning of Galatians 5:15 Explained

Galatians 5:15

KJV: But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

YLT: and if one another ye do bite and devour, see -- that ye may not by one another be consumed.

Darby: but if ye bite and devour one another, see that ye are not consumed one of another.

ASV: But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

But  if  ye bite  and  devour  one another,  take heed  that ye be  not  consumed  one  of  another. 

What does Galatians 5:15 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Apparently the believers who advocated grace and the believers who advocated law bitterly opposed one another in the Galatian churches. Paul cautioned both sides to love one another or they would consume each other. That would not be a good example of Christian love. This is the only sin Paul warned the Galatians to avoid. They were better off spiritually than some other congregations to which he wrote, or possibly he did not want to deal with other needs of theirs in this letter.

Context Summary

Galatians 5:13-26 - Produce The Fruit Of The Spirit
That Christ has freed us from the Law as a means of salvation does not free us from moral restraint, but brings us under the constraint of a higher law, the law of love. We do not keep this law to be saved; but, being saved, we keep it out of love toward Christ. The power of the new life is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Unite yourself with His life that you find rising up within you. Live in the Spirit. A child was much disappointed because when she took a cupful of water out of the blue lake, it did not look blue in the cup; so her teacher told her to throw the cup into the midst of the lake and leave it there. As we live and walk in the Spirit, we are safe.
The Holy Spirit brings influences to bear which act upon the germs of sin, as a disinfectant upon the germs of disease. If we yield ourselves to these influences, and are filled with the Spirit of Jesus, we shall be delivered from the self-life, which the Apostle describes as the flesh. As Jesus is more and more formed in us, the new flower and fruitage of the risen life will appear, while the corrupt works of the flesh will shrink and drop away, [source]

Chapter Summary: Galatians 5

1  He wills them to stand in their liberty,
3  and not to observe circumcision;
13  but rather love, which is the sum of the law
19  He lists the works of the flesh,
22  and the fruits of the Spirit,
25  and exhorts to walk in the Spirit

Greek Commentary for Galatians 5:15

If ye bite and devour one another [ει αλληλους δακνετε και κατεστιετε]
Condition of first class assumed as true. Two common and old verbs often used together of wild animals, or like cats and dogs. [source]
That ye be not consumed one of another [μη υπ αλληλων αναλωτητε]
Negative final clause with first aorist passive subjunctive of αναλισκω — analiskō old word to consume or spend. In N.T. only here and Luke 9:54. There is a famous story of two snakes that grabbed each other by the tail and each swallowed the other. [source]
Bite and devour [δάκνετε καὶ κατεσθίετε]
Strong expressions of partisan hatred exerting itself for mutual injury. Δάκνειν tobite, N.T.oIn lxx metaphorically, Micah 3:5; Habakkuk 2:7. For κατεσθίειν devourcomp. Matthew 23:13; 2 Corinthians 11:20; Revelation 11:5. [source]
Be consumed [ἀναλωθῆτε]
Rare in N.T. See Luke 9:54. Partisan strife will be fatal to the Christian community as a whole. The organic life of the body will be destroyed by its own members. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Galatians 5:15

Galatians 5:25  []
d Lipsius makes this verse the beginning of ch. 6. Weizsäcker begins that chapter with Galatians 5:26. There seems to be no sufficient reason. Galatians 5:25is connected naturally with the immediately preceding line of thought. “Such being your principle of life, adapt your conduct (walk) to it.” The hortatory form of Galatians 5:26, and its contents, fall in naturally with the exhortation to walk by the Spirit, and with the reference to biting and devouring, Galatians 5:15, and envyings, Galatians 5:21. The connection of the opening of ch. 6 with the close of ch. 5 is not so manifest; and the address brethren and the change to the second person (Galatians 6:1) seem to indicate a new section. [source]
Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire [καὶ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν πῦρ καταναλίσκον]
See Exodus 24:17; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 9:3; Malachi 3:2; Malachi 4:1. The verb N.T.oa few times in lxx. Often in Class., especially Xenophon. Originally to use up, spend, lavish, as property: thence to consume as with fire. The simple verb ἀναλίσκειν toexpend occurs Luke 9:54; Galatians 5:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν is not our God as compared with the God of the Jews. He is the God of both covenants (see Hebrews 1:1, Hebrews 1:2, and notes); but though now revealed in Jesus Christ, and offering all the privileges of the new covenant (Hebrews 12:22-24), his anger burns against those who reject these privileges. [source]

What do the individual words in Galatians 5:15 mean?

If however one another you bite and devour take heed lest by one another you might be consumed
εἰ δὲ ἀλλήλους δάκνετε καὶ κατεσθίετε βλέπετε μὴ ὑπ’ ἀλλήλων ἀναλωθῆτε

δὲ  however 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: δέ  
Sense: but, moreover, and, etc.
ἀλλήλους  one  another 
Parse: Personal / Reciprocal Pronoun, Accusative Masculine Plural
Root: ἀλλήλων  
Sense: one another, reciprocally, mutually.
δάκνετε  you  bite 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: δάκνω  
Sense: to bite with the teeth.
κατεσθίετε  devour 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: κατεσθίω 
Sense: to consume by eating, to eat up, devour.
βλέπετε  take  heed 
Parse: Verb, Present Imperative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: βλέπω  
Sense: to see, discern, of the bodily eye.
μὴ  lest 
Parse: Adverb
Root: μή 
Sense: no, not lest.
ἀλλήλων  one  another 
Parse: Personal / Reciprocal Pronoun, Genitive Masculine Plural
Root: ἀλλήλων  
Sense: one another, reciprocally, mutually.
ἀναλωθῆτε  you  might  be  consumed 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Passive, 2nd Person Plural
Root: ἀναλίσκω 
Sense: to expend.