What does it mean to "bite and devour one another" in Galatians 5:15?

Verse 15. "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed," etc. A dreary contrast to the foregoing, yet a wholesome word in season. For his language, though in form a caution, evidently contemplates an evil not remote and possible only, but already in active force in their assemblies thus quickly and bitterly were discovering themselves the practical effects of their descent, in the spirit of their minds, from grace to law! With a lower standing, lower morals had come also. Instead of each esteeming other better than themselves, in self-forgetting brotherly affection, there was among them a self-conscious and mutually destructive emulation. Each strove to reach beyond his neighbour, in the delusive race of personal pre-eminence into which the deceiver had allured them. Christ died to unite His chosen in a new and common bond. But where now was Christ? Where was the tender and soul-filling remembrance of His cross, when their hearts were being set so eagerly upon another and strange love? Caring only for themselves, they were biting and devouring one another; for self-love means always hostility to others. But where, at this rate, was the edifying of Christ's mystic body? God's building cannot grow and be compacted by the untempered mortar of self-love and unbelief. The work of righteousness is peace; but by the law is the knowledge of sin, with corresponding fruits (Rom. 7:6). Wasting and consumption, instead of stability and peace, are the natural results of seeking to the law for spiritual strength.

But though we are free, and the Apostle could hardly speak more strongly of our freedom, he urges us to hold it fast; yet in the very next sentence he tells us to make it a habit to be slaves. By means of love, or on account of love, let it be your habit to be slaves to one another. The Galatians had wished to return to slavery. Do so, says the Apostle, make it your habit to be slaves; but slaves to one another — not to the law! Slaves, yet free men! Love, true love, makes slaves of each one of us. We have seen our Lord rise from supper, lay aside His garments, take a towel and gird Himself, and do the work of a slave, for love to His own people. We are to follow His steps; on account of love, we are to serve one another, to serve as slaves. True love delights to do this. Watch a mother serve her husband and her children; she is a slave to them, but free — a slave in the bonds of love. Indeed, as the Apostle points out, the entire law is filled to the full in the one word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." One who truly loves his neighbor will do his neighbor no wrong, and so he keeps the law towards his neighbor. "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Rom. 13:8. But read 1 Corinthians 13 and see how far, far beyond the law does love go! The law is filled to the full, and love has only begun her work of being a slave to others. How different is God's way from man's way.

It would seem that with the coming of the law teachers, there also came quarrelling. The Apostle warns these saints: "If you keep on biting and devouring one another, beware lest you should be consumed by one another." The law makes men hard; the law knows nothing of love. In that kind of soil the quarrels quickly grow, and the biting and devouring one another may soon be seen. Each thinks that he is standing for righteousness, when all the time, he is only trying to force his own will on his neighbor. Do you remember that Proverbs tells us that the contentions of brothers are like the bars of a castle — cold and straight, each one held firmly away from the other by being embedded in the cold stone (Prov. 18:19)? That is the result of a heart that puts itself under law. Another translates these words: "If you are perpetually snarling and snapping at one another, beware lest you are destroyed by one another."

But there is a way in which the Christian may walk through this world, with the enemies on every side, and be in perfect safety. There is a way in which the flesh has no power whatever against the Christian. And what is that way? "Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not at all give effect to the passionate cravings of the flesh." That is our secret, "walk by the Spirit." God has given the Holy Spirit to dwell in each believer, and He does dwell in us, though often we forget Him, or grieve Him (Eph. 4:30), or disregard Him; but He does dwell in you, dear Christian reader, and He is ready to give you power for your walk. Heed His least prompting, obey Him instantly as He brings to your mind the Word of God; so we "walk by the Spirit." In verse 18 we will read of being "led by the Spirit." That is true; He knows the path we are to walk, and He is a faithful, trusty Guide. If we will but let Him lead us, then we will truly "walk by the Spirit," and we will not at all fulfill the passionate cravings of the flesh. How strong the flesh is! What passionate cravings it has! But there is One who is mightier than the flesh, who dwells within each one of us, and all His mighty power is ready to lead us, and to let us walk by the Spirit, so that there is no need for us to give effect at all to these passionate cravings of the flesh. In the Greek it is a double negative; that makes it very strong, "not at all" do we need to heed the flesh.

In contrast to the law, Christianity gives us a new nature that loves to obey and do the will of God, and a new power, the Holy Spirit, to carry out the desires of the new nature. This is liberty, not, indeed, to be used for an occasion to the flesh to exalt itself, but to serve one another. The flesh likes to be served; but love delights to serve. The self-righteousness that seeks to exalt itself by its own works has no love or compassion for others. As with these troublers, who had sought to set the saints against the Apostle in order to attract to themselves (Gal. 4:17), so the vanity of the flesh will ever lead to fault-finding, and the belittling of others, in the effort to exalt self. In this way strife and contention is raised among the people of God. And when once brethren start biting and devouring one another, they may well "take heed," for, if this spirit is unjudged, it will not be long before they are consumed one of another. Alas! how many companies of God's people have been broken up and scattered by individuals contending with one another, and insulting one another, rather than serving one another in love.

This is the subject that the apostle takes up and handles henceforward in our epistle. We have seen the question of justification entirely settled; now we have the walk or practical holiness. Again he insists upon liberty. We might suppose that he had said enough about it, after having charged them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. But no. In the domain of holiness this liberty is needed, just as much as for justification; and therefore says he, "Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty." That is, it characterizes our calling. Only, says he, it is not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, or you are not to use license: do not turn this liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. There he showed that there is a faith that works by love, (as said a few verses before;) so now he shows that the object of that love should be the helping one of another. It is not for the purpose of putting you under the law, but that you may serve one another" "for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Had they not been trying the law? And what had been the result? He says, You have been biting and devouring one another: that is not fulfilling law, but lusts. When persons talk about it, or desire to be its teachers, do they ever fulfil it? It begins with confident words, and ends without deed or truth. Whereas, on the contrary, when Christ is the object of the soul, though the law does not occupy the mind, yet is it fulfilled. Christ is the power of God; the law is the strength of sin. I have exactly the same word of God to tell me of Christ and the law; and both are in the same epistle. (1 Cor.) But it does not matter where the subject is entered into; the great point that the Holy Ghost insists on is, not that the law was not a good thing, but that, our nature being horribly bad, there never can be any good got from bringing the law to bear on our evil nature, save condemning it. The question is, What will strengthen my soul for what is good? The answer is, not the law, but Christ. The law, I admit, is excellent. But you have been talking about the law as a means of walking well: what sort of holiness have you been producing? Biting and devouring one another! This is not love. But it is the effect of your use of the law you boast of. "But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." Such is the result. The law is a killing, destroying power; not because of its being bad, but because our nature is. And remember that the law bears upon our nature. The law was given not to the new man, but to the old.

He then touches on the point of the practical consequences of this doctrine, and explains how the doctrine of perfect grace was connected, without the law, with a walk worthy of the people of God. Ye have then been called, he says, unto liberty: only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh — which the flesh would readily do. God gave the law to convince of sin; the flesh would use it to work out righteousness. He acts in grace, that we may be above sin and outside its dominion: the flesh would use grace as an occasion to sin without restraint. The Christian, truly free from the yoke of sin, as well as from its condemnation (for Christ risen is his life as well as his righteousness, and the Spirit is the power and guide of his walk towards glory, and according to Christ), instead of serving his lusts, seeks to serve others, as free to do it in love. Thus the law itself is fulfilled, without our being under its yoke: for the whole practical law is summed up in this word: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

If, yielding to the flesh, and attacking those who were not circumcised, they devoured one another, they were to take heed that they were not consumed one of another. But the apostle would give something more positive. "This I say then," he continues, after the interruption of his subject, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." It is not by putting oneself under the law that one has power against sin. It is the Spirit (given in virtue of the ascension of Christ our righteousness, to the right hand of God) who is the Christian's strength. Now the two powers, the flesh and the Spirit, are antagonistic. The flesh strives to hinder us when we would walk according to the Spirit, and the Spirit resists the working of the flesh to prevent it from accomplishing its will. But if we are led of the Spirit, we are not under the law. Holiness, true holiness, is accomplished without the law, even as righteousness is not founded on it. 'Nor is there any difficulty in judging between what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit; the apostle enumerates the sad fruits of the former, adding the sure testimony that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruits of the Spirit are equally evident in their character, and assuredly against such things there was no law. If we walk according to the Spirit, the law will find nothing to condemn in us. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh and its lusts. This is what they are, inasmuch as they are Christians; it is that which distinguishes them. If these Galatians really lived, it was in the Spirit: let them then walk in the Spirit.

The Apostle longed for the true liberty of the Galatians and could have desired that those who were so zealous for the cuttings of circumcision would cut themselves off. Liberty, he points out, is not licence to sin but rather freedom to love and to serve. And this love was what the law of Moses had been aiming at all the time. Yet, as a matter of fact, while boasting in the law they had been biting and devouring one another, instead of loving and serving one another. It is ever thus. Legality leads to the very opposite of love in action, and the Galatians had to beware lest their pursuit of holiness by law only led them to the unholy end of consuming one another in their contentions and criticisms. They would avoid the scandal of the cross only to come utterly to grief in the scandal produced by their own unholy conduct. We have sorrowfully to remark that this just sums up the history of Christendom. In proportion as the scandal of the cross has been refused and avoided, the scandal of its divisions and misbehaviour has increased.

The character of the true child of God is simple. There is no great, involved scheme of practice pressed upon him, no legal forms and ceremonies as contained in the Old Testament. In fact, the Law is fulfilled in one brief sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v.14). This is the root of things, which the law searches out. Love of others absolutely cuts off selfishness, which is the unvarying motive of the legalist, for he seeks blessing for himself, not for others. So the more legal-minded one is, the more thoroughly is he ignoring the claims of the Law in which he boasts!

Such was the inconsistency of the Galatians. Their doctrine called for keeping the Law: their practice was to "bite and devour one another" (v.15), having seemingly no sense of shame concerning it. "Beware," Paul tells them, "lest you be consumed by one another." This is the inevitable result of selfish motives. By our being contentious we soon consume away all spirituality in one another. All that is really profitable is withered away.

"For brethren ye have been called to liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (vers. 13-15). The Galatians sought power against the flesh to keep it down, and had turned to the law for it. But with what success? What was the practical outcome? Such a low and contentious condition that the very law condemned them, for if it did not teach men to serve one another in love as Christ, the law said at least "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This the Galatians were evidently not doing, but the opposite; hence the apostle's earnest word of warning. As Rom. 7 shows, law instead of subduing flesh provokes it and draws out all its badness. The law is thus the strength of sin, not of holiness, though in itself holy and just and good (1 Cor. 15:5-6; Rom. 7:7-13).

In verse 13 the apostle guards an important point. Liberty must not be taken to mean licence. Christian liberty is not licence for the flesh to act but liberty for Divine love to act. We stand in the liberty of the sons of God and our nature as "sons" is the Divine nature, which is love. The "flesh" is the nature which attaches to us as children of Adam. If we as Christians are living thus in the happy liberty that characterizes our relationship with God, and our hearts are consequently filled with love, we shall fulfil, as verse 14 tells us, what the law demanded but failed to produce from the flesh. Verse 15 seems to infer that, on the contrary, the Galatians who had turned back to law were far from keeping its demands; they were biting and devouring one another rather than loving and serving one another.

The Galatians were apparently lacking here, as in everything else. They were biting and devouring one another, and thus stood condemned by the very law in which they were now boasting. The law at least taught love to one's neighbour, though it did not, as the gospel, teach love to an enemy.