If Ye Bite and Devour One Another – Greg Albrecht

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“… If Ye Bite and Devour One Another, Take Heed …” (Galatians 5:15)

As we in these United States approach the November elections, the cacophony of hyperbolic rhetoric resounding from the chasm between line-in-the sand dogmas of ideology, culture and politics is becoming a thunderous crescendo of dissonance.    

Based on the racket of political acrimony and discord we hear it is not unreasonable to assume some prefer that we should become the Disunited States of America. The media broadcasts clamorous feuds, including immigration, crime, equality/inequality, racism, wokeism, the economy, sexual and gender issues and culture (some call for all previous culture to be cancelled as it does not meet with their approval). Emotional, weaponized grievances are fired like cannons and rockets against others who do not agree.

While surveys indicate few, if any, Americans actually fear the horrendous bloodshed of another Civil War some commentators who do not actually see armed conflict in the near future are nonetheless openly talking about the possibility of states divorcing from the union. Of course, secession from the federal Union was an opening salvo of the Civil War that quickly followed, soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

One looks in vain for peacemaking politicians, instead the vast majority of what we see and hear can be summarized as incendiary threats and counter threats, as those who seek election or re-election (and those who support them) fight fire with fire. Peace? Understanding? Getting Along? Not so much. The national mood is more like “my/our way or the highway.” 

Echo chambers of media outlets dedicated to one and only one view bombard the nation with the fiery rhetoric of self-aggrandizing power hungry “public servants” who fan the flames of lingering, latent antagonisms. It seems there is a new willingness to ignite raging fires of volcanic-hot coals of resentment and hatred about “the other.” A relative absence of hostilities, one definition of peace, means that hatreds are in some way being restrained. However, of recent date in North America, self-control seems to have all but been cast aside. We are seeing a new self-indulgent willingness to allow and even encourage differences to explode into raging, all-consuming forest and prairie fires.       

In this era of partisan polarization, Republicans and Democrats are far more likely now, than several decades ago, to perceive each other not only as having differing opinions and even  “wrong” ideas … now each “side” is more likely to see the others as dangerous, treacherous conspirators. Fellow citizens? Neighbors? Not so much.    

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, in a little Roman province called Galatia, another kind of warfare was waged. This battle of other vs other was somewhat like our 2024 culture wars, though the feud took place under the rubric of faith rather than politics.

The Apostle Paul, who thank God was no politician, wrote a letter to his friends in Galatians, who after his teaching amongst them had been convinced that they must live under the regulations of the law of Moses. Paul told the Galatians, in no uncertain terms, that feeling obligated to the old covenant was a waste of their freedom in Christ (Galatians 3:23-29; 5:1-6). 

Paul did not mince words – he told the Galatians they were deluded, bewitched and deceived.  Paul used words and terms like distort, accursed, worthless, slavery and foolish. Making a similar distinction, John said that “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).   

In the midst of this hostile and vindictive, judgmental and condemnatory religious feud of those who insisted on Moses plus Jesus, as opposed to those who favored faith alone, grace alone and Christ alone, Paul reminded those who wished to follow Jesus:

“… if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another” (Galatians 5:15, King James Version, my emphasis).

Any individual group, political party, family, nation, state, province, church, race or gender that allows itself to be overwhelmed by those who serve only themselves and their own interests will eventually self-destruct. Attempts to devalue and destroy opponents who differ, unleashing militarized like warfare wherein one “side” weaponizes its exclusive opinions, perspectives or doctrines eventually, after trampling all over the beliefs of others, leads to death of the cause enshrined as virtuous and superior.     

In the context of Galatians 5:15, two important asides about Paul and Galatians:

  • 1. In the book of Galatians Paul leaves no doubt about the gospel and the supremacy of Jesus over any religion. In this remarkable epistle Paul is specifically facing down “Judaizers” who insist that the law of Moses must, in some way, be a part of the gospel. Since that time many have attempted to appropriate Paul in their pogroms and crusades against Jews. 
  • But Paul is not saying in Galatians that Christian faith means hatred of all other forms of faith. Quite the opposite! While Paul is deeply grieved about those who are, whether they realize it or not, diminishing, devaluing, corrupting and polluting the gospel, Paul realizes when one follows Christ one does not loathe what one once believed and practiced in such a way as to war against those who continue to be involved in the lifestyle one has now left behind. When one follows Christ one loves one’s neighbors even if they are enemies, and prays for them.   
  • When one follows Christ one realizes, in deep humility, that no matter where they once were and what they once believed and practiced, Jesus rescued them, and that he is obviously capable of saving others who remain enslaved to precisely the same past life from which they have been saved. Hate is not love. Hatred, even of distorted beliefs we once embraced, is not love for what we now believe and espouse. 
  • 2. Paul is reminding Christ-followers in Galatia, whether they formerly were Jewish or non-Jewish in terms of their faith, that going on the warpath against “others” is not, obviously, loving one’s neighbor. 
  • Jesus’ call to love one’s neighbor is an unqualified love which is a gift of God, no matter how objectionable one might find the spiritual faith and practices of one’s neighbor. Paul’s point is that when we fail to love, then we bite and devour, and attacking “others” eventually results in our own self-destruction, as we devour and consume ourselves. It is likely Paul deliberately used this language of “biting” and “devouring” to condemn “animal-like” ferocious, ravenous behavior in the lives of Christ followers.     

The lesson is clear:  Whether we are “right” or “wrong,” getting what we want, at any cost, perhaps justifying our actions as “the end justifies the means” will inevitably and eventually result in our side, our team and our views being devoured and consumed.   

There are 59 “one another” passages in the New Testament – Galatians 5:15 is one of the few expressed in the negative, about an activity Christ-followers do not practice toward one another.  Among the positive exhortations we read “forgiving one another” – “encouraging one another” – honoring one another – submitting to one another – praying for one another and serving one another. What emerges from these teachings is a beautiful portrait of what life in Christ looks like.

By far and away, the most frequent admonition, some 15 times, of the 59 “one another” passages, is to love one another/love each other. Give it some thought, won’t you?

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