Burdens

Excerpt

Paul addressed his advice to “those who are spiritual,” the pneumatikoi. Again, there has been much scholarly debate about who these “spirituals” were. W. Schmithals, among others, has argued on the basis of this word that Paul was addressing here an incipient party of Gnostics whose disruptive activities among the Galatians had occasioned Paul’s letter in the first place.115 Although later Gnostics did use the word pneumatikoi as a term of self-designation, there is no reason to believe that Paul was here addressing such a self-conscious heretical group. Another, more plausible interpretation has been set forth by those who detect a note of irony and sarcasm in Paul’s use of this term in the Galatian context. Given the picture that has already emerged of a group of fractious Christians consumed by arrogance, conceit, and selfish ambition, we can well imagine that a group of “Holy Joes” and “Pious Pollys” had formed themselves into a cadre of moral watchdogs and were self-righteously lording it over their less “advanced” brothers and sisters. If we accept this interpretation, then Paul would, in effect, have been saying: “Listen to me, those of you who think you’re so ‘spiritual.’ You talk as though you’ve swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all! If you’re so ‘spiritual,’ then demonstrate your spirituality by acting responsibly and lovingly with your fallen brothers and sisters.”116 More

George, Timothy. Galatians. Vol. 30. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publi