Scholarly Observations Regarding Galatians 5:22-23

"PRAUTHS: Meekness is the outcome of true humility,
the bearing towards others which results from a lowly
estimate of ourselves.--EGKRATEIA: Self-control
comprehends every form of temperance, and includes the
mastery of all appetites, tempers and passions" (The
Expositor's Greek Testament, 3:188).

"The fact that self-control appears last in Paul's
list may indicate its importance as a summation of the
preceding virtues. It would also have particular
relevance for the Galatian setting: Antinomians
veering out of control desperately needing the
discipline of self-control reinforced by a new respect
for God's moral law" (Timothy George, Galatians, page
404).

"Trench seems to have caught the true meaning of this
term [PRAUTHS]. He notes that it is not 'mere natural
disposition. Rather is it an inwrought grace of the
soul; and the exercises of it are first chiefly
towards God.' He continues: 'It is that temper of
spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as
good, and therefore without disputing or resisting;
and it is closely linked with the TAPEINOFROSUNH, and
it follows directly upon it (Ephes. iv.2; Col.
iii.12), because it is only the humble heart which is
also meek' (p. 152). Put in simplest terms, meekness
is submissiveness to the will of God" (Ralph Earle,
Word Meanings in the NT, pp. 310-311).

"KATA TWN TOIOUTWN OUK ESTIN NOMOS. 'Against such
things there is no law.' Without doubt an
understatement of the apostle's thought for rhetorical
effect. The mild assertion that there is no law
against such things has the effect of an emphatic
assertion that these things fully meet the
requirements of the law (cf. v.14). The statement as
it stands is true of law in every sense of the word,
and NOMOS is therefore to be taken in its general
sense; yet probably Paul is thinking only of divine,
not of divine and human law" (Ernest De Witt Burton,
Galatians, 318).