Charles Spurgeon Commentary Galatians 5:15

"But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." — Galatians 5:15 (ASV)

But if you bite and devour one another,

Finding fault, slandering, injuring, bearing malice, and so on: – If you bite and devour one another,

But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed one of another.

This man finds fault, the other must have his own way, a third is for something quite new, a fourth is for nothing but what is antique, and so they fall to squabbling and quarreling.

Take heed that you be not consumed one of another.

"You will eat one another up; you will, each one, condemn his neighbor." Paul represents the great Judge coming and waiting outside the door. When He hears two men condemning one another, He says to Himself, "I will confirm their verdict; they have mutually condemned each other. I will say 'Amen' to it." What a sad thing it is if professed Christians are found thus condemning one another.

But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed one of another.

When dogs and wolves bite one another, it is according to their nature; but it is bad indeed when sheep take to biting one another. If I must be bitten at all, let me rather be bitten by a dog than by a sheep.

That is to say, the wounds inflicted by the godly are far more painful to bear, and last much longer, than those caused by wicked men. Besides, we can say with the psalmist, It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it.

It is natural that the serpent's seed should nibble at our heel and seek to do us injury; but when the bite comes from a brother—from a child of God—then it is peculiarly painful.

Well might the apostle write, If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed one of another. I have lived long enough to see churches absolutely destroyed, not by any external attacks, but by internal contention.