How Large a Letter Galatians 6:11 - Equipped for Battle

As Paul the apostle begins to wind down his words to the church members in Galatia, he gives insight and last minute instructions to them. He has encouraged them to restore one another when overtaken with a fault, bear one another's burdens, bear their own burdens, and to be busy about their own work. He has told them to take care of their teachers in the word and has told them the importance of sowing to the spirit rather than the flesh. In chapter six and verse eleven he shares his own reference to his writings where he wrote:

You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand.

Paul begins, “You see how large a letter I have written unto you...”. There are two possibilities to Paul's words here. First, he may be making reference to the size of the letter itself. He has written five previous chapters, and we have seven more verses in our study to finish this sixth one. If we think about how many times we have written six chapter letters, we may understand what a long letter this was.

However, the second possibility is that Paul is making reference to the actual “letter” size that he has written. In other words, he wrote the lettering big. The Greek reads more like this, “See in how large letters” I have written which may be a reference to this idea. Paul referred to his eyes which may have been affected by his Damascus road experience in a previous passage, Galatians chapter four and fifteen, where he wrote:

Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if [it had been] possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

And it is true that he usually dictated his letters and only wrote the salutations for himself. We see references to this in the book of Romans in chapter sixteen and verse twenty-two and in the book of First Corinthians chapter sixteen and verse twenty-one. Paul nonetheless felt this letter was important enough to write himself, and whether he is referring to the length of letter or the size of the letters themselves, we are very appreciative that he wrote it “with my own hand.”

How long has it been since we have written to anyone? We have such great advantage with our technology driven society, and we have so many opportunities to simply share with one another. We too might be able to encourage someone, help someone, and bless someone just by sharing a few words with them. Some of our letters might be long, and others might just be a word or two, and maybe that is where our meditation should rest today: Lord, Whom may I bless with my words today?

Next time will make another reference to the Judaizers as he begins to close his writing, so read ahead, and let us join together then.

Until tomorrow...there is more...

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