Thusly, are you foolish? Have come by the Spirit, now are you brought to maturity by flesh? Galatians 3:3.
After questioning the Galatian saints about who had bewitched them not to obey the truth, Paul asks if they are so foolish as to believe that, having begun by the Spirit, they could now be brought to maturity through the flesh.
Even in the early days of the Church, there were false teachers who claimed that one must keep the Mosaic Law to be saved. These individuals did not seek the well-being of the saints, but desired instead to make a display in the flesh—to boast in how righteous they appeared and in how many they had persuaded to submit to the Law.
We face the same influences today, with false teachers promoting legalism through step-by-step methods, forty-day directives, or direct adherence to the Ten Commandments as a supposed path to maturity. Yet those who were under the Law were inarticulate babblers under guardians and stewards, until faith in Christ came (Galatians 3:24).
We who are of the Church are not placed as inarticulate babblers, but as sons. As mature ones, we are no longer under guardians and tutors, for sons are able to discern between what is proper and what is wrong through the training of their senses. Thus, they live out the desirous will of God—not by the flesh (Hebrews 5:12–14; 1 Peter 4:2).