Galatians 5- Hope is a soldier

Today for my quiet time I read through Galatians 5. As I mentioned, I am trying to read some kind of historical or theological commentary too, just to get me to evaluate and interact with the passage. Today I read a guide to Galatians by Martin Luther. Wow, he has more thoughts on a single book of the Bible than I have on the whole thing. It took me a full hour and a half to read what I read, and I skipped through the boring parts of it.
This chapter was encouraging. Paul starts by finishing up his arguments against the law and how obedience to it is simply a form of slavery. He explains that relying on circumcision (and other worldly measures of "faith") for salvation essentially denies the sacrifice of Christ. In verse 2 he says, "if you let yourself be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all." It means you are not putting any trust in the hope God has promised you. Martin Luther pretty much summed this up by saying, "Tongue cannot express, nor heart conceive what a terrible thing it is to make Christ worthless."
Paul goes even further by saying that those who have been obeying the law in hopes of "improving their chances of salvation" (or something) have fallen away from grace. To me this means that we are being distracted from the ultimate gift, and Luther points out that there are two ways to fall from grace-1) to deny Christ by choosing to indulge in "pleasures of the flesh" in SPITE of his gift of grace and 2) to take matters into your own hands by working for salvation and thus making the cross worthless.
My favorite part of this passage is when Paul talks about having hope in verse 5- "By faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope." Martin Luther discusses the difference between hope and faith. According to him, faith is a judge, hope is a soldier. I love that picture of hope. It fights against our worries, our insecurities, our weaknesses. In this verse Paul acknowledges we are not yet righteous- but it is something that we can hope for through the Spirit. And not just hope for, but anticipate. I love that. SOOOO often I get discouraged by my own weakness and inability to serve God the way I want to. It is not fun to try and rely on yourself. But if you are putting your hope in Christ then it actually becomes a possibility. It reminds me of 1 Peter 3:15, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." If we are truly hopeful that honors God rather than ourselves; that is the essence of evangelism.
Paul finishes the passage by explaining the fruit of the Spirit. He does this to show the difference between obeying the law out of obligation and insecurity and culturing fruit of the Spirit out of maturity and trust in Christ. The fruit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. That last one makes me cringe.