‘You were running well. Who cut into you, not being persuaded of the truth, 8 the self-produced persuasion absolutely not from out of your summons and calling? 9 A little yeast is fermenting the whole lump. 10 I, on my part, am convinced towards you within the Lord that you will have no other mindset. But the one disturbing, troubling and agitating you will carry the judicial decision, whoever he is. 11 Now brothers if I still, even now, am proclaiming circumcision, why am I still pursued and persecuted, since the cause of stumbling, the cross, has been rendered entirely idle? 12 Oh that those turning you upside down will also ‘cut themselves off’, (Galatians 5 v 7 - 12).
Paul is very abrupt in style in verses 7 – 12. His thought jumps from subject to subject, not stopping to insert links of connection. He says that the Galatian Christians were ‘running well’ – elsewhere he likens the Christian life to athletes running a race in order to win the prize and he says that they were doing well, but then he asks, ‘Who, not being persuaded of the truth, cut in?’ Who, as it were, knocked them sideways so as to lead them to take another route? In turning back to the written codes of the Sinai Covenant, the Galatian Christians have persuaded themselves. What they are holding to is not from out of their calling by God. The belief that it is necessary to obey the laws of Moses and blend the observance of Jewish law with Christian teaching in order to be delivered and maintain a godly life, cannot be traced to God, even though those who are teaching it pretended to be commissioned by Him. Those who are wayward in the fellowship may be few, but they will soon ruin the whole assembly, because a small portion of legalism, if mixed with the Gospel, corrupts its purity and undermines the whole. Though they had been led astray and had embraced many false opinions, yet, on the whole, Paul had confidence in them and believed they would yet return and embrace the truth, as Paul had taught it.
‘But the one disturbing, troubling and agitating you…’. Paul seems to have a particular individual in mind, perhaps the leader of the false teachers who was causing the most mischief among them. This agitator had unsettled the minds of the Galatian Christians and caused them to halt between two mutually exclusive Covenants, Moses and the Messiah, law and Gospel, and divine approval attained by working to observe the law or by means of the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah. Paul says that this individual ‘will carry the judicial decision, whoever he is’. Whoever endeavoured to lead them astray, whatever their status, God will reward them according to their behaviour. They will carry the consequences of God’s judicial decision.
‘Now brothers…’. Another abrupt transition by Paul. It may well be that Paul had at one time seemed to preach, or at least permit, circumcision. This may have arisen from the fact that he had circumcised Timothy, (Acts 16 v 3) ‘on account of the Jews in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek’. This would have been so that the Jews did not immediately reject Timothy as he and Paul sought to announce the gospel to them. It was done to avoid the opposition and reproaches of the Jews. But Paul did not want any misunderstanding. He was not teaching that male Gentile Christians had to be circumcised. Paul had never complied with Jewish customs where there was danger that his behaviour would be understood. He did not want people to think that he regarded such customs and laws indispensable, or as furnishing a basis for divine approval. The fact that Jews are still persecuting me, he says, is full demonstration that I am not regarded as teaching the necessity to be circumcised. Circumcision is the special badge of Jewish religion; it implies all the rest, and if I preach the necessity of it, then this would satisfy the Jews and save me from persecution. But if I teach the necessity of circumcision, as alleged, then the cause of stumbling for Jews, the cross, is removed - ‘If you let yourselves be circumcised, the Messiah will be of no value to you at all’, (Galatians 5 v 2). It is because I preach the Messiah crucified, and not Mosaic law as the sole basis of divine approval that they persecute me.
Paul says, ‘I am so far from agreeing with them, so far from preaching the necessity to be circumcised, that I sincerely wish that they were excluded from the assembly, as being unworthy of having a place among the children of God’.
No comments:
Post a Comment