For ye have heard [what was] my conversation formerly in Judaism, that I excessively persecuted the assembly of God, and ravaged it;
Paul has just claimed that his gospel came to him by revelation, not from any human teacher. Now he offers his own life story as the evidence. Why would a man offer his worst record as proof of his message? And what does that record say about the religion the Galatians were drifting back into?
Someone could doubt the claim in verse 12. So Paul answers with history. Nobody taught him the gospel. He was hunting down the very people who could have taught it.
The next point he brings into his argument is his earlier way of life. Speaking of his gospel, he says he did not receive it from any man, and no one taught it to him. It came by the revelation of Jesus Christ. They might have raised a doubt about this; but he shows that all his previous life was opposed to the gospel. There was not another such opponent of Christ as he had been. "For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it." There may be a small word here for them. They were beginning to persecute everyone who opposed their ideas about the law, and were getting into a bitter spirit.
Another writer sets Saul's zeal beside what others were doing at the same time.
While others were hearing the gospel preached and coming into the Church, he was persecuting it. His zeal for the Jew's religion and the traditions of the fathers completely blinded him to the preaching of the apostles. It is clear, then, that in his unconverted days he was unreached by the preaching of others.
The verse describes a settled, ongoing campaign, not a single outburst. One writer gives a literal rendering. It brings out that repeated action and explains what "Judaism" means.
"For you heard of my manner of life formerly in Judaism, that surpassingly I kept persecuting the assembly of God, and I kept making havoc of it." Galatians 1:13 [Judaism means the Jewish rites, customs and ceremonies.]
His crime was not a scandalous private life. It was his will set against God's purpose — and he was religious the whole time.
What made him chief of sinners was not immorality. It was the dreadful will and purpose with which he set himself against the purpose and mind of God. Listen to his own account of it: "I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth."
Paul names a whole religion here, not just his own past. That naming carries a warning for readers who were mixing that religion into their faith.
In his life he combined three things: great zeal for Jewish tradition, progress in Judaism that went further than others of his own age, and heavy persecution of the church of God. Twice in verses 13 and 14 he speaks of "the Jews' religion." This is significant. The Galatians had fallen into the trap of trying to bring the very essence of that religion into the gospel. He would have them realise — and us also — that far from being an addition to the gospel it is opposed to it. He had been brought clean out of it by his conversion.
Paul does not say he persecuted a congregation. He uses a phrase that reaches wider than any one city, and the Lord treated the attack as aimed at Himself.
Paul persecuted the Church (1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6). He did not persecute only the believers at Jerusalem, but through them the whole Church. He even heard a voice asking, "Why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4-5).
Grace reached Saul while he was still hunting Christians. That starting point left him no room for a gospel of law.
Grace is the foundation of it all — free, sovereign grace. What use were his privileges as a Jew to a man caught red-handed on his mission of blood, as Saul now is! This is not a repentant sinner asking for and finding mercy. He is an enemy, and it is as an enemy that he is reconciled to God. Legality is an impossibility for a man in his position. He cannot dream of any of those half-gospels with which men fool themselves first and then their hearers.
- Proof. Paul's past is his evidence. The one man who could not have learned the gospel from Christians is the man who was destroying them.
- Religion. His sin was not immorality. It was a will set against God, driven by religious zeal and family tradition.
- Opposition. Naming "the Jews' religion" twice is a warning. What the Galatians were adding to the gospel does not support it — it stands against it.
- Reach. He attacked "the church of God," not one local group. The risen Christ took the blows as aimed at Himself.
- Grace. God reconciled him while he was still an enemy. That is why no half-gospel of law ever had room in his preaching.
and advanced in Judaism beyond many [my] contemporaries in my nation, being exceedingly zealous of the doctrines of my fathers.
Paul is defending where his message came from, and he does it by describing the man he used to be. Before God stopped him, he was no bystander to the religion the Galatians were now drifting into. He was out in front of his whole generation in it.
The verse pictures forward motion. One writer renders the phrase as cutting a track ahead of everyone else, and pauses to define the word "Judaism":
"and in Judaism I kept blazing a path ahead of and beyond many of my own age in my nation, being more exceedingly zealous of my ancestral traditions." Galatians 1:13-14 [Judaism means the Jewish rites, customs and ceremonies.]
One writer shows what these traditions bought a man, and where tradition turns dangerous:
The scribes and others held on to these traditions with great tenacity. A Jew's standing among men grew in proportion to his zeal for spreading and developing them. Before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus gained distinction in Jerusalem by his devotion to the tradition of his fathers... So tradition becomes evil when it adds to the word of God, or takes something away from it. Once fully developed, it becomes a harmful substitute for the word of God.
Paul did not learn his message from other preachers. His past life proves it:
His zeal for the Jew's religion and the traditions of the fathers blinded him to the preaching of the Apostles. It is clear, then, that no preaching from others reached him in his unconverted days.
See where his zeal for the law finally took him:
He knew all about this Judaism which they were getting back into. He did not speak as one who had been a stranger to it. On the contrary, he had made the very greatest advances. He was an enthusiast for the law, beyond the people of his own nation around him. As evidence of this, he went beyond them all in persecuting the Church of God and destroying it. How the essential opposition of principles comes out here! Here he was following only the human school. The traditions of his fathers stirred up his zeal, with all their appeal to nature and self-interest.
For the Galatians, that religion looked like a helpful addition to the gospel:
Twice in verses 13 and 14 he speaks of "the Jews' religion." This matters. The Galatians had fallen into the trap of trying to bring the very heart of that religion into the Gospel. He wants them to see — and us also — that it is not an addition to the Gospel at all. It is against it. His conversion had brought him clean out of it.
Older translations render "Judaism" in this verse as "the Jews' religion."
Paul reached the top of that system. Here is what the prize was worth:
He was allowed to win the prize in the great legal struggle with his "equals in his own nation." He won it only so that he might throw it down at the foot of the Cross, like a withered, worthless thing... As the chief of legalists, Saul stood no nearer to Christ than he did as the chief of sinners. His noblest efforts in the school of legalism held no more justifying merit than his wildest acts against the name of Christ. He was saved by grace, saved by blood, saved by faith.
Paul was sincere in his old religion. Sincerity was not enough:
We may have been completely sincere in our religious convictions. But if they came from tradition instead of from God, the light of God's truth wakes us up to a discovery. In the very thing we were most proud of, we were most contrary to God... Those who take their religion from tradition, and not from the Word of God, are the fiercest opponents of the doctrines of grace.
- Tradition — inherited rules gave a man his standing among his peers. They turn harmful the moment they add to the word of God or take from it.
- Advance — Paul outran his own generation in that system. He speaks about it as an insider, not as a stranger to it.
- Blindness — the same zeal that lifted his reputation closed his ears to the apostles' preaching. No man taught him the gospel.
- Worthlessness — he won the legal contest, then threw the prize down at the cross. The chief legalist stood no nearer to Christ than the chief of sinners.
- Warning — sincerity is no safeguard. A religion taken from tradition instead of Scripture can set a man against God at the point where he is proudest.