I wonder that ye thus quickly change, from him that called you in Christ's grace, to a different gospel,
Paul ends his greeting, and instead of his usual thanks he goes straight at the trouble. The Galatians are leaving the One who called them, and they are turning to a message Paul refuses to call a gospel.
Paul usually finds something to praise. Here there is nothing, and the silence is itself part of the message.
Verse 5 ends the "greeting." In Paul's other letters, a word of thanks or praise usually follows, addressed to the church he is writing to. But there is no such word here. Paul does not call the Galatians "saints." It is the only letter of Paul in which this word does not appear. He does not call them "faithful brothers" or "holy brothers" as he does other Christians. But again and again he calls them "brothers." That shows the burning love that filled his heart as he wrote these severe and stern rebukes.
The abruptness matches the danger. He does not stop to build up to it.
His heart was too agitated not to go at once to the point of their danger. So he adds no further introduction. He stays ominously silent about their state, for it really could not be spoken of. He begins at once.
The verb describes something still in motion. They had not finished the journey away, which is why Paul can still write to them.
"So soon removed" seems to me a somewhat stronger expression than the one the Spirit of God uses. It means, in the process of removing. They were shifting, being moved away "from Him who had called them into the grace of Christ." The evil and the danger were not yet fixed. Paul could still look to God about them.
How far had the change gone, and where would it end?
They had not yet abandoned the faith. But they had started a change that would surely cut them off from Christ if they kept on with it.
Paul does not say they were leaving a teaching. He says they were leaving the One who called them.
Theirs was not a slow decline after long years of professing faith. It was a very sudden turning aside. How could they be so fickle? To turn now to law was to turn from God. He had called them through Paul to grace, not to law.
They would have denied it. The charge was serious because they could not see it.
There was likely no thought of such a thing in their minds. They were probably quite sincere in believing they were honouring God. They thought that by obeying the law of Moses they would keep their standing before God — that is, keep themselves saved by their good works. Paul exposes it in no uncertain terms. He plainly sees the real effect of this twisting of the gospel. In the end it leaves God out altogether and makes the law the basis of blessing.
The wording matters. The call was not simply to grace as a destination. Grace was the power in which the call came.
"In Christ's grace" means in the power of Christ's grace. It is not, as the King James translation has it, "into the grace of Christ" — no, the call is in the power of the grace of Christ. Here the grace of Christ stands over against what we will see later in Galatians: the power of the law, which is tied to the flesh.
Paul's words sound like a contradiction. He refuses to give the new message the name it claims.
What were they moving on to now? A different gospel, which is not another... So if the grace of Christ was the spring and power of their calling, the gospel was the means of it. But now they had left this for something different. Notice, it does not say contrary to it, but a different one; and for that very reason he says it is not another. It does not deserve the name of another gospel. God owns only one. He permits no compromise about the gospel, and neither should we.
The same danger reaches us. The test is personal, and it is simple.
Are you trusting Christ alone, or Christ and something else? Christ and your good works? Christ and your overcoming? Christ and your watching? Christ and the law? If you have added any of these, or anything else, to Christ, then you are just as bad as these Galatian Christians.
- Called — the call came in the power of Christ's grace. Grace was the spring of their Christian life, and the gospel was the means that carried it to them.
- Deserting — the wording shows a slide still in progress, not a finished break. That is why Paul writes at all instead of giving them up.
- From Him — they were leaving a Person, not a teaching. To turn to law after grace is to turn from God, even when the heart thinks it is honouring Him.
- Different — Paul refuses the rival message the name "gospel." God owns only one, and He allows no compromise about it.
- Deadly — Paul gives no praise and no thanks. That silence shows how serious this was. Christ plus anything leaves you where the Galatians stood.
which is not another [one]; but there are some that trouble you, and desire to pervert the glad tidings of the Christ.
Paul has just said he is amazed at how quickly the Galatians are shifting away from the One who called them. Here he names the cause, and shows why a twisted message does not deserve the name gospel.
The English wording sounds like a riddle — a different gospel that is not another. Writers explain that Paul uses two different words here. The second one refuses to dignify the rival message.
What were they moving to now? A different gospel, which is not another. In our English version it looks like a paradox — "another gospel, which is not another." But the language the Holy Spirit used had enough words to allow a different shade of meaning... Observe, it does not say, contrary to it, but a different one: and for that very reason he says, it is not another. It is unworthy to be called another gospel. God owns but one. He permits no compromise about the gospel; neither ought we.
The word gospel means glad tidings. One writer tests the rival message by that name.
It is as if he felt that using the word "gospel" in a comparing sense dishonoured something holy. So he hurries to give God's "glad tidings" back the unique place that belongs to it. There cannot be another gospel than His own... The teaching these plunderers of the flock brought in was not a second gospel to those who understood what it meant. It brought no gladness in its sound. No joy or peace could come through a ministry that turned them from their Saviour to themselves.
Paul does not name these troublers here. They came with a demand attached to faith, and they worked at discrediting Paul himself.
The men who had gone to the Galatian churches and disturbed them were Judaizing teachers... They taught that a simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough for salvation. They said that to be saved you must keep the law, and that a Christian must observe the rules of the law of Moses. They put special stress on circumcision... To establish themselves, they tried to undermine Paul's apostleship, and they attacked his authority.
Paul's word is "distort" — older translations say "pervert". Notice that these teachers did not stand up and contradict the facts about Christ.
These false teachers did not directly deny the facts of the gospel, but they perverted them. A perversion is often more dangerous than a flat denial. In a perversion there is enough truth to deceive the unwary, and enough error to make the truth of no effect.
So the size of the addition makes no difference.
The Gospel is Christ's death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection for our justification. To add one single thing to it as necessary for salvation is to pervert the Gospel.
The first thing false teaching does is unsettle people. The verb Paul uses here turns up in a much better-known place.
This is the same word as in John 14:1, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me." If we have true faith in Christ, then we never need to be disturbed. The storms of life may beat upon us. The servants of the enemy may bring their false teaching. But through it all, if our eyes are on Christ, we never need to be disturbed... We find this word "disturb" again in Galatians 5:10.
Commentators apply the verse far beyond Galatia. One gives a plain test.
To put Gentile Christians under law in any shape or form is to "trouble" them, and "pervert the Gospel of Christ."
Another writer finds the same mixture everywhere.
I am fully convinced that the same Galatian evil that was active then is at work today everywhere in Christendom. It may take a slightly different form from place to place. But wherever you turn... you will find the mingling of the law in one form or another along with the grace of Christ... the same poison, here diluted, and there concentrated, is found everywhere.
- One gospel. God owns only one message of good news. A rival version is different, and unworthy of the name "another."
- One addition. The troublers did not drop Christ. They added law and circumcision to Him. Adding a single requirement for salvation is what "pervert" means.
- One tactic. A twist is more dangerous than a denial. It keeps enough truth to disarm the unwary, and empties that truth of its effect.
- One casualty. A twisted gospel first disturbs people. Jesus used the same word: "Let not your hearts be troubled." It robs them of the joy and peace a real gospel brings.
- One test today. Mix law with grace in any form, and the Galatian error is there. The diluted dose is the same poison as the concentrated one.
But if even *we* or an angel out of heaven announce as glad tidings to you [anything] besides what we have announced as glad tidings to you, let him be accursed.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
As we have said before, now also again I say, If any one announce to you as glad tidings [anything] besides what ye have received, let him be accursed.
Paul has just called down a curse on anyone who preaches a different gospel. Then, without pausing, he says it all over again. Why twice? What did he say "before"? And why does he now point to the gospel the Galatians received, not the one he preached?
The doubling is not Paul losing his temper. The repetition carries weight, and the weight is not his own:
Scripture often repeats things. Repetition proves both the earnestness of the one who speaks and the value he places on what he says. As we read these passionate declarations, we should remember that the words and the feeling behind them are the Lord's. An apostle's curse is as harmless as a pope's if he speaks it merely on the impulse of his own excited feelings. But Paul's words, when written to the churches, were his own no longer, but the Lord's (1 Cor. 14:37). It is as if a double Amen closed the living door of safety (John 10:9). It is shut against the hopes of all who presume to trust a lie instead of God's revealed and living truth.
Commentators differ on where that earlier warning was given. Some point back to the previous verse. Others go further back, to when Paul was with them:
He does not mean that he has just told them (v. 8), but that on his last visit he saw this danger and warned them most solemnly. He saw this evil teaching beginning to come in among them, and he told them then. Anyone bringing good news besides what you received, cursed be he! He had told them before, and now he repeats it twice: "Cursed be he!" "A threefold cord is not quickly broken."
The wording shifts. Verse 8 tests a message by what Paul preached. Verse 9 tests it by what they took in. That blocks an escape route:
The apostle stands by the truth preached and received. What he preached was the truth on this matter. He does not deny that others preached it; but if they did, they preached the same truth. To depart from this was fatal. If he had preached the full truth of the gospel, he insists that they had received it. He will not hear of any pretended misunderstanding. He refuses all cover for different thoughts.
A different gospel need not deny Christ. It can simply add to Him:
Even as I write, a friend has put a book in my hands. It boldly teaches that salvation is only by the death of Christ AND the Ten Commandments. This is the teaching of the false teachers at Galatia, and God says to all such, "Cursed be he!" How many preachers and teachers tell their hearers, "Believe in Christ AND keep the law!" "Believe in Christ AND do the best you can!" "Believe in Christ AND DO something besides."
The test is the message, not the messenger. Rank gives no protection. Neither does an appearance of light:
But, you say, surely if an angel from heaven brings me this good news, then I can believe it! No, not even if an angel brings it! Even the angel is cursed. Remember that Satan himself is changed into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14).
The curse can sound out of proportion until you see what a corrupted gospel touches:
Some have suggested that passion carried Paul away when he heard people challenge his authority, and that he wrote unwisely. They forget that it was not Paul who penned these words, but the Spirit of God. The curse on those who pervert the gospel of Christ is fully justified when we consider what is at stake. Perverting the gospel touches the unspeakably blessed work of Christ on Calvary's cross. If righteousness is in any way through the law, by what man does, then Christ died in vain (2:21).
If adding to the gospel brings a curse, the gospel was complete from the start:
The apostle's words completely rule out all the development or further light that men speak of. Such teaching would set aside the sufficiency of Christ's work alone to secure the salvation of everyone who believes.
Writers differ on what the curse falls on. One says it may fall on the teacher or on the teaching, "sometimes it might be one, and sometimes the other" (G. V. Wigram). Another holds it is "reserved, as of old, for the deceiver, not for the deceived" (Arthur Pridham).
- Said — repeating it proves how much it matters. What Paul wrote to the churches was no longer his own word, but the Lord's.
- Said before — the warning was not new. He had already told them, so they were walking into a danger they had seen.
- Received — verse 9 tests teaching by what they had taken in. No one can plead misunderstanding.
- Contrary — the danger is not "instead of Christ" but "Christ AND": Christ and the law, Christ and doing your best, Christ and something added.
- Accursed — no rank escapes the test, angel or apostle. Adding to the gospel touches the work of the cross, and would make Christ's death pointless.
For do I now seek to satisfy men or God? or do I seek to please men? If I were yet pleasing men, I were not Christ's bondman.
Paul has just pronounced a curse — twice — on anyone who preaches a different gospel, even an angel. Verse 10 comes right after: does a man who writes like that sound like someone chasing approval?
Paul's opponents had built a case against him from his own practice. One commentator sets out the charge against Paul and his reply:
These false teachers had said, Paul is trying to persuade men to follow him by being all things to all men. (See 1 Cor. 9:22.) Paul answers, You may judge for yourselves. What am I doing now? Am I seeking to please you in this letter? Am I now seeking to please men, or God? They knew very well that Paul was not trying to please them, or to please any man.
If Paul is not out to win people over, what is he after? One writer contrasts what Paul aims at now with the zeal of his past:
His whole life aimed at one thing: to show himself to God as a workman who did not need to be ashamed. But to persuade God of his faithfulness, as His messenger and witness, Paul had to stay close to the words of God. There had been a time when he persuaded men, and served the traditions of his ancestors with tireless zeal. Men were indeed his aim, but not their approval. He went after them like a fisherman after their souls. The net he fished with was not worldly wisdom, but the grace of God.
Blunt language about false teaching draws the complaint that it is unloving. One commentator meets that complaint head-on, and turns it around:
He knew well that speaking this bluntly offended people. It even stirred up ill-will among real saints of God. Today the same thing would be called a lack of love. But speaking without compromise is not a lack of love. Judging those who do speak that way is.
That does not make harshness a habit. Another writer marks off exactly when Paul spoke this way:
No one was more careful than he was not to wound anyone needlessly. No one was more patient with people who were slow to grow in the truth. But when the foundations of Christianity came under attack, the apostle forgot men and acted for Christ.
One writer points the verse at teachers who give people what they want to hear:
The preachers of a perverted gospel are marked by one thing: they cater to what people want. A time comes when people "will not endure sound teaching," and they "accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions" (2 Timothy 4:3). And Jude describes these "men-pleasers" as "loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage" (Jude 16).
The danger is not confined to those preaching error. One writer applies it to the preacher who draws crowds:
A popular preacher loves and looks for a wide field of work and crowded audiences... But he should beware. This desire can become his trap, when service and religious fame take the place of Christ as his goal. Sadly, more than a few servants of Christ who were once respected have fallen asleep on the laurels of their religious reputation.
Refusing to please people can turn into something ugly. One writer holds the two sides of Paul's practice together:
Some try so hard not to be man-pleasers that they fall into the opposite evil. They become thoroughly unpleasant. The apostle sought to to "please everyone in everything" for their good (1 Corinthians 10:33). Still, when the truth was at stake, he wrote as bluntly as he does here. On one hand, his life and conduct aimed to commend him "to everyone's conscience" (2 Corinthians 4:2). On the other hand, he worked to be agreeable to God.
- One Master. Serving Christ and courting people are two different jobs. Taking the second means you have left the first.
- One aim. Paul once poured his zeal into persuading men. Now he stays close to the words of God, seeking God's approval instead of theirs.
- One exception. He would not wound anyone needlessly, and he was patient with slow learners. But when the foundations came under attack, he forgot men and acted for Christ.
- One test. Catering to what people want to hear marks the preacher of a false gospel. Wanting the crowd is the trap for the faithful one.
- One balance. Pleasing people for their good is right; pleasing them when truth is at stake is not. The dividing line is who you are trying to satisfy.
But I let you know, brethren, [as to] the glad tidings which were announced by me, that they are not according to man.
Paul opens with a fact, not an argument. The message he brought to Galatia did not come from a human mind. Much hangs on this. If the gospel came from men, men may change it. If it came from God, no one may touch it.
The letter is severe, yet the word Paul uses here for his readers is warm. One writer notes how often it recurs, and against what background.
The letter he wrote to the Galatians under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is the most solemn, sharp, and combative letter that ever came from his pen. It contains no word of praise or thanksgiving, unlike his other letters. It begins right after the greetings with "I wonder…" and ends before the final greeting with "From now on let no one trouble me…" (Gal 1:6; 6:17). Still, he is full of love for his children in the faith (Gal 4:19). Again and again he calls them "brothers" (Gal 1:11; 3:15; 4:12, 28, 31; 5:11, 13; 6:1, 18).
Something had changed in Galatia, and it made a plain fact need saying again.
False human teachings had since poured into their minds and corrupted them. Their treacherous guides also worked hard to belittle Paul's ministry, unfairly comparing his late-born claim to be an apostle with the claims of the original disciples. So he had to state again, in this formal way, that his gospel was genuine and came from God. That gospel had once been its own witness to their gladdened hearts, and had shown others its source by its effects.
The denial is total: no human source, no human channel, no human teacher.
In verse 1 he tells them he was an apostle, not from men, or by a man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father. Now Paul tells them the same is true of his gospel. The good news he announced to them is not according to man. He did not receive it from man, and no one taught it to him. This good news was not prepared in the minds of clever men. It was not reasoned out from the Old Testament. Neither Peter nor any of the other twelve apostles had told it to Paul. Paul had not gone to a college or Bible school to learn it.
That source explains why he could hold it firmly and refuse whatever men added.
He had not learned it from any man. He held it directly from the lips of the Lord, when He revealed Himself to him in glory… He might well hold it firmly and refuse all else that man might add to it. It made no difference what excuse men had for teaching better than the Lord Himself — whether they sought to add the law to the gospel, or claimed to know a better way of producing holiness than the means used by God.
The phrase is not only about where the message started. It is also about what kind of message it is — and what kind of message man would have written instead.
First, the good news that he preached was "not according to man." Men dream of a gospel that would exalt man. It would offer him blessing as the result of his own efforts. God's good news does bring eternal blessing to man. But it brings that blessing in a way that gives eternal glory to God.
It also gives a plain test for the preaching we hear.
"I like hearing Mr. So-and-so," is the cry. "He speaks so reasonably. There is such common sense. He has such faith in humanity, and makes you feel so much more hopeful and content in this rather discontented world." Quite so! The fact is, it is all so thoroughly after man. That is why it is all so pleasing to the natural man. Yet it is false. It is not the gospel of God.
Paul's claim is not that the other apostles preached something wrong. Commentators are careful here: his message agreed with theirs and went further.
The apostles announced Christ as the Messiah. They made known forgiveness of sins through His name. But they did not bring out the heavenly glory of Christ as Paul did. He brought out all these truths, and more that they never touched on. That is why he so often speaks of "my gospel." Of course, in the great truths of the gospel, there could be no difference between what Paul and the other apostles preached. But what Paul preached went far beyond theirs. There was nothing contradictory.
- Source. Clever men did not think out Paul's gospel. No one reasoned it out from the Old Testament. Peter and the other apostles did not hand it to him. No school taught it.
- Character. It came from God, so it never does what a man-made message does. It never offers blessing as the reward of man's own effort.
- Reach. It agreed with what the other apostles preached. It went further and brought out the heavenly glory of Christ, which they had not touched.
- Guard. Paul had his message straight from the Lord. So he could hold it firmly and refuse what men added — law, or a better route to holiness.
- Test. Preaching that flatters people and leaves them comfortable is "after man," however reasonable it sounds.