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.