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.