As many as desire to have a fair appearance in [the] flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.
At the close of this letter Paul names the motive of the teachers who were unsettling the Galatian believers. Two things drive them, he says: they want to look good, and they do not want to be hurt.
Earlier in the letter Paul warned about these men. Here he states the charge.
Before closing, he turns once more to the great subject of his letter. He exposes the character and motives of those who were troubling them. He has already warned us that such men were seeking to attract people to themselves (Gal. 4:17), driven by a spirit of "vain glory" (Gal. 5:26). Now he charges them outright with the "desire to make a fair show in the flesh," and so to escape "persecution for the cross of Christ."
Older translations read "a fair show in the flesh" where the ESV says "make a good showing in the flesh." The writers quoted here use the older wording. One of them traces the instinct behind the phrase back to Samuel.
In this verse we see again the religious world wanting to have a fair appearance. This is the way to show off. This is the natural action of the religious man… He wants to be the tallest, and he wants to be the highest. This was the attitude of the Pharisee, and even Samuel was affected by this way of thinking. The Lord, by contrast, looks on the heart, but man looks on the outward appearance (1 Sam. 16:7).
The same test applies to a whole country, not just to one person. One writer pictures a world where everyone goes to church, and asks what God would see in it.
Suppose the whole world went to church. Suppose people lived soberly and in a decent, orderly way. What universal rejoicing there would be over the improved state of Christendom! And what would all this be in the sight of God? I say without the slightest hesitation that, if there were no more than this, it would only be "a fair show in the flesh." As Christians we have a right to look for more, and we should never be content without it: souls passing from death to life.
The second half of the verse gives the reason. One writer describes what these teachers put in place of the cross.
They worked to draw the converted Gentiles into Judaism. They hid the truth of the gospel under circumcision and a mass of religious rules. This led men to seek their own righteousness by their own works, and it denied the perfection of the work of Christ. They shunned the reproach of the cross, for man is never ashamed of a religion he can carry out himself.
So circumcision worked as a shelter. It also pulled apart two things that belong together.
What is this fair show in the flesh? It is nothing but accepting the popular, established religion of the day, and so escaping persecution for the cross of Christ. And the cross denies the formalism of a merely outward, established piety. In this case persecution — the natural companion of a true confession of the cross — is separated from it.
Paul's charge goes deeper than bad teaching. These men were protecting themselves, and pressed others to help them do it.
They want you to submit to these religious forms. The reason is that they dread suffering for Christ… He shows that selfishness, after all, is at the bottom. When people are walking with the world, there is never an easy conscience. Nothing pleases the world so much as to get real Christians to walk with them.
The verse says these teachers "would force you to be circumcised." One writer looks first at that word, then at the pull behind it.
The words translated "would force you" mean they were trying hard at that time to force the Galatians to be circumcised. But these words do not mean they had succeeded. We in China know how easy it is for us to do something that will help us escape persecution. None of us like persecution, and the Galatian Christians were no different from us in this matter. In their hearts they may have said: circumcision is a small thing, and if it helps me escape persecution, I will accept it. But they forgot something. The man who received circumcision put himself in the position of a Jew. He was now responsible to keep the whole law, and if he did not keep it, he must perish. Christ must be all, or nothing.
- Show. A fair show in the flesh is religion staged for onlookers. It wants to be tallest and highest, while God looks on the heart.
- Shelter. Circumcision was their shelter. It let them accept the established religion of the day and pull persecution away from the cross.
- Shame. No one is ashamed of a religion he can carry out himself. The reproach belongs to the cross, so the cross is what gets dropped.
- Self. Paul does not call this an honest mistake. Under the pressure on others lies dread of suffering — selfishness at the bottom.
- Standard. A crowded, respectable Christendom is still only a fair show. The one thing worth wanting is souls passing from death to life.
For neither do they that are circumcised themselves keep the law; but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.