Taking a Stand Galatians 5:7-12 We continue this morning in our walk through the letter of the Apostle Paul to the churches in the region of Galatians. We are in the middle of chapter 5 beginning at verse 7 this morning. Pastor Matt said a few weeks ago that we were entering some of the most difficult text in the Bible. Last Week Pastor Matt walked us through Galatians 5:1-6. All about taking on again the yoke of slavery, slavery to the keeping of the law. In the paragraph we are going to examine this morning builds on the Galatians taking on the yoke of slavery again. So let s dig into the text this morning. Galatians 5:7 (ESV) 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Remember what the Apostle Paul told the Galatians: After their salvation through the Grace of God being presented by the preaching of the Apostle Paul the Galatians were led astray by the Judaizers who were teaching that not only did you need the blood of Jesus, you also needed to keep the law of Moses. You had to be a Jew before you could be saved. Paul says they were running well, meaning that they had been saved and were following Jesus well. But then he asks a rhetorical question who hindered you from obeying the truth? The word obeying here is not quite the right sense of the original Greek word here. The idea of the word is really to convince or 104 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
persuade to believe something. So with this in mind I would translate this verse to say: You were running well. Who convinced you to not follow the truth? Of course we know the answer to this question is that it was the Judaizers. Galatians 5:8 (ESV) 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. Paul continues by reminding the Galatians that it was not from God that this persuasion came from. The message of the Gospel which came from God did not included what the Judaizers were persuading the Galatians to believe. The gospel message that Paul preached and which the Galatians initially believed, referred to as the truth in verse 7, is a very simple message. God called us to be His children before He created the universe. The triune God head had already appointed Jesus to become man and suffer a horrific death on the cross to pay our penalty for a debt He did not owe which is a price we could not pay. He then offered to us that sacrifice as a gift. By making it a gift there is nothing we can do to earn it. If you could earn it then it would no longer be a gift it would be a purchase. That is exactly the opposite of what the Judaizers were leading the churches in Galatia to believe. They were teaching that in addition to the blood of Jesus on the cross you also needed to keep the law of Moses, often represented by Circumcision. It was not just the physical act of circumcision that Paul is talking 105 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
about here. Circumcision was often used as a euphemism for the entirety of the law of Moses or the practice of Judaism. The Israelites were often referred to as people of circumcision. These sense of this verse is that the Judaizers came into the churches of Galatia and began to convince those that had already accepted the free gift of salvation from God that they needed to do more. So persuasive were these men that it became the message of the people of the churches in Galatia. Look what Paul says in the next verse: Galatians 5:9 (ESV) 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. You can debate whether Paul is speaking of the false doctrine or the Judaizers themselves when he refers to a little leaven. Both fit grammatically so we are left with the context to determine what he means and the context does not inform us completely on it here. If he is speaking of the false doctrine the Judaizers were spreading, then the teaching would be that it does not take much false doctrine to infect or affect the whole group. I have been criticized in the past for being too rigid I my insistence in getting every little part of doctrine and theology correct. On insisting on teaching the right stuff completely and without reservation. My policy is to teach what God says in His Word. If scripture is dogmatic on a subject so am I and if scripture does not address a topic I am only able to offer an opinion not thus says the Lord. 106 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
I am rigid on getting the Word of God correct but a little false doctrine can cause all sorts of problems down the road. That makes me politically incorrect some times and it makes me close minded all the time. I get that. But God does not call us to be open minded. He calls us to follow the truth of the Word of God. Now, if Paul was speaking about the men, the Judaizers, then the teaching is that it does not take many false teachers to influence the entire church or group of churches. In our lifetimes were have seen this happen often. False teachers go into an otherwise good congregation and begin to subtly teach something that is a little different. As people follow and are attracted to the new message the message continues to change until before anyone realizes it they are following a completely false doctrine. It does not take large overt doctrinal changes; those often would be rejected by people. It is almost always small subtle changes to doctrine that over time move people away from pure Biblical doctrine. It is why I am so rigid in my approach to doctrine and theology, not willing to give up even a little. A little movement now often results in much larger movement later. Galatians 5:10 (ESV) 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 107 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
I love the sentiment of what Paul is saying in this verse. Beginning in this verse and carrying through to the end of this paragraph Paul shows his distrust and dislike for the Judaizers. He is confident that the Judaizers will suffer the penalty for the false doctrine they are spreading. James the brother of Jesus who only became a follower of Jesus after Jesus death, burial and resurrection wrote: James 3:1 (ESV) 1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. God will judge church leadership with a sharper knife and with greater strictness. Peter tells us that God did not spare the judgement on His angels who sinned, just as He did not spare the world in the time of Noah except the 8 He did save. In that passage Peter was talking about teachers of false doctrine, implying that God will not spare them as well. Paul joins in with these other church leaders in speaking out against false teachers and stating that those false teachers will also be judged and penalized by God. We also see in this verse that Paul has confidence in the Lord that the Galatians will ultimately return to the pure doctrine of the Gospel. Notice Paul does not base his confidence in his own teaching or even in the understanding of the Galatians. It is in the work of the Lord in the life and heart of the Galatians. Paul is confident in the fact that the Galatians are saints, they are 108 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
redeemed followers of Jesus, who have been temporarily swayed to follow a false doctrine. That did not un-save them. It simply confused them. But Paul was confident that they will return to proper doctrine based upon the work of the Lord in their life. The last phrase of 10 is often overlooked. Galatians 5:10 (ESV) 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. Paul was not saying that he does not know who the false teachers are. He is saying that it does not matter who they are. Anyone who teaches false doctrine to the church will suffer the penalty of doing so. Does not matter if it is the pastors, the elders or somebody coming into the church. It does not matter if they are seen as one of the greatest teachers in history, if they teach false doctrine they will be judged very strictly. Position, power, prestige means nothing when being judged by God Himself. The only thing that means anything is if you taught the truth or not. Galatians 5:11 (ESV) 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 109 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
It appears that one of the false teachings the Judaizers were spreading was that Paul himself taught elsewhere that you had to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses in order to be saved. Paul responds to that teaching with if I teach the same as the false teachers, why am I being persecuted. We have seen elsewhere in Galatians that the Judaizers had been verbally attacking Paul and that certainly is part of what he is talking about here, but I think it is only part of it. I think Paul is talking about something much bigger than the verbal abuse of the false teachers. I think Paul is talking about the fact that he was being attacked by Satan and his minions. He was being attacked by Rome, by the Jewish leadership he used to be part of. Beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, stoned, placed in prison and all the rest. Add to that the physical difficulties he suffered through. Remember he went into the region of Galatia initially to seek cooler weather because of a physical illness, most likely malaria and he needed the cooler mountain air. Satan and his minions do not go after those who are making no difference for the kingdom of Christ. Why would he? People that are weak in faith or have no faith, or who are not serving Jesus Christ are no threat to Satan. Satan and his minions go after that who are serving Jesus and making a difference for Christ. Ever wonder why Satan and his minions seem to leave you alone. It is not because you are such a great warrior for Christ, it is because you are no threat to Satan. It fits Satan s plan to have churches full of people that go to church to be 110 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
entertained and enlightened or to become emotionally aroused. Paul tells the church in Ephesus: Ephesians 4:11 16 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. We do that, we work in unity and in love, teaching a pure doctrine so that we grow in every way to be like Christ, Satan is going to sit up and take notice. He will then begin to work against us. We have seen that before in this very church. Satan working against us because through us God was making a 111 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
difference in people. Satan brought dissatisfaction and discord with some people. He brought to us struggles and people leaving. I have told you before that I struggle with waiting for the other shoe to drop. Things are good here and the doctrine remains pure and people are being trained and impacted for Christ. Momentum seems to be building and things are being accomplished. Not through my work or Pastor Matt s work or the work of any one other than Jesus Christ Himself through each of us. I know that the more we do to properly serve God the more Satan is going to take notice and work against us. So I am constantly scanning the scene to see where the next dart is going to come from. When I was in the police academy in 1982 we spent a week in Camp Custer in Michigan. We had the entire base to ourselves for the week. We marched everywhere we went on the base between the dorm, the gun ranges the mess hall the classrooms etc. We never knew where or when but we had to be constantly observing for the attack to come. And come it did. The staff would set up and hide and attack us and we had to be prepared. Once they attacked the fight would continue until they captured all of us or we capture all of them. We were attacked every day, sometimes several times a day. I learned to scan the scene for potential dangers. I still do that to this day. I walk into a restaurant and scan to see what is going on. Or I walk into a store I look around as I walk from the car to the store, I scan the 112 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
store, where are people, where are the hides, where are exits. I do it all the time. I do it spiritually as well. What is Satan doing, what traps has he set for us. I am always watching and sometimes it overtakes me and I get a little frustrated and depressed. Because I know an attack is coming. The more we follow Jesus and the more He does through us the more Satan will seek to attack us. So I keep scanning, scanning, scanning. Take a look at the last sentence of verse 11. Galatians 5:11 (ESV) 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. If Paul was preaching the false doctrine of the Judaizers then the offense of the cross of Jesus is removed. That is such a full sentence. Let s focus on the offense of the cross for a moment. The word offense in this verse in the ESV is often translated as stumbling block in other verses. It is translated as hindrance, stumbling block, obstacle and even temptation. The word comes from a root which means trap. By the time of the apostle Paul the word was used to speak of something that prevented someone from moving on. It is in that sense that Paul uses the word here in reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many people find the message of the free gift of salvation based upon the blood of Jesus Christ offensive. They have to do something to earn their salvation. They have to do something, give 113 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
something. They have to contribute. It cannot be God choosing us and saving us and even giving us the faith the believe. In that way the message of the cross of Christ is offensive or a stumbling block to many. But if Paul were preaching that to be saved you have to first keep the law of Moses represented by circumcision then that offense or stumbling block is removed. Your personal need to contribute to your salvation is met. Understand here that Paul is saying the offense of the gospel is only removed if he were preaching the false doctrine of the Judaizers. The stumbling block has not been removed and people still try to save themselves. People say after all, I am not like those men who go to Lookers. I am not as a bad as them. The next verse shows such a harsh side to the Apostle Paul, but it also shows his own personal commitment to teaching pure doctrine. Galatians 5:12 (ESV) 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! The word emasculate here can be viewed in two ways. It is properly translated as cut off and may simply be saying that Paul wishes that those who teach the false doctrine would just cut themselves off from the Galatians or leave the Galatians. Some interpreters translate it that way. I don t think that is what Paul is saying, I think there is much more to this statement and emasculate is the proper way translate this word. 114 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
The Galatians were previously poly theistic, following many gods. One of the gods that was very large in the region of Galatia was Cybele who the Romans call Magna Mater or great mother. About 300 years earlier, the legend goes, Cybele, one of the Greek goddesses, fell in love with a human shepherd named Attis. When Attis was unfaithful to Cybele she caused him to go insane. So while insane one day Attis emasculated himself by repeatedly striking his penis with a rock. Of course he bled out and died. Since then the worshipers of Cybele were mostly women. The men that wanted to serve Cybele had to do the same thing as Attis and emasculate themselves. This was a big religious group in the region of Galatia and later all of the Roman empire. One of the primary goddesses. I think what Paul is saying here is that he wished those that were teaching false doctrine would go all the way and completely commit to their false doctrine and totally and completely engaged in the law. If cutting of the foreskin is good it must be great to completely emasculate yourself. If you want to teach false doctrine go all the way and teach a completely false doctrine and live with where that takes you. The Galatians would have understood about total commitment to the doctrine and would have understood what Paul was saying he in reference to emasculating themselves. For the male followers of Cybele, it meant becoming a non-person. Completely abandoning any home of inheritance or protection by the law. Roman law was very clear, only men or women 115 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
could inherit or be protected by the law. When you were emasculated you were no longer man and not a woman either. No inheritance, no legal protect all for the service of your god. I think this shows the contempt that Paul had for false teachers. The reality that Paul may have even been angry at those who would seek to poach from the church of Jesus Christ. He is very protective of the church and in many ways we see that he is taking it personally that the Judaizers were teaching false doctrine. Not personally that they were poaching his work but he was personally offended that they were poaching Jesus Church. He was entrusted to care for the church, to be part of building the church. Anything that would infringe on the church Paul took personally. With verse the first major them of the book of Galatians comes to a close. Galatians 1:6 through 5:12 was all about false doctrine or what we today would call legalism. Next week, the Lord willing, Past Matt will walk us through the beginning of the last major section of Galatians which goes from chapter 5:13 through to chapter 6:10. That section deals with the other major problem going on in the churches of Galatia, taking too much liberty. Conclusion: Here s what I want to make sure we all understand from our text this morning. It does not take much false doctrine to affect the entire church. We have to always be vigilant to prevent any false 116 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,
doctrine from creeping into our theology and teaching. We need to be willing to take a hard stand on the Word of God, every bit of it from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21. Every bit of it is inspired by God and is useful to us for a variety of purposes Paul told Timothy. We have to be fully committed to God and His Word and in doing that we have to expect that Satan and his minions will be looking to thwart us. They want nothing more than to prevent the gospel from going out and to prevent people from living for Jesus. It takes hard work and sometimes it gets messy but we have to be fully committed to following and serving Him who saved us. Let s Pray! 117 Page Dr. Rich Schnieders,