Galatians 1:10
“Astonishment at the Desertion of the Gospel”Galatians 1:6–10
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- ἄρτιartiPresentlyG737ADVAdverb
- γὰρgarforG1063CONJConjunction
- ἀνθρώπουςanthrōpousof menG444N-APMNoun Accusative Plural Masculine
- πείθωpeithōdo I seek approvalG3982V-PAI-1SVerb Present Active Indicative 1st Singular
- ἢēorG2228CONJConjunction
- τὸνton[the]G3588T-ASMDefinite article Accusative Singular Masculine
- θεόν;theonGod?G2316N-ASM-TNoun Accusative Singular Masculine Title
- ἢēOrG2228CONJConjunction
- ζητῶzētōdo I seekG2212V-PAI-1SVerb Present Active Indicative 1st Singular
- ἀνθρώποιςanthrōpoismenG444N-DPMNoun Dative Plural Masculine
- ἀρέσκειν;areskeinto please?G700V-PANVerb Present Active Infinitive
- εἰeiifG1487CONDConjunction
- γὰρgarforG1063CONJConjunction
- ἔτιetiyetG2089ADVAdverb
- ἀνθρώποιςanthrōpoismenG444N-DPMNoun Dative Plural Masculine
- ἤρεσκονēreskonI were pleasingG700V-IAI-1SVerb Imperfect Active Indicative 1st Singular
- ΧριστοῦChristouof ChristG5547N-GSM-TNoun Genitive Singular Masculine Title
- δοῦλοςdoulosa servantG1401N-NSMNoun Nominative Singular Masculine
- οὐκouknotG3756PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
- ἂνanthen wouldG302PRTParticle or Disjunctive
- ἤμηνēmēnI was beingG1510V-IMI-1SVerb Imperfect Middle Indicative 1st Singular
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Galatians 1:10–24. He set out his notes in a two-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
What Paul had said more generally, in the preface of this epistle, he now proceeds more particularly to enlarge upon. There he had declared himself to be an apostle of Christ; and here he comes more directly to support his claim to that character and office. There were some in the churches of Galatia who were prevailed with to call this in question; for those who preached up the ceremonial law did all they could to lessen Paul's reputation, who preached the pure gospel of Christ to the Gentiles: and therefore he here sets himself to prove the divinity both of his mission and doctrine, that thereby he might wipe off the aspersions which his enemies had cast upon him, and recover these Christians into a better opinion of the gospel he had preached to them. This he gives sufficient evidence of,
I.From the scope and design of his ministry, which was not to persuade men, but God, etc.
The meaning of this may be either that in his preaching the gospel he did not act in obedience to men, but God, who had called him to this work and office; or that his aim therein was to bring persons to the obedience, not of men, but of God. As he professed to act by a commission from God; so that which he chiefly aimed at was to promote his glory, by recovering sinners into a state of subjection to him. And as this was the great end he was pursuing, so, agreeably hereunto, he did not seek to please men. He did not, in his doctrine, accommodate himself to the humours of persons, either to gain their affection or to avoid their resentment; but his great care was to approve himself to God. The judaizing teachers, by whom these churches were corrupted, had discovered a very different temper; they mixed works with faith, and the law with the gospel, only to please the Jews, whom they were willing to court and keep in with, that they might escape persecution. But Paul was a man of another spirit; he was not so solicitous to please them, nor to mitigate their rage against him, as to alter the doctrine of Christ either to gain their favour or to avoid their fury. And he gives this very good reason for it, that, if he yet pleased men, he would not be the servant of Christ. These he knew were utterly inconsistent, and that no man could serve two such masters; and therefore, though he would not needlessly displease any, yet he dared not allow himself to gratify men at the expense of his faithfulness to Christ. Thus, from the sincerity of his aims and intentions in the discharge of his office, he proves that he was truly an apostle of Christ. And from this his temper and behaviour we may note,
1.That the great end which ministers of the gospel should aim at is to bring men to God.
2.That those who are faithful will not seek to please men, but to approve themselves to God.
3.That they must not be solicitous to please men, if they would approve themselves faithful servants to Christ. But, if this argument should not be thought sufficient, he goes on to prove his apostleship,
II.From the manner wherein he received the gospel which he preached to them, concerning which he assures them (Galatians 1:11, Galatians 1:12) that he had it not by information from others, but by revelation from heaven. One thing peculiar in the character of an apostle was that he had been called to, and instructed for, this office immediately by Christ himself. And in this he here shows that he was by no means defective, whatever his enemies might suggest to the contrary. Ordinary ministers, as they receive their call to preach the gospel by the mediation of others, so it is by means of the instruction and assistance of others that they are brought to the knowledge of it. But Paul acquaints them that he had his knowledge of the gospel, as well as his authority to preach it, directly from the Lord Jesus: the gospel which he preached was not after man; he neither received it of man, nor was he taught it by man, but by immediate inspiration, or revelation from Christ himself. This he was concerned to make out, to prove himself an apostle: and to this purpose,
1.He tells them what his education was, and what, accordingly, his conversation in time past had been, Galatians 1:13, Galatians 1:14. Particularly, he acquaints them that he had been brought up in the Jewish religion, and that he had profited in it above many his equals of his own nation - that he had been exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the elders, such doctrines and customs as had been invented by their fathers, and conveyed down from one generation to another; yea, to such a degree that, in his zeal for them, he had beyond measure persecuted the church of God, and wasted it. He had not only been a rejecter of the Christian religion, notwithstanding the many evident proofs that were given of its divine origin; but he had been a persecutor of it too, and had applied himself with the utmost violence and rage to destroy the professors of it. This Paul often takes notice of, for the magnifying of that free and rich grace which had wrought so wonderful a change in him, whereby of so great a sinner he was made a sincere penitent, and from a persecutor had become an apostle. And it was very fit to mention it here; for it would hence appear that he was not led to Christianity, as many others are, purely by education, since he had been bred up in an enmity and opposition to it; and they might reasonably suppose that it must be something very extraordinary which had made so great a change in him, which had conquered the prejudices of his education, and brought him not only to profess, but to preach, that doctrine, which he had before so vehemently opposed.
2.In how wonderful a manner he was turned from the error of his ways, brought to the knowledge and faith of Christ, and appointed to the office of an apostle, Galatians 1:15, Galatians 1:16. This was not done in an ordinary way, nor by ordinary means, but in an extraordinary manner; for, (1.) God had separated him hereunto from his mother's womb: the change that was wrought in him was in pursuance of a divine purpose concerning him, whereby he was appointed to be a Christian and an apostle, before he came into the world, or had done either good or evil. (2.) he was called by his grace. All who are savingly converted are called by the grace of God; their conversion is the effect of his good pleasure concerning them, and is effected by his power and grace in them. But there was something peculiar in the case of Paul, both in the suddenness and in the greatness of the change wrought in him, and also in the manner wherein it was effected, which was not by the mediation of others, as the instruments of it, but by Christ's personal appearance to him, and immediate operation upon him, whereby it was rendered a more special and extraordinary instance of divine power and favour. (3.) He had Christ revealed in him. He was not only revealed to him, but in him. It will but little avail us to have Christ revealed to us if he is not also revealed in us; but this was not the case of Paul. It pleased God to reveal his Son in him, to bring him to the knowledge of Christ and his gospel by special and immediate revelation. And, (4.) It was with this design, that he should preach him among the heathen; not only that he should embrace him himself, but preach him to others; so that he was both a Christian and an apostle by revelation.
3.He acquaints them how he behaved himself hereupon, from Galatians 1:16, to the end. Being thus called to his work and office, he conferred not with flesh and blood. This may be taken more generally, and so we may learn from it that, when God calls us by his grace, we must not consult flesh and blood. But the meaning of it here is that he did not consult men; he did not apply to any others for their advice and direction; neither did he go up to Jerusalem, to those that were apostles before him, as though he needed to be approved by them, or to receive any further instructions or authority from them: but, instead of that, he steered another course, and went into Arabia, either as a place of retirement proper for receiving further divine revelations, or in order to preach the gospel there among the Gentiles, being appointed to be the apostle of the Gentiles; and thence he returned again to Damascus, where he had first begun his ministry, and whence he had with difficulty escaped the rage of his enemies, Acts 9. It was not till three years after his conversion that he went up to Jerusalem, to see Peter; and when he did so he made but a very short stay with him, no more than fifteen days; nor, while he was there, did he go much into conversation; for others of the apostles he saw none, but James, the Lord's brother. So that it could not well be pretended that he was indebted to any other either for his knowledge of the gospel or his authority to preach it; but it appeared that both his qualifications for, and his call to, the apostolic office were extraordinary and divine. This account being of importance, to establish his claim to this office, to remove the unjust censures of his adversaries, and to recover the Galatians from the impressions they had received to his prejudice, he confirms it by a solemn oath (Galatians 1:20), declaring, as in the presence of God, that what he had said was strictly true, and that he had not in the least falsified in what he had related, which, though it will not justify us in solemn appeals to God upon every occasion, yet shows that, in matters of weight and moment, this may sometimes not only be lawful, but duty. After this he acquaints them that he came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia: having made this short visit to Peter, he returns to his work again. He had no communication at that time with the churches of Christ in Judea, they had not so much as seen his face; but, having heard that he who persecuted them in times past now preached the faith which he once destroyed, they glorified God because of him; thanksgivings were rendered by many unto God on that behalf; the very report of this mighty change in him, as it filled them with joy, so it excited them to give glory to God on the account of it.
Historical interpretation
Five Centuries of Reception
12 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
Oh blasphemy, bordering on martyrdom, which now attests me to be a Christian, while for that very account it detests me! The cursing of well-maintained Discipline is a blessing of the Name. "If," says he, "I wished to please men, I should not be Christ's servant." But the same apostle elsewhere bids us take care to please all: "As I," he says, "please all by all means.
But if continency follows Christ, and virginity is destined for the kingdom of God, what have they to do with earthly dress, and with ornaments, wherewith while they are striving to please men they offend God? Not considering that it is declared, "They who please men are put to confusion, because God hath despised them; " and that Paul also has gloriously and sublimely uttered, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." But continence and modesty consist not alone in purity of the flesh, but also in seemliness, as well as in modesty of dress and adornment; so that, according to the apostle, she who is unmarried may be holy both in body and in spirit. Paul instructs and teaches us, saying, "He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord, how he may please God: but he who has contracted marriage careth for the things which are of this world, how he may please his wife. So both the virgin and the unmarried woman consider those things which are the Lord's, that they may be holy both in body and spirit." A virgin ought not only to be so, but also to be perceived and believed to be so: no one on seeing a virgin should be in any doubt as to whether she is one. Perfectness should show itself equal in all things; nor should the dress of the body discredit the good of the mind. Why should she walk out adorned? Why with dressed hair, as if she either had or sought for a husband? Rather let her dread to please if she is a virgin; and let her not invite her own risk, if she is keeping herself for better and divine things. They who have not a husband whom they profess that they please, should persevere, sound and pure not only in body, but also in spirit. For it is not right that a virgin should have her hair braided for the appearance of her beauty, or boast of her flesh and of its beauty, when she has no struggle greater than that against her flesh, and no contest more obstinate than that of conquering and subduing the body.
Therefore, dearest brother, endeavour that the undisciplined should not be consumed and perish, that as much as you can, by your salutary counsels, you should rule the brotherhood, and take counsel of each one with a view to his salvation. Strait and narrow is the way through which we enter into life, but excellent and great is the reward when we enter into glory. Let those who have once made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven please God in all things, and not offend God's priests nor the Lord's Church by the scandal of their wickedness. And if, for the present, certain of our brethren seem to be made sorry by us, let us nevertheless remain in our wholesome persuasion, knowing that an apostle also has said, "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? " But if they shall obey us, we have gained our brethren, and have formed them as well to salvation as to dignity by our address. But if some of the perverse persons refuse to obey, let us follow the same apostle, who says, "If I please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." If we cannot please some, so as to make them please Christ, let us assuredly, as far as we can, please Christ our Lord and God, by observing His precepts.
For our own part, it befits our conscience, dearest brother, to strive that none should perish going out of the Church by our fault; but if any one, of his own accord and by his own sin, should perish, and should be unwilling to repent and to return to the Church, that we who are anxious for their well-being should be blameless in the day of judgment, and that they alone should remain in punishment who refused to be healed by the wholesomeness of our advice. Nor ought the reproaches of the lost to move us in any degree to depart from the right path and from the sure rule, since also the apostle instructs us, saying, "If I should please men, I should not be the servant of Christ." There is a great difference whether one desires to deserve well of men or of God. If we seek to please men, the Lord is offended. But if we strive and labour that we may please God, we ought to contemn human reproaches and abuse.
But the discipline of all religion and truth is overturned, unless what is spiritually prescribed be faithfully observed; unless indeed any one should fear in the morning sacrifices, lest by the taste of wine he should be redolent of the blood of Christ. Therefore thus the brotherhood is beginning even to be kept back from the passion of Christ in persecutions, by learning in the offerings to be disturbed concerning His blood and His blood-shedding. Moreover, however, the Lord says in the Gospel, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed." And the apostle also speaks, saying, "If I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." But how can we shed our blood for Christ, who blush to drink the blood of Christ?
That we must not please men, but God. In the fifty-second Psalm: "They that please men are confounded, because God hath made them nothing." Also in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians: "If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ."
"For am I now persuading men: or God?" or am I seeking to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ."
Granting, says he, that I might deceive you by these doctrines, could I deceive God, who knows my yet unuttered thoughts, and to please whom is my unceasing endeavor? See here the Apostolical spirit, the Evangelical loftiness! So too he writes to the Corinthians, "For we are not again commending ourselves unto you, but speak as giving you occasion of glorying;" and again, "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment." For since he is compelled to justify himself to his disciples, being their teacher, he submits to it; but he is grieved at it, not on account of chagrin, far from it, but on account of the instability of the minds of those led away and on account of not being fully trusted by them.
Wherefore Paul now speaks, as it were, thus:-Is my account to be rendered to you? Shall I be judged by men? My account is to God, and all my acts are with a view to that inquisition, nor am I so miserably abandoned as to pervert my doctrine, seeing that I am to justify what I preach before the Lord of all.
He thus expressed himself, as much with a view of withstanding their opinions, as in self-defence; for it becomes disciples to obey, not to judge, their master. But now, says he, that the order is reversed, and ye sit as judges, know that I am but little concerned to defend myself before you; all I do for God's sake, and in order that I may answer to Him concerning my doctrine. He who wishes to persuade men, is led to act tortuously and insincerely, and to employ deceit and falsehood, in order to engage the assent of his hearers. But he who addresses himself to God, and desires to please Him, needs simplicity and purity of mind, for God cannot be deceived. Whence it is plain that I have thus written to you not from the love of rule, or to gain disciples, or to receive honor at your hands. My endeavor has been to please God, not man. Were it otherwise, I should still consort with the Jews, still persecute the Church, I who have cast off my country altogether, my companions, my friends, my kindred, and all my reputation, and taken in exchange for these, persecution, enmity, strife, and daily-impending death, have given a signal proof that I speak not from love of human applause.
Let us not suppose that the apostle is teaching us by his example to despise the judgments of others … but if it can happen that we can please God and others equally, let us also please others.… The word now is inserted specially here, to show that people are to be pleased or displeased according to the circumstances, so that he who is now displeasing for the sake of gospel truth was at one time pleasing for the sake of people’s salvation.
(Verse 10.) For now I advise men or God: or do I seek to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ. Let us not think that we are taught by the Apostle to despise the judgments of men by his example, who in another place said: Knowing therefore, the fear of the Lord, we persuade men: but we are made manifest to God (2 Corinthians 5:11); and that: Be without offense to the Jews, and to the Gentiles, and to the Church of God: as I also please all in all things, not seeking what is profitable to myself, but what is profitable to many, that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10). But if it is possible, that we may please both God and men at the same time, it is necessary to please men. But if we do not please men in any other way than if we displease God: we ought to please God rather than men. Otherwise, he himself brings forward the reason why he is pleasing to all through all things: Not seeking, he says, what is useful to me, but what is useful to many, so that they may be saved. But whoever, out of that charity which does not seek its own things, but those that are others', pleases everyone so that they may be saved: certainly he first pleases God, to whom the salvation of men is a care. However, it also has a word, which is specifically added here, either to please people temporarily or to displease them: so that he who does not please at the moment because of the truth of the Gospel, may have pleased formerly for the salvation of many. Paul had pleased the Jews at one time, when he was an emulator of paternal traditions, having lived blamelessly according to the law, and he had such enthusiasm and faith in the ceremonies of the ancestors that he even became involved in the killing of Stephen, and he went to Damascus to bind those who had deserted the law (Acts 9). But after he was transferred to the vessel of election from a persecutor, and began to preach the faith which he had once attacked, he began to displease the Jews, whom he had previously pleased. This is therefore what he says: Am I seeking to please the Jews, by displeasing whom I pleased God? For if I were still pleasing them, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I would affirm the law, and destroy the grace of the Gospel. But now, I am not even brought to the pretense of observing the law, because I cannot please both God and the Jews at the same time. For whoever endeavors to persuade others with a word taken from human usage, with what he himself possesses and has once imbibed, and in many passages of the Scriptures it is read, from which this is one: The persuasion is not from him who called you (Gal. 5:8). And also in the Acts of the Apostles: Therefore many Jews came to him in the inn, to whom he explained, testifying about the kingdom of God and persuading them about Jesus, from the Law of Moses and the Prophets until evening. And all of this happened because it had been spread (or slandered) about him that he secretly observed the Law and had mixed with those who were practicing Judaism in Jerusalem.
No one persuades God, for all things are manifest to him. But a person does well in wishing to persuade others when it is not himself that he wishes them to like but the truth that he persuades them of.… When one pleases others on account of truth, it is not the proclaimer himself but the truth that pleases.… Thus the sense is, “Do I then persuade men or God? And since it is men that I persuade, do I seek to please them? If I still sought to please men, I should not be Christ’s servant. For he bids his servants to learn from him to be meek and lowly of heart, which is utterly impossible for one who seeks to please men on his own account, for his own private and special glory.” … Both then can be rightly said: “I please” and “I do not please.”
If, he says, I was trying to deceive you in saying these things, am I perhaps able to distort God’s thought, who knows the secrets of one’s mind, and whom I take every care to please in all things?
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This verse
Paul’s aim is God’s approval, because a man who still lived to please people could be no servant of Christ.
“For do I now persuade men, or God?”
gár, “for”, gives the reason Paul can speak so boldly. Peíthō means to persuade, here to win someone’s favour.
“or do I seek to please men?”
aréskō, to be agreeable to or gratify. The second question presses the first.
“for if I yet pleased men,”
ei, “if”, with éti, “still”.
“I should not be the servant of Christ.”
doûlos of Christós, a bondservant of Christ, who serves one Master.
Passage studyGalatians 1:6–10
There Is One Gospel
Summary
Paul goes straight from his greeting to his alarm. The Galatians are turning so soon from God, who called them into the grace of Christ, to a different message, which is in truth a twisting of the gospel of Christ by people who trouble them. Anyone who preaches any other gospel than the one they received, whether Paul himself or an angel from heaven, is to be accursed, and Paul says it twice. Then he asks whose approval he is after, because a servant of Christ answers to God. These five verses teach that there is one gospel, given by God and centred on Christ and his grace, and that its authority stands above every messenger who carries it.
Why Paul opens with astonishment
Paul usually opens a letter by thanking God for the people he is writing to. Galatians has a short greeting (Galatians 1:1–5), which already speaks of Christ giving himself for our sins, and then Paul turns at once to the trouble: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed.” The abrupt start shows how grave the matter is. Verse 6 states the conflict the whole letter answers, the one gospel of grace against a message that adds the law to it, and the curses of verses 8 and 9 press it home.
The verb thaumázō means to wonder or marvel, and it comes from the noun thaûma, a wonder. Here the wonder is dismay. What astonishes Paul is the speed of it, “so soon”. People who had received the gospel of grace from his own lips were already turning to a system of law, which showed how shallow their grasp of it had been.
“Removed” translates metatíthēmi, to transfer, to change or to desert. It describes a change of allegiance, a move from one footing to another, and Paul names what they are moving away from. It is a person: “him that called you”. Drifting from the gospel is a turning away from God himself.
Who called them, and into what
The one who called them is God the Father, who begins the work of salvation. He called them “into the grace of Christ”, the free and undeserved favour that Christ secured by his finished work. God’s call came first, and they were brought into salvation as a gift received by faith. Paul says the same to the Ephesians: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). He sets it out at length in Romans 3:20–24, where sinners are justified freely by his grace, and in Galatians 3, where he argues that we are justified by faith. The call into grace is a call into union with Christ, in whom every spiritual blessing is found and from whom true life flows.
What was the other gospel in Galatia?
The other gospel was the teaching that Gentile believers had to keep parts of the law of Moses, above all circumcision, in addition to faith in Christ, if they were to be truly saved or fully righteous. Its teachers were Jewish Christians, usually called Judaizers, who had come into the churches of Galatia. These churches lay in the Roman province of Galatia, in what is now central Turkey, and Paul probably founded them on his first missionary journey. The question of circumcision runs through the letter (Galatians 2:3–5, 6:12–13), and it caused a sharp dispute in the church at Antioch as well (Acts 15:1–2).
The teachers likely leaned on their Jewish heritage and on claims of close ties with the apostles in Jerusalem, and they may have said that Paul made the gospel easier for Gentiles in order to win followers. Their message had a real pull. Gentile converts faced strong pressure to take up Jewish customs in order to be accepted, and some wanted a more tangible sign of their conversion or a surer place in the Jewish-Christian community.
Adding the law to Christ changes the whole message. Paul’s answer in this letter is that “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16), and that “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21). He later warns that those who seek to be justified by the law are “fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:2–4). Grace with a condition attached turns God’s gift into a system of human achievement and treats Christ’s work as needing our help. Salvation is wholly by grace, and that is why Paul cannot let this pass.
“Which is not another”
Paul calls their new message “another gospel” in verse 6, and in verse 7 he says at once that it “is not another”. The two English words translate two Greek ones. In verse 6 the word is héteros, which most often means simply “other” or “another” and in some places “different in kind”. In verse 7 it is állos, the ordinary word for another one, a second in number. In Paul’s day the two words overlapped a good deal, so the force of the phrase lies in what he says next. Having given the message the name “gospel”, he takes the name back. What the Galatians had turned to was a twisting of the one gospel of Christ, and a message that takes the grace out of the good news has no good news left in it.
Those who trouble you and pervert the gospel
Paul names the cause: “there be some that trouble you”. He calls them simply “some”, the teachers just described. The verb tarássō means to stir up or agitate, as water is roiled, and it describes the confusion, doubt and anxiety the teaching brought into churches that had stood firm in the truth. False teaching unsettles faith and peace as well as minds.
These men “would pervert the gospel of Christ”. Metastréphō means to turn something across, to change it into something else or to corrupt it. Their teaching twisted the gospel into its opposite and left it powerless to save.
It is “the gospel of Christ”, the good news about a person and what he has done, so whatever moves the weight from Christ to anything else corrupts it. Paul warns the Corinthians in the same terms about one who comes preaching “another Jesus” and “another gospel” (2 Corinthians 11:4). The Judaizers’ demand for circumcision and law-keeping set aside the truth that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10:4).
Let him be accursed
Verse 8 sets the standard by which every message is measured, the gospel that Paul and his companions preached to the Galatians at first. The verb for preaching, euangelízō, comes from the words for “well” and “messenger” and means to announce good news, in the New Testament especially the good news about Jesus. So to “preach any other gospel” is to announce some other good news. Of anyone who does that, Paul says, “let him be accursed.”
“Accursed” is anáthema, a religious ban, and a thing or person devoted to destruction and cut off from God’s favour. It comes from a word meaning to set up or to devote. Paul puts it with the solemn imperative éstō, “let him be”, and pronounces it as God’s judgment on those who corrupt his saving message. The verse opens with allá, a strong “but”, which sets this flat statement against anything the troublers could say.
Why an angel from heaven?
Paul names the highest messengers he can, himself and his companions (“we”) and “an angel from heaven”, to show that the gospel stands above every messenger, however exalted. Ángelos means a messenger, from a verb meaning to bring tidings, and it is the word for God’s angels. “From heaven” is ek, “from” or “out of”, with ouranós, the word for both the sky and heaven. A message that claimed to come from heaven itself would still be judged by the gospel the Galatians had already received.
So a teaching is weighed by what it says about Christ, whoever brings it and however impressive the claim behind it, whether a gifted leader, a popular trend or a report of something supernatural. The law of Moses gave Israel a way to test false prophets (Deuteronomy 13:1–5), and John tells believers to “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1).
Is Paul claiming that he cannot be wrong?
Paul is claiming that the gospel he preached cannot be changed, and he puts himself under the same curse as the angel if he should ever preach anything else. His authority rests on the message, which he received “by the revelation of Jesus Christ”, as he goes on to explain (Galatians 1:11–12). The gospel is the standard, and Paul, the angel and every teacher after them stand under it.
Why does Paul say it twice?
Verse 9 repeats the curse almost word for word: “As we said before, so say I now again.” The repetition makes the warning deliberate and unmistakable. “As we said before” may point back to verse 8, or, as is likely, to what Paul told the Galatians in person when he was with them, which he now says again in writing. Either way his message has stayed the same, as the gospel itself does.
This time the standard is “that ye have received”. The gospel was handed to the Galatians and they took it as God’s gift. The word behind “other … than” is pará, meaning “beside” or “contrary to”, so the other gospel is any message set alongside the true one or against it. Adding to it is as serious as opposing it. Moses told Israel, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2), Scripture closes with a warning against adding to or taking from its words (Revelation 22:18–19), and Peter warns of false teachers who will arise among God’s people (2 Peter 2:1–3).
Why is the language so severe?
Paul is severe because of what is at stake. A different gospel leads people away from the only way of salvation and offers them a false hope that cannot save. His zeal comes from love of God’s truth and care for the Galatians’ souls, and he guards the truth Jesus spoke of: “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). To tamper with the gospel is an affront to God’s character and to his plan of redemption, and the curse shows how jealously God guards the message by which people are saved. Jude calls believers to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3).
What counts as another gospel today?
Any message that adds to, takes from or alters the good news of salvation by grace through faith in Christ is another gospel. In Galatia it was circumcision and the law of Moses. The same thing happens wherever works, ritual, human merit or special knowledge is made necessary for salvation, wherever the deity or the humanity of Christ is denied, and wherever salvation is promised to all apart from faith in him. Each of these takes away from the sufficiency of Christ’s one sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10–14). Paul’s curse falls on a message that changes the gospel itself, and it leaves room for the differences of understanding found among those who hold to it.
Whose approval Paul seeks
Verse 10 explains why Paul can speak so boldly. It begins with gár, “for”, the word that gives the reason for what has just been said, and asks, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men?” The questions expect a plain answer: Paul seeks God’s approval. Peíthō means to persuade or convince, and set beside “please men” it asks whose favour Paul is trying to win. Aréskō, “please”, means to be agreeable to, to gratify or to accommodate someone, which in a preacher would mean shaping the message to what the hearers want.
He answers with an “if”, ei: “if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” “Yet” is éti, “still”, and the sentence asks whether Paul were still living for people’s favour. “Servant” is doûlos, a slave or bondservant, someone owned by a master and bound to do his will. A slave has one master, and Paul’s master is Christ, Christós. Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24).
The verse also answers the charge that Paul had softened the gospel to win Gentile followers. A man who has just put himself under a curse should he ever change the gospel is plainly seeking to please God, and his willingness to preach an unpopular message is evidence of his calling. Verse 10 leads into his account of his conversion, call and early ministry (Galatians 1:11–24), where he shows that his gospel came from God. Elsewhere he says that he speaks “not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4), and Peter and the apostles told the council, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Why must a servant of Christ choose?
Serving Christ means loyalty to his will and truth, and his truth often runs against human desires, custom and worldly wisdom. The gospel offends human pride and self-sufficiency, because it calls people to repent and to rest on God’s grace. A preacher whose aim was to please would be pressed to soften its demands or alter its message to win acceptance or escape persecution, and that would undo his service to his Master. Faithfulness sometimes means being unpopular.
The gospel is Christ
The gospel of these verses is good news about a person. Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Galatians 1:4). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), the “one mediator between God and men” (1 Timothy 2:5), and “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16), because through Christ God reconciles all things to himself by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:19–20).
To add anything to his work is to treat it as unfinished, so another gospel always brings another Christ with it, one who is less than fully God, less than fully man, or whose work falls short. Paul’s curse guards Christ’s glory, so that all the praise for salvation goes to him.
Jesus himself lived the life verse 10 describes. He said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me” (John 4:34), and he asked how people could believe who “receive honour one of another” (John 5:44). At his baptism the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), and in Gethsemane he prayed, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). He came to do his Father’s will, and his death on the cross fulfilled the Father’s plan of redemption (Hebrews 10:7). Paul’s life as a servant of Christ follows the pattern of his Master’s obedience.
One gospel, held by the God who called us
These verses give us a gospel that holds. The God who called the Galatians into the grace of Christ still calls people into that grace, and what he gives is complete in Christ. Because the gospel stands over every messenger, apostles and angels included, every voice can be weighed against it, and we can rest on what God has already given. Paul’s alarm shows how quickly people can drift from what they first received, and his two curses show how much God cares that his people hear the true message. Verse 10 shows the freedom of a servant of Christ, who answers to one Master and lives for God’s approval. Christ pleased his Father perfectly, and his finished work is the good news the Galatians received and the good news the church still carries.
Galatians 1:6
“I marvel”
thaumázō, to wonder or marvel. Where Paul usually gives thanks after his greeting, here his first word is dismay.
“that ye are so soon removed”
The speed is what astonishes him. Metatíthēmi is a word for transferring or changing sides.
“from him that called you”
God the Father, who took the first step in their salvation. Their drift is away from him.
“into the grace of Christ”
They were called into Christ’s free and undeserved favour, a gift secured by his finished work.
“unto another gospel:”
héteros, “other”. In Galatia it was the demand for circumcision and the law of Moses added to faith in Christ, for salvation or for being made perfect.
Galatians 1:7
“Which is not another;”
állos, “another”. Paul takes back the name “gospel” as soon as he has used it, because there is only one.
“but there be some that trouble you,”
tarássō, to stir up as water is stirred. The “some” are the teachers urging circumcision.
“and would pervert”
metastréphō, to turn across or corrupt. They were twisting the message itself.
“the gospel of Christ.”
The good news centres on Christ’s person and work, so turning its focus away from him corrupts it.
Galatians 1:8
“But though we,”
allá, a strong “but”. “We” is Paul and those who preached with him, and he names himself first, so the gospel stands above his own authority.
“or an angel from heaven,”
ángelos, a messenger, with ek and ouranós, “from heaven”. It is the highest messenger Paul can name.
“preach any other gospel unto you”
euangelízō, to announce good news, used here of a message that claims to be good news and twists it.
“than that which we have preached unto you,”
The benchmark is the gospel as first preached in Galatia, which Paul had received from Christ.
“let him be accursed.”
éstō anáthema, “let him be anathema”, under God’s curse.
Galatians 1:9
“As we said before, so say I now again,”
The warning is doubled on purpose, and Paul’s message has stayed the same.
“If any man preach any other gospel unto you”
“Any man” takes in everyone. Pará, behind “other … than”, means beside or contrary to.
“than that ye have received,”
The Galatians already hold the standard, the gospel they were given and took as God’s gift, and can measure whatever they hear by it.
“let him be accursed.”
The same words as verse 8, now spoken a second time.
Galatians 1:10 This verse
“For do I now persuade men, or God?”
gár, “for”, gives the reason Paul can speak so boldly. Peíthō means to persuade, here to win someone’s favour.
“or do I seek to please men?”
aréskō, to be agreeable to or gratify. The second question presses the first.
“for if I yet pleased men,”
ei, “if”, with éti, “still”.
“I should not be the servant of Christ.”
doûlos of Christós, a bondservant of Christ, who serves one Master.
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