Here Comes Trouble

 Hello everyone.

In my last post I looked primary at a verse and a half, Galatains 1:6-7a.  You may remember how Paul talks about some teachers who had come in among the Galatians, teaching a different gospel, one involving circumcision and the keeping of the Law.  Paul declares that this hybrid gospel was actually not a gospel at all. Today's post focuses primarily on the other half of the verse.  The rest of Galatians 1:7 says, " It appears that there are some people who are stirring up trouble for you and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ." Today we want to take a look at this question: Who are these people that are presenting a different gospel?  

David deSilva says that scholarship is almost universal in agreement that there were rival teachers who followed in Paul’s tracks trying to bring these Gentile converts into conformity with the Torah and circumcision, in an attempt to keep this new Christian sect firmly entrenched in Judaism.  (deSilva, 435.) Undoubtedly after Paul moved on from there, these young disciples had questions, and these rival teachers had answers that sounded good. 

John Stott points out that Paul uses the word  ταράσσοντες (tarassontes) to describe these teachers.  This word is a form of the word ταράσσω (tarasso) which means to "trouble" or "agitate."  The churches in Galatia had been thrown into turmoil by these false teachers. Paul also uses the word μεταστρέψαι (metastrepsai) which means to distort or pervert, to describe what these teachers are trying to do to the Gospel of Christ. Stott states ” the two chief characteristics of these false teachers is that they were troubling the church and changing the gospel.” (Stott, 23.) 

Their message was likely one filled with Old Testament scripture, something they knew well.  Thomas Schreiner points out that it likely referred back to Genesis 17 and the covenant God made with Abraham.  There, “circumcision is linked to Abraham becoming the father of many nations.”  So if these Gentiles wanted to be children of Abraham, they had to receive this sign of God’s “everlasting” covenant.  (Schreiner, 50.) The logic would have been that if God made an "everlasting" covenant, then we are still bound by it. Paul will bring Abraham into the conversation in his rebuttal.  

Here is something for you to think about. I recently read something in David Benner’s book, Surrender to Love that seems to tie in well here. Benner says, “He (God) offers us something we could never deserve - forgiveness of our sins and the embrace of His love.  What makes grace amazing is that it and it alone can make us free from our fears and make us truly whole and free.  Surrender to God’s love offers the possibility of freedom from guilt, freedom from effort to earn God’s approval.”  ( Benner, 47.) 

What a great description of God's grace.  This is a beautiful message.   Why would anybody want to exchange that message for a lesser one? But these teachers had taken God's message of grace and perverted it into a message of law-keeping.  Paul spends the bulk of the rest of this letter fighting the message being taught by these agitators. 

     Thomas Schriener, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Galatians, Zondervan Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2010. 

      John R.W. Stott, The Message of Galatians, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 1968. 
      David A. deSilva, An Introduction to the New Testament, IVP Academic, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2018. 

      David Benner, Surrender to Love, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2015.