No Way to People-Please

Greetings everyone.

Today, we will finish the section of scritpure that usually grouped together going from verses 6 to 10, as Paul has pronounced 'anathema' on those teach a different kind of Gospel other than the one he had taught them. the Gospel of grace.  As he closes this thought, he throws out some question in his own defense.  Here is my translation of Galatians 1:10:

10 Am I currently trying to win the favor of men or of God?  Am I seeking to please people?  If I am seeking to please people, I am not a servant of Christ. 

Paul now asks some questions regarding his own motive for the things he is writing to them.  It is interesting here that Paul feels the need to defend his motives.  Was he being accused of people-pleasing with his insistence on grace over legalistic righteousness?  Were his opponents accusing Paul of trying to make an easier path for the Galatians with his insistence on grace without the law?  It seems likely that they were.  

So, he asks them who it is he that trying to please with his insistence on grace. Is it God or men?  The obvious answer is that Paul is not concerned with the approval of men, but only God. If he were trying to please people would not have said some of the hard things that he has already said in this letter, including God’s curse upon the false teachers.  That is no way to people-please. His sharp criticisms here have no self-serving purpose. He seeks only to keep the disciples in Galatians on the correct path. 

Paul goes on to state that if he were trying to please people, he would no longer be a servant of Christ. this implies that if he were trying to please people, his allegiance would not be with Christ.  Instead, his allegiance would now be with people, rather than Christ. Of course, the truth is, that if Paul were seeking to please people, he would not have become a Christian in the first place.  His decision to follow Christ quickly made enemies of his closest associates.  

Paul was not a people-pleaser. His focus was on pleasing Christ, and it seems odd that Paul would need to defend himself and his teaching on something as amazing as grace. 

Anathema

Greetings. 

Today we will look at Galatians 1:8-9 where Paul announces a curse on those who would change the Gospel.  Here is my translatian: 

8 But if we, or even an angel from Heaven, proclaim to you a gospel different from the one we taught you, let them be under the curse of God. 9 Let me repeat myself.  I’m telling you, if anyone preaches a different gospel to you, other than the one you have received, let that person be accursed. 

I will remind you that Paul expressed astonishment that the Galatians would so quickly desert the Gospel of grace.  Now, in verse 8, he expresses the dire nature of such a decision.  Paul tells the churches in Galatia, that if even an angel from Heaven teaches them a different gospel other than the one that they had been taught, that person should be accursed.  He is obviously making reference here to these agitators who are perverting the Gospel of grace, but he is also making a universal statement.  In verse 8 we see that he has gone from astonishment to indignation. 

Anyone who preaches a different gospel, other than the gospel of God’s grace, is to be cursed by God.  God’s love and grace is the message.  Anything else is a different gospel, and therefore, no gospel at all. 

Paul is making things perfectly clear here.  These teachings are not supplemental teachings to the gospel, something to learn in addition to the gospel.  These are teachings that can lead both teacher and student to be accursed. Ἀνάθεμα (Anathema) is the word Paul uses here.  The Greek-English Lexicon of New Testament Words defines Ἀνάθεμα as “that which has been cursed, accursed.  Thayer’s Lexicon comments that anathema is “a person or thing that is doomed to destruction.” This is what Paul says is the fate of those who preach a different gospel.  

John Stott compares this idea of anathema to Achan in Joshua 7, who stole from the spoils of Jericho, from that God had placed under His ban and was doomed for destruction.  (Stott, 24.) Stott also states that this anathema applies to anyone who distorts the essence of the gospel and propagates this distortion.  (Stott, 25) (It makes sense that the Bible would warn teachers that they face a more strict judgment.  (James 3:1)  Teachers need to make sure that they have the gospel of grace on straight and that they spread that message properly.)

Paul makes it clear, speaking in some hyperbole that no one can come in and change the nature of the message of the gospel.  He essentially says, “Even if it is me, don’t listen to it.”  Then he takes it even further, “Even if it is one of God’s angels, don’t listen to it.”

Now, why would an angel come to them teaching a different gospel? An angel would not do that.  While seeing an angel might make the message pretty compelling, Paul says that if they are changing the Gospel, that we are not to listen to them. 

Paul is stressing the point here, that they should continue on in God’s grace, and not let anyone move them from it, no matter how convincing the messenger might be.  Thomas Schreiner points out that Paul includes himself and angels in his warning, not because either would pervert the nature of the Gospel, but to stress its unchangeable nature. (Shreiner, 87.) The Gospel of Grace does not change.  

What Paul is saying to the Galatians here is so important that he repeats it.  He wants this warning to be taken seriously, so he repeats the anathema. 

There are subtle differences in the second anathema.  He removes the reference to himself and to angels, and replaces it with the word τις (tis) which can be translated as someone or as anyone.  He is no longer speaking in hyperbole, but directly against those agitators.  Any message other than the gospel of God’s grace, is not true gospel, and anyone who preaches such a message as gospel is accursed.  

The Galatians had received the true gospel when Paul presented it to them, and this ‘new revelation’ was not leading them in the right direction, and was to be rejected.  

It is important to discern which ‘gospel’ we have accepted.  Are we receiving the gospel of God’s grace, or have we followed a gospel of rule-keeping?  Legalism can be insidious and difficult to discern, so we should examine our beliefs carefully to see if what we are holding is God’s grace, or some form of legalistic righteousness, where we are somehow earning it, becasue 'earning it' is not part of God's plan. His grace is sufficient.