Two Plus Two – Key Verses – Galatians (NIV)
Two Plus Two – Key Verses – Galatians (NIV)
1:9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
"Already said" in the previous verse. So it wasn’t something in the distant past. When you’re reading the verse in context, it’s obvious. So nothing unusual there. I probably could just as easily pick the previous verse as the key verse. I think this verse communicates pretty much the same thing plus emphasis.
I guess the previous verse qualifies the "gospel other than what you accepted" more from the idea of the source. In verse 8 Paul qualifies the gospel by whom it was delivered: "the one we preached to you." I guess it’s best taken in combination.
Paul’s making the point that he knows the one he preached and he agrees with that one. And they also accepted that one. They are one in the same. Both parties were in agreement: one side presenting, one side accepting.
Paul doesn’t care really (at least in these verses) who preaches the other gospel. What matters is the gospel itself. If it’s different than the one we both discussed and agreed on. If it’s different from that one, it’s wrong.
It’s so wrong and evil that they should be cursed. And, by the way, don’t believe in that gospel.
Apparently other people are preaching "other gospels" to them. So we have other people and other gospels. The other people were trying to lead the Galatian churches to growth by another way: works, idolatry. And, it seems, they were accusing Paul of being wrong in his theology in a way that he was trying to win over the approval of humans.
How would someone win over humans by preaching the gospel? It could be that by telling people about freedom in Christ, they’d be happy about that and give money to the cause. Paul points out in the chapter that if he were trying to win over humans, there are much better/easier ways. In fact, ironically, that’s what Paul was trying to do before.
In his former ways, he was gaining a lot in the Jewish world through his beliefs and actions. However, that doesn’t please God though it was doing a lot for his reputation among men.
Paul didn’t receive his ministry message from men. He was persecuting those who believed this message. At the height of persecuting them in their belief of Jesus, Jesus stepped in. Paul got his direction from the source. He goes on to explain that he didn’t then run to the apostles to learn the details and get instructions. He had very little to do with them for years and not much after that either.
Paul’s message had bona fides. He had confidence that his message, being from the source of Christ, was legitimate and that’s the one they should receive and had received. And it’s the one they needed to continue in. A different gospel would be from a different source. And any source of a different gospel is evil and should be accursed.
We can all learn from that. We should all revisit the core gospel message regularly. We all need to return to the simplicity of what we believed. It’s easy to, over time, forget some details… add some practices… get off track just a bit… then a bit more. A copy of a copy isn’t quite as good.
So we need to remember to be close to the real version and that will allow us to more easily identify any fakes. We don’t have to learn that two plus two isn’t 3 and it isn’t 5 and it’s not 6 and it’s not 7 and it isn’t 8 and so on. We just need to know it’s 4 and the rest are wrong.
If we hear a gospel and it doesn’t align with the gospel that saved us, it’s wrong. And those spouting it are wrong too.