Galatians 1:6

(6) Removed.—The Greek word is one regularly used for a “deserter,” “turn-coat,” or “apostate,” either in war, politics, or religion. The tense is strictly present: “You are now, at this moment, in the act of falling away.”

Him that called you.—The call of the Christian is attributed by St. Paul to God the Father; so even in Rom_1:6. The Christian, having been called by God, belongs to Christ. The part taken by Christ in the calling of the Christian is rather a mediate agency, such as is expressed in the next phrase.

Into the grace of Christ.—Rather, by the grace of Christ. The grace (i.e., the free love) of Christ becomes the instrument of the divine calling, inasmuch as it is through the preaching of that free love and free gift that the unbeliever is at first attracted and won over to the faith. The “grace of Christ” is His voluntary self-surrender to humiliation and death, from no other prompting than His own love for sinful men.

(6, 7) Unto another gospel: which is not another.—It is to be regretted that the English language hardly admits the fine shade of distinction which exists here in the Greek. The Greek has two words for “another:” one (the first of those which is here used) implying a difference in kind, the other implying mere numerical addition.

Another gospel do I call it? That would seem to concede its right to be called a gospel at all. It might be supposed to be some alternative theory, existing side by side with that which you originally heard; but this cannot be. This “other gospel” is not a second gospel; for there cannot be two gospels. The inference, therefore, to be drawn is that it is not a gospel in any sense of the word. This, then, may be dismissed. It is no true gospel, but only mischievous and factious meddling on the part of certain false teachers.

(6-10) The Apostle is surprised at their rapid defection. The doctrine to which they had at first given in their adhesion was a doctrine of salvation by grace: they now imagined that they were only hearing a different version of the same truths. A different version? How was that possible? There could not be any second gospel, nor was there really anything of the kind. It was not a new gospel, but only a factious perversion of the old. Those who do this—no matter who they be—are accursed. That, at least, is plain speaking, and no one can accuse it of time-serving.

The Apostle had ended his address to the Galatians abruptly, and now he plunges abruptly, and without more preface, into the midst of his charges against them. He cannot understand their sudden apostasy.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_1:6-7

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you.

The errors of the good and the follies of the wise are painful subjects of contemplation, and we are never more conscious of a sensitive and distressing recoil than when we witness the disappointment of our hopes in reference to those who had once given promise of attaining to distinguished excellence. Some, however, it is to be feared, are comparative strangers to any vivid apprehensions of this kind. They seem to be always on the watch to detect the canker in the rose, or the flaw in the gem, and love the fault that gives them an equal more than the virtue which makes another their superior. But men of nobler temper always delight in beholding the development of exalted worth; and these, far from laying bare with an untrembling hand the infirmities and defects of our common nature, never fail to experience a corresponding depression and regret when the lustre of a great name is tarnished, and especially when religion itself is seen to suffer from the inconsistency of its professed friends.

I. The early appearance of error and declension among the churches founded by the apostle. So soon removed. Our attention also is particularly arrested by the prevalence of these evils in the very outset of the history of the Christian Church; and not in the province of Galatia only, but in various other directions. We wonder to see the stream corrupted so near the fountain, the tares springing up with the wheat in the most favoured soils, and the fine gold of the sanctuary so soon becoming dim. To the Church of Thessalonica, St. Paul writes, in one of the earliest of his Epistles, The mystery of iniquity doth already work. St. Peter speaks of those who privily bring in damnable heresies. St. Jude refers to those who denied the Lord that bought them, and adds that these ungodly men crept in unawares, like the wolf into the fold, or the muffled traitor into the palace of the king, implying that they ought by all means to have been kept out!

II. The insidious manner in which the most dangerous corruptions are often introduced. ye are removed unto another gospel--which is not another. The enemy of souls is never more dangerous than when he assumes the aspect of an angel of light; and injury is more frequently sustained by the artful intermixture of truth with error, than by any temptation to renounce Christianity altogether. We are rarely invited to receive broad, palpable, unmixed falsehood, for from this the mind might naturally recoil, as we should shrink from taking, with our eyes open, undiluted poisons. But the great deceiver goes more skilfully to work, and incorporates false doctrines with some modification of the true. He knows how to wrap up his most deadly poisons in some leaves of the tree of life; as he quoted Scripture to our Lord Himself, and prefaced his fatal temptation to Eve, by the smooth inquiry, Yea, hath God said? All these should recollect that the perversion of evangelical truth is followed by melancholy consequences, and produces unhappiness in the mind. There be some that trouble you. Gospel perverters are soul-troublers. Like the mystic star of the Apocalypse, which, falling on the waters, turned the peaceful element into turbulence and blood, their course may be traced by the calamities they occasion.

III. The awful criminality and danger of perverting the gospel of Christ. From the greatness of the punishment denounced by the apostle, we learn his estimate of the aggravated guilt of the offence he condemns.

1. The great Protestant principle of the right and duty of private judgment. Though St. Paul proves his apostleship, and demands to be heard as the servant of Christ, he is far from claiming unlimited authority over the consciences of men, but makes a direct appeal to their judgment. If they were not to receive, even from him, another gospel, of course they had to decide what was, and what was not, another gospel. And this they had the means of doing.

2. If such be the danger of perverting, how important is it that we should receive the gospel for the purpose of our salvation. To reject or pervert robs God of His glory, the Church of its comfort, and the world of its hope.

3. The intimate connexion between the purity of the Christian Church and the happiness of its individual members. God reveals this religion, not only as a means of safety, but as an element of blessedness.

4. We may well rejoice in the perpetuity of religion itself, notwithstanding all the attacks of its foes, and all the imperfection of its friends. The gospel partakes of the immortality of its author. (The Evangelist.)

The wonder of a faithful apostle at the defection of faithless converts

I. The apostle wondered that they should have turned from God and the Saviour. When men turn to God expectations are fulfilled; but when they forsake Him astonishment is excited, because of the mystery of iniquity (Jer_2:12-13).

1. To the Galatians the human agency was the ministry of Paul.

2. There is a reference to the Divine power in the call of God. Him that called you in the grace of Christ.

II. Paul wondered that they should have changed so suddenly.

III. Paul marvelled that they should renounce the true for the false, the real for the unreal, the genuine for the sham.

IV. Paul wondered that they had been seduced by men whose characters ought to have been understood. Lessons:

1. The will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us should be the subject of our constant meditation.

2. We should beware of teaching that tends to withdraw Christ from our attention and confidence.

3. We should avoid the company of men who, under the pretence of doing us good, only seek to weaken our faith in the gospel. (R. Nicholls.)

Apostasy is easy

It is possible to begin in the Spirit, and to end in the flesh; it is possible to be seriously hindered; it is possible to come short of the promise of the grace of God. Clouds sometimes obscure the brightest evening and the sunniest morning. A slight atmospheric change may transform an Alpine ascent from a safe excitement into an imminent peril. It is thus in the natural world; and so is it in the realm of grace. There are numberless causes, arising from the circumstances of external things, or from the inbred and unsubdued corruption of our own traitorous hearts, which may endanger the constancy of the Christian, and cause his goodness to be even as the morning cloud and as the early dew, goodly and sparkling in promise, but, by the fierce heat of the sun, very speedily exhaled. (W. M. Punshon.)

Fickle Christians

Luther often, in his books, testified that he was much afraid lest, when he was dead, that sound doctrine of justification by faith alone would die also. It proved so in many places in Germany. Men fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall in autumn. The word here rendered removed signifieth properly transported or transplanted. He alludes, saith Jerome, to the word Galdi, to roll, as if he should say, You are Galatians, that is, rolling and changing from the gospel of Christ to the law of Moses. (J. Trapp.)

Different treatment for seducers and seduced

Ye see here how Paul handleth his Galatians, which were fallen away and seduced by the false apostles. He doth not at the first set upon them with vehemence and rigorous words, but after a very fatherly sort, not only patiently bearing their fall, but also in a manner excusing it,. Furthermore, he showeth towards them a motherly affection, and speaketh them very fair; and yet in such sort that he reproveth them notwithstanding, howbeit with very fit words, and wisely framed to the purpose. Contrariwise, he is very hot and full of indignation against those false apostles, their seducers, upon whom he layeth the whole fault; and therefore forthwith, even in the entrance of his Epistle, he bursteth out into plain thunderings and lightnings against them.… So parents, when their child is hurt with the biting of a dog, are wont to pursue the dog only, but the weeping child they bemoan and speak fair unto it, comforting it with the most sweet words. (Luther.)

The apostles demeanour

1. Towards the misled. He makes a complaint and charge, but through it all the full tones of Compassion and love are heard.

2. Towards the misleaders. Unsparingly stern, even to denouncing a curse. To fall away from the gospel is bad, but to subvert the gospel is worse. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

The earnestness with which St. Paul opposes the false teachers

The apostles earnestness is--

1. Well-founded;

2. Very significant for us.

(1) It should withhold us from the reception of any unevangelical doctrine.

(2) It should strengthen us in the certainty that the gospel which we have is the true one. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Lapsed Christians

In the first years of a Church, its members are willing to endure hardships, and to make great exertions; but, when once it is prosperous, they desire to take their ease; as one who builds a ship is willing to work all the way from keel to deck until she is launched, thenceforward he expects the ocean to buoy him up, and the winds to bear him on. The youth-time of Churches produces enterprise; their age, indolence. But even this might be borne, did not these dead men sit in the door of their sepulchres, crying out against every living man who refuses to wear the livery of death. I am almost tempted to think that if, with the end of every pastorate, the Church itself were disbanded and destroyed, to be gathered again by the succeeding teacher, we should thus secure an immortality of youth. (H. W. Beecher.)

Apostasy from the truth

1. How far apostasy is not to be wondered at.

2. How far it is to be wondered at. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Inconstancy a common fault

An apostatising tendency, or inconstancy, is a radical fault of the human heart.

1. Sluggish and immovable, where it is of moment that it should move and apply itself.

2. So moveable and unsteady, where it should abide firm. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Apostasy of believers

1. The apostasy of believers is, alas, sometimes a fact.

2. From what does it proceed?

3. How far is it to be remedied? (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

The Galatian revolt

I. The revolt. Different kinds of religious revolt.

1. Particular: dissent from some principal doctrines; the ten tribes; the Roman Church.

2. General: renunciation of the name and faith of Christ; Jews; Mahommedans.

3. Under strong pressure; when men compromise the faith from fear of persecution.

4. From obstinacy; as atheists. The Galatian revolt was of the first and third class. They were carried away from the doctrine of grace.

II. The time it occupied.

1. A brief period.

2. Showing mans inconstancy in the matter of religion (Hos_6:4; Joh_5:35).

3. Pointing a warning to the most privileged.

III. From what they revolted.

1. From Paul.

2. From the grace of God.

IV. To what they revolted.

1. To false teachers.

2. To another gospel compounded of grace and law.

(1) Men are discontented with the pure gifts of God. The Jews, beside the books of Moses, must have the Cabbala; the Papists, beside the written Word, must have tradition; hearers, beside the simple gospel, must have the skill of art and tongue.

(2) The other gospel is no gospel at all. There is only one way of salvation. News of another way, therefore, is bud news.

V. The authors of the revolt.

1. They are troublers, because

(1) they make divisions;

(2) disturb consciences at rest in Christ. Here is the touchstone of heresy. Justification by works is an unbearable yoke (Act_15:10). So is the teaching that assurance is impossible; so is the dogma of purgatory. The gospel, on the contrary, ends trouble and brings peace and joy (Joh_15:11; Rom_15:14).

2. They overthrow the gospel of Christ. They did not contest its truth, but, by adding to it, they turned it upside down. (W. Perkins.)

A group of marvels

1. That men should disbelieve the true and believe the false.

2. That men should forsake the proved and follow the speculative.

3. That men should refuse the possible salvation by faith in favour of earning an impossible salvation by works.

4. That men should reject the balm for a wounded conscience, and accept what can only trouble the conscience.

5. That men should turn away from the ambassador of the gospel, and attach themselves to perverters of the gospel. Yet these marvels are to be witnessed every day.

The religious instability of the Galatians

It was the too quick springing of the good seed on poor and shallow soil; the sudden flaming of fire among natures as light, brittle, and inflammable as straw. The modification of an old religion, the hearty adoption of a new, the combination of an antique worship with one recent and unlike, had already been illustrated in Galatian history As Celts, they had brought with them their old Druidism; yet they had already incorporated with this the wild nature worship of Cybele. But while this Phrygian cult was flourishing at Pessinus, and commanding the services of hosts of mutilated priests, and while at Tavium the main object of worship was a colossal bronze Zeus of the Greek type, at Ancyra was established the Roman deification of the Emperor Augustus. In passing through these capitals, Paul would see the epitome of their history and character, and as he ]had bitter cause to learn, the religious views of the Gauls were more or less a reflex of the impressions of the moment, and their favourite sentiments the echo of the language used by the last comer. (F. W. Farrar.)

The Judaizing antagonists of St. Paul

They asserted the exclusive authority of the apostles in Judea (2. Corinthians 11:5; Gal_2:6, etc.), a pretension which they would have repudiated, and which Paul makes bold to deny them (comp. 1Co_9:5). They claimed themselves further to be the only true disciples of Christ (1Co_1:12; 2Co_10:7), and in His name imposed, as a condition of salvation, circumcision and all the rites of the law (Gal_2:3; Gal_3:3; Gal_4:10-11; Gal_5:2, etc.; Rom_14:1, etc.; Php_3:2; Col_2:21, etc.), and they abruptly broke off all intercourse with uncircumcised Christians (Gal_2:2), whom Paul had welcomed, and the other apostles recognized, as brethren. Their hatred to Paul was not at all appeased by his heroic sufferings and sublime self-devotion. When the populace of Jerusalem laid homicidal hands upon him, not one of the many myriads of Christians lifted a finger in his defence. Carried to Rome during his two years anxious imprisonment, he has still reason to complain of those who preach Christ only of contention, thinking to add affliction to his bonds. (E. Reuss, D. D.)

The real question at issue

If the Judaizers had really believed in the divinity of Jesus, they could not have returned to systems which had died away before the glories of His advent, for that faith would have proved an insurmountable barrier to reactionary yearnings. Their attempt to re-introduce circumcision was a reflection on Christs finished work, and so, ultimately, on the dignity of His person. They knew not, or heeded not, that they were members of a kingdom in which circumcision and uncircumcision were insignificant accidents, and in which the new creation of the soul was the one matter of vital import. Although they had not denied Christ in terms; He had become of no effect unto them. They had practically rejected the plenary efficacy of Christs grace, and had implicitly denied that He was greater than Moses; and in opposing them, Paul is the apostolic representative of the cause and work of Athanasius. (Canon Liddon.)

The early Churches not pattern Churches

They had apostolic teaching; but beyond that they seem to have been in no respect above, and in many respects below, the level of subsequent ages. If we may judge of their morality by the exhortations they received, Corinth and Thessalonica were but beginners in holiness. If we may judge of their intelligence by the errors into which they fell, they had indeed need that one should teach them which were the first principles of the oracles of God. It could not be otherwise. They were but just rescued from heathenism, and bore the marks of their former bondage. They were like the communities fostered by modern missionaries. The same infantile simplicity, partial apprehensions of truth, danger of being lead astray by the low morality of their kindred, openness to strange heresy, and peril of blending the old with the new in opinion and practice, beset both. The history of the first theological difference in the early Churches is a striking confutation of the dream that they were perfect, and a striking illustration of the dangers to which they were exposed from the attempt, so natural to us all, to put new wine into old bottles. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The grace of Christ

It is not man climbing to heaven; it is God putting down His hand from heaven and raising him up. It is not man paying God for heaven; heaven is Gods free gift to man through Christ. The word grace is inscribed on the temple of salvation from the foundation to the top-stone. (Thomas Jones.)

Another gospel

We hear much of moving with the age. But the gospel is not to be changed to answer the opinions of any age. The pulpit is to lead the age, and not the age the pulpit. Let ministers, then, preach the gospel, whether men will bear or forbear. The gospel, in all its glorious doctrines, pure morality, and sweet promises, is the one power to save. (Thomas Jones.)

Rapid declension

Ha is the interjection of laughter; ah, the interjection of sorrow. The difference betwixt them is but small; the transposition of what is no substantial letter, but a bare aspirate. How quickly, in the age of a minute, in the very turning of a breath, is our mirth changed into mourning. (Thos. Fuller.)

Movement not progress

Rowland Hill, in a friends house, saw a child on a rocking-horse. Dear me, said the good man, how wondrously like some Christians; motion, motion, motion, but no progress. Covering sin with fair names:--Here we may learn to espy the crafty sleights and subtleties of the devil. No heretic cometh under the title of errors and of the devil, neither doth the devil himself come as a devil in his own likeness, but when he forceth men to manifest wickedness, maketh a cloak for them to cover that sin which they commit or purpose to commit. The murderer, in his rage, seeth not that murder is so great and horrible a sin as it is indeed, for that he hath a cloak to cover the same. Whoremongers, thieves, covetous persons, drunkards, and such other, have wherewith to flatter themselves, and cover their sins. So the devil also cometh out disguised and counterfeit in all his works and devices. In spiritual matter, where Satan cometh forth not black, but white, in the likeness of an angel, or of God Himself, there he passeth himself with most crafty dissimulation, and wonderful sleights, and is wont to set forth to sale his most deadly poison for the doctrine of grace, for the Word of God, for the gospel of Christ. For this cause, Paul calleth the doctrine of the false apostles, Satans ministers, a gospel also, saying, unto another gospel; but in derision, as though he would say, Ye Galatians have now other evangelists, and another gospel; my gospel is now despised of you; it is now no more in estimation among you. (Luther.)

A doctored gospel

In Babbages Economy of Manufactures, we are told that some years ago a mode of preparing old clover and trefoil seeds, by a process called doctoring, became so prevalent as to attract the attention of the House of Commons. By this process old and worthless seed was rendered in appearance equal to the best. One witness tried some doctored seed, and found that not above one grain in a hundred grew. Is it not to be feared that a doctored gospel is becoming very common among us; and if so, it is no wonder that conversions are but few. Only pure truth is living seed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The dilettante gospel

The dilettante gospel has most attractions, of course, for people of a literary and aesthetic turn of mind. What they seek in the sermons they go to hear is not religion, but (as they are fond of styling it) the poetry and philosophy of religion. They would be the last to suspect that such a hearing of Gods word is superficial; but superficial it certainly is. It is a craving for an external thing which brings them to the church at all. They give to the accidental and unessential the respect which should only be accorded to the message of God. And the hurt to the cause of Christ, in yielding to such cravings, is that it dethrones the fact that God is speaking through the gospel to human souls. Christ is not in all the thoughts of such hearers. The outward construction of the word, its literary or artistic features, its pathos, simplicity, or force--these are canvassed and accepted or refused; but Gods message and meaning under all is left standing without. It is hardly possible to overstate the evil to which preaching which panders to this class must lead. For those who indulge in it, the Bible inevitably dwindles down into an uninspired book--at best, a book only more interesting than other books that could be named. The gospel which is proclaimed from its pages--the blessed gospel of the grace of God--passes utterly out of view; and hearers will listen to what is presented to them for a whole lifetime, and yet fail to receive one right-hearted impulse towards the work for which God is sustaining a Church in the world. (A. Macleod, D. D.)

No truce with heretics

They had, in fact, only introduced one or two commandments, circumcision and the observance of days, but he says that the gospel was perverted, in order to show that a slight adulteration vitiates the whole. For as he who but partially pares away the image on a royal coin renders the whole spurious, so he who swerves ever so little from the pure faith soon proceeds from this to graver errors, and becomes entirely corrupted. Let those who charge us with being contentious in separating from heretics, and say that there is no real difference between us except what arises from our ambition, hear Pauls assertion, that those who had but slightly innovated, subverted the gospel. Not that to say that the Son of God is a crested being [as the Aryans did] is a small matter. Know you not that even under the elder covenant, a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, and transgressed a single commandment, and that not a great one, was punished with death? and that Uzzah, who supported the ark, when on the point of being overturned, was struck suddenly dead, because he had intruded upon an office which did not pertain to him! Wherefore if to transgress the Sabbath, and to touch the falling ark, drew down the wrath of God so signally as to deprive the offender of even a momentary respite, shall he who corrupts unutterably awful doctrines find excuse and pardon! Assuredly not. A want of zeal in small matters is the cause of all our calamities; because slight errors escape fitting correction, greater ones creep in. As in the body a neglect of wounds generates fever, mortification, and death; so in the soul, slight evils overlooked open the door to graver ones. It is accounted a trivial fault that one man should neglect fasting; that another, who is established in the pure faith, should shrink from its bold profession, and be led by circumstances to dissemble; that a third should be irritated, and threaten to depart from the true faith, is excused on the plea of passion and resentment. Thus a thousand similar errors are daily introduced into the Church, which is divided into as many parties, and we are become a laughing-stock to Jews and Greeks. But if a proper rebuke had at first been given to those who attempted slight perversions, and a deflection from the Divine oracles, such a pestilence would not have been generated, nor such a storm have shaken the Church. You will now understand why Paul calls circumcision a perversion of the gospel. There are many of us now who fast on the same day as the Jews, and keep the Sabbaths in the same manner; and what shall I call our tolerance of this, noble or miserable? Again, many Gentile customs are observed by some among us; omens, auguries, presages, distinctions of days, a curious attention to the circumstances of their childrens birth, and, as soon as they are born, tablets with impious inscriptions placed upon their unhappy heads, thereby teaching them from the first to lay aside virtuous endeavours, and drawing them as much as possible under the false domination of fate. But if Christ profits nothing those that are circumcised, how shall faith hereafter avail to the salvation of those who have introduced such corruptions? (Chrysostom.)

The risks of revelation not such as to invalidate its accuracy

But as to the possibility of the mind of man being brought into practical working relations with external certainty, even at some distance in time and place, without claiming infallibility for the interpreter, we may refer to familiar facts, on a much lower plane, for a decisive illustration. At Greenwich Observatory there is an exact and absolutely certain knowledge of the true time of day. This certain knowledge of the time of day is made the basis of the safety and direction of the whole internal traffic of England, and of the direction of our whole navy, and vast commercial marine, on every sea. In the one case the time is transmitted from the infallible clock at Greenwich by telegraph, in the twinkling of an eye, to the extremities of the country, and all the railways sufficiently well set their time by that standard. In the other, the Nautical Almanac, a book-revelation, notwithstanding all the risks of printing, carries the results of the infallible science of Greenwich to sea in every craft that leaves our shores. There may be occasional and infinitesimal defects in the transmission of the time to London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. There may be occasional errors in the printing of the Nautical Almanac, and occasionally much ignorance and obtuseness in captains and lieutenants in taking observations of the sun and moon; whence errors in the working of the longitude and latitude, and awful catastrophes at sea. But surely no one would hence argue that the endeavour to enforce the infallible rule of Greenwich time upon railways and ship-masters was an interference with the liberties of modern intelligence, or in fact an endeavour which must needs practically fail, through the fallibility, or bad eyesight or arithmetic, of stationmasters and captains. No one would think of telling each such functionary that on the whole, since the use of an infallible authority would involve a claim to infallibility in the nautical observer, it was best for every one to make of the facts of nature what he could, and to guess the hour, each man according to his several ability. And if any of these people set up for rejectors of the message from Greenwich, or said that it required a commentary to make it a safe guide, they would be reckoned somewhat too intelligent for their situations. Now in this parable the Greenwich Observatory corresponds with the apostolic certainty in doctrinal teaching. There may be some risks in the transmission of its message. There may be errors in the attempt to interpret a book-revelation. But on the whole it is true that the apostolic certainty is effectually present, close at hand amongst us, and may be most correctly apprehended, no doubt in different degrees, by those who most simply and intelligently desire to receive its directions The difficulties resemble those which hinder the attainment of scientific certainty in nature. There are some risks in both cases. There are personal equations, as the astronomers say of each observers eye, to be eliminated; and the abstract difficulty might be made to appear enormous. But the parallel is complete between the laws of sound interpretation of nature and those of the sound interpretation of recorded revelation. And in neither case is it safe to throw overboard the standard of certainty, or to set up for free and independent investigators simply because of minor risks attending the effort to receive the Divine communications. The misfortune is, perhaps, that in religion there are so many more persons whose worldly interests, or intellectual twist, incline them not to see what the apostles wrote, than there are of station-masters and captains who do not desire to know the Greenwich time. (E. White.)

The unchangeable gospel

I take it that the gospel cannot be a changeable, variable, shifting gospel, a sort of sliding-scale gospel, because--

1. It is certain that man has not changed. Just to-day man is what he was in the days of Christ and the apostles.

2. I think nobody would have the hardihood to deny it--that truth in the very essence of it must always be the same. A fact, though it happened ten thousand years ago, is as much a fact as if it happened yesterday. Truth must be always the same. But there is a great advance made, says one. How? In the principles of things--in mathematical science, for instance. Certainly there are great masters of mathematics, and great advances have been made, but upon the principle that two and two are four, and twice three makes six, there has been no advance. A proposal for a new multiplication table would scarcely be entertained even in a board school. No; these fundamental principles stand the same, and so must the fundamental truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which are to all good mens thinking what these tables, these fixed facts in mathematics, are in all calculations. Truth must be the same. It cannot be altered; it is impossible.

3. The gospel is the same, because it was, and is, sufficient for all the purposes for which God sent it. What I mean is this, we want to give the people the gospel more by itself. There is a good story told of Caesar Malan. I should never forget my vision of that grave, reverend man, whom many at thief platform still remember. He was a man of strong idiosyncrasies, and of somewhat singular habits. Going once from Boulogne to Paris, he got into a coach; and he was no sooner seated, than he began reading out a chapter from the Bible. A Frenchman opposite strongly objected, and I think with some reason, as persons in public conveyances should remember that there are other people there. Caesar Malan, however, did not think of that, and he continued to read the chapter, and the Frenchman continued to object. He said he did not believe in the authority of the Bible, and that it was offensive to him to hear it read. At last Caesar Malans French deacon said, I think, dear pastor, that I differ from you about your doing this: this gentleman does not believe in the authority of the book, and you ought to prove to him its authority and then read it. Said he, If I was going out to fight and I bad my sword, and I met somebody on the other side, would you say, First prove that you have a sword before you fight? No; I will prove it is a sword. So he went on reading. He and his deacon supped together, and the waiter came in, and asked whether they were going on the next morning in the coach to Paris, because, he said, that the French gentleman who had ridden with them on the previous day was anxious to ride with Mr. Malan again. He afterwards became a communicant at Caesar Malans church, and was one of his best friends. It is the Word of God that does it--not our talking about Gods Word; it is the Word itself. Quote plenty of Scripture; put plenty of Divine words in. It is Gods Word, not mans comments on Gods Word, that saves souls. Furthermore, dear friends, we want no improved gospel, because there is nothing that requires that the gospel should be amended. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The mixture of truth and error dangerous

A friend of mine some time ago bought some coals; and as is natural to coals, having to deal with the earth, being earthy, there were some slates in them, and sitting in the drawing-room, the slates now and then exploded, somewhat to damage a persons eyes. Therefore he said to the coal merchant, My dear sir, the next lot of coals you sell me, would you mind selling me coals? I know, of course, that some bits of slate will get among them, and I am willing to take a fair proportion; but I should like to have the coals by themselves and the slates by themselves. That is precisely what I would have done with Holy Scripture. We will have so many books inspired--the coals--and so much marked off as being slates. It is a serious thing if you get a bit of slate into your common teaching, and your faith and daily life; you do not know what damage may be done by it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Steadfast in the truth

There is a story told of Waterloo, that a certain regiment had been so set upon by the French that one of their officers wrote to the Duke and said they would be cut in pieces unless help was sent. All that the Duke said was Stand firm! and the officer galloped back with the order. Again the soldier said: It is all up with us, and we shall be destroyed; there are very few of us left even now. Again the officer went to the Duke, and again his order was Stand firm. They did stand finn and left their bodies on the place; but England was rid of the despot. Oh, sirs, the order to-day is, Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The work of deception

I. Is easy.

II. Proceeds from a perversion of the truth.

III. Cannot escape punishment.

IV. Must be unsparingly exposed and condemned. (J. Lyth.)

The instability of many is

I. Matter of fact--they are easily swayed by false opinions and drawn away from God--through ignorance, pride, natural tendency to error.

II. Matter of surprise--we expect better things of those who have received the truth, because it is its own witness--it exposes and condemns error.

III. Matter of regret--it is to grieve God, who has called them; to forfeit the grace of Christ; to trust in another gospel which is not another. (J. Lyth.)

Another gospel

I. The pretensions of error.

II. The folly of them. (J. Lyth.)

Observe--

I. There is but one gospel; all others are delusions.

II. The gospel may be perverted by adding to, or taking from it; falsifying its meaning and application; converting it into a system of works or an occasion of license.

III. To pervert the gospel is to destroy it; it is no longer gospel--brings no salvation.

IV. Such perversion brings trouble--to the Church, to the individual. (J. Lyth.)

The perversion of the gospel is

I. Common.

II. Mischievous.

III. Foolish, because wicked; fatal. (J. Lyth.)

Soul troublers

Religious errors are soul troublers. Like the mystic star of the Apocalypse, which, falling into the waters, turned the peaceful element into turbulence and blood, they stir up the Church into distressing agitations. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The gospel of Christ

What is meant by this?

(1) The gospel which speaks of Christ;

(2) the gospel which was delivered by Christ; or

(3) the gospel that belongs to Christ?

(4) Does it not combine all these meanings? (Bishop Lightfoot.)

The gospel is the Word of God: Christ is the Word of God. He is the Word containing all words. You need not go to a theologian to learn that religion should be called a gospel: go into the streets; do you not see in wretched faces that a gospel is wanted--good news from God? (T. T. Lynch.)

Perverting the gospel

If, at the tent door, the Arab offers to the thirsty passer-by a cup of water, clear, cool, and sparkling in the cup, but in which he has cleverly concealed a painful and deadly poison, he would deserve and receive the anathema of all honest men. Much more terrible shall be the doom of him who, pretending friendship with the souls of men, and offering them in their need, instead of the pure water of life the deadly, poison of false doctrine, shall bring down upon himself the righteous and unerring anathema of God. (R. Brewin.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 1:6-9. I marvel that ye are so soon — After my leaving you; removed from him that called you into the grace — Or rather, by, or through the grace; of Christ — His gracious gospel, and his gracious power. God is generally said to call men into the grace of Christ, but the phraseology seems here to point out Paul, and not God, as the person spoken of. For as he wrote this chapter to prove himself an apostle, his success in calling the Galatians to the Christian faith was fitly mentioned as one of the proofs of his apostleship, as it implied that he was assisted in that work by God. Unto another gospel — Or pretended revelation from God, concerning the way of attaining justification and salvation, a way entirely inconsistent with the very fundamental principles of that doctrine which you were first taught. As these Galatians were descendants of the Gauls, as has been observed in the preface, it is the less to be wondered at that they were so unstable; the inhabitants of France, as M. Saurin observes, having been always reproached with taking impressions easily, and as easily suffering them to be effaced. Which is not indeed properly another gospel — For what ye have now received is no gospel at all. It is not glad, but heavy tidings, as setting your acceptance with God upon terms impossible to be performed. But there are some — Who, on pretence that their doctrine of justification by the law of Moses is authorized by God; trouble you — With doubts concerning my doctrine, and disturb the peace of the church; and would — If they were able; pervert and overthrow the gospel of Christ — This the Judaizing teachers effectually did by teaching that justification could not be obtained purely by faith in Christ, but that circumcision and the observation of the Jewish ceremonies were necessary thereto; and the better to effect their purpose, they suggested that the other apostles, yea, and Paul himself, insisted on the observance of the law. But though we — I and all the apostles; or an angel from heaven — If it were possible; should preach any other gospel unto you — Any other method of obtaining justification and salvation; than that which we have formerly preached unto you — And confirmed by such evident and uncontrolled miracles; let him, be accursed — Greek, anathema: let him be cut off from God, and Christ, and his people, and devoted to a perpetual and most dreadful curse. The apostle speaks thus, because he was absolutely certain of his own inspiration, and that the gospel which he had preached was the only true and genuine gospel of Christ. Of the word anathema, see on Rom 9:3; 1Co 16:22. As we — I and the brethren who are with me; said before — Many times in effect, if not in the same terms; or he refers to the declaration made in the preceding verse, and speaks upon mature deliberation, after pausing, it seems, between the two verses; so say I now again — I solemnly repeat it, as my deliberate judgment; if any man — Or, any one (for the word man is not in the original) whatever, whether man or angel; preach any other gospel than that ye have received — Already from our lips, and which ye have been taught by us from Christ himself; let him be accursed — Set apart for destruction, which, if he repent not, and do not receive and maintain the truth as it is in Jesus, will undoubtedly be his portion.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

PART FIRST.

ST. PAUL’S HISTORY OF HIS APOSTLESHIP SUSTAINED, Gal_1:6 to Gal_2:21.

1. Points stated—Paul’s apostleship, and Christ’s gospel of faith, Gal_1:6-10.

6. I marvel—Rather, admire; spoken usually of admirable objects of notice; hence a more delicate word than marvel or wonder, and yet slightly suggestive of sarcasm. It was a brilliant fickleness, perhaps, yet a sad one.

So soon—He admires not only their recession from the cross to the circumcision, but also the unexpected promptness with which it has been accomplished. But from what point of time is so soon (or more literally, so quickly) to be calculated? If from the time of their first conversion, that was probably a period of about four years. More likely, however, St. Paul refers to the suddenness of their conversion. They fell so quickly before the first assault as to take him by surprise. He had not time to wait for a personal intervention, but must interpose by a letter.

Him that called you—The reference of this him to Paul, who, as apostle, called them to Christ, makes a very pointed meaning. But assuming that Galatians and Romans were written about the same period, then Rom_9:11 indicates a reference to God. So Wesley, and also the best modern commentators.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Gal_1:6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed.—So quickly removed; not so soon after your conversion, or soon after I left you, but so soon after the temptation came; so readily and with such little persuasion (cf. Gal_1:7-9). It is the fickleness of the Galatians the apostle deplores. An early backsliding, such as the contrary view assumes, would not have been matter of so great wonder as if it had taken place later.

Gal_1:8-9. Any other gospel.—The apostle is here asserting the oneness, the integrity of his gospel. It will not brook a rival. It will not suffer any foreign admixture. Let him be accursed.—Devoted to the punishment his audacity merits. In its spiritual application the word denotes the state of one who is alienated from God by sin.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gal_1:6-9

The One Gospel.

I. Is an introduction into the grace of Christ.—“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ” (Gal_1:6). The true gospel is the emphatic call of God to man to participate and revel in the grace of Christ as the element and the only means by which his salvation can be secured. The grace of Christ, with its persuasive gentleness and vast redemptive resources, is in vivid contrast to the grim formalism and impossible demands of the yoke of bondage into which the Galatians were being so foolishly seduced. There is only one gospel that can introduce the soul into the midst of saving influences and bring it into contact with the living Christ. This one fact differentiates the gospel from all mere human methods, and gives it a unique character as the only remedial agency in dealing with human sin and sorrow.

II. The perversion of the one gospel is not a gospel.—“Unto another gospel which is not another” (Gal_1:6-7).

1. It is a caricature of the true gospel.—“And would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Gal_1:7). The perversion is not in the one gospel, which is impossible of perversion (for truth is an incorruptible unity), but in the mind of the false teacher. He distorts and misrepresents the true gospel by importing into it his own corrupt philosophy, as the wolf did with Baron Munchausen’s horse. Beginning at the tail, it ate its way into the body of the horse, until the baron drove the wolf home harnessed in the skin of the horse. The gospel has suffered more from the subtle infusion of human errors than from the open opposition of its most violent enemies.

2. It occasions distraction of mind.—“There be some that trouble you” (Gal_1:7). A perverted gospel works the greatest havoc among young converts. They are assailed before they reach the stage of matured stability. Their half-formed conceptions of truth are confused with specious ideas, attractive by their novelty, and mischief is wrought which in many cases is a lifelong injury. The spirit that aims at polluting a young beginner in the way of righteousness is worse than reckless; it is diabolical.

III. The propagator of a perverted gospel incurs an awful malediction.—“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, … let him be accursed” (Gal_1:8-9). Let him be devoted to destruction, as one hateful to God and an enemy of the truth. The word denotes the condition of one alienated from God by persistent sin. He not only rejects the truth himself, but deliberately plots the ruin of others. He reaps the fruit of his own sowing. It is impossible to do wrong without suffering. The greater the wrong-doing, the more signal is the consequent punishment. All perversions of truth are fruitful in moral disasters. It is a mad, suicidal act for man to fight against God.

Lessons.—

1. There can be but one true and infallible gospel.

2. The best human method for moral reformation is but a caricature of the true.

3. The false teacher will not escape punishment.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Gal_1:6-7. Remonstrance with Revolters against the Gospel.

I. The apostle reproves with meekness and tenderness of heart.

II. He frames his reproof with great wariness and circumspection.—He says not, ye of yourselves do remove to another gospel, but ye are removed. He blames them but in part, and lays the principal blame on others.

III. The revolt was a departure from the calling to the grace of Christ.—

1. They were soon carried away. This shows the lightness and inconstancy of man’s nature, especially in religion. The multitude of people are like wax, and are fit to take the stamp and impression of any religion; and it is the law of the land that makes the most embrace the gospel, and not conscience.

2. That we may constantly persevere in the profession of the true faith we must receive the gospel simply for itself.

3. We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds and suffer no by-corners in our hearts.

4. We must not only be hearers but doers of the word in the principal duties to be practised.

IV. The Galatians revolt to another gospel, compounded of Christ and the works of the law.—Here we see the curious niceness and daintiness of man’s nature that cannot be content with the good things of God unless they be framed to our minds. If they please us for a time, they do not please us long, but we must have new things. The apostle shows that, though it be another gospel in the estimation of the false teachers, it is not another, but a subversion of the gospel of Christ. There is but one gospel, one in number, and no more. There is but one way of salvation by Christ, whereby all are to be saved from the beginning of the world to the end.

V. The apostle charges the authors of this revolt with two crimes.—

1. They trouble the Galatians, not only because they make divisions, but because they trouble their consciences settled in the gospel of Christ.

2. They overthrow the gospel of Christ. They did not teach a doctrine flat contrary. They maintained the gospel in word, and put an addition to it of their own out of the law—salvation by works. They perverted and turned upside-down the gospel of Christ.—Perkins.

The Perversion of Truth—

I. Supplants the gospel with a valueless imitation.—“Another gospel which is not another.”

II. Is contrary to the divine purpose.—“From Him that called you into the grace of Christ.”

III. Creates a gulf between the soul and God.—“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him.”

IV. Unsettles the faith of new converts.—“There be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”

Gal_1:6. Disappointed Hopes in Christian Work.—

1. It is the duty of Christian ministers, not only to hold out the pure truth of the gospel, but to defend it by convincing gainsayers and reproving solidly those who are carried away with contrary errors.

2. Ministers in all their reproofs are to use much wariness and circumspection, not omitting any circumstance which may justly extenuate the sin or furnish ground of hope of amendment. Hereby the bitter potion of a medicinal reproof is much sweetened and the guilty patient allured to the more thorough receiving of it.

3. The most quick-sighted may be deceived and disappointed in their expectation of good things from some eminent professors, and so may readily fall short of their hope.

4. As the dangerous consequences which follow upon error ought to be presented unto people that they may fly from it, so there are some errors in doctrine which do no less separate from God than profanity of life doth, of which errors this is one—the maintaining of justification by works.

5. It is ordinary for seducers to usher in their errors by some excellent designations, as of new lights, a more pure gospel way, and what not, as here they designate their error by the name of another gospel.—Fergusson.

Gal_1:7. The Inviolable Unity of the Gospel.—

1. There is but one gospel, one in number and no more, and but one way to salvation, which is by faith.

2. The effect of error is to trouble the Church’s peace; peace among themselves, the patrons of error being zealous of nothing so much as to gain many followers, to attain which they scruple not to make woeful rents and deplorable schisms; inward peace of conscience, while some are perplexed and anxious what to choose and refuse until they question all truth, and others to embrace error for truth and so ground their peace on an unsure foundation.

3. The doctrine which maintains that justification is partly by Christ and partly by the merit of good works is a perverting and total overturning of the gospel, in so far as it contradicts the main scope of the gospel, which is to exalt Christ as our complete Saviour, Mediator, and Ransom, and not in part only.—Fergusson.

Gal_1:8. The Inviolability of Christianity.

I. The import and construction of the gospel cannot be vague and indeterminate.—The character of the gospel was alleged to be its truth. This was, to the sophists of that era, a strange and novel pretension. To require faith to a testimony only so far as conformable to fact, only so far as supported by evidence, appeared to them a startling affectation. In the fixed character we recognise the true perfection of the gospel. It is the same through all ages, not changing to every touch and varying beneath every eye, but unfolding the same features and producing the same effects. Unless there was this invariableness in the Christian system, if a fixed determination of its purport is impossible, we should be at a loss in what manner to follow the conduct and imbibe the spirit of the early Christians. Those lights and examples of the Church would only ensnare us into a mien and attitude ridiculous as profane. It would be the dwarf attempting to bare a giant’s arm, a wayfaring man aspiring to a prophet’s vision. The truth as it is in Jesus is contained in that word which is the truth itself; there it is laid up as in a casket and hallowed as in a shrine. No change can pass upon it. It bears the character of its first perfection. Like the manna and the rod in the recess of the Ark, it is the incorruptible bread of heaven, it is the ever-living instrument of might, without an altered form or superseded virtue.

II. Its divine origin and authority cannot be controverted.—The history of Saul of Tarsus has often been cited with happy success in confirmation of Christianity.

1. What must have been the strength and satisfaction of conviction entertained by the writer! The conviction has to do with facts. It pertains to no favourite theory, no abstract science, but occurrences which he had proved by sensible observation and perfect consciousness. Wonders had teemed around him; but his own transformation was the most signal wonder of all. Nothing without him could equal what he discerned within.

2. As we estimate the measure and force of his convictions, inquire what weight and credibility should be allowed them. Put his conduct to any rack, his design to any analysis, and then determine whether we are not safe where he is undaunted, whether we may not decide for that on which he perils all, whether the anathema which he dares pronounce does not throw around us the safeguard of a divine benediction.

III. Its efficacy cannot be denied.—It was not called into operation until numberless expedients of man had been frustrated. Philosophy, rhetoric, art, were joined to superstitions, radicated into all habits and vices of mankind. The very ruins which survive the fall of polytheism—the frieze with its mythological tale, the column yet soaring with inimitable majesty, the statue breathing an air of divinity—recall the fascinations which it once might boast and of the auxiliaries it could command. Yet these were but the decorations of selfishness most indecently avowed, of licentiousness most brutally incontinent, of war the most wantonly bloody, of slavery the most barbarously oppressive. And Christianity subverted these foundations of iniquity; and yet so all-penetrating is its energy, that it did not so much smite them as that they sank away before it. It reaches the human will and renews the human heart. And a thousand blessings which may at first appear derived from an independent source are really poured forth from this.

IV. The authority and force of the present dispensation of divine truth cannot be superseded.—It is final. In it He hath spoken whose voice shall be heard no more until it “shake not the earth only but also heaven.” No other sensible manifestation can be given, the doctrine is not to be simplified, the ritual is not to be defined to any further extent, nothing more will be vouchsafed to augment its blessings or ratify its credentials. We possess the true light, the perfect gift, the brightest illumination, the costliest boon. Such a dispensation, constituted to be coexistent with all future time, must resist every view which would impress a new form or foist a strange nature upon it.

V. No circumstance or agency can endanger the existence and stability of the Christian revelation.—When the security of the gospel is to be most confidently predicted and most strongly ascertained, supernatural power is restrained—a curse encloses it round about, a “flaming sword turning every way guards this tree of life.” It shall endure coevally with man. Feeble are our present thoughts, confused our perceptions; we see everything as from behind a cloud and in a disproportion. Our convictions are more like conjectures and our speculations dreams. But we shall soon emerge from this state of crude fancies and immature ideas. Worthy sentiments and feelings will fill up our souls. Each view shall be as a ray of light striking its object, and each song the very echo of its theme. Then shall we adequately understand why apostles kindled into indignation and shook with horror at the idea of “another gospel,” and why even angels themselves must have been accursed had it been possible for them to have divulged it.—R. W. Hamilton.

A Supernatural Revelation.—There can be no doubt whatever, as a matter of historic fact, that the apostle Paul claimed to have received direct revelation from heaven. He is so certain of that revelation that he warns the Galatians against being enticed by any apparent evidence to doubt it. It would be impossible to express a stronger, a more deliberate, and a more solemn conviction that he had received a supernatural communication of the will of God.—Dr. Wace, Bampton Lectures.

The Best Authority to be obeyed.—A dispute having arisen on some question of ecclesiastical discipline and ritual, King Oswi summoned in 664 a great council at Whitby. The one set of disputants appealed to the authority of Columba, the other to that of St. Peter “You own,” cried the puzzled king to Colman, “that Christ gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven: has He given such power to Columba?” The bishop could but answer, No. “Then I will obey the porter of heaven,” said Oswi, “lest when I reach its gates he who has the keys in his keeping turn his back on me, and there be none to open.”

Latitudinarianism.—Referring to Erasmus’s temporising policy in the Reformation, Froude says: “The question of questions is, what all this latitudinarian philosophising, this cultivated epicurean gracefulness, would have come to if left to itself, or rather, what was the effect which it was inevitably producing? If you wish to remove an old building without bringing it in ruin about your ears, you must begin at the top, remove the stones gradually downwards, and touch the foundation last. But latitudinarianism loosens the elementary principles of theology. It destroys the premises on which the system rests. It would beg the question to say that this would in itself have been undesirable; but the practical effect of it, as the world then stood, would have been only to make the educated into infidels, and to leave the multitude to a convenient but debasing superstition.”

Gal_1:9. The True Gospel to be preached and believed.

I. The repetition of these words by Paul signify that he had not spoken rashly but advisedly, whatsoever he had said before.

II. That the point delivered is an infallible truth of God.

III. That we may observe and remember what he had said as the foundation of our religion—that the doctrine of the apostles is the only infallible truth of God, against which we may not listen to Fathers, Councils, or to the very angels of God.

IV. They are accursed who teach otherwise than the Galatians had received.—As Paul preached the gospel of Christ, so the Galatians received it. The great fault of our times is that whereas the gospel is preached it is not accordingly received. Many have no care to know it; and they who know it give not unto it the assent of faith, but only hold it in opinion.—Perkins.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Occasion of the Epistle:

APOSTASY OF THE GALATIANS FROM THE GOSPEL, WHICH PAUL HAD PREACHED TO THEM, TO THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF CERTAIN SEDUCERS, AGAINST WHOM HE THEREFORE UTTERS THE ANATHEMA

Gal_1:6-10.

6I marvel that ye are so soon removed [changing over]6 from him that called you into [in or by]7 the grace of Christ8 unto another [a different]9 gospel: 7Which is not another; but there be [except that there are] some that trouble you, and would 8[θέλοντες, wish to] pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach [should preach]10 any other gospel unto you11 than [or contrary to]12 that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed [anathema]. 9As we said before,13 so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than 10 [or contrary to] that ye have received, let him be accursed [anathema]. For do I now persuade [am I now conciliating]14 men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for [omit for]15 if I yet pleased men, I should not be the [a] servant of Christ.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Without any thanksgiving for the readers’ gifts of grace, as in other Epistles, the Apostle passes immediately from the invocation of a blessing to sharp rebuke which, however, strikes not so much the Galatians themselves as their seducing teaches. Gal_1:6-9.

Gal_1:6. I marvel that ye are so soon changing over.—He finds it strange, since he has expected, and had reason to expect, something different. “So soon” refers rather to the entrance of the apostasy than to its course, as having so rapidly developed itself from its commencement. The latter view suits the connection the less, inasmuch as μετατίθεσθε designates the apostasy as yet in process of development; οὕτω ταχέως, is therefore, we may say, equivalent to—so soon after the last visit of the Apostle. [“So soon” either 1) after conversion, or 2) after his visit, or 3) after the false teachers came; all three may be included, and are true; which is the primary reference cannot be certainly determined. In any case in view of the middle force of μετατίθεσθε (“turning renegades,” Lightfoot), it is a charge that the change was sudden and one for which they were to blame. Schaff: “The Greek implies first that the apostasy was voluntary, hence their own guilt; secondly, that it was not yet completed, and hence might be averted. The passive rendering would transfer the guilt to the false teachers.”—R.]

From him that called you: most probably from God, who called you on the ground of the grace of Christ, which He has shown in His surrender of Himself to death; not=from Christ, who out of grace has called you. It is true that with the first explanation ἐν χάρ. Χρ. is difficult to render, but in any case it is not to be understood of the state of grace, as if=called you to the possession and enjoyment of grace.—[By the grace of Christ.—The E. V. renders ἐν χά-ριτι, “into the grace,” following the Vulgate, but ἐν is here used in its instrumental sense. Alford: “Christ’s grace is the elementary medium of our ‘calling of God;’ the sum of all that He has suffered and done for us to bring us to God;—whereby we come to the Father,—in which, as its element, the Father’s calling of us has place.” Ellicott: “The dogmatical consideration that the grace of Christ, in the sense it here appears used by St. Paul, denotes an active and energizing influence rather than a passive element, seems distinctly to suggest the instrumental sense.” Comp. his notes in loco.—R.] But it is God Himself who “calls.” The reference of καλέσαντος; to the Apostle has some support in the fact that he afterwards opposes so expressly his own preaching to that of others, yet must be rejected, as καλεῖν too constantly expresses an activity of God for this interpretation. The apostasy is described, doubtless not undesignedly, as an apostasy from a person, not from a doctrine, that it may appear as ingratitude.—To a different gospel.—More exactly: to another kind of gospel = εὐαγγ. παρ’ ο͂ παρελ. (Gal_1:9). A gospel, either because the Galatians naturally took the doctrine which the false teachers brought them for the Gospel, or primarily in the general sense of Doctrine of Salvation, which the legal doctrine also claimed to be.

Gal_1:7. Yet Paul as it were at once corrects himself, and respecting that which he has just named “gospel,” denies again that this predicate in fact belongs to it, this false teaching is no gospel, but a subversion of the gospel. This is at all events the sense, if ο͂—the most obvious construction—is referred to the immediately preceding εὐαγγ. = “which other sort of gospel is no other, by the side of that preached by me, except that there are,” etc. [The more correct reference is to ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον. So Meyer, Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, and Schmoller himself. See Alford’s notes in loco for a full discussion and objections to the reference below.—R.] The reference however to the whole sentence is possible=which is nothing else (that is, this turning to another gospel) than that you have let yourselves be seduced by such as wish to subvert the gospel.

There be some that trouble you.—“Paul is fond of calling his opposers: τινές i.e., certain well known people, whom one for any reason whatever, in this case out of disparagement, will not designate more nearly.” Wieseler.—[Wordsworth suggests and defends an ironical meaning: “unless they who are troubling you, are somebody,” but this seems forced. Lightfoot paraphrases well: “only in this sense is it another gospel, in that it is an attempt to pervert the one true gospel.”—R. ]—Ταρασσεῖν = to disturb the conscience and thereby the feelings by exciting doubts whether the gospel preached to them were the true teaching or not.—Wish to pervert = to have the will, to labor for; as the sequel plainly shows, it has not yet come to an actual perversion; μεταστρέφειν=הָכַּךְ, funditus evertere.—The gospel of Christ, probably=gospel respecting Christ, inasmuch as in the first place the gospel treats of Christ generally; especially, however, because the merit of Christ is the chief theme of the true gospel in distinction from the legal teaching. The gospel, of course, could not, in itself, be destroyed, but the evangelical preaching among the Galatians might be, if they received another teaching.

Gal_1:8. But though we—let him be anathema.—Certain persons wish to destroy the gospel of Christ among you, and bring you another, but (ἀλλά) rather let every one who does that be ἀνάθεμα, instead of passing for an evangelist.—Ἡμεῖς: first and chiefly the Apostle himself, then, however, also the “brethren who are with me,” in whose name he likewise writes.—Angel from heaven, to be taken together=angel descended from heaven. “If Paul repudiates his own and even angelic authority in the case assumed, as accursed, then every one, without exception (comp. ὅστις ἄν ἦ, Gal_5:10), is subject to the same curse in the same case.” Meyer.—Παρ’ ο͂ εὐηγγ. ὑμῖν=literally: beyond that, etc., maybe equivalent to praterquam, or to contra. “Formerly dogmatic interest came here into play, the Lutherans, in opposition to tradition, contending for praterquam, and the Catholics in defence of it, for contra. Contra, or more exactly the sense of specific difference, is according to the context the right sense. (See Gal_1:6. ἕτερον.)” Meyer. [This sense of παρά, “contrary to,” is now generally conceded by Protestant commentators. Wordsworth and Lightfoot give it the sense of “besides;” the latter arguing from the context that Paul means, his gospel will brook no rival, will suffer no foreign admixture, but, as Ellicott remarks: “the Apostle implies throughout the Epistle that the Judaical gospel was in the strict sense of the words an ἕτερον εὐαγγ., and in its very essence opposed to the true gospel.” Both ideas may properly be included (Alford, Schaff).—R.]—Εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν: namely, I and my companions at the time of your conversion. Comp. παρελάβ. Gal_1:9.

Let him be anathema.—A translation of חֵרֶם= Dedicated to God without ransom=given over to annihilation, to death, in the Old Testament to bodily, in the New Testament to θάνατος in opposition to ζωή, to eternal death. See in Wieseler a detailed elucidation and refutation of the explanation, “excommunicated.” [Ἀνά-θεμα is the common Hellenistic form of the classical and Attic word ἀνάθημα, which in both forms originally meant “devoted to God.” When the two forms were desynonymized, the Hellenistic word naturally took a meaning from the Hebrew (through the LXX.) in malam partem, while the Attic form was used in a good sense. Comp. Luk_21:5, where only it is found in N. T. This distinction was general, but not universal. Afterwards the common patristic sense of our word undoubtedly was “excommunicated,” though sometimes accompanied with distinct execration. It cannot have this meaning here, for “an angel from heaven” is not open to excommunication, nor does N. T. usage favor such a signification. Comp. Rom_9:3; 1Co_12:3. See also Trench, Syn. N. T. § 5, Meyer, Ellicott, Lightfoot.—This passage affords no warrant for ecclesiastical anathemas. Such a practice presupposes the milder meaning, which is incorrect, and as milder, in itself forbids such anathematizing. It is obviously unfair to find in St. Paul’s language first, a reason for ecclesiastical “excommunication,” and then a warrant for “anathematizing.”—R.]

Gal_1:9. As we said before.—Referring probably to his last visit, not to Gal_1:8.—The Apostle repeats the curse, which he has pronounced Gal_1:8, in order to show that he “speaks deliberately.” Bengel.—[Notice that in Gal_1:8 the Apostle uses ἐάν with the subjunctive: “though we, or an angel, should preach,” in Gal_1:9, εἰ with the indicative: “if any man preach,” appending the anathema in both cases. “In the former, a pure hypothesis is put forward, in itself highly improbable; in the latter a fact which had actually occurred and was occurring” (Lightfoot). There is additional force in the change of subject: even Paul or an angel from heaven-did they do so—would be anathema, much more—any man, neither Apostle nor angel—is anathema, having done so.—R.]

Gal_1:10. For am I now conciliating men?—Explanation (γάρ) of the severity with which he demeans himself towards the false teachers by this repeated ἀνάθεμα. He does it, because he is concerned only for the favor of God, not that of men. It would be natural to understand “now” like Gal_1:9 of the time of the composition of the epistle. Yet on the other hand this limitation is not quite congruous to the general contents of the verse, it is therefore better to understand it more generally of the time of the Apostle’s conversion. [It seems more natural to regard “now” as an emphatic taking up of “now” in Gal_1:9—“now in what I have said.” Paul had not been a man-pleaser before conversion. If he had been charged with it among the Galatians, he was not so sow in what he had been writing.—R.]—Πείθειν=to win over, to draw to one’s side by persuasion, whether directly by words or otherwise; here, in view of the reference to God=to gain for one’s self, to win for one’s self as a friend.—Ἀρέσκειν: sometimes to please, sometimes to be disposed to please, to live according to the pleasure of; the latter here. “Yet” goes back to the same time with “now.” [“Yet,” i.e., after my call to the apostleship, and all that has happened to me (Schaff). “It is equivalent to ‘at tins stage, at this late date’ ” (Lightfoot).—R.]—I should not be a servant of Christ=could make no claim to this title. As a true servant of Christ, who dares not act to please men, I must, even though it should not please men, judge with all sharpness and severity respecting those who subvert the gospel. “Servant of Christ” is here doubtless to be taken in its official sense=could make no claim to the name of a teacher. With how much right Paul could say so of himself is shown, e.g., by 2Co_11:23 sq.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Apostasy even in the early church. The glimpse of such scenes of the first Christian Church as our Epistle speaks of, and as are mentioned by anticipation in our section, is instructive. Even in such as had been brought to the faith by a Paul himself, a speedy lapse was possible, and yet he certainly fulfilled his office among them in the right way, and his activity was blessed. Even the best preaching cannot overcome the sinful nature of the human heart. This preserving and making steadfast in the truth, is a work of the Holy Ghost, and it goes on, just as growth is wont to do: through advances and fallings back on account of the opposing might of the flesh, according to the account of the Apostle himself. Gal_5:17.

2. The false teachers. Deflections from evangelical truth, however, are not on this account to be taken lightly; but on the contrary, very gravely, as the language of the Apostle in this passage shows. Paul had full justification in uttering a curse against the false teachers, and thus giving them over to everlasting destruction, in the wickedness they committed with their false teaching; which was a double one—1) against persons: they perplexed their consciences and brought them in danger of losing the salvation of their souls; 2) against the cause: they went about to subvert the gospel of Christ. They made an attack on the sacred rights of believers, and their conduct was therefore worthy of a curse. That this curse does not flow from personal mortification, because they had rejected his teaching, Paul shows plainly by placing himself under the curse, in case he should teach differently. Besides, the anathema is, of course, aimed at this conduct of the false teachers in itself, and this sharp opposition by no means excluded the wish that they might themselves see the error of their way, and themselves come to the knowledge of the evangelical truth. But this was not the place for saying this. He expresses himself with thorough earnestness against the false teachers, only to open the eyes of the Galatians, and to release them from the snares in which they had allowed themselves to be taken. Although in this earnestness he comes in conflict with men, he must do what beseems a servant of Christ: be zealous for Christ and the salvation of His people.

3. Pleasing men. What Paul says, Gal_1:10, appears to be opposite to 1Co_10:33; but in 1 Cor. Paul speaks of things indifferent, in which a man may yield somewhat without wounding his conscience (comp. Rom_15:2). Here, however, he means sinful complaisance, where one fashions his doctrine and preaching according to the sense of men, in order thus to gain their favor. He only then is a servant of Christ, who subordinates unconditionally the favor of men to the favor of God, who in His official activity does not seek to make Himself pleasing to men, does not make this his object. When, however, from time to time—for uninterrupted it can never be—the favor of men falls to his lot, he is to receive it from God’s hand with thankfulness and humility, as a kind indulgence, which in his manifold conflicts may be of value. That the servant of Christ must be on his guard, not to draw upon himself deservedly the ill-will of the world through pride and self-will; that he is not in carnal temper to fly in the face of men, and hence that he must always examine well whether his zeal is a spiritual one, or is not becoming a carnal one, if it were not such from the beginning, is indeed self-evident, but cannot be carefully enough considered; as in general the theory of the relation of human and divine favor is tolerably simple, but the practice is very difficult.

[4. Wordsworth:—Not to please men, be they never so many or great, out of flatness of spirit, so as, for the pleasing of them, either

1) To neglect any part of our duty towards God and Christ; or,

2) To go against our own consciences, by doing any dishonest or unlawful thing; or,

3) To do them harm whom we would please, by confirming them in their errors, flattering them in their sins, humoring them in their peevishness, or but even cherishing their weakness; for weakness, though it may be borne with, yet it must not be cherished.

But then, by yielding to their infirmities for a time, in hope to win them, by patiently expecting their conversion or strengthening, by restoring them with the spirit of meekness, with meekness instructing them that oppose themselves, should we seek to please all men.—R.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Gal_1:1. “I marvel:”—is a word of apostolic wisdom.—Luther:—St. Paul does not set upon the Galatians with vehement and terrifying words, but speaks in quite fatherly and friendly wise with them; and does not only soften down their fall and error, but excuses them also in a manner, yet so that he nevertheless also punishes them. Therefore, of all sweet and mild words, he could hardly have chosen one more fit than when he says, “I marvel.”—Rieger:—In itself the preservation and perseverance of a man in good is more to be wondered at than when there is a stumbling or falling. But the Apostle says, “I marvel,” in order to express to them thereby the confidence of something better, which he has retained on their behalf, and to let them discover something of the hope, in which he stands, of begetting them again through the gospel unto their first faith.

Würt. Summ.:—We are here reminded of our human weakness. We should endeavor to be so assured of divine truth in our own heart, as to be able to persevere therein, though even an angel would persuade us of something else, and the whole world would believe otherwise. Such perseverance is not in our power, however, but must be obtained from God through prayer and through diligent use of the divine word, which alone can make our walk steadfast.

“From him that called you by the grace of Christ unto another gospel.”—Rieger:—A tender description of the good work begun in them. A feeling contrast with the yoke which some would now lay upon their necks.—Spener:—Whosoever will no longer be saved simply through the grace of God in Christ falls away from the Father and the grace of Christ to another gospel, even though he holds the other articles of faith. For so soon as merit is mixed therewith, it is no more grace.

Apostasy from the truth: 1. how far not to be wondered at; 2. how far to be wondered at.—So soon alienated! 1. a word of grief, true of so many; 2. a warning word, in relation to all.—An apostatizing tendency, or inconstancy a radical fault of the human heart: 1. sluggish and immovable, where it is of moment that it should move and apply itself; 2. so movable and unsteady where it should abide firm.—To turn ourselves from Him who hath called us: 1. so lightly done; 2. weighs yet so heavily.—Another Gospel! is the world’s cry; no other! must forever remain our answering testimony.

Gal_1:7. Spener.:—The gospel of Christ will not let itself be mixed with the doctrine of works, as if these were necessary to salvation; but as soon as this is done, the gospel is perverted.—Hedinger:—More taught than God has thought, is to the gospel quite athwart. The false teachers will have Christ’s grace, to be sure, but something of their own works therewith. Gross error! Adding more destroys the store.—Starke:—Where Satan cannot persuade men to open sins, he seeks to perplex their consciences, and pervert the gospel, which is the only means of salvation; in this too he very easily succeeds, because the doctrine of works appears quite agreeable to the reason.

Gal_1:8. Luther:—It is not in vain that St. Paul sets himself first, and will, first of all, be accursed, if he shows himself herein worthy of it. For all excellent workmen are wont also thus to do, namely, to reprehend their own faults first, for then can they so much the more freely chide and censure the faults of others.—Spener:—No creature has authority to change anything in the gospel, or to add thereto, of however eminent rank, office, enlightenment, holiness, and miraculous power he may be. Not even the whole Church, nor her teachers, nor her councils and the like. If the change is made, no inquiry is needed; but it is to be reprobated, because it is new and another.—Lange:—As the blessing coming out of the gospel is the most weighty and noble of all, so is the curse which rests upon the hindering of the blessing through falsifying the gospel, the greatest of all, one which remains forever upon soul and body.

Gal_1:10. Luther:—We cannot more hotly and bitterly anger the world than by attacking and condemning her wisdom, righteousness, ability, and powers. If we now reject and condemn these highest gifts of the world, that is truly not to behave feigningly to the world, but to strive after hate and ill luck, and, moreover, to get both our hands full of the same. For if we condemn men with all their doings, it can never fail but that we must soon take our chance and bring upon ourselves such scorn and envy that we shall be persecuted, hunted, banished, condemned, and, very likely, even murdered.—Spener:—The sincerity of a teacher, when men see that his concern is alone to please God, and not men, is a strong ground for believing that his teaching is sound and pure.—Hedinger:—Just so! Whoever in the church, in the state, in the family, serves men, fears and cowers before men, and, for their sake, bends the right, flatters and fawns, has trifled away his best title—Christ’s servant and disciple. A thunderstroke! Whose ears tingle not, when he hears it?—Rieger:—O God! preserve all thy servants, that no one, through pride and self-will, may draw persecution upon himself, and fly in the faces of men; but grant also that we may not count persecution, mocking, and contempt as tokens of our having betrayed the truth, but may view them and bear them as the marks in the foreheads of thine approved servants!

The earnestness with which Paul opposes the false teachers: 1. well founded, 2. very significant for us: should (a) withhold us from the reception of any unevangelical doctrine; (b) strengthen us in the certainty that the gospel, which we have, is the true one.—A curse upon him who preaches a false doctrine! 1. A fearfully earnest utterance; 2. yet pressingly needful; 3. instructive for all that are wavering.—Let not every man undertake to be a teacher, but whoever is, let him take heed what he teaches.—The curse which Paul pronounces upon himself, if he should preach another gospel, is a token: 1. how high the gospel stands in his view; 2. how humbly he thinks of himself (viewing himself only as a mere instrument, as a servant, who has to accomplish what his Master has commanded him).—Not the Church above the word, but the word above the Church!—Two earnest questions: 1. Which seekest thou most, man’s favor or God’s favor? 2. Which is weightier, man’s favor or God’s favor?—Man’s favor or God’s favor? Choose: there is no third.—The right union of unsparingness and forbearance in our intercourse with men: an art of difficult attainment.—To be entirely unsparing, and entirely forbearing, each in the right way, is the Christian’s duty in dealing with men.—Man’s disfavor, compared with God’s favor, as insignificant as wholesome, perfects us in humility, and impels us the more to assure ourselves of the favor of God.

On the whole section.—Lisco:—The curse of the Apostle against the false apostles: I. Whom it strikes: 1. Necessarily every one, without exception, who changes the blessing of the gospel into mischief, and so out of good prepares for himself death; 2. those also who have deep insight, or other high qualities for serving the kingdom of God, and yet do not preach it purely; 3. even an angel himself, if he could preach another gospel. II. Why must it be uttered? 1. He who preaches the gospel must have a will thereby to serve, not men, but God; 2. through a false gospel men may, indeed, be attracted, but God views it as blasphemy; 3. therefore, he is placed under the curse, who will serve the gospel, and yet doing so as a man-pleaser, is found an unfruitful servant of Christ.

The apostasy of believers: 1. is, alas, sometimes a fact; 2. from what does it proceed? 3. how is it to be remedied?—The Apostle’s demeanor: 1. towards the misled: he makes a complaint and charge; but through it all the full tones of compassion and love are heard; 2. towards the misleaders: unsparingly stern even to denouncing a curse.—To fall away from the gospel is bad, but to subvert the gospel is worse.

Footnotes:

[6]Gal_1:6.—[Μετατίθεσθε, middle, not passive, see exeg. notes.—R.]

[7]Gal_1:6.—[Ἐν cannot mean “into,” especially after καλέω.—R.]

[8]Gal_1:6.—[The many variations, such as the omission of Χρ., the insertion of Ἰησοῦ, the substitution of θεοῦ, all probably sprang from mistaken exegesis, joining Χρ. with καλέσαντος. The reading Χριστοῦ is very well supported and now universally retained.—R.]

[9]Gal_1:6.—[Ἐτερον, “different in kind,” not “another of the same kind” (ἄλλο, Gal_1:7). So Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth, Lightfoot.—R.]

[10]Gal_1:8.—[The periphrasis of the E. V. is necessary to bring out the force of εὐαγγελίζηται, in its reference to εὐαγγέλιον, Gal_1:6-7; but the subjunctive must not be overlooked, as marking the different conditional propositions of Gal_1:8-9.—R.]

[11]Gal_1:8.—א. omits ὑμῖν, א3. first adds it.

[12]Gal_1:8.—[On the meaning of παρά, here and Gal_1:9. See Exeg. Notes.—R.]

[13]Gal_1:9.—א1.: προείρηκα.

[14]Gal_1:10.—[“Persuade” is obviously inapplicable to God. Πείθω here means “to conciliate,” “to make friends of.” So modern English commentators. The form: “am I,” etc., is required by the emphatic ἄρτι (Ellicott).—R.]

[15]Gal_1:10.—Rec. εἰ γὰρ ἔτι; but γάρ is best omitted. [Rejected on preponderant MSS. authority by all modern editors.—R.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul’s Reason for Writing the epistle. Gal 1:6-10,

v. 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel;

v. 7. which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.

v. 8. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

v. 9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

v. 10. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Paul’s agitation is evident from the first, in every word which he writes. He had been startled by the intelligence which he received, he was intensely indignant at the attitude taken by the Galatians. Instead of offering general remarks, he immediately launches forth in a vehement discussion of the situation as it presented itself according to trustworthy accounts; for the perversion of the truth as practiced by the agitators struck at the very core of Christianity; in pretending to aim at the apostle, the enemies were really placing his office under suspicion and directly hurting the cause of the Gospel.

Like a mighty torrent the force of his resentment bursts forth: I am astonished, I marvel, that so quickly you are changing over from Him that called you in the grace of Christ to another gospel. The news which Paul had received had filled him with surprised astonishment, it had almost taken his breath away, since it indicated such a quick change of mind on the part of the Galatians. For although his opponents had not yet scored a definite success, the idea which they broached had found entrance, it had gained adherents with remarkable rapidity, a fact which in itself was a disgrace to the people that had shown such an encouraging interest in the true Gospel; they were being won over, and in this they were willingly lending their ear to the false teachers. Their apostasy (for it was that to which their fickleness was drawing them) to another gospel, to a message which purported to be a message of salvation, a different, a spurious gospel, was not so much from Paul, who had issued to them the Gospel-call, as from Christ and God; for the call proceeded in the grace of Christ, from the divine love. Note: That the call to grace goes forth is due to the free mercy and love of Christ, and it is issued through the Word, by the mouth of the messengers of Christ.

That it was a false lead to which the attention of the Galatians had been drawn in their fickleness is asserted by Paul with the greatest vehemence: Whereas there is no other; or: Which other sort of gospel can make no claim of genuineness, except there are some that are unsettling you and wanting to corrupt the Gospel of Christ. That was the apostle’s charge against the agitators, that they were attempting to pass off their false message as the only true and genuine Gospel, and that they were thus marketing a lie. The result of this deception was a twofold one: They were disturbing and troubling the minds and consciences of the Galatians, causing them to be doubtful as to the doctrine which they had been taught; and they were incidentally doing their best to distort and pervert the real Gospel of Christ, the glorious message of salvation through His name. If they had succeeded in their design, it would have meant the end of pure evangelical preaching in the congregations affected. Note: This verse must be kept in mind at all times against the perverters of the message of sin and grace, no matter in what guise they come, just as it was used by the reformers in rejecting the claims of the Romish Church.

In a ringing challenge the words of Paul sound forth: But now also, though we or an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you contrary to the Gospel which we preached to you, let God’s curse be on him! The word anathema, rendered "accursed" in the Authorized Version, was applied especially to all offerings devoted under a solemn oath to death or destruction, Lev 27:28; Jos 7:1; Act 13:14. It was not that Paul was arrogating to himself the right to excommunicate any individuals without the consent and resolution of the congregation, but that he was affirming general principles, which, on the part of God, hold true for all times. Speaking of himself and his coworkers, and therefore of all true ministers of the Gospel, he states that no doctrine has the right to exist in the Church which differs from, and contradicts, the Gospel as it has been proclaimed by him in all his work. It is not a matter of dispute between various teachers, all of whom may claim purity of truth for themselves, but the contrast is that between truth and falsehood. And there it holds good: Not Paul himself, not any of his assistants, not any minister of the Gospel, not even an angel from heaven can alter the truth in Christ. If anyone should, in spite of this principle, presume to substitute a spurious Gospel, any false doctrine, for the truth of redemption, then such a one should be subject to God’s curse, the end of which is eternal death. Note: This principle must be upheld by all Christians over against the claims of false teachers; any deviation from the sound doctrine as found in the Bible, any substitution of man-made philosophies and expositions, places the authors of such attempts under the curse of God. "The Word of God shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel. " "Therefore we shall confidently say with Paul: May all doctrine from heaven or from the earth or no matter whence it may have been brought, perish and be accursed, which teaches to rely upon other works, other righteousness, other merits than those which belong to Christ."

For the sake of emphasis, Paul repeats this solemn statement: As we have lately forewarned you, so I say also again: If any one preaches a gospel to you which contradicts that which you have received, let God’s curse be upon him. Paul seems not only to have uttered general warnings against any doctrine at variance with the pure Gospel which he was preaching, but also to have pointed out specifically, also through Silas and Timothy, that any religion of works would remove the very foundation of the Gospel. These warnings may have been given particularly on the third journey, when the news of the activity of Judaizing teachers was spread. And he explains the severity of his expressions, of his double anathema, by asking indignantly: For is it men that I am now striving to please, to conciliate, or God? Or am I zealous about finding the favor of men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. If his object were to persuade men, to gain them for his own person, to seek their approval for selfish reasons, then his boasting about being an unselfish servant of Christ, for the purpose of advancing the glory of Christ only, would be hypocrisy and deception. But he insists that his sole aim and object in preaching the Gospel is the furtherance of God’s glory through the declaration of the entire counsel of salvation; this he does in his capacity as servant of Christ, whether it pleases men or not, for all men by nature are opposed to the truth and do not desire the vicarious atonement of Jesus. If he were speaking to please men, he would thereby admit that he had personal interests at stake, and his message would be bound to be influenced by that fact. But since he has in mind the glory of the Lord, he speaks after the manner and by the Spirit of God, in disinterested single-mindedness. It is the disposition which must animate and actuate every true servant of Christ at all times.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 3

THE ANATHEMA.

Gal_1:6-10

AFTER the Salutation in Pauls Epistles comes the Thanksgiving. ευχαριστω or ευλογητος -these are the words we expect first to meet. Even in writing to Corinth, where there was so much to censure and deplore, he begins, "I give thanks to my God always for you." This letter deviates from the Apostles devout and happy usage. Not "I give thanks," but "I marvel: "not blessing, but anathema, is coming from his lips: a surprise that jars all the more upon ones ears, because it follows on the sublime doxology of the preceding verse. "I marvel to see you so quickly falling away to another gospel. But if any one preach unto you any gospel other than that ye received-aye, though it were ourselves, or an angel from heaven-I have said once, and I say again, Let him be Anathema."

These words were well calculated to startle the Galatians out of their levity. They are like a lightning-flash which shows one to be standing on the edge of a precipice. We see at once the infinite seriousness of the Judaic controversy, the profound gulf that lies between Paul and his opposers. He is for open war. He is in haste to fling his gage of defiance against these enemies of the cross. With all his tact and management, his readiness to consult the susceptibilities and accommodate the scruples of sincere consciences, the Apostle can find no room for conciliation here. He knows the sort of men he has to deal with. He perceives that the whole truth of the Gospel is at stake. Not circumstantials, but essentials; not his personal authority, but the honour of Christ, the doctrine of the cross, is involved in this defection. He must speak plainly; he must act strongly, and at once; or the cause of the Gospel is lost. "If I continued any longer to please men," he says, "I should not be a servant of Christ." To stand on terms with such opponents, to palter with this "other Gospel," would be treason against Him. There is but one tribunal at which this quarrel can be decided. To Him "who had called" the Galatians believers "in Christs grace," who by the same grace had called the Apostle to His service and given him the message he had preached to them-to God he appeals. In His name, and by the authority conferred upon him and for which he must give account, he pronounces these troublers "anathema." They are enemies of Christ, by their treachery excluded from His kingdom.

However unwelcome, however severe the course the Apostle takes, he has no alternative. "For now," he cries, "is it men that I persuade, or God?" He must do his duty, let who will condemn. Paul was ready to go all lengths in pleasing men in consistence with loyalty to Christ, where he could do it "for their good, unto edification." But if their approval clashed with Gods, then it became "a very small thing": {1Co_4:3-4; 2Co_5:9-12; 2Co_12:19} he did not heed it one jot. Such is the temper of mind which the Epistles to Corinth disclose in Paul at this juncture. In the same spirit he indites these trenchant and displeasing words.

With a heavy heart Paul has taken up his pen. If we judge rightly of the date of this letter, he had just passed through the darkest hour of his experience, when not his life alone, but the fate of his Gentile mission hung in the balance. His expulsion from Ephesus, coming at the same time as the Corinthian revolt, and followed by a prostrating attack of sickness, had shaken his soul to its depths. Never had his heart been so torn with anxiety, never had he felt himself so beaten down and discomfited, as on that melancholy journey from Ephesus to Macedonia. {2Co_1:8-10; 2Co_2:12-13; 2Co_4:8-11; 2Co_7:5-7} "Out of anguish of heart and with many tears" and after-relentings {2Co_2:4; 2Co_7:8} he wrote his First Letter to Corinth. And this Epistle is even more severe. There runs through it a peculiar mental tension, an exaltation of feeling such as prolonged and deep suffering leaves behind in a nature like Pauls. "The marks of Jesus" {Gal_6:17} are visible, impressed on his spirit no less than on his body. The Apostles heart is full to overflowing. Its warm glow is felt under the calmer course of narrative and argument: while at the beginning and end of the Epistle it breaks forth in language of burning indignation and melting pathos. Before advancing a single step, before entering on any sort of explanation or discussion, his grief at the fickleness of his Galatian children and his anger against their seducers must find expression. These sentences demand, before we proceed further, a few words of exegetical definition. For the reference of "so quickly" it is needless to go beyond the verb it qualifies. The Apostle cannot surely mean, "so soon falling away (after your conversion)." For the Galatian Churches had been founded five, if not seven, years before this time; and the backsliding of recent converts is less, and not more, surprising than of established believers. What astonishes Paul is the suddenness of this movement, the facility with which the Galatians yielded to the Judaising "persuasion," the rapid spread of this new leaven. As to the double "other" (ετερον, different, R. V. - αλλο) of Gal_2:6-7, and the connection of the idiomatic "only" (ει μη, except), - we regard the second other as an abrupt correction of the first; while the only clause, extending to the end of Gal_1:7, mediates between the two, qualifying the statement "There is no other gospel," by showing in what sense the writer at first had spoken of "another." "Ye are falling away, says he, to another sort of gospel-which is not another, except that there are certain that trouble you and would fain pervert the gospel of Christ." The word gospel is therefore in the first instance applied ironically. Paul yields the sacred title up to his opponents, only to snatch it out of their false hands. "Another gospel!" there is only one; although there are men that falsify it, and seek to foist something else "upon you in its name." Seven times in this context (Gal_1:6-11) does the Apostle reiterate, in noun or verb, this precious word, as though he could not let it go. A strange sort of "good news" for the Galatians, that they must be circumcised forsooth, and observe the Jewish Calendar! {Gal_5:2-3; Gal_6:12; Gal_4:9-10}

1. In Pauls view, there is but one gospel for mankind. The gospel of Jesus Christ bears a fixed, inviolable character.

On this position the whole teaching of Paul rests, -and with it, may we not add, Christianity itself? However variously we may formulate the essentials of a Christian mans faith, we are generally agreed that there are such essentials, and that they are found in Pauls gospel to the Gentiles. With him the good tidings about Christ constituted a very definite and, as we should say, dogmatic body of truth. In whatever degree his gospel has been confused and overlaid by later teachings, to his own mind its terms were perfectly clear, and its authority incontestable. With all its breadth, there is nothing nebulous, nothing limp or hesitating about the theology of Paul. In its main doctrines it is fixed and hard as adamant; and at the challenge of this Judaistic perversion it rings out an instant and peremptory denial. It was the ark of God on which the Jewish troublers laid their unholy hands. "Christs grace" is lodged in it. Gods call to mankind was conveyed by these "good tidings." The Churches which the Apostle had planted were "Gods husbandry, Gods building"; and woe to the man who tampered with the work, or sought to lay another foundation than that which had been laid. {1Co_3:5-11} To distort or mutilate "the word of the truth of the gospel," to make it mean now one thing and now another, to disturb the faith of half-instructed Christians by captious reasonings and self-interested perversions, was a capital offence, a sin against God and a crime against humanity. Paul possesses in his gospel truth of unspeakable value to mankind, the supreme revelation of Gods mercy to the world. And he is prepared to launch his anathema against every wilful impugner, no matter what his pretensions, or the quarter from which he comes.

"Well," it may be said, "this is sheer religious intolerance. Paul is doing what every dogmatist, every ecclesiastical bigot has done in his turn. His beliefs are, to be sure, the truth; and accordingly he unchurches and anathematises those who cannot agree with him. With all his nobility of mind, there is in Paul a leaven of Jewish rancour. He falls short of the sweet reasonableness of Jesus." So some will say, and in saying claim to represent the mild and tolerant spirit of our age. But is there not in every age an intolerance that is just and necessary? There is a logical intolerance of sophistry and trifling. There is a moral intolerance of impurity and deceit. And there is a religious intolerance, which includes both these and adds to them a holy jealousy for the honour of God and the spiritual welfare of mankind. It is mournful indeed to think how many crimes have been perpetrated under the cloak of pious zeal. Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum. The corruption of Christianity by human pride and cruelty has furnished copious illustrations of the terrible line of Lucretius. But the perversion of this noblest instinct of the soul does not take away either its reasonableness or its use. The quality of a passion is one thing; the mode of its expression is another. The hottest fires of bigotry are cold when compared with the scorching intolerance of Christs denunciations of the Pharisees. The anathemas of Jesus and of Paul are very different from those of arrogant pontiffs, or of narrow sectaries, inflamed with the idolatry of their own opinions. After all, the zeal of the rudest fanatic in religion has more in it of manly worth and moral capability than the languors of a blase scepticism, that sits watching with amused contempt the strife of creeds and the search of human hearts after the Living God. There is an idle, listless, cowardly tolerance, as there is an intolerance that is noble and just.

The one gospel has had many interpreters. Their voices, it must be confessed, sound strangely discordant. While the teachings of Christianity excite so intensely a multitude of different minds, of every variety of temper and capacity, contradiction will inevitably arise. Nothing is easier than to scoff at "the Babel of religious opinions." Christian truth is necessarily refracted and discoloured in passing through disordered natures and defective minds. And, alas! that Church which claims to hold the truth without possibility of error or variation, has perverted Christs gospel most of all.

But notwithstanding all differences, there exists a large and an increasing measure of agreement amongst the great body of earnest Christians. Slowly, yet surely, one debate after another comes to its settlement. The noise and publicity with which discussion on matters of faith is carried on in an age of religious freedom, and when liberty of thought has outrun mental discipline, should not lead us to exaggerate the extent of our disagreements. In the midst of human controversy and error, the Spirit of truth is carrying on His work. He is the supreme witness of Jesus Christ. And He abides with us for ever. The newly awakened historical conscience of our times is visibly making for unity. The Church is going back to the New Testament. And the more thoroughly she does this, the more directly and truthfully she addresses herself to the original record and comes face to face with Christ and His Apostles there, so much the more shall we realise the oneness and certainty of "the faith once delivered to the saints." Beneath the many superstructures, faulty and changing in their form, we reach the one "foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." There we touch solid rock. "The unity of the faith" lies in "the knowledge of the Son of God." Of Him we shall learn most from those who knew Him best. Let us transport ourselves into the fellowship of His first disciples; and listen to His gospel as it came fresh from the lips of Peter and John and Paul, and the Divine Master Himself. Let us bid the voice of the centuries be silent, that we may hear Him.

For the Galatian readers, as for Paul, there could be but one gospel. By his voice the call of God had reached their hearts (Gal_1:6; Gal_5:8). The witness of the Spirit of God and of Christ in the supernatural gifts they had received, and in the manifold fruit of a regenerate life, {Gal_3:2-5; Gal_5:22-23} was evidence to them that the Apostles message was "the true gospel of the grace of God." This they had gratefully acknowledged at the time of his first visit. {Gal_4:15} The proclamation of the crucified and risen Christ had brought to them unspeakable blessing. Through it they received the knowledge of God; they were made consciously sons of God, heirs of life eternal. {Gal_3:26; Gal_4:6-9; Gal_6:8} To entertain any other gospel, after this experience and all these professions, was an act of apostasy. "Ye are deserting (like runaway soldiers), turning renegades from God": such is the language in which Paul taxes his readers. In listening, to the persuasion of the Judaists, they were "disobeying the truth". {Gal_5:7-8} They were disloyal to conscience; they were trifling with the most sacred convictions of their lives, and with the testimony of the Spirit of God. They were forgetting the cross of Christ, and making His death of none effect. Surely they must have been "bewitched" to act thus; some deadly spell was upon them, which had laid memory and conscience both to sleep. {Gal_2:21 - Gal_3:1-3}

The nature and the contents of the two "gospels" current in Galatia will be made clear in the further course of the Epistle. They were the gospels of Grace and of Law respectively; of Salvation by Faith, and by Works; of life in the Spirit, and in the Flesh; of the Cross and the Resurrection on the one hand, and of Circumcision and the Calendar and "Clean meats" on the other; the gospels of inwardness, and of externalism-of Christ, and of self. The conflict between these two was the great struggle of Pauls life. His success was, historically speaking, the salvation of Christianity.

But this contention did not end with his victory. The Judaistic perversion appealed to tendencies too persistent in our nature to be crushed at one blow. The gospel of externalism is dear to the human heart. It may take the form of culture and moralities; or of "services" and sacraments and churchly order; or of orthodoxy and philanthropy. These and such things make themselves our idols; and trust in them takes the place of faith in the living Christ. It is not enough that the eyes of our heart should once have seen the Lord, that we should in other days have experienced "the renewing of the Holy Ghost." It is possible to forget, possible to "remove from Him that called us in the grace of Christ." With little change in the form of our religious life, its inward reality of joy in God, of conscious sonship, of fellowship in the Spirit, may be utterly departed. The gospel of formalism will spring up and flourish on the most evangelical soil, and in the most strictly Pauline Churches. Let it be banned and barred out never so completely, it knows how to find entrance, under the simplest modes of worship and the soundest doctrine. The serried defence of Articles and Confessions constructed against it will not prevent its entrance, and may even prove its cover and intrenchment. Nothing avails, as the Apostle says, but a constant "new creation." The life of God in human souls is sustained by the energy of His Spirit, perpetually renewed, ever proceeding from the Father and the Son. "The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." This is the true orthodoxy. The vitality of his personal faith in Christ kept Paul safe from error, faithful in will and intellect to the one gospel.

2. We have still to consider the import of the judgment pronounced by Paul upon those who pervert the gospel of Christ. "Let him be anathema. Even should it be ourselves, or an angel from heaven, let him be anathema."

These are tremendous words. Commentators have been shocked at the Apostles damning his opponents after this fashion, and have sought to lighten the weight of this awful sentence. It has been sometimes toned down into an act of excommunication or ecclesiastical censure. But this explanation will not hold. Paul could not think of subjecting "an angel" to a penalty like that. He pronounced excommunication against disorderly members of the Thessalonian Church; and in 1Co_5:1-8 he gives directions for the carrying out of a similar decree, attended with severe bodily affliction supernaturally adjudged, against a sinner whose presence grossly stained the purity of the Church. But this sentence goes beyond either of those. It contemplates the exclusion of the offenders from the Covenant of grace, their loss of final salvation. Thrice besides has Paul used this ominous word. The cry "Jesus is anathema," in 1Co_12:3, reveals with a lurid effect the frenzied malignity towards Christ of which the spirit of evil is sometimes capable. In a very different connection the word appears in Rom_9:3; where Paul "could wish himself anathema from Christ," if that were possible, for his brethrens: sake; he could find it in his heart to be cut off for ever from that love of God in Christ of which he has just spoken in terms of unbounded joy and confidence, {Rom_8:31-39} and banished from the heavenly kingdom, if through his exclusion his Jewish kindred might be saved. Self-sacrifice can go no further. No heavier loss than this could be conceived for any human being. Nearest to our passage is the imprecation at the end of 1 Corinthians: "If any man love not the Lord, let him be anathema,"-a judgment proclaimed against cold and false hearts, knowing His love, bearing His name, but with no true love to Him.

This Greek word in its Biblical use has grown, out of the cherem of the Old Testament, the ban declared against that which was cut off from the Divine mercies and exposed to the full sweep of judgment. Thus in Deu_13:12-18, the city whose people should "go and serve other gods," is declared cherem (anathema), an "accused," or "devoted thing" (R. V), on which ensues its destruction by sword and fire, . leaving it to remain "a ruin-heap for ever." Similarly in Jos 6, 7, the spoil of Jericho is anathema, Achans theft is therefore anathema, and Israel is made by it anathema until "the accused thing is destroyed" from among the people. Such were the recollections associated with this word in the Mosaic law, which it would inevitably carry with it to the minds of those against whom it was now directed. And there is nothing in later Jewish usage to mitigate its force.

Now the Apostle is not writing like a man in a passion, who flings out his words as missiles, eager only to wound and confound his opponents. He repeats the sentence. He quotes it as one that he had already affirmed in the hearing of his readers. The passage bears the marks of well-weighed thought and judicial solemnity. In pronouncing this judgment on "the troufflers," Paul acts under the sense of Apostolic responsibility. We must place the sentence in the same line as that of Peter against Ananias and Sapphira, and of Paul himself against Elymas the Cypriot sorcerer, and against the incestuous Corinthian. In each case there is a supernatural insight and authorisation, "the authority which the Lord gave" and which is wielded by His inspired Apostle. The exercise of this judicial function was one. of "the signs of the Apostle." This was the proof of "Christ speaking in him" which Paul was so loth to give at Corinth, but which at this crisis of his ministry he was compelled to display. {2Co_10:1-11; 2Co_13:1-10; 1Co_4:18-21} And if he "reckons to be bold against" his adversaries in Galatia, he knows well the ground on which he stands.

His anathema struck at men who were the worst enemies of Christ. "We can do nothing against the truth," he says; "but for the truth" he was ready to do and dare everything, - to "come with a rod," as he tells the proud Corinthians. There was no authority, however lofty, that he was not warranted to use on Christs behalf, no measure, however severe, from which he would shrink, if it were required in defence of the truth of the Gospel. "He possesses weapons, not fleshly, but mighty through God"; and he is prepared to bring them all into play rather than see the gospel perverted or overthrown. Paul will hurl his anathema at the prince of the archangels, should He come "preaching another gospel," tempting his children from their allegiance to Christ. This bolt was not shot a moment too soon. Launched against the legalist conspiracy, and followed up by the arguments of this and the Roman Epistle, it saved the Church from being overpowered by reactionary Judaism. The Apostles judgment has marked the gospel of the cross for all time as Gods inviolable truth, guarded by lightnings.

The sentences of judgment pronounced by the Apostles present a striking contrast to those that have fulminated from the Chair of their self-styled successors. In the Canons of the Council of Trent, for example, we have counted one hundred and thirty-five anathemas. A large proportion of these are concerned with the rights of the priesthood; others with complicated and secondary points of doctrine; some are directed virtually against the teaching of Paul himself. Here is one specimen: "If any one shall say that justifying faith is nothing else but a trust in the Divine mercy, remitting sins for Christs sake, or that it is this trust alone by which we are justified: let him be anathema." Again, "If any one shall say that the Canon of the Mass contains errors, and therefore shall be abrogated: let him be anathema." In the closing session, the final act of the presiding Cardinal was to pronounce, "Anathema to all heretics"; to which the assembled prelates shouted in response, "Anathema, anathema." With this imprecation on their lips the Fathers of the Church concluded their pious labours. It was the Reformation, it was "the liberty of the sons of God," that Rome anathematised. Pauls censure holds good against all the Conciliar Canons and Papal Bulls that contravene it. But twice has he pronounced this awful word; once against any that "love not the Lord," a second time upon those who wilfully pervert His gospel. The Papal anathemas sound like the maledictions of an angry priesthood, jealous for its prerogatives; here we have the holy severity of an inspired Apostle, concerned only for the truth, and for his Masters honour. There speaks the conscious "lord over Gods heritage," wearing the triple crown, wielding the power of Interdict and Inquisition, whose word sets armies in motion and makes kings tremble on their seats. Here a feeble, solitary man, "his bodily presence weak, his speech contemptible," hunted from place to place, scourged and stoned, shut up for years in prison, who could not, except for loves sake, command the meanest service. How conspicuous in the one case, how wanting in the other, is the might of the Spirit and the dignity of the inspired word, the transcendence of moral authority.

It is the moral conduct of those he judges that determines in each case the sentence passed by the Apostle. For a man knowing Jesus Christ, as we presume the members of the Corinthian Church did know Him, not to love Him argues a bad heart. Must not we count ourselves accursed, if with our knowledge of Christ we had no love for Him? Such a man is already virtually anathema. He is severed as a branch from its vine, ready to be gathered for the burning. {Joh_15:6} And these Galatian disturbers were something worse than mere mistaken enthusiasts for their native Jewish rites. Their policy was dishonourable. {Gal_4:17} They made the gospel of Christ subservient to factious designs. They sought to win credit with their fellow-countrymen and to escape the reproach of the cross by imposing circumcision on the Gentiles. {Gal_2:4; Gal_6:12-13} They prostituted religion to selfish and party purposes. They sacrificed truth to popularity, the glory of Christ and the cross to their own. They were of those whom the Apostle describes as "walking in craftiness and handling the word of God deceitfully," who "traffic" in the gospel, peddling with it as with petty wares, cheapening and adulterating it like dishonest hucksters to make their own market by it. {2Co_2:17; 2Co_4:2} Did not Paul do well to smite them with the rod of his mouth? Justly has he marked with the brand of this fiery anathema the false minister, "who serves not the Lord Christ, but his own belly."

But does this declaration preclude in such a case the possibility of repentance? We trow not. It declares the doom which is due to any, be he man or angel, who should do what these "troublers" are doing. It is a general sentence, and has for the individuals concerned the effect of a warning, like the announcement made concerning the Traitor at the Last Supper. However unlikely repentance might be in either instance, there is nothing to forbid it. So when Peter said to Simon Magus, "Thy money perish with thee!" he nevertheless continued, "Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord, if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee". {Act_8:20-22} To his worst opponents, on any sign of contrition, Paul, we may be sure, would have gladly said the same.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

1:6-10 I am shocked: In most of his letters, Paul followed his greeting with gratitude for his readers and a prayer for them (e.g., Rom 1:8-10; 1 Cor 1:4-5; Phil 1:3-6; Col 1:3-5; 2 Thes 1:3-12), but he found nothing to praise in the Galatian church.

1:6 The Galatians were turning away . . . from God by rejecting the Good News Paul proclaimed and looking instead to the law. God called them to himself through the loving mercy of Christ, not through the law (2:16). • God, who called you: Cp. 1:15; Rom 8:30; 9:24; 11:29. • a different way that pretends to be the Good News: Some were teaching that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised to be considered members of God’s family. Paul rejected any requirement besides faith in Jesus (cp. Gal 5:2-4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal 1:6. Θαυμάζω, I marvel) Paul, writing to all the other churches, begins with an expression of thanksgiving and praise to God, which, although the subject here requires something different, has however been virtually expressed, [has been represented by an equivalent] Gal 1:5. He also delays giving them the appellation of brethren. We give this summary of the epistle. There are three divisions.

I. The Inscription, Gal 1:1-5.

II. The Recalling of the Gentiles to the true Gospel, where

i. He reproves them, Gal 1:6-10.

ii. He asserts the divine authority of the Gospel preached by himself: because he

1) From a persecutor has become an apostle by heavenly calling, Gal 1:11-17.

2) Never acted as if he had not been Peter’s equal, Gal 1:18-19; Gal 1:21-22.

iii. He vindicates justification by faith, anew reproaching the Galatians, Gal 3:1-2; Gal 3:15 – Gal 4:11.

iv. He explains the same subject to the Galatians, with the most tender affection, by the allegory of the son of the bond maid and of the son of the free woman, Gal 4:12.

v. He then exhorts them to maintain their liberty, Gal 5:1-12, dissuades them from its abuse, and admonishes them not to walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Gal 5:13-14; Gal 5:16 – Gal 6:5, Gal 6:6-10.

III. Conclusion, Gal 5:11-12; Gal 5:17-18.

See also the note at Gal 2:16.

—οὕτω ταχέως, so quickly) Paul had been with the Galatians not long before. See Ordo temp. (arrangement of dates) p. 281 [Ed. ii., p. 242, No. 6.]—μετατίθεσθε, you are removed) transferred [you have changed your place from Him] A weighty expression, having an excuse blended with it. Jerome says: Galatia in our language implies transference, [removal from one place to another].—ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς, from Him, who called you) One’s calling, is therefore the channel of grace, the rule for the future; ch. Gal 5:8; Gal 5:13. We have here, Gal 1:6-10, a Proposition [statement of the subject, viz. the calling] and a sort of Division of it into parts [διαίρεσις]; and the calling in [“into the”] grace [Gal 1:6] is treated of in continuation from Gal 1:11: the words “there be some that trouble you” are treated of, ch. Gal 5:7, etc.—ἐν χάριτι, in grace [Engl. Vers., into the grace] Act 15:11.—Χριστοῦ, of Christ) The construction is with ἀπὸ from.1[1])

[1] 1 This word Χριστοῦ itself, although it is not considered as a reading fully established by the margin of both Ed., is, however, expressed in the Germ. Ver.—E. B.

Gg Cypr. Lucif. omit Χριστοῦ. But ABHD [adding Ἰησοῦ with f] Vulg. support it;—τοῦ καλέσαντος agreeing with Χριστοῦ, and both governed by ἀπο; but Engl. Vers. and Vulg. make Χριστοῦ be governed by χάριτι.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_1:6. Without prefixing, as in other epistles, even in those to the Corinthians, a conciliatory preamble setting forth what was commendable in his readers, Paul at once plunges in mediam rem. He probably wrote without delay, immediately on receiving the accounts which arrived as to the falling away of his readers, while his mind was still in that state of agitated feeling which prevented him from using his customary preface of thanksgiving and conciliation,a painful irritation (πυροῦμαι, 2Co_11:29), which was the more just, that in the case of the Galatians, the very foundation and substance of his gospel threatened to fall to pieces.

θαυμάζω] often used by Greek orators in the sense of surprise at something blameworthy. Dem. 349. 3; Sturz, Lex. Xen. II. p. 511; Abresch, Diluc. Thuc. p. 309. In the N.T., comp. Mar_6:6; Joh_7:21; 1Jn_3:13.

οὕτω ταχέως] so very quickly, so recently, may denote either the rapid development of the apostasy (comp. 2Th_2:2; 1Ti_5:22; Wis_14:28), as Chrysostom (οὐδὲ χρόνου δέονται οἱ ἀπατῶντες ὑμᾶς κ.τ.λ.), Theophylact, Koppe, Schott, de Wette, Windischmann, Ellicott, Hofmann, Reithmayr understand it; or its early occurrence (1Co_4:19; Php_2:19, et al.), whether reckoned from the last visit of the apostle (Bengel, Flatt, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler) or from the conversion of the readers (Usteri, Olshausen). The latter is preferable, because it corresponds with ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος κ.τ.λ., whereby the time of the calling is indicated as the terminus a quo. Comp. Gal_3:1-3. This view is not inconsistent with the fact that the epistle was written a considerable time after the conversion of the readers; for, at all events, they had been Christians for but a few years, which the οὕτω ταχέως as a relative idea still suits well enough. By their μετατίθεσθαι they showed themselves to be πρόσκαιροι (Mat_13:21), and this surprises the apostle. As to οὕτω, comp. on Gal_3:3.

μετατίθεσθε] μετατίθημι, to transpose, in the middle, to alter ones opinion, to become of another mind, and generally to fall away (with εἰς, App. Hisp. 17; Sir_6:8; with πρός, Polyb. xxvi. 2. 6). See Wetstein in loc.; Kypke, II. p. 273; Ast. ad Plat. de Leg. p. 497; from the LXX., Schleusner, s.v.; and from Philo, Loesner, p. 325. It might also be understood in a passive sense (Theodoras of Mopsuestia, μετατίθ., not μετάγεσθε, is used: ὡς ἐπὶ ἀψύχων; Beza, verbum passivum usurpavit, ut culpam in pseudo-apostolos derivet). But the use of the middle in this sense is the common one; so that the passive sense, and the nicety which, according to Beza, is involved in it, must have been more definitely indicated to the reader in order to be recognised. The present tense denotes that the readers were still in the very act of the falling away, which began so soon after their conversion. According to Jerome, the word itself is intended to convey an allusion to the name Galatia: Galatia enim translationem in nostra lingua sonat (גָּלָה; hence גּו̇לָה, גָּלוּת carrying away). Although approved by Bertholdt, this idea is nevertheless an empty figment, because the thing suggested the expression, and these Hebrew words denote the μετατίθεσθαι in the sense of exile (see Gesenius, Thes. I. p. 285). But from an historical point of view, the appeals of Grotius and Wetstein to the fickleness of the Gallic character (Caes. B. Gall. iii. 19, iv. 5, ii. 1, iii. 10) are not without interest as regards the Galatians.

ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι Χ.] On ἀπό, away from, comp. 2Ma_7:24; and see generally, Kühner, § 622 c. The τοῦ καλέσαντος is not to be taken with Χριστοῦ, as Syr., Jerome, Erasmus (in the version, not in the paraphrase and annotations), Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel, and others, also Morus and Flatt, understand it; against which may be urged, not (with Matthies and Schott) the want of the article before Χριστοῦ (see on Rom_9:5; comp. also 1Pe_1:15), but the fact that the calling into the kingdom of the Messiah is presented by Paul (and the apostles generally) so constantly as the work of God, that we must not deviate from this analogy in explaining the words (see on Rom_1:6; and Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 387). Thence, also, τοῦ καλέσ. is not to be taken as neuter, and referred to the gospel (Ewald); but ὁ καλέσας is God, and Χριστοῦ belongs to ἐν χάριτι, from Him who has called you through the grace of Christ. Ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ is instrumental; for the grace of Christ (Act_15:11; Rom_5:15; 2Co_8:9; Tit_3:6 : comp. also Rom_16:20; 2Co_12:9; 2Co_13:13; Phm_1:25), that is, the favour of Christ unmerited by sinful men, according to which He gave up His life to atone for them (comp. Gal_1:4), is that by which, that is, by the preaching of which, the divine calling reaches the subjects of it; comp. Act_14:3; Act_20:24. So καλεῖν with ἐν, 1Co_7:15; Eph_4:4; 1Th_4:7; to which passages the interpretation on the ground of grace (Wieseler) is not suitable. Others take ἐν for εἰς (Vulgate, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Beza and others, also Borger and Rückert); so that by brevity of language ἐν, indicating the result of the direction, includes within it this also; see Winer, p. 388 [E. T. 514]. This is unnecessarily forced, for such a constructio praegnans in Greek and in the N.T. is undisputed only in the case of verbs of motion (as ἔρχεσθαι, εἰσιέναι, ἐμπίπτειν, κ.τ.λ.). Comp. also Hartung, über d. Kas. p. 68 f. In point of sense, moreover, this view is liable to the objection that the κλῆσις always refers to the Messianic kingdom (1Th_2:12; 1Ti_6:12; 2Th_2:14; 1Pe_5:10; Rev_19:9, et al.; also 1Co_1:9, and passages such as Col_3:15; 1Th_4:7), and the grace of Christ is that which procures the Messianic σωτηρία (Rom_5:15, et al.), and not the σωτηρία itself. On the absence of the article before χάριτι, see Winer, p. 118 f. [E. T. 147 f.]

Observe, moreover how the whole mode of setting forth the apostasy makes the readers sensible of its antagonism to God and salvation! Comp. Chrysostom and Theodoret.

εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγ.] to a gospel of a different quality, from that, namely, which was preached to you when God called you. Comp. 2Co_11:4. The contrast is based on the previous designation of their calling as having taken place ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ (not somehow by the law),a statement clearly enough indicating the specific nature of the Pauline gospel, from which the nature of the Judaistic teaching, although the Galatians had likewise received the latter as the gospel for which it had been passed off, was withal so different (ἕτερον). Comp. Gal_1:8.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 1:6-9 . THE APOSTLE EXPRESSES SURPRISE AT THE SUDDEN DEFECTION OF HIS CONVERTS FROM THE ONLY TRUE GOSPEL, AND PRONOUNCES ANATHEMAS ON ALL PERVERTERS OF THE TRUTH. Paul is evidently startled at the tidings of a sudden revolution in Galatian feeling. His intense indignation is evinced by the vehemence of his language and the solemnity of his anathema. There could be but one true Gospel; this new doctrine was no Gospel at all, but only a heretical perversion of the truth by foreign agitators. They were probably emissaries of a Pharisaic party in the Church, which advocated circumcision and legal observances for all converts alike.

Gal 1:6 . μετατίθεσθε : ye are removing (not removed as in A.V.). The agitators had not yet achieved any decisive success, though the Galatians were disposed to lend too ready an ear to their suggestions. It was not so much their actual progress, as the evidence afforded of the instability of the Galatian faith, that excited misgivings in the mind of Paul ( cf. Gal 4:11 ; Gal 4:20 ); he regarded the movement as merely a little leaven , and had not lost his confidence in the personal loyalty of his converts and the general soundness of their faith (Gal 5:9-10 , Gal 6:17 . See Introd., p. 147). τοῦ καλέσαντος , sc. Θεοῦ . The Gospel call proceeded from God, like those to Abraham and the ancient servants and people of God; the Epistles of Paul invariably attribute it to Him ( cf. Gal 1:15 ), not to His human instruments. ἐν χάριτι . This is evidently not = εἰς τὴν χάριν ( into the grace of Christ , A.V.), but records the spirit of Divine love which prompted the call. God, of His grace in Christ, sent forth the Gospel to the Galatians by the hands of Paul and Barnabas. ἕτερον . This passage brings out forcibly the different meaning of ἕτερος and ἄλλος . ἕτερος is primarily the other of two, ἄλλος another of several. Hence ἕτερος fixes attention on two objects exclusively ( cf. note on τὸν ἕτερον in Gal 6:4 ); here it marks the essential difference between the true and the spurious Gospel, distinguishing the latter as quite a different Gospel .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6–9. SUBJECT OF THE EPISTLE STATED

6–9. Surprise at the rapidity with which they were yielding to the false teachers.

(Gal 1:6) I wonder that you are so quickly (yielding to the temptation and) going over from God who called you in the grace that is to be found in Christ, into a second gospel, (Gal 1:7) which gospel is nothing else than an attempt of persons to disturb your allegiance, and a desire on their part to completely reverse the gospel that Christ gave. (Gal 1:8) But (so abhorrent is this act to me) supposing that even if I and my fellow-workers, or an angel from heaven, were to preach a gospel to you contrary to that gospel which we did preach to you, let him be accursed and separated from God. (Gal 1:9) As I and my fellow-workers have said to you in time past, so now, at this time, I say again, if anyone does preach you a gospel contrary to that which ye once accepted at our hands, let him be accursed and separated from God.

6. θαυμάζω ὅτι. Here only in the Pauline Epistles; Luk 11:38; Joh 3:7; Joh 4:27[44]. Cf. Mar 15:44; 1Jn 3:13.

[44] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

οὕτως ταχέως. Hardly “so soon” (A.V.) referring to the brevity of time (Php 2:19; Php 2:24) since his first or his second visit, but “so quickly” (R.V.) referring to the rapidity with which they are yielding to the temptation (cf. 1Ti 5:22; 2Th 2:2; Wis 14:28 ἢ ἐπιορκοῦσιν ταχέως). Cf. Exo 32:8 παρέβησαν ταχύ, where the Hebrew leaves no room for doubt. See Introduction, p. xxxiii.

μετατίθεσθε. Here only in the Pauline Epistles. Not passive as in Act 7:16, Heb 7:12; Heb 11:5 but middle as in 2Ma 7:24, where Antiochus promised to enrich the youngest son of the seven brethren, if he would turn from the customs of his fathers, μεταθέμενον ἀπὸ τῶν πατρίων. The present shows that St Paul still hoped that the change would not be completed. Cf. his frequent use of the present in this epistle, e.g. Gal 3:3, Gal 4:9. Sir 6:9 καὶ ἔστιν φίλος μετατιθέμενος εἰς ἔχθραν, often quoted, illustrates the moral use of the verb (cf. ὁ μεταθέμενος of Dionysius who left Stoicism for Epicureanism), and its construction with εἰς, but not the use of the present, for there it is timeless, as the Hebrew shows.

ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς. Almost certainly God the Father (Gal 1:5). The words also probably suggest, as Chrysostom says, that the Galatians thought they were pleasing the Father by observing the Law, as the Jews thought when they persecuted Jesus. The call (Gal 5:8; Gal 5:13) is so often attributed to the Father (Gal 1:15) that the clause can hardly mean “from Christ who called you” (Peshito).

ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ, “in Christ’s grace.” The external evidence for Χριστοῦ is overwhelming, ἐν hardly merely instrumental (cf. διά, Gal 1:15), nor = εἰς. It suggests the permanence of the divine favour in which God calls (cf. Gal 2:21, also 2Th 2:16, Heb 12:15), and through which and in which the blessing of Christ is given (Act 15:11, Rom 5:15). For the absence of the article cf. 2Co 1:12; 1Co 15:10.

εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον. On the words εὐαγγέλιον, εὐαγγελίζω, see Milligan, Thess. pp. 141 sqq. ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο. The relation between ἔτερος and ἄλλος is doubtful:

(1) Possibly ἕτερος = difference in kind, and ἄλλος difference in number, “to a second, a different gospel, which is not another,” i.e. as it is not the same, it is no gospel at all (Lightfoot). So apparently in 2Co 11:4 ἄλλον Ἰησοῦν, “a second Jesus,” but πνεῦμα ἕτερον and εὐαγγέλιον ἕτερον “a different spirit,” and “a different gospel.” In this case the colon after ἄλλο stands.

(2) But probably ἕτερος = a second in a series, indicating the slighter specific difference between members of the same class (Gal 1:19, Gal 6:4); ἄλλος the broader generic difference between two distinct classes, a second regarded as belonging to another series (Gal 5:10). Thus in Thuc. II. 40. 1–3 “ἑτέροις indicates another class of the Athenians (viz. the industrial as distinguished from the military or the statesman class), while ἄλλοις denotes other nations as distinguished from the Athenians” (Ramsay, Gal. p. 263, whom consult for other passages, and the opinions of other scholars). In this case the colon after ἄλλο must be omitted.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6-10.] Announcement of the occasion of the Epistle, in his amazement at their speedy falling away from the Gospel. Assertion of that Gospel’s exclusive claim to their adhesion, as preached by him, who served God in Christ, and not popularity among men. We have none of the usual expressions of thankfulness for their faith, &c.; but he hurries vehemently into his subject, and, as Chrys. says, σφοδρότερον τῷ μετὰ ταῦτα κέχρηται λόγῳ, καθάπερ πυρωθεὶς σφοδρῶς ὑπὸ τῆς ἐννοίας τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ.

6.] θαυμάζω in this sense (see reff.) is a word of mildness, inasmuch as it imports that better things were expected of them,—and of condescension, as letting down the writer to the level of his readers and even challenging explanation from them. Still, like many other such mild words, it carries to the guilty conscience even sharper rebuke than a harsher one would.

οὕτως ταχέως] either (1) ‘so soon after your conversion’ (Calv., Olsh., Meyer, &c.), or (2) ‘so quickly,’—‘after so little persuasion,’ when the false teachers once came among you (Chr., De W., &c.), or (3) ‘so soon after my recent visit among you’ (Bengel, &c.). Of these I prefer (1), as more suiting the dignity of the passage, and as the more general and comprehensive reason. But it does not exclude (2) and (3): ‘so soon,’ might be, and might be intended to be, variously supplied. See Prolegomena, on the time and place of writing this Epistle.

μετατίθ.] are passing over, pres.: not as E. V. ‘are removed,’ which is doubly wrong, for μετ. is not passive but middle, in the common usage of the word, according to which the Galatians would understand it. So Plato, Theog. 122 c, σμικρὸν γάρ τι μετατίθεμαι, ‘I am beginning somewhat to change my opinion:’ see also Gorg. 493 c: Demosth. 379. 10: Ἴβηρες, ὅσοι … ἐς Ῥωμαίους μετέθεντο, Appian, Hisp. c. 17; &c. See also examples in Wetst. Chrys. says well, οὐκ εἶπε Μετέθεσθε, ἀλλὰ Μετατίθεσθε· τουτέστιν, οὐδέπω πιστεύω, οὐδὲ ἡγοῦμαι ἀπηρτισμένην εἶναι τὴν ἀπάτην· δ καὶ αὐτὸ πάλιν ἐστὶν ἀνακτωμένου.

It is interesting to notice, in connexion with οὕτως ταχέως μετατίθεσθε, the character given by Cæsar of the Gauls: “ut ad bella suscipienda Gallorum alacer ac promtus est animus: sic mollis ac minime resistens ad calamitates mens ipsorum est.” B. G. iii. 19:—“Cæsar … infirmitatem Gallorum veritus, quod sint in consiliis capiendis mobiles, et novis plerumque rebus student:” ib. iv. 5: see also ib. ii. 8; iii. 10.

τοῦ καλέσ. ὑμ.] not to be taken with χριστοῦ, as Syr., Jer., Luth. (gives both constructions, but prefers this), Calv., Grot., Bengel, &c., nor understood of Paul, as al. and recently by Bagge,—but, as almost always with the Apostle (see note on Rom 1:6), of God the Father see ver. 15; and cf. Rom 8:30; Rom 9:24, Rom 9:25: 1Co 1:9; 1Co 7:15, 1Co 7:17: 1Th 2:12: 2Th 2:14: 2Ti 1:9. Also 1Pe 5:10).

ἐν χάρ. χρ.] in (as the element, and hence the medium; not into, as E. V.; see for construction 1Co 7:15. In the secondary transferred sense of local prepositions, so often found in later Greek, it is extremely difficult to assign the precise shade of meaning: see Jowett’s and Ellic.’s notes here. But we may safely lay down two strongly marked regions of prepositional force, which must never be confounded, that of motion, and that of rest. ἐν, for example, can never be strictly rendered ‘into,’ nor εἰς, ‘in.’ Where such appears to be the case, some logical consideration has been overlooked, which if introduced would right the meaning) the grace of Christ. Christ’s grace is the elementary medium of our ‘calling of God,’ as is set forth in full, Rom 5:15, ἡ δωρεὰ (τοῦ θεοῦ) ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρ. Ἰησ. χρ.:—see also Act 15:11. And ‘Christ’s grace’ is the sum of all that He has suffered and done for us to bring us to God;—whereby we come to the Father,—in which, as its element, the Father’s calling of us has place.

εἰς ἕτερ. εὐαγγ.] to a different (in kind: not ἄλλο, another of the same kind, which title he denies it, see below) gospel (so called by its preachers; or said by way of at once instituting a comparison unfavourable to the new teachers, by the very etymology of εὐαγγέλιον).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Θαυμάζω ὅτι οὕτως ταχέως μετατίθεσθε ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ “I marvel that ye are so quickly turning away from him who called you in the grace of Christ.” The present tense of the verb μετατίθεσθε indicates clearly that when the apostle wrote the apostasy of the Galatians was as yet only in process. They were, so to speak, on the point, or more exactly in the very act, of turning. The mind of the apostle wavers while he writes between hope and fear as to the outcome (4:20, 5:10). The word ταχέως might conceivably refer to the rapid development of the apostatising movement after it was once begun. But it is equally suitable to the usage of the word to take it in the sense of “soon” (cf. 1Co 4:19, Php 2:19, Php 2:24, Mat 5:25, Mar 9:39), and it is certainly far more probable that the apostle is here speaking of the brevity of the interval than of the rapidity of the process. The point from which this interval, which seems to the apostle so brief, is reckoned is left unstated, but that of which one most naturally thinks in speaking of an apostasy is the time of the original acceptance of that which is now abandoned—in this case the gospel—and this is also suggested by ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος and εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον.

Little help is afforded by this expression towards the determination of the date of the letter, since such a change as is here spoken of would doubtless seem to the apostle to have been quickly made if it took place at any time within a few years after the conversion of the Galatians.

It is grammatically possible to take τοῦ καλέσαντος as limiting Χριστοῦ and so to render “from the Christ who called you in grace.” On this order of words see BMT 427; Gild. Synt- 622, and cf. Gal 3:17. The thought thus yielded would moreover be wholly appropriate to this situation, since the apostasy of the Galatians was from Christ and his grace. But Paul’s general use of the verb καλέω (see below) must be regarded as a decisive objection to referring the phrase to Christ (as is done by Hier. Luth. Calv. Beng. et al.; cf. Wies. and Sief. ad loc.) or to Paul (as by Paulus, cited by Wies.), and as a convincing reason for here referring it to God (so Chrys. Wies. Mey. Sief. Ell. Ltft.).

The verb μετατίθημι, meaning in the active, “to transfer,” “to remove” (see, e. g., Heb 11:5) or “to alter,” “to pervert” (Jud 1:4), is used in the middle or pass. with various constructions in the sense “to change [one’s opinion]”. Hdt. 7:18: ἐγὼ μὲν καὶ αὐτὸς τράπομαι καὶ τὴν γνώμην μετατίθεμαι: “I myself am changing and altering my opinion;” Plato, Rep. 345 B: φανερῶς μετατίθεσο καὶ ἡμᾶς μὴ ἐξαπάτα: “Change your mind openly, and do not [attempt to] deceive us.” Followed by ἀπό, as here, in 2 Mac. 7:24, it means “to turn from,” “to apostatise from,” μεταθέμενον ἀπὸ τῶν πατρίων, “on condition of having apostatised from the ancestral [laws].” With πρός, instead of εἰς as here, “to turn to” in Polyb. 26. 2:6.

For various interpretations of οὕτως ταχέως, see Sief. who himself takes it to mean “rapidly,” “swiftly since it began.”

In fifteen passages in the letters ascribed to Paul the writer attributes “calling” to God (Rom 4:17, Rom 4:8:30, Rom 4:9:11, Rom 4:24, 1Co 1:9, 1Co 1:7:15, 1Co 1:17, Gal 1:15, 1Th 2:12, 1Th 2:4:7, 1Th 2:5:24, 2Ti 1:9, using the verb καλέω; Rom 11:29, 1Co 1:26, Eph 1:18, Php 3:14, 2Ti 1:9, using κλῆσις), and never, except in the sense of “naming” or “inviting to a feast,” to any one else. The main features of the apostle’s conception of this divine act appear clearly in the passages cited. It is in execution of his predetermined purpose (Rom 8:28-30, 2Th 2:13, 2Th 2:14; cf. 2Ti 1:9); an act of grace, not in accordance with men’s deserts (Gal 1:15; cf. 2Ti 1:9); it is the divine initiative of the Christian life (1Co 7:17-22), by which God summons men into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ (1Co 1:9; cf. Rom 8:29, Rom 8:30), to live in sanctification (1Th 4:7), and peace (1Co 7:15, Col 3:15), and to attain unto salvation (2Th 2:14), God’s kingdom and glory (1Th 2:12; cf. also 1Ti 6:12). Though always spoken of as God’s act, it may take place through the preaching of the gospel by men (2Th 2:14), and it is doubtless to the divine call, brought to the Galatians through his own preaching, that the apostle here refers.

Paul’s use of the terms “call” and “calling” is in general such as to suggest that he thought of those only as called who obeyed the divine summons (see esp. Rom 8:28-30); of a rejected call at least he never speaks. Yet the present passage evidently speaks of the Galatians as on the point or in the act of turning from him who had called them. This apostasy, moreover, the apostle evidently regarded as a most serious matter, vitally affecting their relation to Christ (see esp. 5:2-4). It can not therefore be unqualifiedly affirmed that Paul always conceived of “calling” as effectual in the sense that all who were called were surely destined unto eternal life.

On the meaning of χάρις. see on v. 3. Modern commentators have generally given to the preposition ἐν either its instrumental force (see Th. ἐν, I 5d), or its causal and basal sense (see Th. 16c). In either case the grace of Christ is that which is manifested in his gift of himself for men, and is conceived of specially in its relation to their entrance into the kingdom of God; in the latter case, it is that on the ground of which, by virtue of which, men are called; in the former case, it is that by which the calling takes place. To these views there is no decisive objection either in the usage of the phrase “grace of Christ” (see 2Co 8:9, Rom 5:15) or in the use of the preposition ἐν (see Th. u. s. ). But (a) the grace of Christ is more commonly spoken of by Paul in its relation to the Christian in his Christian life (see Rom 16:20, 2Co 12:9, 2Co 13:14, Gal 6:18, Php 4:23, 1Th 5:28, 2Th 3:18; cf. also Rom 5:2, and the benedictions in connection with the salutation of all the letters). (b) In the expression καλέω ἐν as used elsewhere by Paul (Rom 9:7 does not properly come into account, being from the Lxx, and καλέω not being used in its special Pauline sense of the divine call into the kingdom), ἐν is never either instrumental or causal, except possibly in 1Co 7:22, but almost uniformly marks its object as the state or sphere in which the one called is, either (1) when he is called (1Co 7:18, 1Co 7:20, 1Co 7:24), or (2) as the result of his call. In this latter case the phrase is pregnant and bears the meaning “call to be in” (1Th 4:7, 1Co 7:15, Col 3:15 (ἐν ἑνὶ σώματι) Eph 4:4; cf. Th. ἐν 17, and εἰς in 1Co 1:9, Col 3:15, 2Th 2:14). Usage evidently favours the metaphorical local sense of the preposition, and, since κάριτι is evidently not the sphere in which the Galatians were when they were called, the pregnant use of the phrase is the more probable. (c) The sense yielded for this passage by taking κάριτι as referring to the state in which the Galatians were called to be is much more suitable to the connection than that given by either of the other constructions. In speaking of a change of position on their part, it is more natural to refer to the state in which by God’s call they are or should be than to emphasise the basis or instrument of God’s call. The remarkable and surprising fact about their apostasy was that they were abandoning the position of grace, i. e., the relation towards God which made them the objects of the grace of Christ and participators in its benefits, to put themselves under law, which could only award them their sad deserts. On Paul’s view of the nature of the change cf. 5:4, 3:10-14. It is a further objection to the view that ἐν is basal that while redemption is conceived of by Paul as based on the work of Christ (Rom 3:24), it is difficult to suppose that he would speak of God’s call as being on the ground of the grace of Christ. It is rather his thought that the work of Christ has its basis in the love of God. See Rom 5:8ff., Nor is the thought that the call of God is by means of Christ’s grace materially easier, for the expansion of this into “the announcement of the grace of Christ” is unwarranted by the language.

The absence of the article before χάριτι has the effect, and is doubtless due to the intention, of giving the word qualitative rather than individualising force. This in turn emphasises the folly of the conduct of the Galatians. This shade of meaning can not well be expressed in English (which requires a definite article before “grace” because of the phrase that follows it) except by some such periphrasis as, “I marvel that ye are so quickly turning away from grace, that of Christ.”

εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον, “unto a different gospel.” On the meaning of the word ἕτερον, see detached note, p. 420. On εὐαγγέλιον, see detached note, p. 422. It is evident that in the present passage, as indeed generally in this epistle, it is the doctrinal aspect of the gospel that the apostle has specially in mind. The questions at issue between Paul and his judaistic opponents did not at all concern the historical facts of the life of Jesus, nor did they so far as known have to do with the methods of carrying on the gospel work. They pertained rather to the way of acceptance with God and the significance of the Christ in relation to such acceptance. They were thus distinctly doctrinal questions.

The preposition εἰς denotes mental direction (cf. Act 26:18, Rom 2:4, 1Ti 1:6) and in view of the meaning and tense of μετατίθεσθε signifies “towards, with inclination to accept.” That Paul calls the teaching of his opponents in Galatia a different “gospel” doubtless reflects the fact that they claimed for it the name “gospel,” “good tidings”; they may even have described it in contrast with Paul’s preaching, as a different gospel, ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον. In what sense Paul was willing to apply to it the term “gospel” appears in what follows.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The first part of the Epistle wherein he witnesseth that he is an Apostle, nothing inferior to those chief disciples of Christ, and wholly agreeing with them, whose names the false apostles did abuse. And he beginneth with chiding, reproving them of lightness for that they have ear so easily unto them which perverted them and drew them away to a new Gospel.

He useth the passive voice, to cast the fault upon the false apostles, and he useth the time that now is, to give them to understand, that it was not already done, but in doing.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Here the apostle comes to the body of the epistle; and he begins it with a more general reproof of these churches for their unsteadiness in the faith, which he afterwards, in some following parts of it, enlarges more upon. Here we may observe,

I. How much he was concerned at their defection: I marvel, etc. It filled him at once with the greatest surprise and sorrow. Their sin and folly were that they did not hold fast the doctrine of Christianity as it had been preached to them, but suffered themselves to be removed from the purity and simplicity of it. And there were several things by which their defection was greatly aggravated; as, 1. That they were removed from him that had called them; not only from the apostle, who had been the instrument of calling them into the fellowship of the gospel, but from God himself, by whose order and direction the gospel was preached to them, and they were invited to a participation of the privileges of it: so that herein they had been guilty of a great abuse of his kindness and mercy towards them. 2. That they had been called into the grace of Christ. As the gospel which had been preached to them was the most glorious discovery of divine grace and mercy in Christ Jesus; so thereby they had been called to partake of the greatest blessings and benefits, such as justification, and reconciliation with God here, and eternal life and happiness hereafter. These our Lord Jesus has purchased for us at the expense of his precious blood, and freely bestows upon all who sincerely accept of him: and therefore, in proportion to the greatness of the privilege they enjoyed, such were their sin and folly in deserting it and suffering themselves to be drawn off from the established way of obtaining these blessings. 3. That they were so soon removed. In a very little time they lost that relish and esteem of this grace of Christ which they seemed to have, and too easily fell in with those who taught justification by the works of the law, as many did, who had been bred up in the opinions and notions of the Pharisees, which they mingled with the doctrine of Christ, and so corrupted it; and this, as it was an instance of their weakness, so it was a further aggravation of their guilt. 4. That they were removed to another gospel, which yet was not another. Thus the apostle represents the doctrine of these judaizing teachers; he calls it another gospel, because it opened a different way of justification and salvation from that which was revealed in the gospel, namely, by works, and not by faith in Christ. And yet he adds, "Which is not another - you will find it to be no gospel at all - not really another gospel, but the perverting of the gospel of Christ, and the overturning of the foundations of that" - whereby he intimates that those who go about to establish any other way to heaven than what the gospel of Christ has revealed are guilty of a gross perversion of it, and in the issue will find themselves wretchedly mistaken. Thus the apostle endeavours to impress upon these Galatians a due sense of their guilt in forsaking the gospel way of justification; and yet at the same time he tempers his reproof with mildness and tenderness towards them, and represents them as rather drawn into it by the arts and industry of some that troubled them than as coming into it of their own accord, which, though it did not excuse them, yet was some extenuation of their fault. And hereby he teaches us that, in reproving others, as we should be faithful, so we should also be gentle, and endeavour to restore them in the spirit of meekness, Gal 6:1.

II. How confident he was that the gospel he had preached to them was the only true gospel. He was so fully persuaded of this that he pronounced an anathema upon those who pretended to preach any other gospel (Gal 1:8), and, to let them see that this did not proceed from any rashness or intemperate zeal in him, he repeated it, Gal 1:9. This will not justify our thundering out anathemas against those who differ from us in minor things. It is only against those who forge a new gospel, who overturn the foundation of the covenant of grace, by setting up the works of the law in the place of Christ's righteousness, and corrupting Christianity with Judaism, that Paul denounces this. He puts the case: "Suppose we should preach any other gospel; nay, suppose an angel from heaven should:" not as if it were possible for an angel from heaven to be the messenger of a lie; but it is expressed so the more to strengthen what he was about to say. "If you have any other gospel preached to you by any other person, under our name, or under colour of having it from an angel himself, you must conclude that you are imposed upon: and whoever preaches another gospel lays himself under a curse, and is in danger of laying you under it too."

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Without the usual expressions of thanksgiving for their faith, &c., he vehemently plunges into his subject, zealous for "the glory" of God (Gal 1:5), which was being disparaged by the Galatians falling away from the pure Gospel of the "grace" of God.

I marvel--implying that he had hoped better things from them, whence his sorrowful surprise at their turning out so different from his expectations.

so soon--after my last visit; when I hoped and thought you were untainted by the Judaizing teachers. If this Epistle was written from Corinth, the interval would be a little more than three years, which would be "soon" to have fallen away, if they were apparently sound at the time of his visit. Gal 4:18, Gal 4:20 may imply that he saw no symptom of unsoundness then, such as he hears of in them now. But English Version is probably not correct there. See see on Gal 4:18; Gal 4:20; also see Introduction. If from Ephesus, the interval would be not more than one year. BIRKS holds the Epistle to have been written from Corinth after his FIRST visit to Galatia; for this agrees best with the "so soon" here: with Gal 4:18, "It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you." If they had persevered in the faith during three years of his first absence, and only turned aside after his second visit, they could not be charged justly with adhering to the truth only when he was present: for his first absence was longer than both his visits, and they would have obeyed longer in his "absence" than in his "presence." But if their decline had begun immediately after he left them, and before his return to them, the reproof will be just. But see on Gal 4:13.

removed--Translate, "are being removed," that is, ye are suffering yourselves so soon (whether from the time of my last visit, or from the time of the first temptation held out to you) [PARÆUS] to be removed by Jewish seducers. Thus he softens the censure by implying that the Galatians were tempted by seducers from without, with whom the chief guilt lay: and the present, "ye are being removed," implies that their seduction was only in process of being effected, not that it was actually effected. WAHL, ALFORD, and others take the Greek as middle voice. "ye are removing" or "passing over." "Shifting your ground" [CONYBEARE and HOWSON]. But thus the point of Paul's oblique reference to their misleaders is lost; and in Heb 7:12 the Greek is used passively, justifying its being taken so here. On the impulsiveness and fickleness of the Gauls (another form of Kel-t-s, the progenitors of the Erse, Gauls, Cymri, and Belgians), whence the Galatians sprang, see Introduction and CÆSAR [Commentaries on the Gallic War, 3.19].

from him that called you--God the Father (Gal 1:15; Gal 5:8; Rom 8:30; Co1 1:9; Th1 2:12; Th1 5:24).

into--rather, as Greek, "IN the grace of Christ," as the element in which, and the instrument by which, God calls us to salvation. Compare Note, see on Co1 7:15; Rom 5:15, "the gift by (Greek, 'in') grace (Greek, 'the grace') of (the) one man." "The grace of Christ," is Christ's gratuitously purchased and bestowed justification, reconciliation, and eternal life.

another--rather, as Greek, "a second and different gospel," that is, into a so-called gospel, different altogether from the only true Gospel.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed] It was a matter of wonder to the apostle that a people, so soundly converted to God, should have so soon made shipwreck of their faith. But mutability itself has not a more apt subject to work upon than the human heart; the alternate workings of different passions are continually either changing the character, or giving it a different colouring. Reason, not passion, the word of God, not the sayings of men, should alone be consulted in the concerns of our salvation.

From him that called you] The apostle seems here to mean himself. HE called them into the grace of Christ; and they not only abandoned that grace, but their hearts became greatly estranged from him; so that, though at first they would have plucked out their eyes for him, they at last counted him their enemy, Ga 4:14-16.

Another gospel] It is certain that in the very earliest ages of the Christian Church there were several spurious gospels in circulation, and it was the multitude of these false or inaccurate relations that induced St. Luke to write his own. See Lu 1:1. We have the names of more than seventy of these spurious narratives still on record, and in ancient writers many fragments of them remain; these have been collected and published by Fabricius, in his account of the apocryphal books of the New Testament, 3 vols. 8vo. In some of these gospels, the necessity of circumcision, and subjection to the Mosaic law in unity with the Gospel, were strongly inculcated. And to one of these the apostle seems to refer.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. I wonder. He commences by administering a rebuke, though a somewhat milder one than they deserved; but his greatest severity of language is directed, as we shall see, against the false apostles. He charges them with turning aside, not only from his gospel, but from Christ; for it was impossible for them to retain their attachment to Christ, without acknowledging that he has graciously delivered us from the bondage of the law. But such a belief cannot be reconciled with those notions respecting the obligation of ceremonial observance which the false apostles inculcated. They were removed from Christ; not that they entirely rejected Christianity, but that the corruption of their doctrines was such as to leave them nothing more than an imaginary Christ.

Thus, in our own times, the Papists, choosing to have a divided and mangled Christ, have none, and are therefore “removed from Christ.” They are full of superstitions, which are directly at variance with the nature of Christ. Let it be carefully observed, that we are removed from Christ, when we fall into those views which are inconsistent with his mediatorial office; for light can have no fellowship with darkness.

On the same principle, he calls it another gospel, that is, a gospel different from the true one. And yet the false apostles professed that they preached the gospel of Christ; but, mingling with it their own inventions, by which its principal efficacy was destroyed, they held a false, corrupt, and spurious gospel. By using the present tense, (“ye are removed”) he appears to say that they were only in the act of failing. As if he had said, “I do not yet say that ye have been removed; for then it would be more difficult to return to the right path. But now, at the critical moment, do not advance a single step, but instantly retreat.”

From Christ, who called you by grace. Others read it, “from him who called you by the grace of Christ,” understanding it to refer to the Father; but the reading which we have followed is more simple. When he says that they were called by Christ through grace, this tends to heighten the criminality of their ingratitude. To revolt from the Son of God under any circumstances, is unworthy and disgraceful; but to revolt from him, after being invited to partake salvation by grace, is more eminently base. His goodness to us renders our ingratitude to him more dreadfully heinous.

So soon. When it is considered how soon they had discovered a want of steadfastness, their guilt is still further heightened. A proper season, indeed, for departing from Christ cannot be imagined. But the fact, that no sooner had Paul left them than the Galatians were led away from the truth, inferred still deeper blame. As the consideration of the grace by which they had been called was adduced to aggravate their ingratitude, so the circumstance of the time when they were removed is now adduced to aggravate their levity.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

6–10. The subject and occasion of the Epistle

6. I marvel … gospel] The contrast between the form of address here adopted and that of other letters of St Paul is (as already noted) remarkable. In writing to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians, his opening words are expressive of thankfulness for the constancy of their faith and the fervour of their love. Even for the Corinthians, notwithstanding the party spirit which prevailed among them and the grievous sin which called for sharp rebuke, he has words of affection and even thankfulness. But the case of the Galatians was different. They had departed from the faith. Their error was fundamental, and if persisted in, fatal.

so soon removed] rather, so quickly passing over, transferring your allegiance.

‘So quickly’ is generally explained as, so soon after your conversion, or, after my recent visit. Commentators see an illustration of this expression in the fickleness of the national character, mentioned by Cæsar and Tacitus, and the intellectual restlessness noticed by Themistius, a writer of the 4th century a.d. But perhaps it only means ‘so readily’, with so little compunction, or resistance to the false teachers. Comp. 2Th_2:2.

from him that called you … Christ] Luther renders, “From Christ who called you in grace.” If the word Christ (omitted by some authorities) is to be retained, this is the best rendering of the passage for the reasons which he assigns. “It liketh me, that even as Paul a little before made Christ the Redeemer, who by His death delivereth us from this present evil world; also the giver of grace and peace equally with God the Father; so he should here make Him equally the caller in grace; for Paul’s special purpose is to beat into our minds the benefit of Christ, by whom we come unto the Father.”

Our calling is in grace, i.e. in His free and unmerited favour and goodness; as opposed to all notion of salvation by moral or ceremonial righteousness. “If it be by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace ceases to be grace any longer.” Rom_11:6.

unto another gospel] rather, ‘a different’ or ‘strange gospel’, a perverted gospel. I do not call it ‘another gospel’, for that would be to admit that there could be more than one.

This strange gospel appealed for authority to the other Apostles rather than to St Paul; and it insisted on the observance of the Jewish ceremonial law as a condition of salvation, ch. Gal_4:10-11, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed,.... The apostle now enters on the subject matter of this epistle, and opens the occasion and design of it, which were to reprove the Galatians for their instability in the Gospel; and, if possible, to reclaim them, who were removed, or removing from the simplicity of it; and which was very surprising to the apostle, who had entertained a good opinion of them, looked upon them as persons called by the grace of God, well established in the doctrines of the Gospel, and in no danger of being carried away with the error of the wicked the person from whom he says they were removed is,

from him that called you into the grace of Christ; by whom is meant, not the apostle himself, who had been an instrument in the calling of them to the knowledge of Christ, and the participation of his grace, and from whose Gospel, or the Gospel as preached by him, in its clearness and purity, they were now departing; but either Christ, and so the Syriac and Arabic versions read the words, "from Christ who called you by own grace"; or rather God the Father, and some copies read, "into", or "by the grace of God": to whom calling is most commonly ascribed in the sacred writings: and which is to be understood, not of a ministerial call, or a call to preach the Gospel of Christ; though there might be some in these churches who were called both internally and externally to that sacred office; nor a mere outward call by the ministry: for though doubtless there might be some among them who were only so called, yet as much as they were under profession of Christ, and nothing appearing to the contrary, they were all in a judgment of charity looked upon as effectually called by the grace of God; which calling is here meant: for they were called "into the grace of Christ"; some read it, "in", or "by the grace of Christ": referring it either to the moving cause of calling, which is not the works and merits of men, but the free grace and favour of God in Christ; or to the efficient cause of it, which is not the power and will of man, but the efficacious grace of Christ, through the powerful operations of his Spirit: but the words are well rendered, "into the grace of Christ"; that is, to the enjoyment of the fulness of grace which is in Christ; of all the blessings of grace he has in his hands; such as justification, peace, pardon, atonement, wisdom, strength, joy, comfort, and every supply of grace; and particularly fellowship with him, into which the saints are called, and than which nothing is more desirable: but the difficulty is, how such persons can be said to be removed from God, who has thus called them to partake of grace in Christ. They are not, nor can they be removed from the everlasting and unchangeable love of God to them in Christ, of which their calling is a fruit, effect, and evidence; nor from their covenant interest in him, which is immovable and inviolable; nor from a state of justification, in which they openly are, who in the effectual calling have passed from death to life, and so shall never enter into condemnation; nor from the family and household of God, in which they are; no, nor from the grace of calling with which they are called by God, and which has eternal salvation inseparably connected with it; but this must be understood doctrinally of their removal from the Gospel of Christ, though not of a total and final one. It is observed by some, that the word used is in the present tense, and shows that they were not gone off from the Gospel, but were upon going, so that the apostle had some hopes, yea, confidence of their being restored, Gal 5:10. And besides, though such as are truly called by grace cannot be finally and totally deceived by false prophets and false teachers, yet they may be greatly unhinged by them, and may fall from some degree of steadfastness in the doctrine of faith, which was the case of these Galatians: but what increased the apostle's surprise, and aggravated their sin and weakness, was, that they were "so soon" removed from the simplicity of the Gospel; he having been with them but a few years before, and preached the Gospel to them, which the means of their conversion, and of planting churches among them; at least he had lately paid them a visit, when he afresh strengthened them in the faith of the Gospel, Act 18:23. Or this may regard that easiness of mind which appeared in them, who upon the first attack of them by the false teachers, were weakly and cowardly giving up their faith, and at once giving into the notions of these men, as soon as they were proposed unto them. That which they are said to be removed

unto is

another Gospel, different from that, and very unlike to what had been preached to them, and they had received; which had nothing of the grace of Christ, of the doctrines and blessings of grace that had, by which they were called; very different from the Gospel of Christ, and his apostles, insomuch that it did not deserve the name of a Gospel; and the apostle calls it so, not that he thought it to be one, but because it was in the opinion of others, and was so styled by the false apostles; wherefore, by way of concession, he so calls it, though he immediately corrects it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Ver. 6. That ye are so soon] Giddy headed hearers have religionem ephemeram, are whirred about with every wind of doctrine, being constant only in their inconstancy, as Ecebolus, Balduinus, and our modern sects. The bishops and doctors of England (said that martyr) in their book against the pope’s supremacy, spoke as much as Luther or any Lutheran ever did or could. If they dissembled, who could ever so deeply, speaking so pithily? if not, who could ever turn head to tail so suddenly and so shortly as these did?

Removed from him, &c.] From Christ and me his apostle. Luther often in his books testifieth that he was much afraid, lest when he was dead, that sound doctrine of justification by faith alone would die also. It proved so in various places in Germany. Men fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall in autumn. The word here rendered removed, signifieth properly transported or transplanted. He alludes (saith Jerome) to the word Galal, to roll, as if he should say, You are Galatians, that is, rolling and changing, falling from the gospel of Christ to the law of Moses.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I marvel - I wonder. It is remarked by Luther (his commentary at the place) that Paul uses as mild a word as possible here. He does not employ the language of severe reproof, but he expresses his astonishment that the thing should have occurred. He was deeply affected and amazed, that such a thing could have happened. They had cordially embraced the gospel; they had manifested the tenderest attachment for him; they had given themselves to God, and yet in a very short time they had been led wholly astray, and had embraced opinions which tended wholly to pervert and destroy the gospel. They had shown an instability and inconstancy of character, which was to him perfectly surprising.

That ye are so soon - This proves that the Epistle was written not long after the gospel was first preached to them. According to the general supposition, it could not have been more than from two to five years. Had it been a long and gradual decline; had they been destitute for years of the privileges of the gospel; or had they had time to forget him who had first preached to them, it would not have been a matter of surprise. But when it occurred in a few months; when their once ardent love for Paul, and their confidence in him had so soon vanished, or their affections become alienated, and when they had so soon embraced opinions tending to, set the whole gospel aside, it could not but excite Paul’s wonder. Learn hence, that men, professedly pious, and apparently ardently attached to the gospel, may become soon perverted in their views, and alienated from those who had called them into the gospel, and whom they professed tenderly to love. The ardor of the affections becomes cool, and some artful, and zealous, and plausible teachers of error seduce the mind, corrupt the heart, and alienate the affections. Where there is the ardor of the first love to God, there is also an effort soon made by the adversary, to turn away the heart from him; and young converts are commonly soon attacked in some plausible manner, and by art and arguments adapted to turn away their minds from the truth, and to alienate the affections from God.

So soon removed - Luther remarks that this is also a mild and gentle term. It implies that foreign influence had been used to turn away their minds from the truth. The word used here (μετατίθεσθε metatithesthe) means, “to transpose; to put in another place;” and then, “to go over from one party to another.” Their affections had become transferred to other doctrines than those which they had at first embraced, and they had moved off from the only true foundation, to one which would give them no support.

From him that called you - There has been great difference of opinion in regard to the sense of this passage. Some have supposed, that it refers to God; others to Christ; others to Paul himself. Either supposition makes good sense, and conveys an idea not contrary to the Scriptures in other places. Doddridge, Chandler, Clarke, Macknight, Locke, and some others refer it to Paul; Rosenmuller, Koppe, and others, suppose it refers to God; and others refer it to the Redeemer. The Syriac renders it thus: “I marvel that ye are so soon turned away from that Messiah (Christ) who has called you.” etc. It is not possible, perhaps, to determine the true sense. It does not seem to me to refer to Paul, as the main object of the Epistle is, not to show that they had removed from “him,” but from the “gospel” - a far more grievous offence; and it seems to me that it is to he referred to God. The reasons are:

That he who had called them, is said to have called them “into the grace of Christ,” which would be hardly said of Christ himself; and, That the work of calling people is usually in the Scriptures attributed to God; 1Th 2:12; 1Th 5:24; 2Th 2:14; 2Ti 1:9.

Into the grace of Christ - Locke renders this, “into the covenant of grace which is by Christ.” Doddridge understands it of the method of salvation which is by or through the grace of Christ. There is no doubt that it refers to the plan of salvation which is by Christ, or in Christ; and the main idea is, that the scheme of salvation which they had embraced under his instruction, was one which contemplated salvation only by the grace or favor of Christ; and that from that they had been removed to another scheme, essentially different, where the grace of Christ was made useless and void. It is Paul’s object to show that the true plan makes Christ the great and prominent object; and that the plan which they had embraced was in this respect wholly different.

Unto another gospel - A gospel which destroys the grace of Christ; which proclaims salvation on other terms than simple dependence on the merits of the Lord Jesus; and which has introduced the Jewish rites and ceremonies as essential, in order to obtain salvation. The apostle calls that scheme the “gospel,” because it pretended to be; it was preached by those who claimed to be preachers of the gospel; who alleged that they had come direct from the apostles at Jerusalem, and who pretended to declare the method of salvation. It claimed to be the gospel, and yet it was essentially unlike the plan which he had preached as constituting the gospel. That which he preached, inculcated the entire dependence of the sinner on the merits and grace of Christ; that system had introduced dependence on the observance of the rites of the Mosaic system, as necessary to salvation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

This was about three or four years after their conversion. The apostle knowing very well how to suit his discourse to his auditors, in this epistle makes use of a more severe and harsh address than is observable in his other epistles. The reason is, the Galatians were a less civilized people, and had already shewn the little attachment they had to their spiritual father. (Calmet) --- To another gospel: which is not [2] another. That is, it is not properly another, because they pretended to be Christians, and teach the faith: and yet it was in some measure another, because changed by such teachers with a mixture of errors, particularly that all converted Gentiles were to observe the Jewish law: and in this sense, they are said to subvert, or destroy the gospel of Christ: so that the apostle hesitates not to pronounce and repeat an anathema, a curse upon all that preach any thing besides, that is, in point of religion, not agreeing with what he had taught. I cannot omit here a reflection, which St. John Chrysostom makes on the 7th verse. Where are they, saith he, who condemn us (Catholics) for the differences we have with heretics? and who pretend there is no such essential difference betwixt us and them, so as to judge them excluded from the communion of the Catholic Church, out of which there is no salvation, unless perhaps through ignorance. --- Let them hear what St. Paul says, that they destroyed the gospel who made any such innovations: to wit, by introducing again as necessary some of the Jewish ceremonies, even at a time when the Christians, who had been Jews, might lawfully use them, and even they who had been Gentiles. St. Paul says, this is to change and destroy the gospel; he repeats anathema against them. Let them hear, and take notice of this, who pretend that the unity of the one Catholic faith is sufficiently maintained by all Christian societies, that agreeing, as they say, in fundamentals, their faith is a saving faith: that the council of Trent, without reason, pronounced such anathemas against them: that all Catholics are uncharitable for denying them to be in the way to salvation, when they make Scripture alone, as interpreted by their private judgment, the only rule of their faith. They may as well accuse not only St. John Chrysostom but also St. Paul, of uncharitableness, &c. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The apostle here beginneth the matter and substance of his Epistle, with a reprehension of this church; which in, some things is much qualified, in other things much aggravated. His expressing his reproof by the word marvel, hath in it something of mitigation, and signifieth his better hopes concerning them. The term removed, also, mollifies the reproof, the apostle thereby rather charging their apostacy upon their seducers, than upon them who were seduced; though they were not to be excused for their so yielding to the temptation, and that in so short a time, either after their first conversion, or after the first attempts upon them to seduce them; and herein was the aggravation of their guilt, that they very little resisted the temptation, but were presently overthrown by it. But it was a greater aggravation of their guilt, that they suffered themselves to be removed from him that called them. Interpreters doubt whether this be to be understood of God, or of Paul; and if of God, whether of the First or of the Second Person. That which inclineth some to think that Paul meant himself, was his instrumentality in the conversion of these Galatians; and his complaints of them in this Epistle, for their deserting his doctrine, and alienation from him; but then the substantive to the participle must be understood, and the call must be understood of the external call only, by the ministry of the word. It therefore seemeth rather to be understood of God; the apostles generally ascribing calling to God, Gal 5:8; 1Th 5:24; 2Th 2:14; 1Pe 1:2,15; 2Pe 1:3. Nor doth it seem proper to refer the action to Christ, because the apostles ordinarily ascribe calling to the First Person in the Trinity, calling us by Christ, as Rom 8:30; 2Th 2:13,14,16; 2Ti 1:9; 1Pe 5:10; besides, the grace of Christ is here made the term to which they are called. And though this would supply the participle with a substantive in the text, without understanding one, yet it seems both too remote, and also to alter the sense of the text; making it to run thus, from Christ that called you unto grace, instead of

him that called you into the grace of Christ. By which grace the apostle doubtless means not the doctrine of the gospel only, (though that be sometimes called grace), but all the benefits of the gospel, justification, reconciliation, adoption; which are all properly called the grace of Christ, as being the purchase of his blood.

Unto another gospel; that is, to the embracing of other doctrine, differing from the doctrine of the gospel, though it be brought to you by seducers under that notion; showing you another pretended way of salvation than by the merits of Jesus Christ, whereas God hath given no other name under heaven, neither is there salvation in any other, Act 4:12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

It is unnecessary again to remark on the disturbance of mind indicated by the abruptness with which the apostle plunges into the language of reproof. It cannot fail to strike every careful reader. I marvel (qaumazw); I do marvel. The verb is used here with reference to something disappointing, something felt to be painful as well as strange. So Mar_6:6 with reference to the unbelief of the Nazarenes. It is unjust to the apostle to take this "I do marvel" of his as a mere artifice of politic address: though unquestionably, as Chrysostom and Luther have well noted, it does soften his rebuke. The apostle was genuinely surmised; for he had had so much reason for thinking well of them. (comp. Gal_3:1 Gal_4:14, 15 5:7) How could converts, once so cordial and affectionate, have possibly been so misled? As he reflects on the case, whatever feeling of resentment mingled with his surprise turns off upon the pseudo-evangelists misleading them; and accordingly it is upon these that his anathema is pronounced, not upon them at all (cf. Gal_5:9, Gal_5:12) They, indeed, by listening to the false teaching, were in danger of falling from grace; but this he rather compassionates than angrily denounces.

That ye are so soon removed (oti outw tacewv metatiqesqe); that ye are so quickly falling away. This "quickly" has been taken by many as meaning "so soon after ye were called," and as consequently furnishing some ground for determining the time of the writing of the Epistle. But the comparison of the use of the same adverb (tacewv) in 2Th_2:2, "Be not quickly shaken;" and inqesqai, 1Ti_5:22, "Lay hands hastily on no man," suggests rather the meaning, "so quickly upon being solicited thereto." The verb metati to transfer one"s self to a different course of thinking, acting, partisanship (cf. Liddell and Scott, "Lexicon"), is used both in an unfavourable and in a good sense. Thus RAPC 2Ma 7:24, Metaqemenon ajpown nomwn "If he would give over following the laws of his country;" Appian, "Bell. Mithr.," 41: "Falling away, going over, from (ajpo) Archelaus to Sylla;" Jamblich, "Protrept," 17, "Change from (ajpo) a restless and profligate mode of life to an orderly one." The verb, being in the present tense, and not in the aorist or the perfect, suggests the idea of an action in its commencing stage, and not yet fully consummated; as Chrysostom observes: "That is, "I do not yet believe nor suppose that the delusion has got to be complete the language of one who will fain win them back." From him that called you into the grace of Christ (ajposantov uJmav ejn cariti Cristou); from him that called you w be in the grace of Christ. The phrase, "he that called you," recites the personality of "our God and Father," spoken of in vers. 3, 4. The calling of man into the kingdom of God is habitually ascribed by St.Paul to the First Person in the Trinity. (cf. ver. 15; Rom_8:30 Rom_9:24; 1Co_1:9 1Co_7:15, 1Co_7:17; 1Th_2:12; 2Th_2:14; 2Ti_1:9) God"s name is omitted, as in ver. 15 (where it is wanting in the more recent texts), and Gal_2:8, "For he that wrought for Peter." The apostle impressively, even startlingly, describes their defection from the truth of the gospel as no other than a defection from God himself; similarly to the strain of language pursued in Heb_3:12-15. "The grace of Christ" recites the state of acceptance with God into which Christians are brought by Christ through faith in him. Gal_5:4. "Fallen away from grace;" Rom_5:2, "Through whom we have also had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." The genitive, "of Christ," denotes the Author, as in" the peace of; (Php_4:7) "righteousness of God". (Rom_1:17 Rom_3:21, etc.) There is a pathos in the word "grace," as referring to the sweet gentleness of Christ"s yoke as contrasted with the yoke of ceremonial-ism which the Galatians were so foolishly hankering after. The construction, "Called you in the grace of Christ," is similar to "Called us in peace"; (1Co_7:15) "Ye were called in one hope of your calling"; (Eph_4:4) "Called us... in sanctification". (1Th_4:7) The verb "call," implying as it does the bringing into a certain state, suggests the sense here given to the clause, in preference to our taking it as meaning "called you by the grace of Christ." Unto another gospel (eijv ejteron eujaggekion); unto another (or, a new) sort of gospel. The adjective eteron, as contrasted with allo used in the next verse, appears to intimate the changed quality of the object, its strange new-fangled character. The adjective does sometimes take this shade of meaning. Thusssoiv 1Co_14:21, jEn eJteroglw kailesin eJteroiv, "By men of strange tongues, and by lips of strangers;"lion 2Co_11:4, Pneuma epteron eujagge eteron," Different spirit different gospel llov 1Ti_1:3, JEterodidaskalein, "Teach a different doctrine." The reader will find a brief but instructive description of the difference at times observable between eterov and a in Bishop Lightfoot"s note on the passage; who cites the Septuagint rendering in Exo_1:8 of the Hebrew "new king," which it gives basileuv eterpv: and a passage in Xenophon"s "Cyclopaedia," 8:3, 8, "If you accuse me... another time when I serve you you will find me (eJterw diakonw) another sort of attendant." The phrase, "another sort of gospel," so far as giving the new form of doctrine the title of "gospel" at all, is paradoxical and sarcastic. The paradox is corrected in what follows. The substantive, "gospel." is borrowed, not without a tinge of irony, from the pretensions of the innovators; they, of course, would be ready to designate their mangled form of Christian doctrine as still "the gospel." The epithet which the apostle adds gives his own view of its character.

The sad defection of the Galatians.

The apostle enters at once upon the business in hand, and calls them to account for their incipient apostasy.

I MARK THE APOSTLE"S SORROWFUL SURPRISE. "I marvel that ye are so quickly turning away from him who called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel." The Celtic heartiness with which they received him at the first, "as an angel of God, even as Christ," might well excite his wonder at their rapid defection. He understood human nature, but there was something in their conduct which baffled ordinary calculations. His surprise is tinged with sorrow, disappointment, perhaps the least touch of anger, and has, unhappily, to occupy the place usually assigned in his Epistles to thanksgivings for the gifts and graces of his converts. Yet there is a tender and cautious tone in the rebuke, as if to imply that his indignation was directed rather against their seducers than against themselves. It does not exclude the idea that they might yet be recovered from their error.

II THE RAPIDITY OF THE DEFECTION. "Ye are so quickly turning away." So soon after their conversion, or so soon after their hearty reception of him. (Gal_4:14, Gal_4:15) How fickle and changeable the Celtic temper! Caesar says, "The Gauls for the most part affect new things." "Giddy-headed hearers have religionem ephemeram, are whirled about by every wind of doctrine, being "constant only in their inconstancy" (Trappe). "They had itching ears; they had heaped to themselves teachers according to their own lusts"; (2Ti_4:3) that is, they liked to taste the humour of teachers who would not disturb them in their sinful ways, and used feigned words (plastoiv logoiv)," rather, words fashioned so as to suit the humour of their disciples. There are men who "by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple". (Rom_16:18) And the devil is always at hand to corrupt from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2Co_11:3) The Galatians had begun to grow weary of sound doctrine perhaps from the rooted enmity of the carnal mind to spiritual things, and error once received into a mind that has departed from the freshness of first love, takes firmer root than truth, because it is more in affinity with our lower moods. Besides, there is something in error to recommend it to the curiosity, or pride, or superstition of unstable natures.

III THE SERIOUS ASPECT OF THE DEFECTION. It was not only in its incipiency, as the apostle signifies, but it was in real process of development. It had a double aspect.

1. It was defection/tom a person. "From him who called you." This was not the apostle himself, for he does not usually give prominence to his own labours, but rather ascribes the successes of the gospel to the grace and Spirit of God. It was a defection from God the Father, to whom the calling is uniformly ascribed (Rom_8:30 Rom_9:24; 1Co_1:9) As such, the apostasy had all the character of ingratitude. But this apostasy, in its completed aspect, is a crucifying of Christ afresh, a fresh immolation of the Redeemer.

2. It was defection from the system of grace. They were called "into the grace of Christ." They had their standing in the dispensation of grace: for the call of God works only in that sphere, (Rom_5:15) and the Judaist emissaries sinned by attempting to draw them off from their true standing-ground. (Rom_5:2) Thus the Galatians made a double mistake, pregnant with the worst results they forgot that conversion is God"s work, not man"s, and that the covenant under which the blessing is realized is not of works, but of grace.

IV THE "TERMINUS AD QUEM" OF THE DEFECTION. "TO a different gospel." The apostle does not concede that the Jewish teachers taught the gospel, even in a perverted form, though it might be called a gospel by its teachers. Luther says, "No heretic ever cometh under the title of errors or of the devil." The apostle"s phrase, eteron, points to a difference in kind which is not involved in ajllo. The gospel, in fact, lost its true character by the perverting additions of the Judaists.

V THE DANGER OF APOSTASY. The forcible language of the apostle implies the fearful risks involved in the perversions of the false teachers. Of all falls those of apostates are the most melancholy. They fall from a great height of privilege. They lose all their past pains and sacrifices in the cause of religion. They deliberately part with all the hopes of mercy and glory in the world to come.

Vers. 6-10.

Paul"s intolerance of any other gospel

After the usual apostolic greeting, Paul proceeds, not to congratulate or compliment the Galatians in any way, but to reprimand them for turning away from the gospel to ritualism. Their idea of salvation through becoming Jews was subversive of the gospel of grace, and so the apostle shows himself intolerant of the false doctrine which was so mischievous. So sure is he of his position that he does not hesitate to denounce with the curse of God any, be they men or angels, who would preach a different gospel from that gospel of Christ"s self-sacrifice which he preached. Moreover, if they imagined that to be popular he would trifle with principle, he gave them to understand that he would never, to propitiate public opinion, violate in the least degree his obligation as the slave of Christ.

I IT IS MARVELLOUS HOW ATTRACTIVE RITUALISM IS TO FICKLE MINDS. (Ver. 6.) Now, by ritualism we mean a plan of salvation by rites and ceremonies. The principle is the same whether the rites and ceremonies are Jewish or mediaeval. It is a substitute for the gospel of grace. 1%w, Paul marvelled that these Celts in Asia so speedily turned away from the gospel of grace to a gospel of ritual. He wondered at their fickleness. And yet, when we consider the sensationalism which underlies every ritualistic system, we can understand the hold it has upon those constitutionally fickle. Whatever is showy, palpable, and helpful to self-esteem and pride secures the homage of shallow minds. But the sad aspect of this tendency is that it removes souls from God. Every rite and ceremony which is interposed as essential between man and God creates a sense of distance between those whom the gospel would bring nigh. Instead of ritualism tending to intensify communion with God, it can only intensify the superstitious feeling which puts souls at a distance from him.

II RITUALISM IS A PERVERSION OF THE GOSPEL. (Ver. 7.) For Paul would not admit that the ritualism imported by the Judaizers into Galatia was another gospel; in his view it was no gospel, but a perversion of it. For if I am told I can be saved only by becoming a Jew, by being circumcised, and keeping the Old Testament ritual, and that I cannot be saved by faith alone, I am deprived of the glad tidings which Christ"s gospel gives, and projected upon a path of real self-righteousness. It is the same with modern ritualism. Salvation by ceremonies is the antithesis of salvation by grace. It is a perversion of God"s good news to man and must result in disappointment.

III WE OUGHT, LIKE PAUL, TO BE S0 SURE OF THE GOSPEL WE PROCLAIM AS TO BE INTOLERANT OF ANY OTHER. (Ver. 8.) Paul had got such a grasp of the gospel of grace, the self-sacrifice of Christ was so sure and so sufficient a foundation for man"s hope, that he could not tolerate any other message. Even should he himself change his views in the course of years and come to Galatia with another gospel, or should an angel from heaven with an aureole of light proclaim another gospel than the one Paul had at first proclaimed, then is the apostle ready to call down upon his perverted self or the perverted angel the curse of God. Now, this intolerant side of truth really springs from the sure grasp we have of it. It is inseparable from intense conviction. Of course, it is quite distinct from the intolerance which dictates persecution. Paul would not persecute; but he would leave the perverts in the hands of God that he might deal with them. Persecution is devoting men to the curse of men; the true intolerance contents itself with leaving the offenders in the hands of a holy and just God.

IV THE BEING WHO MISLEADS HIS FELLOWS ABOUT SALVATION DESERVES THE CURSE OF GOD. (Ver. 9.) Paul has not been rashly betrayed into intolerance of spirit. He had expressed himself to the same effect on a previous occasion, probably during his second visit to Galatia. (Act_18:23) He is now prepared to stick to his anathema. He feels in his heart of hearts that the person who trifles with the eternal interests of others and proclaims a false method of salvation deserves the Divine curse. The gospel Paul had preached was the gospel of free grace. No simpler terms of pardon and acceptance can be imagined than are offered in the gospel; it is only devil"s work which those persons manage to perform who complicate salvation with rites and ceremonies, making it less easy than God intends. Having regard, then, to the eternal interests at stake, it must be admitted that the deceiver of souls deserves the curse of Heaven. How solemn a responsibility it is to guide men to God! How clear and unmistakable should the plan of salvation be made! How deep the guilt and how dire the doom of those who pervert the gospel!

V THE SLAVE OF CHRIST WILL NOT BE THE SLAVE OF PUBLIC OPINION. (Ver. 10.) Paul was undoubtedly a man of great breadth of view and sympathy. It was a principle with him to please his neighbour for his good to edification. (Rom_15:2) He was ready to become all things to all men in the hope of saving some. (1Co_9:22 1Co_10:33) And the Judaizers thought that this pleasing of men on Paul"s part would lead him to accept of their ritualism and give up his gospel if their policy was once thoroughly popular. In short, their notion was that Paul was so enamoured of popularity that he would bow to public opinion at all hazards. Now, this is what he repudiates in this last verse. "Do I now," he asks, "win over to myself men or God? Or am I seeking to be an object of man"s good will? No; and there is a decisive reason against any such efforts. If I were still pleasing men, if I had not resigned the hope of human favour and of human approval, I should not be the slave of Christ." This leads us into the wide subject of our attitude towards public opinion. Now, our danger undoubtedly is in over-estimating it. Our safety lies in being slaves to Christ. His opinion is to be our one simple concern, and public opinion may coincide with or differ from his, but we must hold firmly by our obligations to the one Master, and all other things will range themselves rightly around us. The uncompromising slave of Christ will be found to be after all the most considerate servant of men. R.M.E.

Vers. 6-10.

Occasion of the Epistle.

I THE APOSTLE EXPRESSES AMAZEMENT AT THE CHANGED BEARING OF THE GALATIANS TOWARDS THE GOSPEL. "I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel; which is not another gospel: only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ? Only in this Epistle are wanting prefatory words of acknowledgment. In the case of the Corinthians he has words of warm acknowledgment, because, notwithstanding irregularities, they were in the main attached to the gospel. But all of attachment to the gospel that the apostle had formerly been thankful for in the Galatians was now so endangered that he can only approach them with a feeling of utter amazement.

1. The fundamental nature of the change. They were removing from him that called them in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel. If this was a different gospel, then we have a description of the gospel of Christ going before. It is the grace of Christ. It is the good offer of pardon and salvation, not on the ground of our merits, but purely on the ground of the sacrifice and merits of Christ. That gospel had been preached in Galatia, and in and by it God had called them unto himself, unto fellowship with himself, unto holiness and happiness. But now they were moving away from him that called them in that gospel unto a different gospel. The difference was that it was no more the pure grace of Christ, but a mixture of grace and works. Their departure from the gospel was not completed, the process was still going on; but it was so fundamental a departure that the apostle marvels at their guilt.

2. The suddenness of the change. They were removing so quickly from him that called them in the gospel unto a different gospel. From the point of their being called up to the present point, their Christian career had certainly been short. But that does not seem sufficient by itself to account for the abruptness with which the apostle breaks in here. God had called them in the gospel, and they had continued in the gospel up to a certain point. From the experience of his second visit, and from information received, he was thinking hopefully of them; when all at once he is informed of apostasy in rapid progress. They were acting with characteristic Gallic mobility. Fickleness is the name applied to it, when the form is evil. A Gallic tribe might be to all appearance contented and prosperous, when, suddenly impelled by the love of change, it would move away to another locality. "Almost all the Gauls," says Caesar, in his account of his Gallic wars, "are given to change." The Galatians themselves were a striking example of this love of change. This characteristic would be in favour of their reception of the gospel at the first. But would they not as easily move away from the gospel? In view of Gallic mobility, the apostle of Christ needed to be as vigorous as the Roman captain was.

3. The unsatisfactoriness of the change. He had said "different gospel" with a certain accommodation. It professed to be a gospel, and he objected to it that it was another kind of gospel. That, however, might seem to contain an admission by him, which he does not wish to make, of there being many gospels, among which a selection might be made. So he hastens to deny that this other kind is a second gospel. He lets it be known that there is only one gospel of Christ. What was being palmed upon them was only misnamed gospel. It was not improving the gospel to add circumcision to it. It was only perverting it, making it no more the gospel of Christ. And this perversion was being palmed upon them by men who had not their real good at heart, whose real character was that of troublers, harassers. They would put upon them a yoke which Christians did not need to bear. And they were men who followed in the track of the preachers of the gospel to break the unity of the Christian communities.

II THE APOSTLE PRONOUNCES AN ANATHEMA ON PERVERTERS OF THE GOSPEL. "But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema." Anathema is a thing devoted to destruction, or on which a curse is laid. An animal laid on the altar was anathema, i.e. doomed to death. Christ was anathema for us, i.e. given over, and the curse of God fell on him. He supposes two cases: it is implied that they are not actual. The first is the case of a genuine preacher of the gospel himself or any of his associates. He (others assisting) had preached the gospel among the Galatians. He had been the instrument of God in their conversion and in forming them into Churches. He had given them many proofs of his earnestness. If he which God forbid! should be so far left to himself as to turn his back on his previous history as a Christian teacher, if he should profess to have got new light, if he should say that they could be saved on any other ground than the grace of Christ, then (protecting their liberty even against himself, and protecting the interests of Christ) his feeling with regard to himself, acting in the way supposed, would be, "Let him be anathema." The second is the ease of an angel from heaven. This calls up an image of extraordinary saintliness, greater than that of any of the best men, who are all compassed about with infirmity. What an influence is here supposed to back up a message If an angel should come among them, fresh from the presence of God, with the atmosphere of heaven around him; if by the saintliness of his life he should succeed in establishing himself beyond all parallel in their affection and confidence; if in this position he should teach that they could be roved on any other ground than the grace of Christ; then (protecting their liberty, and protecting the interests of Christ) he would say, "Let him be accursed." It might seem that this is asseveration made strong as strong can be; but its strength is yet added to. Reaffirmation of a former anathema. "As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema." At a former time (it may have been on the occasion of his second visit) others had joined with him in pronouncing an anathema which only differs from the foregoing in three minor particulars.

1. It is put in the most general form. "If any man.

2. An actual case is supposed. "If any man preacheth. " Wherever they had the opportunity, Judaizing teachers were doing what is denounced.

3. They had affixed their seal to the g ospel. It had not only been preached to them, but also received by them. They had from their own experience of it known what it was. The anathema in this form the apostle for himself reaffirms. Being substantially the same as the foregoing, it is thus brought about that a threefold anathema is uttered against perverters of the gospel. Nor is there anything in this inconsistent with good feeling. Let us suppose that one man has in his power the lives of a thousand persons. By applying a match he may be able to throw away all these valuable lives. Better tar that he himself should perish than that by his wickedness a thousand persons should perish. It was not dissimilar in the case of the Galatians. A good work had been going on among them. By the preaching of the gospel many had been brought to the Saviour. If this good work went on, many more, from time to time, would be added to their number. But if these perverters of the gospel succeeded, then all that good work would be spoiled. Better far that they themselves should be wrecked in their interests than that by them hundreds should be wrecked in their interests. There is a solemn warning here to all perverters of the gospel, of whom there are not a few in our day. The curse of God rests on the man who would displace the grace of Christ as the sole ground of a sinner"s salvation.

III THE APOSTLE TURNS HIS USE OF STRONG LANGUAGE INTO AN ARGUMENT AGAINST HIS BEING A MAN-PLEASER. "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." His opponents warned men against his persuasive powers. He could make the Jews believe one thing and the Gentiles another. He could prove that circumcision was right and that circumcision was wrong, as it suited him. Against this charge he here, by the way, points the Galatians to the strong language which he has just used, and has not used for the first time. Could it be said in view of that language that he was making it his highest object to persuade men, i.e. without reference to truth, without reference to Divine ends? Was he not rather making it his highest object to persuade God, i.e. so to speak to men as to have the Divine judgment in his favour? His opponents said more widely that he was a man-pleaser, that he sought by unworthy methods to ingratiate himself into men"s favour. The strong language he had used could not be construed into man-pleasing. He had got beyond human good will in becoming a servant of Christ. And as a servant of Christ he had known not a little of what it is to want the good opinion and good will of men. R.F.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I marvel that ye are removed so soon - After my leaving you. From him who called you by the grace of Christ - His gracious gospel, and his gracious power.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

VERSE 6. I marvel.

How patiently Paul deals with his seduced Galatians! He does not pounce on them but, like a father, he fairly excuses their error. With motherly affection he talks to them yet he does it in a way that at the same time he also reproves them. On the other hand, he is highly indignant at the seducers whom he blames for the apostasy of the Galatians. His anger bursts forth in elemental fury at the beginning of his epistle. "If any may," he cries, "preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Later on, in the fifth chapter, he threatens the false apostles with damnation. "He that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." He pronounces a curse upon them. "I would they were even cut off which trouble you."

He might have addressed the Galatians after this fashion: "I am ashamed of you. Your ingratitude grieves me. I am angry with you." But his purpose was to call them back to the Gospel. With this purpose in his mind he speaks very gently to them. He could not have chosen a milder expression than this, "I marvel." It indicates his sorrow and his displeasure.

Paul minds the rule which he himself lays down in a later chapter where he says: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Toward those who have been misled we are to show ourselves parentally affectionate, so that they may perceive that we seek not their destruction but their salvation. Over against the devil and his missionaries, the authors of false doctrines and sects, we ought to be like the Apostle, impatient, and rigorously condemnatory, as parents are with the dog that bites their little one, but the weeping child itself they soothe.

The right spirit in Paul supplies him with an extraordinary facility in handling the afflicted consciences of the fallen. The Pope and his bishops, inspired by the desire to lord it over men’s souls, crack out thunders and curses upon miserable consciences. They have no care for the saving of men’s souls. They are interested only in maintaining their position.

VERSE 6. That ye are so soon.

Paul deplores the fact that it is difficult for the mind to retain a sound and steadfast faith. A man labors for a decade before he succeeds in training his little church into orderly religion, and then some ignorant and vicious poltroon comes along to overthrow in a minute the patient labor of years. By the grace of God we have effected here in Wittenberg the form of a Christian church. The Word of God is taught as it should be, the Sacraments are administered, and everything is prosperous. This happy condition, secured by many years of arduous labors, some lunatic might spoil in a moment. This happened in the churches of Galatia which Paul had brought into life in spiritual travail. Soon after his departure, however, these Galatian churches were thrown into confusion by the false apostles.

The church is a tender plant. It must be watched. People hear a couple of sermons, scan a few pages of Holy Writ, and think they know it all. They are bold because they have never gone through any trials of faith. Void of the Holy Spirit, they teach what they please as long as it sounds good to the common people who are ever ready to join something new.

We have to watch out for the devil lest he sow tares among the wheat while we sleep. No sooner had Paul turned his back on the churches of Galatia, than the false apostles went to work. Therefore, let us watch over ourselves and over the whole church.

VERSE 6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed.

Again the Apostle puts in a gentle word. He does not berate the Galatians, "I marvel that ye are so unsteady, unfaithful." He says, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed." He does not address them as evildoers. He speaks to them as people who have suffered great loss. He condemns those who removed them rather than the Galatians. At the same time he gently reproves them for rather themselves to be removed. The criticism is implied that they should have been permitting a little more settled in their beliefs. If they had taken better hold of the Word they could not have been removed so easily.

Jerome thinks that Paul is playing upon the name Galatians, deriving it from the Hebrew word Galath, which means fallen or carried away, as though Paul wanted to say, "You are true Galatians, i.e., fallen away in name and in fact." Some believe that the Germans are descended from the Galatians. There may be something to that. For the Germans are not unlike the Galatians in their lack of constancy. At first we Germans are very enthusiastic, but presently our emotions cool and we become slack. When the light of the Gospel first came to us many were zealous, heard sermons greedily, and held the ministry of God’s Word in high esteem. But now that religion has been reformed, many who formerly were such earnest disciples have discarded the Word of God, have become sow-bellies like the foolish and inconsistent Galatians.

VERSE 6. From him that called you into the grace of Christ.

The reading is a little doubtful. The sentence may be construed to read: "From that Christ that called you into grace"; or it may be construed to read: "From God that called you into the grace of Christ." I prefer the former for it seems to me that Paul’s purpose is to impress upon us the benefits of Christ. This reading also preserves the implied criticism that the Galatians withdrew themselves from that Christ who had called them not unto the law, but unto grace. With Paul we decry the blindness and perverseness of men in that they will not receive the message of grace and salvation, or having received it they quickly let go of it, in spite of the fact that the Gospel bestows all good things spiritual: forgiveness of sins, true righteousness, peace of conscience, everlasting life; and all good things temporal: good judgment, good government and peace.

Why does the world abhor the glad tidings of the Gospel and the blessings that go with it? Because the world is the devil’s. Under his direction the world persecutes the Gospel and would if it could nail again Christ, the Son of God, to the Cross although He gave Himself into death for the sins of the world. The world dwells in darkness. The world is darkness.

Paul accentuates the point that the Galatians had been called by Christ unto grace. "I taught you the doctrine of grace and of liberty from the Law, from sin and wrath, that you should be free in Christ, and not slaves to the hard laws of Moses. Will you allow yourselves to be carried away so easily from the living fountain of grace and life?"

VERSE 6. Unto another gospel.

Note the resourcefulness of the devil. Heretics do not advertise their errors. Murderers, adulterers, thieves disguise themselves. So the devil masquerades all his devices and activities. He puts on white to make himself look like an angel of light. He is astoundingly clever to sell his patent poison for the Gospel of Christ. Knowing Satan’s guile, Paul sardonically calls the doctrine of the false apostles "another gospel," as if he would say, "You Galatians have now another gospel, while my Gospel is no longer esteemed by you."

We infer from this that the false apostles had depreciated the Gospel of Paul among the Galatians on the plea that it was incomplete. Their objection to Paul’s Gospel is identical to that recorded in the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Acts to the effect that it was not enough for the Galatians to believe in Christ, or to be baptized, but that it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses, for "except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." As though Christ were a workman who had begun a building and left it for Moses to finish.

Today the Anabaptists and others, finding it difficult to condemn us, accuse us Lutherans of timidity in professing the whole truth. They grant that we have laid the foundation in Christ, but claim that we have failed to go through with the building. In this way these perverse fanatics parade their cursed doctrine as the Word of God, and, flying the flag of God’s name, they deceive many. The devil knows better than to appear ugly and black. He prefers to carry on his nefarious activities in the name of God. Hence the German proverb: "All mischief begins in the name of God."

When the devil sees that he cannot hurt the cause of the Gospel by destructive methods, he does it under the guise of correcting and advancing the cause of the Gospel. He would like best of all to persecute us with fire and sword, but this method has availed him little because through the blood of martyrs the church has been watered. Unable to prevail by force, he engages wicked and ungodly teachers who at first make common cause with us, then claim that they are particularly called to teach the hidden mysteries of the Scriptures to superimpose upon the first principles of Christian doctrine that we teach. This sort of thing brings the Gospel into trouble. May we all cling to the Word of Christ against the wiles of the devil, "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

grace

The test of the Gospel is grace. If the message excludes grace, or mingles law with grace as the means of either of justification or sanctification Gal 2:21; Gal 3:1-3 or denies the fact or guilt of sin which alone gives grace its occasion and opportunity, it is "another" gospel, and the preacher of it is under the anathema of God Gal 1:8; Gal 1:9.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The heavy charge which St. Paul brings in against the false apostles or Judiazing teachers, they perverted the gospel which St. Paul preached, and taught a new gospel of their own; yet not absolutely so, but by compounding and mingling the gospel with the cermonial law, and by making circumcision and other things, necessary to salvation, which our Saviour never made so, this the apostle calls another gospel.

Whence learn, 1. That it is no new or strange thing to hear of new gospels, of true gospel perverters, and of false gospel teachers. We find such in the primitive and purest churches, planted even by the apostles themselves; no wonder they are found in our days, who are fallen into the very dregs of time and error together.

Learn, 2. That the addition of any thing to the Christian religion, as necessary to be believed and practiced in order to salvation, is a perverting the gospel of Christ, and preaching another gospel. These Galatians did not renounce Christianity, and go over to another religion, but they received circumcision, and the observation of the law of Moses; as an essential part of the Christian religion, and as a condition of eternal salvation: whereas the death of Christ having put an end to the Jewish dispensation, there was neither then, nor now, any obligation upon Christians to observe the law of Moses; and consequently, the addition of any thing to the Christian doctrine, as necessary to be believed and practiced in order to salvation, is preaching another gospel, and a manifest perverting of the gospel of Christ.

Learn, 3. That there is no authority in the Christian church, in any, or in all the guides of it, to impose upon Christians any thing, as of necessity to salvation, which the gospel has not made necessary. The apostles themselves had no authority to add any thing to the gospel, much less can any that come after them pretend to it: Christ commanded them, Mat 28:19, to teach all nations, to observe all things whatsoever he commaded them: and head the apostles themselves added any point of faith and practice, not given them in charge by Christ himself, they had fallen under that curse themselves, which here they denounced against false teachers.

Observe, 2. The artifice which these false teachers used to draw the Galatians into these new errors, and that was hastily and suddenly to avow and own them before the world; I marvel that ye are so soon removed. Seducers are for clapping up a hasty match between the mind and error, and press the seduced to quick resolutions; a hasty dispatch being their great advantage, before they consult their spiritual guides, or weigh matters in the balance of impartial judgments. What says the apostle, are ye so soon removed? Yes, might the false teachers have said, if not so soon, it might never; if not so soon removed, they might never be at all: for errors are like fish, they must be eaten fresh and new, or they’ll quickly stink, and be thrown away.

Observe, 3. The true cause from which the Galatians fall into error did proceed: they trusted themselves with themselves; they trusted to the clearness of their own unassisted eyes, and to the strength of their own reason and judgment, without consulting their spiritual guide. Had not these Galatians a Paul to consult with, before they gave their consent to false teachers? Or if he was at a distance from them, about the work of the Lord in remote places, could not they have written to him, or advised with others besides him? Woe to him that is alone, when assaulted by seducers!

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel [The word translated "marvel" conveys the idea of admiration rather than of wonder. Their fickleness was sufficiently striking to be brilliant. Since, if Paul wrote this letter from Corinth on his third missionary tour, it was three years since he had been with them, commentators have been tempted to choose some other date comporting better with "quickly," for three years is rather a long period. But Paul refers to moral speed. The Galatians were changing their position hastily and without due consideration. In doing this they were withdrawing from the God who called them (for "him" refers to God, and not to Paul-- Gal_1:15 ; Gal_5:8 ; Rom_8:30 ; 1Co_1:9 ; 1Th_2:12 ; 1Th_5:24 ; 2Ti_1:9 ) and from the grace, or liberty, peace, etc., of the kingdom into which they had been called, for what? for a new gospel which was not worthy of the name. There can be but one gospel; that there might be two, between which men might choose, is something which the apostle denies in the next verse]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6–10. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you. Paul abruptly springs into the midst of his subject. With the fickleness of their race, they had so soon swerved from “him that called” them. The analogy of Paul's language (compare 1:15; 1 Cor. 1:9; Rom. 8:30) would show that he refers to God. The call was a divine one. Paul was only the instrument that God used. Into the grace of Christ. The gospel privileges. Called into these, they had “removed” unto another gospel, one of a different kind, not worthy of the name.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul gives his reason for writing this letter: he reminds them to continue to understand the gospel.

I am amazed

"I am surprised" or "I am shocked." Paul was disappointed that they were doing this.

you are turning away so quickly from him

Here "turning away ... from him" is a metaphor for started to doubt or no longer trust God. AT: "you are so quickly starting to doubt him" (See: Metaphor)

him who called you

"God, who called you"

called

Here this means God has appointed or chosen people to be his children, to serve him, and to proclaim his message of salvation through Jesus.

by the grace of Christ

"because of Christ's grace" or "because of Christ's gracious sacrifice"

you are turning to a different gospel

Here "turning to" is a metaphor that means to start to believe something. AT: "you are instead starting to believe a different gospel" (See: Metaphor)

some men

"some people"

translationWords

amazed

call

grace

Christ

good news

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

I marvel [θαυμαζω] . Often by Greek orators of surprise as something reprehensible. So in New Testament Mr 6:6; Joh 7:21; Luk 11:38; Joh 4:27.

So soon [ουτως ταχεως] . Better, so quickly. Paul does not mean so soon after a particular event, as their conversion, or his last visit, or the entry of the false teachers, - but refers to the rapidity of their apostasy; tacewv being used absolutely as always.

Removed [μετατιθεσθε] . A. V. misses the sense of the middle voice, removing or transferring yourselves, and also the force of the continuous present, are removing or going over, indicating an apostasy not consummated but in progress. The verb is used in Class. of altering a treaty, changing an opinion, desertion from an army. For other applications see Act 7:16; Heb 7:12; Heb 11:5. Comp. LXX, Deu 27:17; Pro 23:10; Isa 29:17. Lightfoot renders are turning renegades.

Him that called [του καλεσαντος] . God. Not neuter and referring to the gospel. Calling, in the writings of the apostles, is habitually represented as God 's work. See Rom 8:30; Rom 9:11; 1Co 1:9; Gal 1:15; 1Th 2:12; 1Pe 1:15; 1Pe 2:9; 2Pe 1:3.

Into the grace [εν χαριτι] . Into is wrong. It should be by.

Another gospel [ετερον] . Rather a different, another sort of gospel. See Mt 6:24; Luk 16:7; Luk 18:10. In illustration of the differences between allov another and eterov different, see 1Co 12:8 - 10; 1Co 14:40; 2Co 11:4; Rom 8:23.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.