December 27
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WHO HINDERED YOU FROM OBEYING THE TRUTH?
7 You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. 10 I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear the punishment, whoever he is. 11 But as for me, brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been eliminated. 12 I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves. -Galatians 5:7-12
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According to a commentary, Paul remembered their good start in the faith, but he also knows that it isn’t enough to start well. They were still in danger of falling from grace. Paul knew that the false teaching came from a person but it didn’t come from Jesus. At the root of it all, the Galatians were leaving Jesus to pursue the false and empty teachings of man, in this case legalism.
“Lightfoot on hindered” is a metaphor derived from military operations. The word signifies ‘to break up a road’… so as to render it impassable, and is therefore the opposite of… ‘to clear a way.’” The Galatians were doing well until someone broke up the road they ran on. Verse 9 is warning is driven home – the corrupting influence of legalism and other doctrines that diminish Jesus are like leaven in a lump of dough. A little bit will soon corrupt the whole lump. In the Jewish way of thinking, leaven almost always stood for evil influence. Paul is saying that the legalistic commitment they have right now may be small, but it is so dangerous that it can corrupt everything. In verse 10, Paul wanting to leave the confrontation on a positive note, Paul expressed his confidence in the Galatians (which was really a confidence in the Lord who is able to keep them). Yet, Paul was equally confident that judgment awaits those who lead them astray and away from Jesus (he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is). Someone might accuse Paul of preaching circumcision because he asked Timothy to be circumcised (Acts 16:1-3).
Finally, Paul wished that those who demanded circumcision among the Gentiles would go all the way themselves, and amputate their genitalia altogether and not merely their foreskins. Paul also wished that these legalists would be cut off from the congregation of the Lord as required by Deuteronomy 23:1: He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the LORD.
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REFLECTION
• What and who hindered you from knowing and obeying the truth?
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