Galatians 5:7-12 says,...

Today's verses are Galatians 5:7-12, which read,


v.7-9 - You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?  This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.  A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

Stephanie is a bread maker.  She used to bake 50+ loaves every Friday to sell at the local farmer's market on Saturday's.  I built a bread stand for her and we would spend the early hours raising some extra money to help with our children's college education.  On Friday, there were bowls of dough all over the kitchen.  We bought yeast by the block.  The yeast was the agent that made the dough rise and the amount of dough that rose was so much more than the little bit of yeast we added to the mix.

Leaven (yeast) is associated with sin in the Bible.  A little sin grows.  That is the point here.  Paul is saying that they were following Christ but then the sin of a false gospel came in and it grew.  The sin of the false gospel was thinking that salvation came by man's works and not God gracious work of Jesus on the cross.

v.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 his judgment, whoever he is.

Now that the Galatians have heard the truth again about the sufficiency of God's grace and Paul has confidence they will reject the false gospel.  They have been corrected.  Paul has spoken up about the issue.  One man telling the gospel truth just as it seems it was one man who started them down the wrong road. 

This person was teaching what was going against Scripture.  "Well, that's what he believes.  He believes one thing and I believe another.  No harm done, right?"  Paul says that wrong teaching brings judgment and not nothing or just a difference of opinion.  There are bad consequences for teaching and following a false gospel.

v.11 - But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?  Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.

Apparently the false teachers have been saying that Paul agrees with their false gospel.  They were teaching that you needed to be circumcised to be saved along with belief in Jesus Christ.  Paul was preaching Christ and Christ alone.

If Paul was agreeing with them then why were they still persecuting him?  That point should settle that argument.  Paul then gives the image of a stumbling block.  Something in the road or path that makes you stub your toe or trip over.  You stumble and go down because of it.  You have pain over it and you are now in a vulnerable position.  This stumbling block is the gospel message of the cross.

If Paul was siding with the false teachers then the voice (the stumbling block) of the cross was no more.  We have been tripped up and brought low and stopped to consider the cross of Christ.

v.12 - I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.
  
This is probably as severe a judgment from Paul that you will get.  The word of "mutilate" is to "castrate."  If the false teachers believe in circumcision so much as the means of salvation then they should go all the way so that they can get "more" salvation.  Again, the false gospels always raise more questions and requirements because we are on this quest to be better than the next guy.

The Galatian Christians are being pulled to another gospel and Paul is trying to pull them back.  I fear that we do not do this for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We watch them go without saying something.  What would I say?  I think we just speak of Jesus and His sacrifice of grace for our forgiveness of sin.  I think we bring people back to that fact.

"Lord, may the persuasiveness of my speech be You.  May I speak of You to bring people to stumble again before the cross of You.  May I be brought low before the grace of the cross.  Amen."
  
Pastor Adam