09.27.2015 New Testament: Gal 5.12

To read the Bible in a year, read Galatians 5 on September 27, In the year of our Lord 2015

By Don Ruhl

Paul spoke strongly to the Galatian Christians for adding to the Gospel of Christ. They had accepted circumcision as a matter of salvation. Since someone had gone among them and persuaded them of this, listen to the language he used to express what he wished the false teachers would do to themselves,

I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! (Galatians 5.12). 

He wished that they would not just cut around, but would cut themselves all the way, and thereby cut themselves off from Christ entirely. Obviously Paul would want them to repent, but in the absence of repentance, they needed to be cut off from the body of Christ.