Many of us have the mistaken idea that the Bible is filled with nothing but beautiful and blissful thoughts, ideas and stories. A land of King James English where rare creatures like "thee" and "thou" still run free.
While Scripture certainly contains some of the most heavenly literature in history, it also can be downright raw and in your face. That's the case here. Paul's language here is downright shocking. Whoa! That'sin the Bible?!?
Let's take a quick view of what's going on here from high altitude. Paul has just returned to Antioch in Syria from his first missionary trip which took him to south central Turkey.
The apostle proclaimed the amazing message that God has invited the entire world to be saved by trusting in the Jewish Messiah Jesus.
He visited the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe (Acts 13:13-14:23). God uses Paul to plant a network of churches in these Galatian cities.
Right after he leaves, a group of spiritual snake oil salesmen roll in. They twist Paul's Good News of salvation by faith alone through grace alone in Jesus alone.
The Judaizers convince the Galatians they are also members of Paul's team and that he forgot to tell them a few important details.
Jesus may have gotten us into God's kingdom, but it's up to us to stay there. And we do that by following a stringent list of rules. Included in that list is circumcision.
Once Paul returns to Syria, he gets the horrible news of what's happening in Galatia and he fires off this letter to them. The result is the apostle's first letter to the churches in the Bible.
His emergency bulletin to the Galatians turns out to be the second book New Testament written. Only the book of James is older.
The apostle is blunt. He pulls no punches. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And no place does he get more raw and real than here in verse 15.
"I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!" (v15). Yup. You read that right. But is that the intent of the original text? Let's take a closer look.
Paul describes the Judaizers as unsettling the Galatians. The Greek verb here is αναστατοω/anastato'o. It means to disturb by turning upside down, to create an uproar, unsettle and stir up.
These false teachers have turned these new believers upside down with their counterfeit gospel. They are agitators. They are troublemakers. The Galatians are freaking out.
As we said above, the Judaizers were a sect that believed the only way to truly follow Jesus was to first become Jewish. That meant following the law of Moses. And that mean being circumcised.
It's hard to wrap our 21st century minds around this first century controversy. Jesus had personally given Paul a radical message that Gentiles could come to faith AS GENTILES (Gal 1:11-12; 2:15-16). No law. No circumcision.
This dispute rages on the pages of the book of Acts. In essence it stirs up a civil war among Jews. It eventually results in more than one meeting of Jewish Christian leaders (Acts 11:1-18; 15:1-35).
Eventually the home office decides the only rules Gentiles must follow are avoiding idolatry, eating foods sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality. No Mosaic law. And specifically NO circumcision.
The folks in Jerusalem have already ruled on this. Men like Jesus' brother James as well as the Apostles Peter and John had already given Paul the stamp of approval to his message (Gal 2:1-10).
When he went to meet with them in Jerusalem, he took Titus with him. That's important because Titus wasn't Jewish.
And these early church honchos did not insist that Paul's Gentile buddy have some, shall we say, delicate yet necessary surgery while he was in town. Nope. Circumcision is NOT required for non-Jews.
Yet the Judaizers insist non-Jews have a little taken off the top. No doubt they point out that if it's good enough for Father Abraham, it's good enough for the Galatian Gentiles.
Paul has already explained that circumcision has nothing to do with Abe's faith (Gal 3:1-14). As a matter of fact, long before he was circumcised, he "believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6; Gal 3:6).
Which brings us to Paul's blunt assessment of these false teachers. "I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves" (v12).
The original Greek verb here is αποκοπτω/apokopto. It's a term used to describe not just cutting off or cutting loose, but the severing of human limbs.
The apostle's brutal point is that if the Judaizers love circumcision so much, why don't they just whack it ALL off! Don't stop with the foreskin. Let's lop off the entire business.
The man from Tarsus is 2,000 years ahead of Lorena Bobbitt. Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse and pulls no punches. "Why don't these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!" OUCH!!!
The big point is that legalism must not be tolerated. Any time. Any where. On any level. When salvation by works does rear its ugly head, we must deal with it immediately. We must cut it out. We must cut it off.
And, yes, that's in the Bible.
©2012
Jay Jennings
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