Let Him Be Accursed!


Galatians 1:8-9 presents a very powerful message of separation – a message that, through a great lack of down-to-earthedness, can be used to preach the message of complete separation from anyone who might believe and teach a gospel contrary to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that over-earthed preacher would then go to tell you about people groups and religions that you should have no communication with ever.

However, I believe that this interpretation also is a false application of a true Gospel. And here is why.

First, this passage must be taken into consideration in the context of the whole book. It seems that Paul has one central message in this book. Any doctrine that he might be expounding comes down to one focus: what is the true, undefiled Gospel? The Galatians had been saved out of idolatry, and had, since their salvation, been infiltrated by what seems to be Judaism, that is, salvation and acceptance into God's covenant community cannot be had apart from the law. It is this heresy that has caused Paul to get hot-tempered with the Galatians.

I do not have the time to expound upon the entire book of Galatians. It is important to know that this church had apparently become overcome by the heresy of commandment or works-related salvation, and were not trusting in the satisfaction that Christ achieved for them in His death and resurrection, and His fulfillment of the law. And that was their fault for which Paul rebukes them. Do you know anyone who theologically or practically believes that we must adhere to certain commandments in order to be saved? Do you know anyone who believes, theologically or practically, that one cannot really get to know God unless he walks according to certain guidelines, traditions, or standards? If you really take Galatians 1:8-9 to its utmost extreme, you could certainly justify shunning these people. But what we’d be doing is shunning basically the entire world. Even many who attend our own churches.

So how are we supposed to apply these verses? When it comes to my real-life encounters, how do I walk in line with Paul’s serious claims against works-centered believers and messengers?

First, we must understand the perspective of Paul. He had put much effort into this church. He had taught them the Gospel and probably viewed them as his spiritual children, much like the Corinthian church, which had also been saved out of idolatry and struggled with flesh-centered spirituality. With both the Galatians and the Corinthians, Paul dealt very harshly because of their acceptance of practical and theological heresies. Paul deals harshly with the Galatians here to emphasize the error of their ways and their immediate need to reject the false teaching that had so quickly crept into their assembly. They had to get serious about their faith in Christ, and get serious now. It wasn’t that he was teaching the universal doctrine of relational separation from anyone who is not redeemed by grace through faith. Rather, the Galatians needed an extra dose of urgency about them concerning their faith. Chances are, there were still teachers of Judaism among them that the Galatians were treating as one of their own, and their spiritual leaders. The Galatians had to remove them from their place of influence and return to pure Gospel as a church community. Those who would not return from Judaism would need to be rejected from the community as well. The leaven had to be purged.

Does this mean that we are Biblically obligated to be separatists from any sign of theological impurity?

The second point addresses this. The first point can be illustrated thus: The Galatians had a bad case of a plague. The only way they were going to get better was to remove themselves from any means by which they could get any sicker. They were put on bed rest and needed to be extra-conscious about their surroundings so they could get better ASAP. And some of us need a similar prescription. But that’s not my point. We don’t always need bed rest, and to have our attention stuck on what kind of teaching we are getting, though we should always aware, walking “circumspectly,” continually aware of our surroundings. But our awareness does not have to always be pin-pointed on who we need to separate from. Countless passages have the bulls-eye on unity. In many passages, the focus is not who to separate from, but who to love and accept. But this was not the message the Galatians needed to hear at the moment. They were having an internal crisis, and Paul needed to address this crisis. So the second point is this: Typically, if someone is coming to you to teach you the “truth” that they know you need to hear, but is not the truth of the Gospel, they will typically be one who is unable to be convinced otherwise. Many people are scorners. A couple days ago while I was at work, a couple men came to our house and attempted to convince my wife of the “newly revealed doctrine” of some sort of “holy mother, the bride of Christ,” and Kristin needed to come to a bible study to be given the forgotten truth of this "holy mother" (all expletives aside). The first thing that came to my mind was “Oh boy. Just what we need. Another cult.” Generally, cult leaders are not convincible. They have become scorners to the truth. The Judaizers knew the Gospel that the Galatians had been taught and were attempting to convince them otherwise. It was not uncommon for Judaizers to follow Paul on his journeys and attempt to deceive the cities Paul was teaching at during and after Paul was there. These Judaizers would have been scorners. Proverbs gives us some wisdom about scorners:

9:7 – “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse.”

19:25 – “Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence.”

21:11 – “When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise; when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.”

Solomon knew a thing or two about scorners. They are hard and unreachable. And the best way to handle them is to deal harshly with them, so, if not for their own good, others might benefit from the severe handling of these people and be brought to wisdom. The Galatians were fresh in the faith. They were “simple,” and were able to become wise unto the Gospel. The Judaizers had heard the Gospel, rejected it, and taught otherwise (cf. Psalm 1).

So I think we can conclude that the harshness of Paul’s tone was for 2 reasons: 1. to give the Galatians a sense of urgency in expelling the false teachers from their midst, and 2. to bring them back to the spiritual wisdom of the Gospel, rather than the fleshly wisdom being preached to them.

So how do we respond to this passage?

Well, first, we interpret it in its own context and do not draw out application that was never intended to be drawn out. Applying something in a way that was not the intent typically leads toward unnecessary quarrelling, hurt, separation, and works-centered sanctification at some point. The intent of the Scripture is all we need. We do not need to add our opinions to it to make it more complete or applicable. Second, we allow ourselves to be influenced by Paul’s sense of urgency toward the need for a pure, deliberate Gospel. Third, we need to understand that Paul is not calling all men everywhere to flee any person or group of people who does not believe what we believe. How are we to fulfill the great commission? How are we to edify believers? How are we to get involved in our communities? We need to convince people of the Gospel, both Christians and non-Christians. You don’t do this by separating from everyone relationally. There is a place for rejecting individuals, but this isn’t the focus. Throughout Scripture, we see God acting as the redeemer. We see God acting as the Great Puritan of His creation. And He uses His Church, the Body of Christ, to do this. When we see ourselves primarily as separatists, we see ourselves as segmented from the character and intent of God. He cannot look upon evil, but yet he invites sinners to enter into His kingdom. He cannot fellowship with evil, yet Christ ate with sinners. He is a just judge who rightfully condemns some, but also rightfully redeems others, all of which are sinners. God is not a one-sided judge, and we should not be either. If the person is reachable, then reach them. Build a relationship with them. Do not reject someone who you have not known. How can you judge them to be a scoffer if you do not know them? Get it through your head – people are fleshly! People are going to be wrong! So toil and sweat to bring them to the truth. It’s a sticky situation when you encounter the sinners of the world like yourself, and have to decide who to build a relationship with and who to reject. We must trust in the Spirit to give us wisdom. There are people we need to reject and keep away from, and advise others to keep away from them, but we should not do so easily. It should be a tough decision. Very few personal decisions are easy. If you tend toward easy-rejectism, you should check yourself. See yourself more a “reacher” than a “rejecter.” After all, isn’t that what God is to you? And He has every reason in His world to reject you.