Galatians 1:10 – Pleasing men? No way!

For, at present, am I persuading men or God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I still pleased men, I were not a slave of Christ.

Twice Paul proclaimed an anathema! about the deviant gospel preached among the Galatians. Perhaps his opponents accused him of only trying to ‘overwhelm’ people with his extremely firm language. Or that with his Gospel he tried to ‘overrule’ “the law” and thereby God. Paul puts it to his readers as rhetorical questions. The answer is, of course, negative.

Obviously, by confronting his opponents so fiercely, Paul was certainly not trying to please people. When it comes to “the truth of the Evangel” (2:5,14), diplomacy is out of the question. Paul’s point of departure was also not to ‘seek the connection’. Or to keep the ‘unity of the congregation’ intact at all costs.

As a “slave of Christ,” Paul has only one thing to do and that is to bring the truth. The truth, nothing but the truth and the full truth. Without compromise and regardless of the consequences. That truth makes one (1John 1:7), yes, but it also divides. For the Word is like a sharp two-edged sword (Heb.4:12).

Delen: