Galatians 5:7-11 (NIV)
You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
The Galatians had started well under Paul’s evangelism and discipleship training. They had repented, believed in Jesus and trusted Him for salvation, had been baptized, and had received the Holy Spirit. Paul had put leaders in place in every city to keep the new believers on track (Acts 14:21-23).
But now someone, Judaizers, had cut in on them, slowing their progress and diverting them from the true path. They had succeeded in persuading the Galatians that they had never really been saved, that the transformation and spiritual power they had experienced was an illusion, because they had skipped the essential first step of converting to Judaism first. Paul was correct that that kind of confusion and false direction does not come from God, but is the work of the devil, who comes to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10).
Just as we say today that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, with the decay spreading quickly to all the fruit in the container, the saying in Paul’s day was that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. A little falsehood, a little bad theology, a little compromise spreads from Christian to Christian, ultimately dragging the whole congregation off track and sowing the seeds of ever-increasing error, and even full-out heresy.
Some of the Judaizers were teaching that Paul really did believe in conversion to Judaism and circumcision before salvation, and that the Galatians had simply misunderstood. But Paul flatly contradicts that here. If he preached circumcision for the gentiles, then why was he being actively persecuted by the Jews as well as the Judaizers, to the point that he had been run out of several of the towns of Galatia, and had even been stoned as a heretic in Lystra (Acts 14:5-7, 19)?
Paul wanted the Galatians to go back to what he had taught them originally: salvation by grace through faith, not by works of the law. It wasn’t too late for them to get back on the right track and continue in the way of salvation. But it would require them to say no to fine-sounding arguments from men who ultimately had no power, only a skewed theology (1 Corinthians 4:20), and to return to the truth.
Father, we can still be led astray by people with fine-sounding arguments and impressive credentials, but who ultimately turn out to have no power, and a theology that strays from the clear words of Scripture. Help us, Lord, to run the race with perseverance, and to never let others cut in on us and lead us astray. Guide us so powerfully by Your Holy Spirit that we can stand firm in Your truth and Your power, no matter what distractions or false trails the enemy throws at us. Amen.