Stand Fast

Paul warned the Galatian believers to stand fast and “be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (v. 1). They should not return to the Jewish rituals and “the tradition of the elders” (Mt 15:12), from which they have already been delivered. A yoke is a symbol of servitude and bondage (1 Tim 6:1)! These believers were being distracted by many legalists who were teaching that they still needed to keep the law, even after trusting Jesus as their Lord and Savior (Rom 10:9). They were being taught by false teachers (Gal 2:4), that the means of getting to Heaven was “by the works of the law” (Rom 9:32).

These teachers were both disturbing and causing confusion among the churches of Galatia (v. 10). Therefore, Paul wanted them to be “cut off” from their association with fellow believers. That phrase means to be removed from fellowshipping or communing with the believers in the church so that they would have nothing more to do with them. Sadly, most corrupted Bible translations today have suggested in that verse that Paul was desiring for such false teachers to actually be physically mutilated! For example, the New American Standard Version (NASV) states, “Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

The New International Version (NIV) reads, “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” The word emasculate means to castrate or physically cut off! This was not obviously Paul’s intention, and there is nowhere in the Bible that teaches such vicious ideas. He was merely teaching the believers that they should “come out from among them, and be ye separate” (2 Cor 6:17); to be cut off from those who corrupt the purity of the gospel. We must always follow and obey God instead of the worldly philosophies (Col 2:8). We must learn to take a stand for the truth by fighting apostasy and compromise! God bless you!

- Pastor Melito Barrera