In seeking to understand the Bible it is important that we do not treat it as a purely academic work, for that is not what the Bible is. Paul did give deep theological teaching, but to understand what he is saying it can be helpful to try and put ourselves in his shoes, and sometimes in the shoes of his readers.
Paul is clearly emotionally involved. He is angered and dismayed at the fact that at least some of the Galatians are turning to a "different gospel". Note that the "different gospel" would on the surface at least, not look that much different from the real gospel, yet Paul declares it to be no gospel at all.
Why is Paul so angry? The answer is two fold: (i) it rendered Christ's work on the cross meaningless; and (ii) it would do nothing to help save the Galatians. In turning to the false gospel they were not merely choosing a different set of ideas, but were deserting Christ.
Paul declares that those who preach a false gospel should be under God's curse. Now we often think of a curse as a kind of spell. That is not the meaning here. A good working definition of curse is "God's judgement on man's sin". We will see that this helps us to understand things later in Galatians. Here it means that Paul is calling for these people to be under God's judgement.
Paul is clearly emotionally involved. He is angered and dismayed at the fact that at least some of the Galatians are turning to a "different gospel". Note that the "different gospel" would on the surface at least, not look that much different from the real gospel, yet Paul declares it to be no gospel at all.
Why is Paul so angry? The answer is two fold: (i) it rendered Christ's work on the cross meaningless; and (ii) it would do nothing to help save the Galatians. In turning to the false gospel they were not merely choosing a different set of ideas, but were deserting Christ.
Paul declares that those who preach a false gospel should be under God's curse. Now we often think of a curse as a kind of spell. That is not the meaning here. A good working definition of curse is "God's judgement on man's sin". We will see that this helps us to understand things later in Galatians. Here it means that Paul is calling for these people to be under God's judgement.
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