OCCASION
OCCASION
From Acts 13-14 we learn that Paul and Barnabas evangelized the southern part of the province of Galatia by going first to the synagogues, where they preached to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. But in each city Jews stirred up opposition, and the preachers turned to the Gentiles and made converts from among them. We need not doubt that, if the North Galatian theory is correct, the evangelization of the northern areas was brought about in much the same way. Throughout the region the church was no doubt predominantly Gentile.
But after Paul and Barnabas left the scene, apparently some Jewish Christians came into the area and taught that those who embrace the Christian salvation must submit to Jewish law, the Torah. So far as we know, local Jews did not teach this; they simply opposed the Christians. Paul distinguishes the false teachers from the congregation (Gal. 1:7; 4:17, etc.; perhaps they had a strong leader, 1:9; 5:10); indeed, he can imply that they were not Christians at all (1:6-7). Their emphasis on keeping the Mosaic law makes it almost certain they were Jews. Doubtless they thought of themselves as Jewish Christians; Paul is prepared to question the "Christian” component if they set up as necessary to salvation any rival to Jesus.
From Galatians we gather that Paul’s authority was undermined by the argument that he was inferior to the earlier apostles. Paul seems to have this in mind from first to last: "sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Gal. 1:1); "let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (6:17).
Circumcision was insisted on: they "are trying to compel you to be circumcised” (Gal. 6:12; see also 5:2-6). Paul points out that the acceptance of circumcision means the acceptance of the obligation to carry out the whole law of which it is a part (5:3), whatever the false teachers may have said. The keeping of the law was apparently insisted on, for he also writes, "You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!” (4:10). 19 He also speaks of his converts as wanting "to be under the law” (4:21) and as "trying to be justified by law” (5:4). Putting all this together, it seems that the false teachers saw Christianity as a modified Judaism; they were teaching that to be in covenant relationship to God means to submit to the requirements of the law of God. Therefore they were persuading the Galatians to submit to the way of the law instead of enjoying freedom in Christ.
Whether or not they were Christians in Paul’s eyes, the false teachers evidently sprang from the Jewish-Christian camp. Christians had opposed Peter (Acts 11:2-3), and at a later time James could speak of "many thousands of Jews” who believed, "and all of them are zealous for the law” (Acts 21:20). Clearly there was a strong group of these people, and at least on occasion they could be active propagandists, as when they went from Judea to Antioch and taught the new converts, "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). If they followed Paul to Antioch, it is not unlikely that they followed him to Galatia. They may not have been many in number, for Paul writes, "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” (Gal. 5:9). Sometimes it is contended that Paul’s opponents were Gentiles who had accepted circumcision and wanted others to do the same. But this supposition scarcely outweighs the evidence that there were zealous Jewish
Christians, anxious to insist on the law. G. Howard thinks that they may not have been opponents in the strict sense but that they claimed that Paul was really teaching what they taught. 20 The vehemence with which Paul opposes them makes this unlikely.
Libertinism is sometimes detected in Gal. 5:13ff. with such exhortations as "do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature” and "live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” But it is better to see this as a perversion of Paul’s teaching that in Christ believers are free. In every age it has been easy to deduce that if we are saved by grace, it does not matter how we live. Paul would have none of this, and he denounces such teaching vigorously.
Criticisms of Paul seem to have been made. "If I am still preaching circumcision” (Gal. 5:11) appears to mean that Paul had been accused of preaching circumcision when it suited him (see his circumcision of Timothy [Acts 16:3]). "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men?” (1:10) indicates that it had been said that the apostle was simply interested in human approval. In the life of a man who became "all things to all men,” including becoming like a Jew in order to win Jews (1 Cor. 9:20-22), there could not lack incidents that gave opponents the opening to charge him with inconsistency.
Galatian religion may have been such as to welcome the Judaizers. Lightfoot thinks there was an original "passionate and striking ritualism expressing itself in bodily mortifications of the most terrible kind” that was "supplanted by the simple spiritual teaching of the Gospel.” But after a time the Galatians "began to yearn after a creed which suited their material cravings better, and was more allied to the system they had abandoned.” 21 There may be something in this, but it is certainly largely speculative.
The gospel was seriously compromised by this new teaching. Paul complains that his correspondents were "turning to a different gospel,” immediately adding, "which is really no gospel at all” (Gal. 1:6-7). What the Galatians were doing was not adding some interesting new insights into the meaning of Christianity but denying the essential Christian message. They were substituting Jewish teaching for the truth of the gospel.
The epistle to the Galatians is the result of news of these happenings reaching Paul. He immediately recognized that what his converts were doing meant that they were renouncing the heart of the Christian way, and he wrote straightaway to correct the situation. He did not observe all the niceties of correct letter writing but sent off an impassioned appeal to the Galatians to return to the faith in which they had been saved. This lively letter has become a classic expression of the meaning of justification by faith in Christ alone. 22