What does Galatians 5:10 mean?
Someone has been teaching the false idea that Gentile Christians must get circumcised and begin to follow the law in order to truly be made right before God (Galatians 2:4). That teaching goes flatly against Paul's message that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Anything added to faith in Christ makes faith in Christ meaningless (Galatians 5:2–4; Romans 6:11). Such teaching cannot be allowed to linger among them. Paul has asked pointedly who the person is among them who is responsible for steering them in the wrong direction (Galatians 5:7).Now Paul declares he is confident "in the Lord" that the Galatians will not ultimately accept this person's false teaching. God has given Paul confidence to believe the Galatians will get back up and keep running in the right direction together.
He goes further: Paul is confident that the person troubling them with false teaching about the grace of God through faith in Christ will pay the penalty for that sin. Clearly, Paul is serious. This person is not guilty of a minor infraction; he is luring people away from the grace of God. He will face consequences from God Himself (Galatians 1:6–9).
Galatians 5:1–15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. Paul also warns us not to waste our freedom in Christ to selfishly serve ourselves instead of serving each other in love. The entire law is fulfilled in that one word: love. Those who serve themselves, though, will always end up in conflict with each other.
Those who trust in Christ have been set free. Paul's readers were in danger of wasting that freedom, by veering off in one of two directions. On the one hand, false teachers were pressuring them into circumcision in order to be sure of being right with God. On the other hand, freedom can also be squandered on serving only our sinful desires instead of investing it through serving others in love. God's Spirit gives us the power to do that when we let Him lead us. Life in the Spirit bears powerful and positive fruit in a Christian's life.
