Galatians 5:12 - Printer Friendly

ESV: I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

NIV: As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

NASB: I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.

CSB: I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated!

NLT: I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

KJV: I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

NKJV: I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

Paul has been writing to the Galatian Christians, explaining that they need nothing other than faith in Christ in order to be saved (Galatians 3:23–29). False teachers claim one needs to follow rituals and sacraments to be made right with God (Galatians 2:4). Paul has written some harsh words in Galatians, especially to those who bring a lie (Galatians 1:6–9). At times his other letters deal with false teachers using strong terms.

This, however, may be Paul's most severe comment. He declares angrily that he wishes that those false teachers who are misleading the Galatians would go past circumcision and castrate themselves!

Though it may sound like Paul is just lashing out at his theological enemies, he is not out of control, or speaking without thinking. Not all anger is sinful (Ephesians 4:26). Jesus expressed anger in a righteous way, and for righteous reasons (John 2:13–22; Mark 3:1–5). So, Paul is suggesting something much deeper than a callous physical act. Those who have been castrated can't produce new converts that are like them. In a spiritual sense, then, those who are "castrated" cannot pass along their lies to a future generation. Their false spiritual perspective would die out.

Perhaps Paul also has in mind the pagan cults of the day whose priests did exactly this, castrating themselves in the worship of their gods. Though circumcision under the law of Moses once carried great meaning in Israel, the arrival of Christ has made it meaningless. Now there was only faith in Christ or nothing at all. Circumcision had no more spiritual value in God's eyes after the arrival of Christ than full castration would have.

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.

Galatians 3—4 focused on theology. Galatians 5—6 focus on how Christians should live in response to those truths. In short, we must resist being dragged away from the freedom we have in Christ to follow the law. We must also resist wasting our freedom on serving our sinful desires instead of serving others in love. We can do this by the power of God's Spirit with us. When we give Him the lead, powerful, positive characteristics show up in us. Galatians 6 will show how to use those characteristics to serve each other.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.