Galatians 5:7 - Printer Friendly

ESV: You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

NIV: You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?

NASB: You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

CSB: You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

NLT: You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?

KJV: Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

NKJV: You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Paul turns to a metaphor he uses often in the New Testament: running. Here, he illustrates what has happened to the Galatian Christians. They were "running well." In other words, they received the good news about Jesus with great joy. They believed that Jesus died in their place, for their sins, on the cross. By faith, they were welcomed as children into God's family. They received the Holy Spirit. They were following Christ.

Then they stumbled. Paul asks: who tripped them? Who hindered them from obeying the truth? The Galatians were being persuaded to begin following the law in order to be made right before God (Galatians 2:4). They were disobeying the truth that they were fully forgiven and accepted by God (Galatians 1:6–8). They were starting to believe the lie that they must do more to be right with their Father. He must expect more from them.

For the first time, Paul seems to focus on an individual person, instead of the group of Judaizers, in general. Perhaps he had one of their leaders in mind. Paul wanted the Galatians to identify this person as an obstacle to their relationship with God through faith in Christ.

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.