Galatians 1:8 - Printer Friendly

ESV: But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

NIV: But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse!

NASB: But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

CSB: But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

NLT: Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.

KJV: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

NKJV: But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Paul has expressed his great astonishment that the Galatian Christians, who had so profoundly come to Christ with great rejoicing when he brought the gospel message to them, were now abandoning Christ to believe a distorted "gospel."

The distortion was this: A group of religious Jews were going to places where non-Jews—referred to as Gentiles—had believed Paul's preaching and received salvation from their sin by trusting in Christ's death for that sin on the cross. These Judaizers could not stand the idea that these Gentiles believed themselves right with God without following the law of Moses. So they came teaching that true salvation required both faith in Christ and obedience to the Law.

Astoundingly to Paul, some of these Galatian Christians believed them! Paul now curses anyone who would teach a version of the gospel of Jesus other than the one they heard from him. He writes that this includes himself or even an angel from heaven. If "the gospel" is modified, adjusted, or changed by anyone for any reason, it is no longer the gospel. It is not the truth.

Galatians 1:6–10 is unusual; Paul's letters usually open with some kind of praise or thanksgiving for his readers. Not Galatians. He immediately expresses how baffled he is that these people who received the good news about salvation by God's grace and through faith in Christ have so quickly deserted Christ. Anyone who teaches any other gospel than the one Paul taught to them is cursed and/or will be eternally condemned. Paul points to that harsh statement as evidence that he is not trying to please any men. He serves and lives for the approval of God.

Paul begins his letter to the Galatian churches abruptly, compared to his other writings. He has heard they are deserting the gospel which he preached and they believed: the good news that Jesus died to fully pay for all our sins on the cross. The Judaizers taught that these Gentiles must also follow the law of Moses to be saved and openly questioned Paul's authority. Paul makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ, who appeared to him and revealed the truth to him apart from the other apostles.

Galatians 1 begins one of the most-loved books about God's grace in all of Scripture. This and the following chapter detail Paul's biography, as he makes the case that he has been made an apostle by Christ and therefore his message is trustworthy. Chapters 3 and 4 go into depth about exactly what the gospel of God's grace is and why it is true. In chapters 5 and 6, Paul teaches about how Christians should live in the world as people who have received the grace of God through faith in Christ.

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.

Accessed 5/1/2024 9:54:07 PM