Galatians 1:9 - Printer Friendly

ESV: As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

NIV: As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!

NASB: As we have said before, even now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

CSB: As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

NLT: I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

KJV: As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

NKJV: As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

This verse repeats Paul's words in the previous verse with even greater emphasis. Repetition in the New Testament is often used to emphasize a point. Here, Paul seems to want to make doubly sure his readers understand exactly how serious this is.

Paul, writing under the full weight of his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ, says once more that anyone who preaches a distorted gospel to them—a message that is different in any way from the one they received from him when he was with them in person—that person stands "accursed." Specifically, Paul is referring to those who insist on adding obedience to Old Testament laws to their requirements for salvation. More generally, however, this applies to anyone who warps the message of salvation in any way.

The curse levelled by Paul involves eternal damnation. His implication is that false teachers cannot show you the way to salvation because they do not have it themselves. They are condemned. Paul's letter will clarify exactly why it is so essential not to believe anyone who wants them to believe an altered version of the simple, powerful gospel message of Jesus that Paul has shown to them.

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.