The Church’s greatest troublemakers are not those outside of the Church who oppose, ridicule, and persecute; but those INSIDE the Church who try to change the Gospel. That is what was happening to the churches of Galatia: false teachers were changing the Gospel!
St. Paul had planted the churches in the Galatia area of the Roman Empire; that’s the area that we know today as modern day Turkey. Some of those stories of St. Paul are recorded for us in the book of Acts. After Paul left, false teachers appeared and tried to undermine his work.
• They claimed that Paul was not a genuine Apostle since he was not one of the original Twelve. They tried to discredit his authority and position.
• And they also claimed that he did not have the correct gospel. They accused him of teaching an inadequate and insufficient gospel. These false teachers claimed that they alone had the true gospel.
The Church in Galatia was in chaos!
The false teachers claimed that you can believe in Jesus as much as you want, but you still have to be circumcised and live like a Jew. In essence, they were teaching salvation by your own good works.
The Christian Church faces a lot of persecution; there are many outside the church that hate Christ and are hostile to His people. But the greatest danger comes from inside; from false teachers who have infiltrated the Christian Church to teach a different and distorted gospel that leads many, many people astray and away from Christ.
Lord protect us from those false teachers;
and send us the Holy Spirit
so that we may be biblically literate
and doctrinally sound disciples.
Amen!