Paul goes overboard!
John Povey
September 25, 2024
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Galatians 5: 11-12 (NRSVA)
11 But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offence of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!
Paul was a master of rhetoric, using words, phrases and thought patterns to convey his message with force and conviction. There were times, and today’s passage is assuredly an example, when Paul’s strength of feeling led him to take a metaphor a bit far. Emasculation in effect meant castration! “Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!” That’s a giant leap from circumcision!
On the surface, we might detect a tone of sarcasm and crudeness, but the real motive was to press his point as graphically as possible. Paul himself was being persecuted for refusing to preach that the old law of circumcision was required of believers. He was vehement in his criticism of those who would distort the gospel of grace in such a works-based religion.
Christian faith is not dependent upon our own ability to meet some pre-set standard by strict observance of any ritual. That would be contrary to the teaching of the cross, and would cut the heart out of the Gospel message of God’s grace. That is why Paul had no hesitation in writing starkly to his readers, even calling them earlier in his letter, “you foolish Galatians” (chapter 3: 1). Perhaps we, too, from time to time, need to hear the truth in very earthy terms.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me not to fall into the absurdity of thinking I can somehow add to Your finished work of grace by my own efforts to follow rites and rituals. Thank You for the simple message of salvation, that it is Your free gift of grace through faith in Christ alone. Thank You that my salvation does not rest on what I have done, but on what He has done on my behalf. In His name, I pray. Amen.
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