The true character of the perverters.
The apostle says that the "different gospel" to which they were verging was really not another ( ἀλλὸ)—not a second gospel. He abruptly corrects his phraseology so as to forbid the idea of the possibility of another gospel. There is only one gospel—"the gospel of Christ." The gospel of the Judaists, though it formally accepted Christianity, revealed a different way of justification. If it is a gospel at all, it is only in this sense, that it is an attempt to pervert the gospel of Christ. The passage suggests—
I. THAT THE PERVERTERS WERE WELL-KNOWN PERSONS. "Certain persons." The allusion is not to their fewness or their insignificance. He speaks of them in this manner without conferring any celebrity upon them, or exciting personal animosity against them. They may well rest in oblivion.
II. IT SUGGESTS TWO CHARACTERISTIC QUALITIES IN THEIR CAREER.
1. Their unsettling influence. "They trouble you." They disturbed the minds of quiet and honest Christians by unhinging doubts. They disturbed the peace of Churches by the cleavage of new doctrines. They created schisms and rivalries that led to the weakening of Christian love, and ultimately made way for Christians "biting and devouring one another" (Galatians 5:15).
2. Their downright perversions of the gospel. "They would pervert the gospel of Christ. So far as the Galatians were concerned, it had not become a case of actual perversion. But there could be no doubt about the tendency of the Judaist teaching. It was a reversal of the gospel, not merely by mingling law and gospel, but by practically neutralizing all the merit of Christ which is the great characteristic fact of the gospel.
The apostle's anathemas.
The severity of these sentences is directed against the Judaizing teachers, not against the Galatians, whom he evidently regards as influenced by others. There is great mildness in his method of reproving the Galatians. The apostle first puts a hypothetical case, applicable to himself and his colleagues in the gospel, even to angels in heaven, and then he deals with an assumption of fact—fact that had actually occurred and was now occurring—that a gospel had been preached different from that they had already received, and, in both cases, he ends with an anathema.
I. HERESY IS A VERY SERIOUS THING. It has power to damn the soul. It is a sin against God, against the soul, against the truth, against the Church, against the world. It is the habit of modern times to regard error in religious matters as in no way endangering the salvation of man. A flippant infidelity denies that a man is responsible for his beliefs. There is a spirit abroad that leads men to think that everybody is right, that nobody is wrong, that nothing but an evil life will bring retribution hereafter. By men of this spirit the apostle would be regarded as cruelly illiberal and narrow. Yet we must hold that there are fundamental doctrines in religion which are essential to salvation. The apostle regarded heresy as a serious thing when he attached a curse to it. And if the anathema would fall upon an apostle like himself, or upon an angel from heaven, it would be much more likely to fall upon men neither apostles nor angels.
II. THE CHURCH HAS NO POWER TO ADD DOCTRINES TO THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. It is bound to discover the whole truth contained in the gospel, to exhibit it in all its relations, and to adapt it to the various exigencies of human speculation and the various needs of men. But it has no power or authority to invent a new doctrine. Thus the apostle condemns the Church of Rome in decreeing new articles of faith, not only not found in Scripture, but altogether inconsistent with it. The gospel will tolerate no rival; it will allow no alien elements; it will admit no additions that would undermine its essential principles. All things necessary to salvation are to be found in the Word of God.
III. APOSTLES ARE NOT ABOVE THE GOSPEL. The false teachers may have sheltered themselves under the authority of great names, probably the apostles at Jerusalem. But not even an apostle may publish anything contrary to the truth of the gospel. Even an angel in heaven, representing the highest created authority, dare not oppose the gospel. There is a disposition sometimes to excuse the heresies of zealous teachers on the ground of their great zeal or their pretension to godliness. But the truth is not to be measured by any standard of mere human excellence. We must always remember that Satan can at times transform himself into an angel of light. Think of the fearful responsibility of a teacher! We must hold hard by the truth of the gospel if we would not imperil the souls of men or diminish the comforts of believers.
IV. THE APOSTLE'S ANATHEMA. It is not to be traced to personal annoyance at men who slighted or denied his authority as an apostle; for he was willing to involve himself in the curse if he taught anything wrong. This anathema was not excommunication; for an angel could not be affected by such a thing; but the very curse of the living God. Whence, then, did the apostle derive the authority to pronounce it? God only can inflict it. The apostle did it by the same authority that sent him to preach the gospel—the authority of that Lord who has the keys of hell and death.