*Galatians 1:9 - “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.”

God doesn’t repeat Himself very often. His saying something once is enough. “God said it; that settles it.” It catches our attention, and arrests our thinking, that He says the same thing here in two consecutive sentences. But what He says is even more noteworthy: don’t follow any man who preaches a different gospel - don’t follow even an angel from Heaven (v.8) who might come and preach a different gospel. What the apostles of Jesus preached is the word of God (vv.11-12), and that fact was confirmed by God Himself in the miracles that He worked through their hands (Heb. 2:4). It is not especially surprising that after 2,000 years we find people preaching something different from that which was first delivered (Jude 3), but the same is true today that was true when Paul wrote this epistle: what they preach is not the gospel, and is not another gospel, but is a perversion of the gospel of Christ (vv.6-7). Who wants to stand face to face with Jesus in judgment having preached a perversion of His gospel? If “gospel” is “good news,” and you preach what is not the gospel, or what is a perversion, what kind of “news” are you giving to people? Let’s get back to preaching what the apostles of Jesus preached; they were guided to preach “all truth” (John 16:13). And if you are not the preacher, demand that your preacher preach nothing else.

Galatians 3:1-2 - “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

The churches in the region of Galatia had been trying to live as Christians according to their pre-conversion convictions and customs. But it was not those doctrines and practices that had saved them from sin and made them Christians. Paul probably intended it as a rhetorical question - because it seems that the answer would be obvious to a child - when he asked whether they could be saved by one law but serve under another. Why go back to Moses? Moses didn’t save you; Christ saved you. Christian, why do you, too, try to live according to the customs of your past? You were saved from the life that puts pleasure first. Have you no gratitude to Him Whose perfect mercy forgave you all that? Paul called them “foolish” for failing to put Christ first in their affections (compare Colossians 3:17). What have you done for Christ today, of the things which He requires of you? *

Galatians 5:21 - “Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

This is the end of a list of 17 specific practices and attitudes which Paul identifies as “works of the flesh” (v. 19). In the conclusion of the list we learn that [1] there are some people who “shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (i.e will not go to Heaven), [2] those who will not go to Heaven are those who practice such sins as are listed in these verses, and [3] it is not only these specific sins that will keep a person out of Heaven, but all other practices “like” these. Of course, God can and will forgive every sin of which a person is guilty when that person repents (turns) from sin to God. But sometimes people ask, “what is sin.” We hear arguments over whether a particular practice is sin. In most cases there shouldn’t be any question; the Bible is God’s answer book. Every soul is obligated to study the Bible well enough to know what is right and what is wrong. Study the Bible (II Tim. 2:15). Practice in your life what honors God (Col. 3:17).