Galatians 1:8–9
Whoever tells you good news that is different from the Good News we gave you should be condemned to hell, even if he is one of us or an angel from heaven. 9 I’m now telling you again what we’ve told you in the past: If anyone tells you good news that is different from the Good News you received, that person should be condemned to hell.
Ministers—False Teachers—Gospel, False: preachers of false gospels are accursed. This is a strong statement, but it is clearly understandable. The gospel is the means by which men are saved out of the grip of sin, death, and condemnation. Without the gospel no person is saved—no person can become acceptable to God—no person can inherit eternal life. Scripture is clear about the matter and warns all false teachers and all churches.
a. The gospel is greater than the apostle Paul himself. This is a striking statement, for remember who Paul was: probably the most committed servant of God who has ever lived. He had ventured forth as a pioneer into the heathen areas of the world to reach people with the gospel of Christ, the good news that men could be delivered from sin and death and live forever. He loved the Galatians so much that he had risked all he was and had for their sake. To some Paul must have been a giant, and he must have been held ever so dear to their hearts. But note: Paul says that if he returned to them preaching any other gospel, he was to be accursed. The Galatians were not to receive him no matter how much they esteemed him: they were to reject him. The gospel in all its simplicity and purity was far more important than Paul himself.
b. The gospel is greater than the angels from heaven. Even if an angel came from heaven and began to preach another gospel, he was to be rejected, for he too would be accursed. The glorious message of the gospel is far more important than even the angels in heaven.
c. The gospel is greater than any man (v. 9). If any man preached any other gospel, he was to be accursed. The gospel is far more important than any man.
d. The preachers of the false gospels shall suffer the judgment of a double curse. The word “anathema” means to be accursed, doomed to destruction, given over to eternal punishment, placed under the wrath of God. The idea is that of eternal death. This is clear from Paul’s use of the word elsewhere where he applies it to himself: “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.…” (Ro. 9:3). Paul was a Jew; he was saying that he loved his Jewish brothers so much that he would gladly suffer eternal punishment for their salvation (the very same love that Christ had demonstrated for all men).
This is one of the most severe warnings in all of Scripture, and note to whom it is given: it is given to teachers, the false teachers. Lehman Strauss points out that every person who does not love the Lord Jesus Christ shall be accursed. How much more, then, shall the false teacher suffer at the hands of God’s eternal wrath.
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?… Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Mt. 7:15–16, 19).
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mt. 7:22–23).
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation” (Mt. 23:13–14).
“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Mt. 23:33).
“But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.… These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever” (2 Pe. 2:12, 17).
“As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Pe. 3:16).
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 Jn. 4:1).
“Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD” (Je. 23:2).
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PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM