Sometimes We Need A Good Talking To

5 October 2026  Galatians 1:6-12

“If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.”  (Galatians 1:9)     

St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians contains perhaps the strongest, frankly vulgar, language in the Bible. If your mother heard it, she would wash your mouth out with soap.

Jesus is nobody’s boyfriend, and He hasn’t come to make us feel better, but to make us like Himself. Sometimes it takes strong talk to get our attention.

It stemmed from a whopper of a fight between Peter and Paul over what historians call the “Antioch Incident.” Certain Gentiles had become Christian believers in Antioch, prompting the Apostles in Jerusalem to send Barnabas to see what was going on.

When Barnabas saw their sincere faith, he went and found Paul in Tarsus to minister to them, and the Gentile mission began. Some time after that Peter arrived, and seeing the sincere faith of the Gentile believers, he ate with them despite the fact that they were uncircumcised. Eating with uncircumcised Gentiles was a violation of the Jewish Law, but it was clear to Barnabas and Peter that these Gentiles had received Jesus as genuinely as they had, and so table fellowship had to be extended to Gentiles also. The trouble started when a group of Jewish Christians arrived from Jerusalem, and declared that table fellowship was not to be permitted, so Peter and Barnabas both withdrew. This enraged Paul, who confronted Peter publicly and told him he was being false to the gospel (cf. Galatians 2:11-21). When Paul heard that the Galatians were being harassed by people who wouldn’t eat with them, Paul wrote to them that these troublemakers should be called anathema – which basically means, “Go to hell!” Just so they would not miss the point, Paul said it twice (1:8 and 1:9).

This was the biggest fight of the earliest Church: could you be a Christian without being a Jew first? Could you be a follower of Jesus without following the whole Jewish ceremonial Law, being circumcised, and keeping kosher? Paul taught that it was completely obvious that salvation came by the grace of Jesus Christ alone, not by any works of the law. In fact, Jesus saves despite the works of the Law – he, Paul, was living, breathing proof of that, for no one had kept the law as zealously as he had, and none of that saved him; Jesus did. Paul spoke even more sharply about this later on in Galatians: “You who want to be justified by the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ…. I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!” (5:4,12) – a bitterly sarcastic suggestion that they should cut their private parts off if they think that would make them more holy.

Pretty tricky Sunday School lesson.

All of this led to the Jerusalem Council which settled the matter of welcoming Gentile believers (cf. Acts 15). Peter accepted Paul’s correction, and the two were reconciled – Peter later referred to Paul as a “beloved brother” and regarded Paul’s letters as on the same level as the rest of the Scriptures (cf. 2 Peter 3:15-16).

But Galatians is still in the Bible as a witness that sometimes even the big-stick-carriers make grave errors and have to be corrected; and if they won’t listen to polite speech, then sometimes impolite speech is necessary. God is not a life coach, and Jesus is not our personal trainer. Even some of our Christmas hymns aren’t so comfortable if we read the words:

            Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

            And with fear and trembling stand;

            Ponder nothing earthly minded,

            For with blessing in His hand,

            Christ our God to earth descendeth

            Our full homage to demand.

Jesus is nobody’s boyfriend, and He hasn’t come to make us feel better, but to make us like Himself. Sometimes it takes strong talk to get our attention.