Galatians 5:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The Galatians must learn to distinguish between friend and foe, for confusion about this leaves them in danger of harm from the one, and deprives them of the help and comfort of the other. The Judaizers had found their way into the hearts of the Galatians and they were taking full advantage of their position. They had done this even though they had needed to supplant Paul in the process, for the Galatians had learned to deeply trust the apostle when he first preached the gospel to them so that it might have seemed futile to try to undermine it. Nevertheless these false teachers had persisted and succeeded, and now Paul found himself on the outside trying to win the Galatians to his trust all over again. He does not approach them in a cunning or subtle way but makes his intentions clear and declares himself to be the avowed enemy of all who teach a different message. He is open and straightforward in all of his dealings, because they must believe that he is speaking the truth to them and this must be seen not only in the doctrine itself but in the way he communicates it. The one that called them and that still calls them is God. He called them when they first heard his voice and they responded by leaving the world to serve Christ. Now he continues to call them to ignore every other voice and return to obedience. He calls them through his apostle who gently persuades them of the truth. But there is another voice calling them and it persuades them to do the exact opposite. It is the voice of the Judaizers, who were full of envy that anyone should know their God without coming through the ordinances which they submitted to. They hate the idea that their imagined advantage of being descended from Abraham is no advantage at all. But ultimately this persuasion is from Satan whose aim is to destroy every believer if he can.