📖 Passage

Galatians 1:6–10 Read Galatians 1:6–10 (NKJV)

🧠 Context & Background

Galatians confronts teachers who insisted that Gentile believers must add works of the Law to faith in Christ to be fully accepted by God. In 1:6–10 Paul exposes the crisis: to shift from grace to performance is to desert God Himself who calls in grace. The “different gospel” is no gospel (1:7) because it moves trust from Christ’s finished work to human effort.

Paul’s response is severe for the church’s safety: a double anathema (1:8–9). No messenger—not even an angel—may alter the apostolic gospel. Finally, 1:10 unmasks motives: a minister enslaved to human approval will bend the message, but a bondservant of Christ proclaims it plainly, seeking God’s pleasure above all.

🌿 Key Themes

• Grace Alone — God’s call saves by grace, not performance.
• One Gospel — Alternatives are distortions, not options.
• Guardrails of a Curse — The double anathema protects the flock.
• Messenger < Message — No authority outranks the apostolic gospel.
• Pleasing God — Fidelity to Christ, not crowds, orders ministry.

📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Galatians 1:6 — Desertion from Grace

“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ…”

• Speed of drift — Doctrinal slide can happen quickly when grace is minimized.
• Personal offense — To abandon the gospel is to turn from God who calls by grace.
• Divine initiative — Salvation begins with God’s call, not our merit (cf. Ephesians 2:8–9).

Galatians 1:7 — A Perversion, Not a Peer

“…which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

• No true alternative — There is only one saving gospel; rivals are counterfeits.
• Troublers — False teachers unsettle consciences by shifting trust from Christ to performance.
• Christ-centered — The genuine message is of Christ—anchored in His person and work.

Galatians 1:8–9 — The Double Anathema

“If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel… let him be accursed.”

• Supremacy of the message — No messenger (not even Paul or an angel) may revise the gospel.
• Pastoral severity — Love requires clarity: false gospels destroy rather than save.
• Sufficiency of the cross — Adding works nullifies grace and empties the cross (cf. Galatians 2:21; Galatians 5:2–4).

Galatians 1:10 — Whose Approval?

“For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

• Motives exposed — People-pleasing muffles truth; God-pleasing proclaims it.
• Servant identity — A doulos belongs wholly to Christ; allegiance is reordered (cf. Philippians 3:4–9).
• Gospel integrity — Ministers serve Christ’s verdict, not the market’s applause.

🔍 Trusted Insight

“The moment you add anything to Christ, you have subtracted Christ. Christ plus something equals nothing; Christ plus nothing equals everything.” — R.C. Sproul

• Sproul’s words echo Paul’s passion in Galatians: to supplement Christ’s finished work with human effort is to destroy the gospel itself.
• The sufficiency of Christ’s atonement means salvation is not 99% grace and 1% our contribution—it is all of grace.
• Any “Christ-plus” system—whether law, ritual, or performance—becomes a denial of Christ’s sufficiency.

Summary: The church’s safety rests on the unchanged gospel of grace alone in Christ alone; fidelity requires resisting every form of Christ-plus.

🧩 Review Questions

💡 Click a question to open the chatbot and explore the answer. Tap the chat bubble again to close it.

1. Why does Paul equate deserting the gospel with deserting God who calls by grace (v. 6)?
2. What modern “Christ-plus” pressures tempt churches to adjust the message?
3. How does the double anathema function as pastoral protection (vv. 8–9)?
4. Where might people-pleasing compromise gospel clarity in your context (v. 10)?

🔍 Definitions

• Gospel — The good news of Christ’s saving work in His life, death, and resurrection for sinners.
• Grace — God’s free, undeserved favor that saves apart from our works.
• Anathema — A solemn curse; being set under judgment for opposing God’s truth.
• Judaizers — Influencers insisting on Torah observance (e.g., circumcision) as necessary for full covenant status.
• People-pleasing — Shaping message or behavior to win human approval rather than God’s.

🙋 Application Questions

1. Where do you subtly add a “Christ-plus” requirement for God’s acceptance (quiet time streaks, ministry output, certain cultural markers)? How can you repent and freshly rest in grace alone?
2. When you feel spiritual insecurity, what do you instinctively grab—performance or Christ’s finished work? What practice this week will re-anchor you in the gospel (e.g., praying Gal 2:20; Romans 8:1)?
3. In what situations are you tempted to please people by softening hard edges of the gospel (sin, wrath, exclusivity of Christ)? What would pleasing God look like instead?
4. Identify one “troubler” influence (podcast, book, social feed, friend) that nudges you toward performance religion. What guardrail will you set to protect gospel clarity?
5. How can your community group or church cultivate a culture that tests messages by Scripture and lovingly confronts false gospels without becoming harsh or quarrelsome?
6. Who in your life needs the true gospel (not moralism or therapy-speak)? What’s one concrete step you’ll take this week to share Christ with clarity and courage?

🔤 Greek Keywords

• metatithēmi (μετατίθημι) — “to turn away/transfer”; highlights defection from grace (v. 6).
• charis (χάρις) — grace, God’s unmerited saving initiative (vv. 6–7).
• euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) — gospel, the good news centered on Christ (vv. 6–9).
• anathema (ἀνάθεμα) — curse, devoted to destruction; severe apostolic warning (vv. 8–9).
• doulos (δοῦλος) — bondservant/slave; total belonging to Christ (v. 10).
• peithō (πείθω) — “to persuade/seek favor”; contrasts people-pleasing with God-pleasing (v. 10).

📚 Cross References

• Acts 15:1–11 — Council affirms salvation by grace through faith, not Law-keeping.
• 2 Corinthians 11:3–4 — Warning against “another Jesus… another gospel.”
• Jude 3–4 — Contend for the faith; some pervert grace.
• Deuteronomy 13:1–5 — Test prophets; do not follow signs that lead away from God.
• Romans 3:28 — Justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
• Galatians 2:21 — If righteousness were through the Law, Christ died for nothing.

📦 Next Study

Next Study → Galatians 1:11–24 – Gospel Received, Not Inherited