Karl Bushby just finished his 28 year journey to walk around the entire world. He began when he was 29, and at 57 years old he reached the finish line, where he hugged his waiting mother. Her first words were comical, “Where have you been?” He was around the world – literally. His journey began in Chile in 1998 and he would walk 31,000 miles across four continents and over 30 countries to arrive home in England.
His adventure had him crossing the Bering Strait, swimming across the Caspian Sea, facing down polar bears, dodging Columbian armed conflict, falling through ice, sitting in a Russian jail, trekking through jungles, deserts and mountains. He anticipated his adventure would take around 12 years, but never would have guessed it would take 28 years. But he never quit. When the 2008 recession happened and funding quit for awhile, when Covid hit, when he had to be airlifted out of the Caspian Sea, when all his supplies fell with a sled into the sea, when countries refused to let him cross into their borders – no matter what obstacle was put in front of him, Karl pressed on in determination to reach his goal. He had set out on this adventure, his own solo race around the world, and he made it.
The Christian life is described as a race also. It is one of the Apostle Paul’s more distinct pictures of the Christian life. We are all runners in a race. In Galatians 2:2 Paul described how he was confirming with the other Apostles that he had not run his race in vain; in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 he famously describes his ambition to get the prize in this race and how disciplined he is in this race; he tells how he keeps pressing on in this race in Philippians 3:12-14; and finally at the end of his life he describes in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 how confident he is that he finished his race well, and that a crown awaits him for it.
But Paul did not see just himself in a race – he saw all Christians as in the same race. So in Galatians 5:7 he says to those Galatian believers, “You were running a good race…” And then he asks the question that sets the tone for the next 6 verses: “who cut in on you?” All this imagery of running races was very familiar to the Galatians because of the famous Olympic and Isthmian games. Today we have fantasy football, back then they probably had fantasy footrace. Everyone probably had their favorite runners like we have our favorite athletes today. These races that runners ran in had rules. Apparently cheating has always existed throughout history. And it existed in Paul’s day. So there were rules against tripping and shoving and other unethical moves that would “impede” or hinder another runner (Witherington, 371).
It is this picture of a race, and running in it, and getting obstructed while running, that Paul is evoking in the Galatian’s minds.
This section from verse 7 to verse 12 will have 8 points to it: 1) Cut In, 2) Not From Christ, 3) Contagious, 4) Confidence, 5) Condemnation, 6) Commitment, 7) Contradiction, 8) Cut Themselves. We will cover the first 3, verses 7-9….
CUT IN (7)
Paul asks “Who cut in on you?” The word means to “hinder,” or “interfere,” or “obstructed.” I like to simply say “get in your way.” But it has to be more specific, the word conveys something getting in your way and keeping you from reaching your goal. Paul is saying, “You guys were running your race really well, what happened? Who has gotten in your way and obstructed your progress? Who is interfering with you running ahead in your Christian race?”
The danger of these “cutters,” is that they don’t only interfere with a Christian’s progress in the race, but they lead them off track. Paul says the Galatians were being hindered from “obeying the truth.” They were obeying the truth, now because of these Judaizers who showed up in their gatherings they were not “obeying the truth” as well as they were, if at all anymore.
This phrase needs a little clarification. The phrase “obeying the truth” might make us think of not living obediently in terms of doing right moral things. But that’s not the meaning here. Instead it refers to persuasion – you are persuaded by the Gospel. But the Galatians were getting off track and being persuaded by Judaizers that in combination with the Gospel they needed to submit to the Law of Moses.
APPLICATION: The Christian life begins with the right persuasion. You must be persuaded in your mind of the truth. People who practice unrighteousness are showing that in their minds they are persuaded by false teachings. We however, must maintain our minds, and we must maintain proper persuasion – that is, we are taking care that our thinking is truth-centered. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
APPLICATION: Fellowship is critical. The Galatians were allowing these Judaizing influencers to influence them towards the wrong ideas and therefore the wrong actions. You must be wise in who you fellowship with – because you are influenced and persuaded by those you surround yourself with. On the one hand we are told, “He who walks with the wise grows wise,” and then on the other hand we’re told, “Bad company corrupts good character.” Do you see how important it is who you surround yourself with?
That is not just in person, but it is online too. I see so many people go down rabbit holes and get off track because they’re influenced by the wrong people. Fellowship IN your church. Fellowship is critical. Be persuaded that your local church is the place where your primary fellowship in Christ should be happening. This church is where you should be learning the Word of God.
APPLICATION: You can start well in the faith – and praise God for that. But keep in mind that while you can start well in your Chrisian race it is possible – and very possible – that you get off track and end poorly. Paul said in 1:6, “I am astonished you are so quickly deserting the one who called you…” In 3:3 he rebuked them very harshly and called them foolish, then said, “Are you so foolish that after beginning with the Spirit you are now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” Do not start well and finish poorly. That means you keep growing in your knowledge, you keep growing in your faith, you prioritize fellowship with your church.
NOT FROM CHRIST (8)
Paul says that these Judaizing influencers were not from Christ. Look at verse 8, “That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.” Things are going to come to you that do not come from God. This began in the Garden – Satan came to Adam and Eve, but he was not from God. They were presented with a choice: what they knew was God’s way and the way Satan was enticing them into. From the beginning of our very existence as humans we have had “persuasions” that do not come from God. And we have no shortage of them now.
- Turn to 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
- Turn to 1 John 4:1-3
- Turn to Jude 3-4
- Turn to 2 Peter 3:1-3
Jesus warned in Matthew 7 of false prophets, who would be wolves among the sheep. You would know them, He said, by their fruit. The reality of so much Satanic activity to overrun this world with lies requires us to be vigilant with the truth. Since we have been given the truth we are obligated to discern, to tell the difference between that which is from God and that which is not. Paul told the Galatians: “that persuasion does not come from the one who called you.” The Galatians were expected to refuse that persuasion.
This is a mark of Christian maturity by the way. Turn to Hebrews 5:11-14 with me… Can you see what he states is maturity? He says the ability to tell the difference between good and evil, that which is from God and that which is not. Ephesians 4 says the same thing and there it is connected with false teachers who blow unstable, immature believers all over the place with their cunning and scheming. Mature believers are not going to be taken in by every wind of doctrine. There is a lot of wind happening right now that is being passed off as “Christian.” There are a lot of ideas being presented as “from God,” and supposedly biblical. And they’re not. Learn to tell the difference.
APPLICATION: Things are going to come to you that do not come from God. What will you do? Will you have the wisdom to discriminate that which is of God and that which is not? Will you care enough to want to find out? A lot of the Christian life is going to be refusing things – refusing people and ideas and conduct and activity and directions that come from people who themselves are not coming from the One who called you EFC.
CONTAGIOUS (9)
Paul gives a spiritual truth here that we need to always remember: “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” The spiritual truth is that a little bit of error that is tolerated will not remain just a little bit – it will spread. It will grow. It will increase. It will eventually – and quickly – touch everything.
Paul used this phrase to teach this truth here, and also to the Corinthian church. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul addressed the sexual immorality of one man in their fellowship, and that it was being tolerated by the church. Among many very stern things Paul said to them, he also said this same phrase, “A little leave works through the whole batch,” meaning that the effect of the Corinthians tolerating that behavior would be that it spreads. Sexual immorality tolerated WILL spread to the whole church and more and more people will begin engaging in it.
Here in Galatians, the matter is not sexual immorality, but Law-keeping. If the culture of the Galatian church surrendered to Law-keeping, then more and more people would start adopting a Law-keeping view and lifestyle.
APPLICATION: Be vigilant over yourself. What little bit of leaven are you letting in? I remember a married guy I worked with a long time ago who looked at women on dating sites. When I challenged him he said, “I can look at the menu as long as I don’t order.” You must be vigilant. I’ve said this so many times over the years: Satan’s goal is to take you miles off course, and his tactic is to win you one inch at a time. You must be vigilant over the inches. You must have more diligence than an OT Jew during Passover when they went through their entire house to make sure there was not one speck of leaven in their home. I say this because we have a way of justifying a little bit of leaven. We have a way of rationalizing it to ourselves. We have a way of minimizing it. Don’t. Be ruthlessly vigilant with yourself.
APPLICATION to the APPLICATION: Be more vigilant with yourself than you are with others. The tendency is to be super-vigilant of all the leaven in everyone else’s life, but ignore the leaven in our own. Focus less on others and start focusing more on yourself.
CONCLUSION: Run well!
Run well Christian! This race lasts only a moment, then it will be over. Then you will enter the rest promised, and your prize will be awarded you. Stay on track, don’t get distracted, don’t get discouraged, don’t get deceived. Stay on track, with your eyes firmly fixed on Jesus Christ, who waits for you at the finish line, and wait for him to say, “Where have you been?” No, live so He will say, “Well done. Well done.”