Don’t Get Tripped Up - November 14

Read Galatians 5:5-10 

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 

Reflect 

What messages hinder you from fully believing and obeying the truth of the Gospel? What is the source of those messages? 

It doesn’t take much of a bad thing to completely ruin a good thing. If you handed me a drink and said, “Don’t worry. I only put a small amount of cyanide in it” I obviously wouldn’t drink any of it! A little bit of poison, poisons the whole drink with potentially deadly consequences.  

In today’s verses, the apostle Paul said “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” If a baker adds yeast to a bowl of bread dough, the whole batch will rise. There’s no way that any portion of the dough will remain unleavened because yeast permeates the whole batch.  

In the same way, just a small amount of false teaching has the potential to trip up an entire congregation. That is what Paul feared for the Galatians. The Judaizers had crept in and he knew that even a small number of Galatian believers accepting this false teaching could create a huge issue. The Galatians had been running well but now the Judaizers were hindering them from “obeying the truth.” The true Gospel comes from God and has the power to save those He calls. But the false teaching of Judaizers was not from the Lord and thus, had no power to save.  

The false gospel threatening the church in Galatia was a form of legalism that mixed the law and grace. The Judaizers were teaching that in order to truly be saved believers in Christ must also conform to the Jewish law and Gentile believers must be circumcised. But Paul maintained that circumcision doesn't count towards righteousness and remaining uncircumcised doesn't either. In fact, circumcision doesn’t count for anything.  

Paul said that the only thing that counts is “faith working through love.” Salvation is not a work of human hands. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. When we place our faith in Christ, we are saved by His grace. At that moment, we receive the Holy Spirit and an outpouring of love and good works is the evidence of our faith in Christ. But good works are never the cause of our salvation, they are the result of it. Any teaching claiming that you have to do something in order to achieve your salvation or add to your salvation is a false gospel and those who preach a false gospel are destined to judgment from the Lord.  

In 2 Corinthians 11:15 Paul wrote that for false teachers “their end will correspond to their deeds.” Peter agreed when he wrote that false teachers are “bringing upon themselves swift destruction” and that “their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” (2 Peter 2:1, 3). False gospels are not trivial matters. They are deadly serious and the consequences are potentially eternal. Because false teachers deceive and keep people from the only message that can save them, they will be judged severely. 

Friend, if you are hearing any message that you can earn or add to your salvation through any effort of your own, that is a false gospel. Call it out and refuse to accept it. Don’t take any part in it but expose it (Ephesians 5:11). How tragic it would be if we allowed a false gospel to trip up our brothers and sisters and keep them from the true Gospel! 

Respond  

Lord, please protect me from false teaching. Open my eyes so that I can recognize a false gospel when I hear it and give me the courage to speak Your truth so that others won’t get tripped up either. Amen. 

Reveal  

Think about someone you know who seems weighed down by the pressure to be “good enough”—maybe a coworker, a parent, or even a friend who’s always trying to do everything perfectly. This week, find a gentle way to lift that burden a little. Compliment who they are, not what they do. Maybe say, “I really enjoy being around you,” or, “You don’t have to have it all together for people to care about you.” Simple words like that can be a powerful reminder that worth isn’t earned—it’s received. When you do this, you quietly point them toward a deeper truth: that love, freely given, can do what striving never will.