Galatians 5:11-12 11But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the scandal of the cross has been removed. 12I wish those who are troubling you would emasculate themselves!
Paul gets personal in these verses. His persecution was in part because of what he preached. His message was about faith in Jesus Christ and not reliance upon the law, rituals, circumcision, or any other human effort. Many Jews of the time focused on such rituals, especially the Jewish Christian teachers who came out of Jerusalem, Antioch, and followed Paul’s route of mission. The book of Acts records many incidents where the Jews threatened Paul, had him arrested or beaten. Eventually, the Jews of Jerusalem caught him in the temple courts and had him arrested and passed on to Roman jurisdiction.
If Paul preached circumcision, he would be no better than these false teachers. Circumcision is all about human effort and conformity to a law that does not impact one’s salvation. It is a diversion from what really matter: faith expressing itself in love. Because circumcision focuses on human effort, it replaces the grace of the cross. The cross represented to Paul the life that has been totally submitted to God. Jesus is the ultimate example of this submission (Philippians 2:5-11; Ephesians 5:2). We must put ourselves on the cross of submission just like Jesus. This leads to a life of total dependence on Jesus, which then provides grace and the assurance of faith to face challenges and move forward in mission. What the Galatians were doing essentially negated their faith in Jesus.
Verse 12 is one of the strong statements in the letter and a bit shocking to some people’s sensibilities. The word emasculate basically means to “cut off” or “cut away.” This word could be interpreted literally or figuratively. In a literal sense, it could refer to the act of cutting that is part of circumcision. Paul basically wishes that those who preached circumcision would slip the knife and cut themselves. The uses of this word in the New Testament mostly refer to the physical act of cutting. Figuratively, Paul cut be wishing that these people would be cut off and rejected by the Galatians. Whatever the case, Paul is attempting to wake up the Galatians to the seriousness of the issue. They should not take this situation lightly but treat it with the greatest concern because it could impact their eternal standing before God.
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