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Galatians 5:12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! Truth to Learn False teachers and their teaching cause trouble in the church.<\/p>\n Behind the Words The word translated \u201cI could wish<\/span>\u201d is ophelon<\/span><\/em>. At one point in time this word was used as the past tense of \u201cI owe.\u201d By the time of the first century, however, it had come to be used as an exclamatory interjection meaning \u201cOh that!\u201d or \u201cWould that!\u201d or \u201cI wish that!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cTrouble<\/span>\u201d is translated from the verb anastato\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cto rise up and depart.\u201d This word is used of someone driving a person out of his own home. It is a more intense expression than the simple word \u201ctrouble\u201d conveys.<\/p>\n The words \u201ccut \u2026 off<\/span>\u201d are translated from the verb apokopt\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of apo<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cfrom\u201d or \u201caway from\u201d and kopt\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto chop down\u201d or \u201cto cut off.\u201d This is the word that is used of cutting a person\u2019s arm off; hence it also could be translated \u201camputate.\u201d It is used here in the middle voice indicating action that they are doing to themselves.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained There is a sharp difference of opinion as to what Paul is wishing for in this verse. This difference of opinion revolves around what Paul meant by the use of the word apokopt\u014d<\/span><\/em>. Some believe that Paul is saying that he wishes that the ones troubling the Galatian church with their false teaching would be excommunicated (cut-off) from the church. This is unlikely, however, since he expresses this word in the middle voice, which would mean that Paul wished that these people would excommunicate themselves. Since excommunication is an action that the leaders of a church take against others, it doesn\u2019t make sense that they would excommunicate themselves.<\/p>\n The other viewpoint is that Paul is wishing that these who are teaching circumcision as a requirement for salvation would make thorough work of it in their own case and amputate (cut-off) themselves. This interpretation fits the grammatical construction of Paul\u2019s writing; however, if this is the proper interpretation of this verse, it is one of the harshest declarations that the Apostle Paul makes in any of his writings. The primary reason for resisting this interpretation is that, supposedly, Paul would never use such a harsh and seemingly crude epithet regarding anyone.<\/p>\n But there is some basis for Paul\u2019s making such a comment. During the first century, there were pagan religions where the priests and other devout followers would mutilate themselves by self-castration as a form of religious sacrifice. Possibly, this is what Paul was thinking of when he made this statement.<\/p>\n He used a similar word in Philippians when he warned the believers there to be on the lookout for false teachers, those teaching circumcision, which he referred to as mutilation:<\/p>\n Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!<\/span> <\/span>(Phlippians 3:2<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Application Those who spread false teaching in the church do real damage to the faith and walk of our fellow Christians. We need to be vigilant in detecting these false teachers. And, when they are identified, we need to take firm action under the direction of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2008 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Galatians 5:12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off! Truth to Learn False teachers and their teaching cause trouble in the church. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cI could wish\u201d is ophelon. At one point in time this word was used as the past tense of \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-5"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-1b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/signature.gif\")
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