Galatians 1:7

Which is not another gospel; only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

This verse should be read in close connection with the previous one. Regarding the exact meaning, Ramsay preferred as the simplest and best, "that which the English Revised Version (1885) gives in the margin,"[22] giving the thought thus: "A different gospel which is nothing else save that there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ." There is no hint in this passage that Paul actually considered Judaism "another gospel" in any genuine sense. See note regarding "Another Gospel" at end of this chapter.

A sample of the erroneous and irresponsible comment foisted upon this passage is the following:

(The false teaching) was surely a teaching according to which men are saved through faith plus law-works, a perversion of the true gospel which proclaims the glad tidings of salvation (by grace) through faith alone.[23]

Such a view is untrue, misleading, and anti-Scriptural. A New Testament writer flatly declared that people are not justified "by faith alone" (James 2:24); and no scholar has a right to contradict the New Testament. Note the expression "law-works," used to make it appear that Paul belittled the Christian ordinances; but it is not Christian ordinances and commands which Paul was denouncing, but works of the Law of Moses. We have reason to be thankful for brilliant scholars like R. E. Howard who spoke out against the heresy that people attempted to import into this passage, saying:

The logical implication of justification by faith alone is antinomianism, against which Paul vehemently objected... His repeated warning that wrong living excluded men from God's kingdom should leave no doubt as to his attitude... The new faith provided the only adequate means for ethical conduct, rather than absolving men from that responsibility.[24]

Any person familiar with the meaning of ordinary words must know that salvation "by faith alone" means salvation without obeying the Christian ordinances, without holiness, without moral conduct, without respect for any Christian duty, without the church and without the new birth or anything else. Such is the meaning of the word "alone" or its equivalent "only." The only religious error ever known which rivals that of so-called salvation "by faith only" is the Christian Science proposition that there is no pain, sickness or death!

Them that trouble you... Vine stated that the word thus rendered by this verse means "subverting the souls of believers by evil doctrine."[25] The exact characteristics of the evil teaching going on among the Galatians were gleaned from this epistle by David Lipscomb thus:

It puts in bondage (Galatians 2:4), causes entanglement (Galatians 5:1), could not bring justification (Galatians 2:16), or freedom (Galatians 5:1); it made Christ of no profit (Galatians 5:2), and it made the death of Christ, which is the very essence of the gospel, a superfluous thing of no account (Galatians 2:2 1); and in addition to providing no blessing whatever, it puts men under a curse (Galatians 3:10); and all who accepted it fell from grace (Galatians 5:4)[26]

[22] William M. Ramsay, A Historical Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1965), p. 264.

[23] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 40.

[24] R. E. Howard, op. cit., p. 23.

[25] W. E. Vine, op. cit., 4p. 157.

[26] David Lipscomb, A Commentary on the New Testament Epistles (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, Vol. III, p. 190.