Galatians 1:20
20 Now [de] the things which [hos] I write [grapho] unto you, [humin] behold, [idou] before [enopion] God, [theos] [hoti] I lie [pseudomai] not. [ou] KJV-Interlinear
20 (Now in what I am writing to
you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) NASB
Paul is writing to the Galatians, because they have
fallen away from the true gospel, and had turned to various forms of salvation
by works gospels, all of which were false.
Paul had already visited the region and those
people responded to the true gospel of faith, or salvation by faith and had
thrived considerably as a result.
But Paul left to go to other places, and that is
when evil people came in and began teaching false doctrines.
Now this is not mentioned anywhere, but Paul is
addressing the truthfulness of his message and the means of his instruction, which
indicates that this background has been questioned, most likely by those who
were teaching the false doctrines, and as such, attacked Pauls character as
well.
Therefore, Paul addresses his history and
background in this first chapter.
He restates the story of his salvation, the story
of his instruction by no man or institution, and the brief meeting with Peter and
James.
And this defense of his character and history
should not have been necessary, had his truthfulness not been questioned. So, he states that this is the true nature of
himself and not something else.
He did not spend time in Jerusalem learning. He did not receive instruction from the
apostles. And, he makes those facts
clear by means of his own statements and writing, which would necessarily
cancel anything and everything that others might have said or implied.
When Paul was not around, all that people could go
by was the general gossip that was offered, with no one there to correct or
contradict it. And that teaches us a
spiritual lesson here.
When people lack truth in their souls, then they
will have a tendency to listen to and accept gossip without questioning the
source.
The gossip is wrong, but then, the listener who
accepts it, is wrong too. Only truth
assimilated in the soul can discern between the truth and idol talk. When truth is lacking in the soul, then
people will leap at repetitive false talk without hesitation.
