What is the context?
Paul pictures the Galatians as runners whose good progress has been obstructed. The persuasion turning them aside does not come from the God who called them. Like a small amount of leaven spreading through dough, the influence can affect the whole community.
His confidence is in the Lord: he expects them to return to the right understanding. At the same time, he says the person troubling them will bear judgment, whoever that person may be.
Paul then asks why he would still be persecuted if he were still preaching circumcision. His suffering gives the lie to the idea that circumcision as a requirement belongs to his message. A message that removed the offense of the cross would be a different message.
The final sentence is deliberately shocking. In the BSB, Paul wishes that those pressing circumcision would go on to emasculate themselves. His language exposes the destructive direction of their teaching and the intensity of his concern.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians commonly see this as a warning about an influence spreading through the churches and pulling them away from the gospel. Wesley’s notes on verses 7–11 and the USCCB notes on verses 7–12 connect the obstruction, the leaven and the persecution with the pressure to add circumcision to the message of Christ.
The final expression has been explained differently. Wesley’s note on verse 12 takes the older wording about being cut off as removal from the church’s fellowship. The USCCB note understands a biting wish that the knife would go beyond circumcision, corresponding to the BSB’s explicit wording about emasculation.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
1 Corinthians 1:18–25 explains why the cross can be an offense: what some regard as foolish or a stumbling block is the place where God’s power and wisdom are made known through Christ.
That connection gives a larger setting for Paul’s question here. The unwelcome part of his message belongs to God’s saving work through the crucified Christ. Making the message easier to accept by changing its basis would remove the very thing he has been sent to proclaim.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.