Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Stumbling Block of the Cross
Galatians 5:10-12
10 I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. · WEB
Paul expresses confidence in the readers and none in the man troubling them, and then argues from the fact that he is still being persecuted.
Verse 10 divides the room. I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way — the confidence is stated of the Galatians and grounded not in them but in the Lord. And then the troubler: he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
The singular is new; the letter has spoken of some until now Galatians 1:7. And the dismissive clause is deliberate. Paul declines to name him, declines to rank him, and leaves the verdict to someone else.
Verse 11 argues from Paul's own circumstances. If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? The charge that he trimmed the gospel to please people Galatians 1:10 runs into a fact: he is being hunted. A man softening his message to avoid trouble is not in trouble — and the opponents urge circumcision precisely so they may not be persecuted for the cross Galatians 6:12.
The clause that closes the verse states what the alternative costs: then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. If circumcision could be added, the cross stops being an offense, because it stops being sufficient. Paul treats the offense as load-bearing.
Verse 12 is the crudest sentence in his letters, and it is a bitter wordplay rather than a curse: those pressing a cutting of the flesh are invited to cut themselves off — from the body they are troubling, on the reading that fits the letter's argument.
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