September 16, 2025 | Be God's Family
Who Cut in on You?
Scripture: Galatians 5:7-12(NIV)
7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Devotional
Paul just took the circumcision debate to a whole new level. Circumcision is one thing. But emasculation?
The key lies in the debate between Paul, who was proclaiming the “offense of the cross,” and his opponents, who were preaching adherence to the law through circumcision and obedience to the law’s rules. Understand the contrast clearly: the offense of the cross ended the rule of law as the means of obtaining the forgiveness of God. In 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 Paul wrote, “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
In today’s passage, Paul is calling out his opponents as those who cut in on your race, have a persuasion that is not of God, are like yeast working itself through a batch of dough, and are throwing the people into confusion. He calls them agitators, and challenges them to go the whole way and emasculate themselves.
So, why encourage them to emasculate themselves? Some of the participants in the pagan cults of their day actually emasculated themselves as a religious rite. Faithful Jews were appalled by this practice. Paul was saying that trying to get right with God through circumcision or any other kind of works righteousness was just as empty as pagan ritual emasculation. If you want to reject the grace of Christ for religious practices, you are no different than your neighbors who participate in pagan cults.
The upshot is that we must be on alert for those who proclaim a false gospel. Rather than listening to those who cherry pick verses for proof texting their theological, social, or political leanings, we must dedicate ourselves to be guided by the whole counsel of Scripture. Instead of allowing someone to cut in on your race, Paul says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize… Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly” (1 Corinthians 9:24, 26). Elsewhere he says, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
On your mark, get set, go!
Poem
Run, My Child!
Psalm 119:1-8
You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. That’s right—you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set.
Psalm 119:1-3
Run, My Child!
Throw off all weights
Which keep your feet from fleeting
Run, My Child!
Breathe deep my breath
Your true heart ever beating
Run, My Child!
Remember clear
Long hours of your training
Run, My Child!
The course is set
The one of My ordaining
Run, My Child!
Push through the hours
When muscle pains do hinder
Run, My Child!
Stay on My path
Do not with falsehood linger
Run, My Child!
Avoid all that
Would trip you with beguiling
Run, My Child!
In Me delight
As on you I am smiling
