Contemplative Bible Reading

Galatians 1:9 (New Living Translation)

9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

Paul writes to Christians in Galatia a long time ago. If anyone preaches something other than the Good News of Jesus, don’t listen to them. Uh, not quite what he wrote. Let those preachers be cursed. Whoa. A bit harsh? What happened to gently correcting someone with love? Pretty rough.

Perhaps there has been something lost or added in translation. Perhaps not. (The New English Translation uses the phrase, “let him be condemned to hell!”) Pretty rough.

What is the harm in preaching something else? Much. I hear a lot of folks these days saying a lot of things other than the Good News of Jesus. Maybe they aren’t officially “preachers,” but they talk a lot and broadcast to the world and all that stuff. Let them be cursed or condemned to hell? Pretty rough.