Turning Away From God

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel --" (Galatians 1:6 NIV)

Paul quickly moves from his salutation into the heart of his message. He begins the body of the letter by stating that he is utterly astonished by the Galatians. They had quickly moved from the true Gospel that Paul had preached towards the counterfeit gospel of the false teachers that had come among them.

The time between the conversion of the Galatians and this letter would be less than four years. Paul is surprised that in such a short time period they had gone from a ready acceptance of the truth toward error. In the original, the verb may indicate that they were in the process of deserting but had not yet fully turned away. This makes sense and explains the urgency of this letter. Paul wanted to arrest the drift into error before it was completed. Still today, it is amazing how quickly people can move from truth to error.

In accepting the false teaching, Paul does not say they had turned away from the gospel or that they had turned away from grace. He says that they had turned away from God! When we realize the full implications of accepting a counterfeit gospel, we understand why this letter is so blunt and cutting. To forsake the truth of the gospel is to forsake God Himself.