Reach • Devotion 5

A Dangerous Gospel
Pastor Noble Baird

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8-9

The sad reality about the world we live in today is the distortion and deceit that is rampant in a broken world. Whether you turn on the tv, social media, radio, or even the songs we listen to - the truth is no longer the truth, it is about how you feel and making sure that those feelings and truth are not hurtful or contradictory to someone else ideology. Truthfully, this has been the case since the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3 and nothing has changed since. We only see and hear things more quickly because of the technology at our fingertips.

In Galatians 1:8-9, Paul is dealing with this very issue, a distortion of the truth. Paul writes in Galatians 1:8-9, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Paul is concerned about the church in Galatia and warns them of a distortion of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have always loved how Paul plainly and clearly presents the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Paul boldly proclaims the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There was nothing more, nothing less. As he says before that proclamation, this is and must be the Gospel which we stand upon and through which we allow the Spirit to work within us all.

So, as you continue throughout today - not worrying about or thinking about tomorrow or the rest of the week, just today - what is the Gospel you stand upon? Are you standing firm and being sanctified through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Or are you allowing the truth of the Gospel to be distorted by the world or circumstances that surround us every day? We must stand firm and be on guard for the false gospels that are so prevalent and have been prevalent for thousands of years. That is my prayer and challenge for myself and for you today.