AUGUST 5, 2025 – FALSE BROTHERS

READ: Gal. 2:1–5: And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ – Acts 15:1

Paul tells the churches in Galatia how he began his work as an apostle, where he worked, and what he preached. Everything was based on revelations from Jesus Christ Himself—this is how he knew and was allowed to pass on the true gospel.

His preaching repeatedly encountered conflict with Jews who had come to believe in Jesus but remained bound to Old Testament regulations and ordinances. The real problem was that they began requiring these same practices of Gentile believers as well.

Eventually, this issue became more widely recognized among the apostles, and a special meeting—the apostolic council—was organized in Jerusalem to address the matter (see Acts 15).

By then, Paul had already been working for 14 years. He took one of his coworkers, Titus, with him—perhaps precisely because Titus was a Greek and uncircumcised. This immediately tested whether the other apostles would accept him as he was.

Paul only went because he received a command from Christ Himself. There was a kind of crisis in the church at that time. How would this meeting turn out? What would be the role of Old Testament laws for believers?

Paul spoke with the brothers and presented the content of his gospel preaching—especially to the esteemed apostles. But there were also false brothers: men from Judea who opposed the freedom found in Christ and came with a counterfeit gospel based on keeping the Mosaic law, such as circumcision.

But Paul did not yield to this false teaching. With this report, he makes it clear to the Galatian churches how he stands in relation to the false teachers among them: they too are twisting the gospel.

Why are these Jewish Christians called false brothers?

Sing: Ps. 57:3,4