Movatterモバイル変換

The Council at Jerusalem
…3Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.4This issue arosebecausesomefalse brothershad come inunder false pretensesto spy onourfreedominChristJesus,in orderto enslaveus.5We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.…

Treasury of Scripture

And that because of false brothers unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

because.

Galatians 5:10,12
I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be…

Acts 15:1,24
And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren,and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved…

Acts 20:30
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

unawares.

2 Timothy 3:6
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

2 Peter 2:1,2
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction…

Jude 1:4
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

liberty.

Galatians 3:23-26
But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed…

Galatians 5:1,13
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage…

Psalm 51:12
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold mewith thy free spirit.

bring.

Galatians 4:3,9,10,25
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: …

Isaiah 51:23
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

2 Corinthians 11:20
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devouryou, if a man takeof you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.

AccountBondageChristChurchConditionDangerFreeFreedomIntroducedJesusLibertyMatterOrderOursPrivatelyPrivilyRanksSearchingSecretlyServantsSlippedSpyStoleStolenUnawaresAccountBondageChristChurchConditionDangerFreeFreedomIntroducedJesusLibertyMatterOrderOursPrivatelyPrivilyRanksSearchingSecretlyServantsSlippedSpyStoleStolenUnawares1.He shows when he went up again to Jerusalem, and for what purpose;
3.and that Titus was not circumcised;
11.and that he resisted Peter, and told him the reason;
14.why he and others, being Jews, believe in Christ to be justified by faith, and not by works;
20.and that they live not in sin, who are so justified.

This issue arose
The context of this phrase refers to the controversy in the early church regarding the necessity of following Jewish law, particularly circumcision, for Gentile converts. This issue was significant in the early church as it addressed the core of the gospel message and the nature of salvation by grace through faith.

because some false brothers
The term "false brothers" indicates individuals who claimed to be part of the Christian community but were not genuine in their faith or intentions. These individuals were likely Judaizers, who insisted that Gentile Christians must adhere to Jewish customs. This reflects the tension between Jewish and Gentile believers in the early church.

had come in under false pretenses
These false brothers infiltrated the Christian community with deceitful intentions. Their presence was not for fellowship or genuine faith but to impose legalistic practices. This highlights the early church's struggle with maintaining doctrinal purity and the challenges of false teachings.

to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus
The freedom mentioned here refers to liberation from the Mosaic Law's requirements, emphasizing salvation through faith in Christ alone. This freedom was a central theme in Paul's teachings, contrasting the new covenant of grace with the old covenant of the law. The false brothers sought to undermine this freedom by reintroducing legalistic bondage.

in order to enslave us
The goal of these false brothers was to bring believers back under the yoke of the law, which Paul equates with spiritual slavery. This reflects the broader biblical theme of freedom versus bondage, where true freedom is found in Christ, and any return to legalism is seen as a regression to slavery. This echoes the warnings in other Pauline epistles against returning to the law after receiving grace.

1.Paul
- The apostle who wrote the letter to the Galatians, addressing issues of false teachings and defending the true Gospel.

2.False Brothers
- Individuals who infiltrated the early Christian community with the intent to undermine the freedom found in Christ by promoting legalism.

3.Freedom in Christ
- The liberty believers have from the law and sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

4.Jerusalem Council
- The event where early church leaders, including Paul, discussed the requirements for Gentile believers, which is the broader context of this passage.

5.Galatia
- The region where the churches were located that Paul was addressing in this letter.Guard Against False Teachings
Believers must be vigilant against teachings that distort the Gospel and lead to spiritual bondage.

Value of Spiritual Freedom
Understand and cherish the freedom that comes from faith in Christ, which liberates us from the law and sin.

Discernment in Fellowship
Exercise discernment in identifying those who may have ulterior motives within the church community.

Stand Firm in the Gospel
Be steadfast in the truth of the Gospel, resisting any attempts to add legalistic requirements to faith.

Unity in Diversity
Embrace the diversity within the body of Christ, recognizing that all believers, Jew and Gentile, are united in Christ.1.What is the meaning of Galatians 2:4?

2.How does Galatians 2:4 warn against false brothers infiltrating the church today?

3.What freedoms in Christ are threatened by "false brothers" in Galatians 2:4?

4.How can we discern "false brothers" as described in Galatians 2:4?

5.Connect Galatians 2:4 to Jesus' warnings about false prophets in Matthew 7:15.

6.How should Galatians 2:4 influence our approach to church leadership and teaching?

7.What does Galatians 2:4 reveal about the threat of false believers within the early church?

8.How does Galatians 2:4 challenge the concept of Christian freedom versus legalism?

9.Why were false brothers secretly brought in according to Galatians 2:4?

10.What are the top 10 Lessons from Galatians 2?

11.Who were the Judaizers in early Christianity?

12.What defines false guilt?

13.What is the meaning of Galatians 3:28?

14.What defines spiritual bondage?This issue arose

Paul is recalling a real historical conflict. After years of fruitful ministry among Gentiles, he traveled to Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-2) to address whether new believers must keep the Mosaic Law, especially circumcision. The “issue” is not a minor misunderstanding but a threat to the very gospel he preached (Galatians 1:6-9). • Notice that Paul treats doctrinal purity as a present, pressing matter—faithfulness to Christ demands action in the moment, not after the fact (Jude 3;2 Timothy 4:2).

---

because some false brothers

“False brothers” are people who wear the label “Christian” yet deny its message by what they add to or subtract from it. • Paul faced them often (2 Corinthians 11:26); John saw them leave because they were never truly of the faith (1 John 2:19). • Jesus warned His disciples to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). Authentic fellowship requires more than shared vocabulary; it requires shared allegiance to the finished work of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

---

had come in under false pretenses

These men did not announce themselves as opponents of grace—they “came in” quietly. • Jude 4 notes, “For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed…,” echoing the same pattern. •2 Peter 2:1 speaks of false teachers who “will secretly introduce destructive heresies.” • The danger is subtle deception, not open hostility; therefore, believers must test every teaching (1 John 4:1) and stay alert (Acts 20:29-31).

---

to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus

Freedom is the birthright of every believer: freedom from the law’s curse (Galatians 3:13), freedom from sin’s dominion (Romans 6:14), freedom to draw near to God without fear (Hebrews 4:16). • Jesus declared, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). • The intruders watched this liberty, not to rejoice but to undermine it, much like the Pharisees who scrutinized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath (Luke 6:7).

---

in order to enslave us

Their aim was to pull believers back into legalistic bondage—adding circumcision and ritual law as conditions for acceptance with God. • Paul protests the same threat later: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). • Peter called such legal burdens “a yoke that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” (Acts 15:10). • Any system that shifts trust from Christ’s completed work to human effort is, by definition, spiritual slavery (Romans 8:15;Galatians 4:7-9).

---

summary

Galatians 2:4 exposes a timeless danger: counterfeit believers infiltrate the church, stealthily oppose gospel liberty, and seek to re-enslave God’s people to rule-keeping. Paul’s response models decisive, gospel-anchored resistance. Christ has liberated us through His cross; therefore, we must guard that freedom, refuse legalistic bondage, and live in the joyful liberty secured for us in Him.

(4)And that because of . . .--The sense is here, in any case, broken and imperfect. It seems, on the whole, best to supply the missing clause thus: "But (or,though) on account of false brethren . . . [I was urged to have him circumcised]." The leaders of the Church at Jerusalem took the ground, not of insisting upon circumcision as a necessity, but rather advising it as a matter of policy, to allay the ill feeling excited against St. Paul by designing men, traitors in the camp, who, though Christians in name, were Jews at heart. Many commentators, however, adopt the rendering of the Authorised version: "And that because of false (or rather,the false) brethren," understanding that he was not compelled to be circumcised. The reason why Titus was not circumcised was the evidently interested and treacherous motives of the Judaising partisans who clamoured for it.

Unawares brought in, who came in privily.--These two words correspond to each other in the Greek, and bring out in a graphic and forcible way the insidious and designing character of the party most violently opposed to St. Paul. Professing to be Christians, they were really Jews of the narrowest sort, who only entered into the Church to spy into and restrict its liberties.

Which we have in Christ Jesus.--The Christian Church is the Messianic kingdom, which derives all its attributes directly from its Head. If it is free, Christ has won for it its freedom, by relieving it from the burden of the Law, by abolishing race distinctions, and offering all the Messianic privileges to those who through faith are united to Him.

Bring us into bondage.--The "bondage" is, in the first instance, that of the Mosaic law, and through it the personal domination of the Jewish partisans.

Verse 4. -And that because of false brethren unawares brought in (διὰ δὲ τοὺςπαρεισάκτους ψευδαδέλφους);and that because of the false brethren without warrant brought in. The conjunctionδὲ often is not adversative, but only introduces a fresh thought of a qualifying or explanatory character (comp.ἀνέβην δὲ andκατ ἰδίαμ δὲ of ver. 2). The rendering of our English Version represents the connection with the preceding sentence quite correctly. The designation, "false brethren," after the analogy of "false apostles," "false prophets" (ψευδαπόστολοι,ψευδοπροφῆται,2 Corinthians 11:13;2 Peter 2:1), were those who were not really brethren in Christ, but had superinduced the profession of such over a state of mind radically incompatible with it; not children of God through faith in Christ Jesus," but only simulating faith in Christ; outwardly "baptized into Christ," but not inwardly, and therefore not really. The loud demand which those false brethren were making, that all Gentile converts should be circumcised, was distinctly rested by them upon the principle that otherwise those converts were not qualified for sonship in God's family or for admission to Church fellowship with, at any rate, the believing circumcision. This demand of theirs, made upon this pernicious principle, it was that had raised the present controversy, and had brought Paul and his fellow-deputies to Jerusalem. If, under such circumstances, Titus, with St. Paul's concurrence, had consented to be circumcised, then, whatever the motive of his consenting, it would have seemed to those false brethren, and not to them only, but indeed to the Church at large, that all had agreed in recognizing the soundness of that principle of theirs that circumcision was indispensable for perfect Divine acceptance. This consideration, we may believe, Titus and St. Paul now urged upon those who, not themselves alleging that principle, nor even allowing it to be true, yet, on other grounds, were recommending and pressing for Titus's circumcision. And the argument prevailed with them. They withdrew that pressure of theirs, and consented to leave Titus to stand there before the Church and the world, a claimant of full admission to all Christian fellowship while still in uncircumcision. It was those false brethren themselves, then, that made it impossible at the present juncture that those who held fast to the truth of the gospel should accept counsels of compromise or conciliation. In matters of indifference (ἀδιάφορα) there is a time for conciliation - this no one could ever be more ready to see and act upon than St. Paul; but there is also a time for the unbending assertion of truth, and the clamours of the false brethren made the present to be one of the latter kind. In that particular juncture of Church development, the doctrine itself of the absolute justification of men through faith in Christ was at stake. If Titus was not qualified for Christian fellowship by simply his faith in Christ, then neither was he qualified for acceptance with God by simply his faith.Without warrant brought in. In the compound verbalπαρεισάκτους, the prepositionπαρὰ, appears to point, not so much to the manner in which they had been brought in, ase.g. stealthily,craftily, as to the circumstance that they had no business to be brought in at all; they were analien brood. The Greek glosselogists, Hesychius, Photius, and Suidas, render itἀλλότριος,i.e. alien. In2 Peter 1:1,παρεισάξουσιν αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, reference is made to the alien character of the teaching spoken cf. The apostle's feeling is that men who do not accept the truth that through faith in Christ we are justified, and through faith only, have no proper place in the Church of Christ (comp.Galatians 5:4, 5). If the question be asked - Who brought them in? the parable of the tares suggests the answer - The devil (comp.2 Corinthians 11:15;2 Corinthians 2:11). Who came in privily (οἵτινες παρεισῆλθον);a set of men who without warrant came in. The prepositionπαρὰ in the verb has the same force as it has inπαρεισάκτους. So also inπαριεσέδυσαν (Jude 1:4).To spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus (κατασκοπῆσαι τὴν ἐλευθερίανἡμῶν η{ν ἔχομεν ἐν Ξριστῷ Ἰησοῦ); tospy out that liberty of ours which, etc. These men had come into the Churchprepared to detect and to regard with the keenest dislike anything, either in doctrine or in Church action, which would infringe upon their own legalism, and to wage war upon it. For this notion of hostile intent is strongly suggested by the verb "to spy out" (cf.2 Kings 10:3;1 Chronicles 19:3; andκατασκοπεῦσαι inJoshua 2:2). The infinitive (of purpose), viewed in reference to the men themselves, can be understood only of their disposed-ness to make this use of their membership; for they can hardly be supposed to have entered into the Church for that definite object; but the apostle views them as emissaries of the great enemy; Satan's design thus to wage war with our gospel liberty (comp.2 Corinthians 11:13, 15) is by a bold figure ascribed in this infinitive to his instruments. Thisliberty means the whole spirit of freedom which faith in Christ imparts to the Christian, including, for one thing, his emancipation from the yoke of ceremonialism, but containing also more.That they might bring us into bondage (ἵνα ἡμᾶς καταδουλῶσουσιν [Receptus,καταδουλώσωνται], The reading of six of the uncial manuscripts isκαταδουλώσουσιν; of three,σωσιν; of one, -σωνται. The variation in themood of the verb is immaterial; for the construction ofἵνα (of purpose) with an indicative, though strange to the eye of the student of classical Greek, is not foreign to the writers of the New Testament; but the variation in thevoice affects the sense.Καταδουλώσωνται would mean "bring into bondage to themselves," which most probably is not the writer's meaning; he apparently means:rather, "deprive us of our liberty by enslaving us to the Law" (cf. ch. 4:25; 5:1). The simple verbδουλόω, occurs repeatedly; the compoundκαταδουλόω here and in2 Corinthians 11:20, intensifies the sense:degrade us into slavery.

Parallel Commentaries ...


[This issue arose]
δὲ(de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161:A primary particle; but, and, etc.

because
διὰ(dia)
Preposition
Strong's 1223:A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through.

[some]
τοὺς(tous)
Article - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588:The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

false brothers
ψευδαδέλφους(pseudadelphous)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5569:A false brother, pretend Christian. From pseudes and adephos; a spurious brother, i.e. Pretended associate.

were brought in
παρεισῆλθον(pareisēlthon)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 3922:From para and eiserchomai; to come in alongside, i.e. Supervene additionally or steathily.

under false pretenses
παρεισάκτους(pareisaktous)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3920:Brought in secretly, surreptitious. From pareisago; smuggled in: unawares brought in.

to spy on
κατασκοπῆσαι(kataskopēsai)
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active
Strong's 2684:To view closely, inspect, spy out. From kataskopos; to be a sentinel, i.e. To inspect insidiously.

our
ἡμῶν(hēmōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1473:I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.

freedom
ἐλευθερίαν(eleutherian)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1657:Freedom, liberty, especially: a state of freedom from slavery. From eleutheros; freedom.

in
ἐν(en)
Preposition
Strong's 1722:In, on, among. A primary preposition denoting position, and instrumentality, i.e. A relation of rest; 'in, ' at, on, by, etc.

Christ
Χριστῷ(Christō)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5547:Anointed One; the Messiah, the Christ. From chrio; Anointed One, i.e. The Messiah, an epithet of Jesus.

Jesus,
Ἰησοῦ(Iēsou)
Noun - Dative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2424:Of Hebrew origin; Jesus, the name of our Lord and two other Israelites.

in order
ἵνα(hina)
Conjunction
Strong's 2443:In order that, so that. Probably from the same as the former part of heautou; in order that.

to enslave
καταδουλώσουσιν(katadoulōsousin)
Verb - Future Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 2615:To enslave. From kata and douloo; to enslave utterly.

us.
ἡμᾶς(hēmas)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative 1st Person Plural
Strong's 1473:I, the first-person pronoun. A primary pronoun of the first person I.


Galatians 2:4 NIV
Galatians 2:4 NLT
Galatians 2:4 ESV
Galatians 2:4 NASB
Galatians 2:4 KJV

Galatians 2:4 BibleApps.com
Galatians 2:4 Biblia Paralela
Galatians 2:4 Chinese Bible
Galatians 2:4 French Bible
Galatians 2:4 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: Galatians 2:4 This was because of the false brothers (Gal. Ga)