Bible Strands
Galatians 2:18
If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Galatian churches while confronting the demand that Gentile believers submit to Mosaic law. He states this immediately after Galatians 2:17, where he denies that seeking justification in Christ makes Christ a minister of sin.
The words — The Greek term παραβάτην (parabatēn) literally means "transgressor," while οἰκοδομῶ (oikodomō) means "I build." Paul uses these verbs to describe the act of reinstating a system of works-righteousness after having abandoned it.
The thread — This warning against returning to former religious bondage appears in Galatians 4:9, where Paul asks how believers are turning back to weak and worthless elemental spirits. It aligns with the earlier conflict in Galatians 2:4, where false intruders attempted to spy on Christian freedom.
Why it lands — The text demands that believers cease attempting to combine faith in Christ with legal observance, as doing so nullifies the gospel. It requires a reader to accept that returning to the law constitutes a rejection of grace and confirms one as a lawbreaker.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Cross-references
- Galatians 4:9 But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?
- Galatians 2:4 This issue arose because some false brothers had come in under false pretenses to spy on our freedom in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.
- Galatians 2:12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group.
- Romans 14:15 If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died.
- Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
- 1 Corinthians 8:11 So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.
- Galatians 5:11 Now, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.