Bewitchment and Foolishness

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

Galatians 3:1

According to our text, bewitchment makes people act foolishly.  The spell may be cast over a person, or over an entire population, as here, over the Galatians. Under such a spell, even otherwise very intelligent Galatians begin to act in surprising ways.

Bewitched people have been known to sell away properties at ridiculous prices just to give the money to who has hypnotized them. There have also been bewitched romances, where someone ‘fell’ or ‘crashed into love’ with someone that they otherwise would not have liked at all.  When their eyes were later clear, they wondered if they really did it.  Other saner people also wonder why they should act that way.

Bewitchment makes people act in such foolish ways as makes the reasonable observer to lament, “O!” as Paul did over the Galatians. They become a concern overnight.  Reasonable people then begin to wonder how it had come about, so suddenly.  Paul got so amazed by the sudden Galatian doctrinal foolishness that he not only exclaimed an “O” in the opening verse of the chapter, but he further wondered rhetorically at them, “Are ye so foolish?” (v.3).  In later verses he retorted, “I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain” (Galatians 4:11).  In other words, such bewitchment as the Galatians allowed upon themselves made people to be afraid of them.  It threatens or wastes spiritual investments on the victims of the bewitchment.

The spell of bewitchment upon the Galatians was such that they “should not obey the truth.”  In other words, bewitchment distorts a person’s value system or sense of reasoning.  In that condition, truth begins to seem like error, and error strangely becomes truth.  A bewitched people could feel so right about their wrong that they would be ready to fight any opponent, even if that were their father.  That is why Paul could say to them later in his letter, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16).  Bewitchment turns friends into enemies and enemies into friends.

The specific Galatian bewitchment about which Paul raises concern in the passage had to do with a subject clearly, plainly, “evidently set forth” “before” their very “eyes.” Despite how plainly “set forth” it was, they couldn’t see it anymore, as they used to.   It was going to take a reconvincing to get them back on track.

The kind of bewitchment of which Paul laments over the Galatians came about by words, sweet words, enchanted words intended to dissuade from the truth, flatteries and feigned acclamations spiced imperceptibly with witchcraft.  To deal with that sort of sorcery over a church people, Paul did not resort to the kind of weapon he had used, for instance, when he contended with Barjesus the sorcerer and “enemy of all righteousness,” upon whom he commanded instant blindness (Acts 13:6-11).  He had to reason with them, from verse to verse, speaking fresher words, truer words to clear their minds of the bewitched mentality.  Faith was going to be restored by their hearing the truth.

Paul was not going to let bewitchment spoil his investments on that church.  He reasoned sufficiently with them, then added, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (4:19).  No wonder!  They were children, still his children.  Christ needed to be formed in them.  It was going to take his continued travail, until they were impregnated with Christ.

O Lord, may the entrance of Your word bring light; and save Your Church from such bewitchment as has brought a strange divide in the House, turning enemies into friends and friends into enemies.  We have thrown out friends because they tell us truth that we would not take, and we embraced enemies who lined our purses with ungodly gain.  May this sorcery break over Your people, over the Church this day. Amen.

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

From The Preacher’s diary,

May 27, 2025.

Today is May 28, Day-4 in the 5-day fast leading up to tomorrow 29th, over Nigeria.  From midnight today, spend the first 15 minutes or 30 minutes or more, to cancel the calendar of Herod and Haman, and write a new sentence of life over the land.  Tomorrow midnight, within the same duration, we shall give God praise in songs and thanksgiving, individually from wherever you are.  God bless you.

The Preacher