6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 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. 9 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.
These words breathe a spirit of fierce intolerance that seems very strange to a generation brought up to believe that to be tolerant is an indispensable mark of true enlightenment in things spiritual. But intolerance is an essential ingredient of the gospel, as the
following stirring words by Dr James Denney show - and we can think of no apter comment on the passage than this - 'Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament has
any conception of a religion without this intolerance.... If God has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the world depends, and if He has made it
known, then it is a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies or
explains it away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of God and man; and it is
not bad temper or narrow-mindedness in St Paul which explains this vehement language; it is the jealousy of God which has kindled in a soul redeemed by the death of
Christ a corresponding jealousy for the Saviour.... Intolerance like this is an essential
element in the true religion; it is the instinct of self-preservation in it, the unforced and
uncompromising defence of that on which the glory of God and the salvation of the
world depends. If the evangelist has not something to preach of which he can say, 'If any
man makes it his business to subvert this, let him be anathema, he has no gospel at all.'