“For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.”
My Notes
What Does Galatians 6:13 Mean?
Paul exposes the hypocrisy of the circumcision advocates: "neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law." The people demanding Gentile circumcision aren't even keeping the full law themselves. Their insistence on circumcision isn't about obedience — it's about glory: "that they may glory in your flesh."
The accusation is precise: the circumcision party uses Gentile compliance as a badge of achievement. Every Gentile they circumcise is a trophy — proof of their influence, their authority, their ability to bring converts under the law. The motivation isn't the Gentiles' spiritual welfare; it's the advocates' reputation.
Paul's argument cuts both ways: if you're going to insist on circumcision, you need to keep the entire law (see 5:3). You can't pick one requirement and ignore the rest. The circumcision advocates are selective legalists — rigorous about one commandment, negligent about the other 612.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Where do you see selective legalism — insisting on visible requirements while ignoring invisible ones?
- 2.How do you identify when someone's spiritual requirement for you is actually about their reputation?
- 3.What 'circumcision counts' in your context — the measurable metric that gets tracked while deeper growth is ignored?
- 4.How does Paul's accusation of hypocrisy apply to modern religious gatekeeping?
Devotional
They don't even keep the law themselves. The people insisting you get circumcised to be a real Christian aren't following the full law that circumcision commits you to. They want your compliance, not your holiness. They want to count your conversion as their achievement.
Paul unmasks the motivation: "that they may glory in your flesh." Your circumcision is their bragging point. Every Gentile who submits to the knife is a trophy the circumcision party can display. Look what we convinced them to do. Look at our influence. Look at our authority. The flesh they cut becomes the flesh they glory in.
The selective legalism is the most damning detail. If circumcision matters because the law demands it, then the entire law demands everything. But these advocates don't keep the entire law. They've picked the one visible, countable, demonstrable requirement — circumcision — and ignore the hundreds of others. Why? Because circumcision is visible. You can count it. You can point to it. You can build a ministry metric around it. The internal, invisible requirements of the law don't produce the same bragging rights.
This pattern survives in every era: leaders who select the visible, measurable, demonstrable requirements and insist on them while ignoring the invisible, internal, harder-to-count ones. Baptism counts are tracked; heart transformation isn't. Attendance is measured; faithfulness isn't. Converts are counted; discipleship isn't.
Before you submit to someone's religious requirement, ask: do they keep the full standard they're imposing on you? And is their motivation your growth or their glory?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But God forbid that I should glory,.... The apostle, on the contrary, expresses his aversion to glorying in anything…
For neither they themselves who are circumcised - The Jewish teachers, or perhaps all Jews. It was true in general that…
Neither they themselves who are circumcised - They receive circumcision and profess Judaism, not from a desire to be…
The apostle, having at large established the doctrine of the gospel, and endeavoured to persuade these Christians to a…
He justifies the imputation of a bad motive, by a fact which cannot be denied. The Judaizers could not pretend that they…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture