Galatians 5:7-12: in context

Paul writes to the Galatians with a mix of grief and concern, for they had begun so well and were now being drawn off course. You were running well, he says; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. He compares the false teaching that had crept in to a little yeast that leavens the whole lump, a small corruption spreading through the whole. And he laments that a people who had run well in the faith were being interfered with and turned aside from the truth.

Paul's question, you were running well; who hindered you, carries both a commendation and a warning. The commendation: they had been running well, making good progress in the faith, obeying the truth. And the warning: they had been hindered, interfered with, turned aside from the good course they were on. Something, someone, had gotten in their way and drawn them off the path of faith. The sad thing is not that they had never begun, but that having begun well and run well, they were now being turned aside. Even those who run well can be hindered and drawn off course. This is a sobering reality for us. We can begin the life of faith well, make good progress, run well for a time, and yet be hindered, interfered with, drawn off course by some influence, some false teaching, some distraction, some temptation, that gets in our way. Running well is not a permanent state; the one who runs well can be turned aside. And Paul's question presses us to be watchful about what might hinder us, to recognize the influences and interferences that would draw us off the path of faith and turn us from obeying the truth. Let us lay aside, Hebrews says, every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with perseverance; for even the runner can be entangled and slowed. This calls us to guard against being hindered in the race of faith. Paul's question, who hindered you, invites us to identify what might be drawing us off course, the influences, teachings, distractions, or temptations that interfere with our obedience to the truth, and to resist them. Even those running well can be turned aside; and so we are called to watchfulness, to recognize what would hinder us and to resist it, keeping to the good course rather than being drawn off it. And there is a warning here about small influences: a little yeast, Paul says, leavens the whole lump. What hinders us may begin small, a slight influence, a minor compromise, a subtle false teaching, and yet spread through the whole. This searches whether we are being hindered in our own running. Are we, who may have begun and run well, being interfered with, drawn off course by some influence that turns us from the truth? Paul's grief over the Galatians, who ran well and were hindered, calls us to guard the good course we are on, to identify and resist what would draw us off it, and to keep running well, not turned aside from obeying the truth by the influences and interferences that would hinder us.

Have I, who may have begun and run well in the faith, been hindered or interfered with, drawn off course by some influence, teaching, distraction, or temptation that turns me from obeying the truth, and can Paul's question to the Galatians, you were running well; who hindered you, move me to identify and resist what would draw me off the good course I am on, guarding against being turned aside and keeping to the race of faith with perseverance, even watchful of the small influences that leaven the whole?