And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.
'If I am still preaching (as I did before conversion) circumcision, why am I still persecuted?' The Judaizing troubler said, 'Paul himself preaches circumcision,' as is shown by his having circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3: cf. Acts 21:24). Paul by anticipation meets their objection. As regards myself, the fact that I am still persecuted by the Jews shows that I do not preach circumcision; for it is just because I preach Christ crucified, not the Mosaic law, as the sole ground of justification, that they persecute me. If for conciliation be lived as a Jew among Jews, it was in accordance with his principle (1 Corinthians 7:18; 1 Corinthians 7:20; 1 Corinthians 9:20). Circumcision or uncircumcision are things indifferent in themselves: their lawfulness or unlawfulness depends on the animus of him who used them. The Gentile Galatians' animus in circumcision could only be their supposition that it influenced favourably their standing before God. Paul's living as a Gentile among Gentiles showed that, if he observed Jewish rites, it was not that he thought it meritorious before God, but as a matter indifferent, wherein he might lawfully conform, as a Jew by birth, to those with whom he was, in order to put no needless stumblingblock to the Gospel in the way of his countrymen.
Then - presuming I did so, 'then after all,' in that case, the offence of (stumblingblock, 1 Corinthians 1:23, occasioned to the Jews by) the cross has become done away' [katergetai]. Thus, the Jews' accusation against Stephen was not that he preached Christ crucified, but that "he spake blasphemous words against this holy place and the law." They would have borne the former, if he had mixed with it justification by circumcision and the law, and if he had, through Christianity, brought converts to Judaism. But if justification in any degree depended on legal ordinances, Christ's crucifixion in that degree was unnecessary, and could profit nothing (Galatians 5:2; Galatians 5:4). Worldly Wiseman, of the town of Carnal Policy, turns Christian out of the narrow way of the Cross to the house of legality. Bat the way to it was up a mountain, which, as Christian advanced, threatened to fall on and crush him, amidst lightning flashes from the mountain ('Pilgrim's Progress;' Hebrews 12:18-21).