<p>3:2 <i>As so I say again: Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers- </i>&quot;Dogs&quot; were unclean animals; to call religious Jewish people workers of evil, when they considered themselves full of good works, and unclean body cutters an allusion to pagan idolatry was extreme language. Indeed &quot;dogs&quot; could refer to the male prostitutes of the idol temples. This was how Paul saw the Judaists- their legalism was a form of the crudest idolatry.</p><p><i>Beware of the mutilators</i>- &ldquo;Look out for those dogs&hellip; who do evil&hellip; who cut the body&rdquo; (NET). If this is merely a reference to circumcision only, it would contradict Paul&rsquo;s tolerant attitude towards those who in their immaturity still practiced the rite. He wasn&rsquo;t so passionately against circumcision as such; his reference is to those who divide the body of Christ through insisting upon such things. This cutting of the body is so easily done, whenever discord is sown. The language used by the Spirit here is some of the strongest anywhere in the New Testament. Sowing division is <i>so</i> seriously wrong.</p>