How many times in our lives have has someone given us correction when our lives have gone off course? Probably more times than we willingly want to admit. Now imagine being the who initially give those instructions retraining someone after another person has led them in a way that went against the original instructions. Thus, is the case in the region of Galatia for Paul.
Go ahead and read Galatians 1:1-10 in your favorite Bible translation or continue reading for the NLT version. We will break it down here in a second.
This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.
2 All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia.
3 May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.
10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.
Galatians 1:1-10
Now I could give you a whole lot of back story here but will attempt to be brief. The region of Galatia is in the central part of modern-day Turkey and was visited by Paul on his second and third mission trips. Some time after Paul visited and started a church there, a group of people who had slightly different views on how Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians should behave. Mainly that these new Christians would have to follow Jewish laws. Paul addresses this issue here and explains his reasoning later in the book.
As we open the book of Galatians, Paul comes straight out and addresses the elephant in the room. These churches have strayed away from the original gospel. Basically, telling them that if anyone or anything preaches other than what Paul taught they should be cursed.
Almost immediately after this Paul explains the authority on which he can make such a statement, but that will be for another post hopefully soon.
Here are a few things we can take away from this passage.
- What Gospel are you following? Are you following the true gospel that Jesus and the apostles taught or are you adding stipulations and conditions to what was given freely?
- On who are your motives focused on pleasing? People or God? Paul clearly states that if he was trying to please people he would not be Christ’s servant. Especially with the statement that he has just made.
As you go about the week reflect on the takeaway questions above and attempt to implement them into your daily life.
Let’s Pray:
Father God who gave us the example in which to live our lives through your son Jesus Christ, Grant us the discernment to know when our motives are truly focused on you and not other people, additionally Father, grant us conviction when we try to put conditions and stipulations on the gospel truth so that we may realize that you are the one that we should live for and that grace and love come with no stipulations other than our accepting of your grace and truth. All this we pray in the name of your son, Jesus Christ who intercedes for us to the Father through the Holy Spirit. Amen
A Path of Living Stones 