Enemy No More

In High School, one could say that I was on the bottom of the social ladder. Needless to say the talk behind my back or just pretending I did not exist by my classmates became almost commonplace and became quite burdensome as I desperately tried to make friends and fit in.

When I went to college I had a new start. The loneliness and burden of my high school experience seemed to have lifted. What I did not realize was that God was working in the life of a former classmate whom our class had voted homecoming king. Now it is not my place to tell his story, besides I would never do it the justice it truly deserves, only the impact it had on me.

One night as I was working on homework, I got a facebook message from this friend. In said message, ho explained that he had recently come to Christ and was writing to ask forgiveness of me for all the stuff he had done towards in high school. Since that night he has served in his local church and  is now in seminary and I cannot wait to see where God takes him and his young family.

I have a feeling that Paul had to ask forgiveness quite a bit during the early years of his ministry. Almost a necessity in order to gain the trust of the believers. Many of whom he had just been persecuting only a few years earlier. Go ahead and read in your favorite translation as Paul recounts these early days of his ministry in Galatians 1:11-24 or read on for the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation.

¹¹ Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought. ¹² For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

¹³ For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I persecuted God’s church to an extreme degree and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ¹⁵ But when God, who from my birth set me apart and called me by His grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal His Son in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. ¹⁷ I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him 15 days. ¹⁹ But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness.

²¹ Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches in Christ; ²³ they simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

Galatians 1:11-24 HCSB

In this second half of chapter one, Paul gives further details into his conversion story and what happened afterward. I encourage you to check out Acts 9 to get the full details.

Before his conversion, Paul (then known as Saul, but for the sake of your sanity keeping them straight I will refer to him as Paul from here on out), was one of Jerusalem’s brightest scholars in the Jewish faith. As such he had a deep understanding of Jewish tradition and saw Jesus’ followers as a threat.

In this letter to the people of Galatia Paul establishes his right and authority in the title of apostle as well as giving his backstory for those who may be new to the faith and may not have heard it. This narrative also flows into chapter 2. Which we will get to in the coming weeks.

One of the biggest things I noticed as I looked at this passage in preparation for writing this post was that Paul wasted no time in beginning his ministry to the Gentiles. In fact, he began almost immediately in the regions of Arabia and the city of Damascus. This region is where many followers of The Way fled after persecution started in Jerusalem.

It takes Paul three years to the first trip to Jerusalem to meet with Peter (or Cephas as it is translated in the Greek). Paul only spends about two weeks getting to know Peter and assuring him that his conversion was not hoax but the real thing. There were most likely stories running though the churches in the Judean churches of a former enemy who now preached the very word he had tried so hard to destroy. After these two weeks he moved on to other regions. Thus, he was unknown to many of these early churches except in the way of living legend kind of status. The once enemy was now the biggest triumph.

Something to note about Paul’s ministry was that he did not spend much time dealing with the Jewish people. In fact, whenever he entered a new town if there was a Jewish community he went there first. It was tradition in these synagogues whenever a rabbi came to town to let him speak and teach, thus giving Paul an outlet to teach the gospel and start laying the foundations for a church. When he was met with opposition in the synagogue, he would then start looking outward at the Gentiles of whoever would listen in said community. This was the case most of the time.

Some things we can take away from this passage:

1. You do not have a squeaky-clean past to share the message of Jesus. Paul often refers to himself as the worst of sinners saved by God’s grace throughout his letters, yet he uses that to reach the multitudes. How does God want to use your past for His Glory?
2. We may never know exactly what is going on in churches in other regions around the world, but we can still praise God whenever we hear of how he has protected his Church in regions where it may be illegal to even speak His name. In what way(s) can you take part in what God is doing outside of your local community?
3. God wants us to get involved in what He is doing without hesitation. What are some areas that might be holding you back from fully committing to what He is doing?

Let Us Pray:

Gracious Lord who takes our past and uses it for Your glory and purpose, grant us peace in knowing that no matter what we have done in the past or what we will do in the future, we belong to you through the grace and power of your Son dying on the cross in our place so that we in turn may pass that redeeming grace, peace, and forgiveness on to someone else. All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ who intercedes for us through the Holy Spirit in prayer to the Father on our behalf. Amen.