An extract from Guidelines - Galatians

by Michael Thompson

Included in the following extract from Guidelines are two week’s worth of readings. Click on the links below to go to a particular day’s reading


Introduction

Galatians is important for at least four reasons. First, it is perhaps the earliest letter of Paul that we possess, probably written just before the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. Second, to some extent the letter is autobiographical, introducing Paul’s background and reminding us of his heritage in Judaism. Third, regardless of its date, it takes us straight into the most important issue debated in the earliest days of the Church: the relationship of Christianity to Judaism, and specifically the question of whether Gentile (non-Jewish) Christians needed to become Jews to be children of God and heirs of the promise of blessing made to Abraham. Finally, Galatians’ themes of justification by faith and the nature of Christian freedom were crucial starting points for Martin Luther and the Reformation. How we interpret the letter today can influence not only our lives as individuals, but also our understanding of larger questions of unity between major wings of Christianity, as well as the relationship of the Christian faith to Judaism.

The exact identity of Paul’s readers is unclear. The ‘Galatians’ could be either descendants of the Gauls who had settled earlier in north-central Asia Minor (modern Turkey) or residents in the Roman province of Galatia, which also included the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe further south. The book of Acts tells us about Paul’s ministry in south Galatia (Acts 13—14) and may hint at a ministry in the north (Acts 16:6; 18:23).

In any case, Paul was concerned that the gospel he had preached to the Galatians was being undermined by troublemakers who came along behind him. These agitators were telling Paul’s Galatian converts that faith in Christ was not enough; to be a true Christian, males had to be circumcised, and all had to keep some, if not all, of the requirements of the law in the Old Testament.

Galatians essentially divides into three major sections. After the introduction (1:1–9), Paul defends his apostleship and hence his authority to preach his message of justification by grace through faith (1:10—2:21). The crisis with Peter in Antioch (2:11–14) and Paul’s resulting reflection (2:15–21) lead into the central doctrinal section of the letter, in which he defends his gospel and his understanding of the role of the law (3:1—4:31). The final third of the letter (5:1—6:10) discusses the outworking of that gospel in Christian behaviour: there is liberty, but not lawlessness, because Christians live according to the Spirit. Paul then closes with a summary and a benediction (6:11–18).


Week 1 Day 1: A greeting and a jolt read Galatians 1:1–9

Paul’s letters normally begin with a fairly standard form, reflecting the conventions of his day. A ‘spot the difference’ exercise comparing the first few verses in Galatians with those in 1 Thessalonians 1:1–3 reveals some significant clues about what is foremost in his mind. Galatians is unusual both for what is included and for what is left out.

First, Paul asserts that his apostolic authority came through Jesus and God the Father, not from or through a human being (v. 1; this is something he will discuss at length in 1:11—2:21). Both he and the message he preached were under attack. His concern here is not selfish; he was aware that if his leadership as an apostle was rejected, the essence of the good news of Christ would be lost as well.

Second, Paul reminds the Galatians that Christ gave himself for a purpose—for our sins—in order to set people free, which is what God wants (v. 3). Here, Paul again anticipates points that he will make later: insistence on circumcision and other requirements of the Old Testament misses the significance of Christ’s death (2:21), fails to deliver people from the curse brought by sin (3:10–13), and leaves them in bondage here and now (4:8–11). The emphasis on freedom (‘rescue’ or ‘deliverance’ in some translations) is a vital test of real Christianity. The authentic gospel is about setting people free from the things that prevent them from drawing near to God and to others.

Jesus came to inaugurate a new age characterized by forgiveness and a new quality of life for all people in obedience to the God who is faithful to his promises. Many Jews looked forward to this ‘age to come’ as a time of resurrection, when God’s rule would be manifest on earth, in contrast to the current age characterized by sin, rejection of God, and death. For Paul, those who belong to Christ already belong to the new age; although it will not come in its fullness until Christ returns and the dead are physically raised, in a sense it has already been inaugurated with the resurrection of Jesus. Christians therefore live in an overlap of the ages, but they need not be domi-nated by the values of an era that is passing away.

At this point in his letters, Paul normally finds something to be thankful about, but not so here. He is shocked, concerned and angry at what some intruders are doing (vv. 6–9). They are misleading the Galatians with a message so contrary to the gospel (‘good news’) that it is not good news at all, and those who bring such a message deserve God’s judgment. When the essence of Christianity is at stake, Paul gets passionate.

What is the essence of Christianity to you? In what ways do you find Christ liberating?


Week 1 Day 2: Turned around by God read Galatians 1: 10–24

Paul now goes on the defence, responding to the charge that he was more concerned about pleasing human beings (by not requiring Gentiles to get circumcised and to keep the law) than about pleasing God. His message didn’t come from human beings, but was revealed to him by God (vv. 10–12). To back up that claim, Paul tells a bit of his story.

Far from being slack in his Jewish faith, Paul had been ‘over the top’ in his zeal to preserve the traditions of his ancestors, to the point of actively persecuting and seeking to destroy the Christian Church (vv. 13–14; see Philippians 3:6; Acts 9:1–2; 26:10–11). Elsewhere, Paul speaks with great sadness about that misplaced zeal, seeing his attacks on Christians as his greatest sin (1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:13–15). Too often, religious passion can lead people with the best intentions into actions that are completely contrary to the faith they profess.

On the road to Damascus, Paul’s life was changed for ever (see Acts 9; 22; 26). He heard God’s call to proclaim Jesus to the Gentiles, and that calling and message did not come from the apostles in Jerusalem (vv. 15–16). If it had, Paul could be charged with distorting the Christian message, because he was not requiring circumcision of his Christian converts, whereas Jewish Christians in Jerusalem apparently did continue the practice of circumcision and kept the law as part of their religious heritage.

In fact, Paul had very limited contact with the apostles in Jerusalem in his early days as a Christian. We don’t know for certain what he was doing in Arabia or exactly when he returned to Damascus. His point in verse 17 is that he did not go to Jerusalem to get authorization for his ministry. He had already received that directly from God.

Three years later, Paul did go up to Jerusalem, where he visited Cephas (the Aramaic name of Peter) and met James the brother of Jesus, but no other apostles (vv. 18–19). Although not one of the original disciples, James had seen the risen Lord (1 Corinthians 15:7) and quickly became the leader of the Christian community in Jeru-salem. Paul’s visit was brief, and he left, preaching the same basic message that he once tried to destroy. His early work as a Christian led the Christians in Judea not to be alarmed but to glorify God.

What can help to prevent Christians from acting destructively, in misplaced zeal, towards others? In what ways has God revealed himself to you in your own life?


Week 1 Day 3: Not running in vain read Galatians 2:1–10

Today’s passage describes Paul’s second visit to Jerusalem, which many scholars identify with that in Acts 15. On this view, Paul would obviously have sent the letter after that Jerusalem conference. But if so, why does he not mention the conference’s ‘decree’, which would have clinched his case that circumcision was unnecessary for Gentiles (Acts 15:23–29)? It is more likely that Galatians 2 is describing Paul’s earlier visit to Jerusalem, mentioned in Acts 11:27–30. The meeting Paul describes was a private one with only the leaders (v. 2), not the larger gathering depicted in Acts 15. The references to a revelation (v. 2) and Paul’s eagerness to remember the poor (v. 10) fit the circum-stances of the Acts 11 famine-relief visit which was prompted by Agabus’ prophecy (Acts 11:27–28).

In any case, Paul says that he set before the apostles the message he had been preaching to the Gentiles in order to ensure that he was not ‘running in vain’. He did not need their approval to preach Christ—God had already given him that—but the unity of the Church was vital to Paul. He did not want his work to divide and destroy what God was seeking to build. Paul’s agenda was not to build an empire of churches loyal to him at the expense of the rest of the body of Christ.

The outcome vindicated Paul’s ministry. Titus, a Greek convert who accompanied Paul, was not forced to be circumcised, despite pressure from ‘false brothers’ who tried to compel this to happen, just as the Judaizers were attempting to enslave the Galatians (vv. 3–5; see also Acts 11:2; 15:5). Instead, the leading apostles, James, Cephas and John, did not add any requirements to Paul’s gospel. If there is a note of sarcasm in Paul’s description of them in verse 6, it is most likely a reflection of his distaste for the way the Judaizers were claiming an inflated status for the Jerusalem apostles over against Paul. The important thing is that these ‘pillar’ apostles fully acknowl-edged Paul’s ministry and message for the Gentiles (vv. 6–9), urging only continual concern for the poor—something that Paul himself was keen to do anyway.

How important is Christian unity to you? What practical steps can you take on a local level to build unity and to ‘remember the poor’?


Week 1 Day 4: Hypocrisy and faith read Galatians 2:11–21

This passage has two parts: a summary of an incident at Antioch (vv. 11–14) and the gist of the point that Paul will go on to expand in the next chapter. Apparently, the readers had been told one side of the Antioch story. Paul gives his version here because it illustrates what is at stake if the Judaizers succeed in compelling the Galatians to keep the Old Testament law.

At Antioch, Paul rebuked Cephas for his inconsistency in trying to act according to the law when associating with Gentiles. When he first came to Antioch, Peter had no scruples about eating with non-Jews; he lived as though previous concerns with ritual purity that separated Jew from Gentile no longer applied. But when some people came from James in Jerusalem, advocating the need for circumcision of the Gentiles, Peter succumbed to peer pressure and withdrew from sharing meals with non-Jews. Even Barnabas, Paul’s close friend and co-worker, caved in to the hypocrisy of acting as though the Gentiles were not already completely acceptable members of the Christian community. Fear led good people to re-erect barriers that had been broken down in Christ.

The following verses convey the heart of the letter. Reliance upon Christ, rather than keeping the law, is what matters in order to be in right relationship with God and part of his people. Several key terms here are repeated in the letter. ‘Justified’ means being declared by God to be restored to proper relationship with him, and so to be recognized as a member of his faithful people. ‘Faith in Christ’ means to rely upon Jesus as the promised Messiah who delivers those who belong to God. ‘Works of the law’ has often been understood to mean anything required by the Old Testament law (including loving one’s neighbour) but, as we shall see, Paul’s main target is circumcision and other practices that effectively marked out people as distinctively Jewish.

Paul states his basic principle in verses 15–16, and then emphasizes in verses 17–20 that faith in Christ does not lead to sin, but means a death to the law and to self. God’s gift of the law cannot be the means of attaining a right relationship with him now, because that would make Christ’s death unnecessary and meaningless (v. 21).

When does fear lead to hypocrisy in your own life? What do verses 19–20 mean to you?


Week 1 Day 5: A case for faith read Galatians 3:1–14

This passage has three movements, as Paul makes a case for his claim that faith in Christ, not works of the law, is what really matters to God. First, the Galatians are in danger of forgetting how their own experience of the blessing of the Spirit demonstrates the truth that God accepted them on the basis of faith in Christ, without their having to observe particular works of the law (vv. 1–5). They received the Spirit and experienced God’s power without being circumcised when they believed Paul’s gospel, so why are they now beginning to think that keeping the law is required?

Second, faith characterized Abraham when he trusted God’s promise that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars (v. 6; Genesis 15:5–6). That led God to call him ‘righteous’, a word derived from the same root in Greek as the terms Paul has been using, translated ‘justify’ and ‘justification’. Abraham heard the good news that in him all the nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8); in Greek, the word translated ‘nations’ also means ‘Gentiles’. They, like Abraham, their spiritual exemplar and forefather, enter into right relationship with God through faith.

Third, justification comes only through faith in Christ because he died to deliver us from the curse that law-works bring (vv. 10–14). This paragraph is difficult to understand because Paul’s theology is compressed as he draws together diverse texts from the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 27:26; Habakkuk 2:4; Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 21:23). His thought is that instead of leading to God’s declaration that we are in right relationship with him, attempts to keep all of the works of the law lead to being cursed by that same law, because people fail to obey it fully (vv. 10–12). In fact, in dying on the cross, Jesus himself became cursed by the law, so that ultimately God’s blessing might come to his people through faith (vv. 13–14).

Paul is not calling the law itself a ‘curse’; like every Jew, he saw it as a gift from God. But it carried with it profound warnings, including the curse in Deuteronomy 27:26. By being ‘hung on a tree’, Jesus himself came under the curse pronounced in Deuteronomy 21:23. But his death had a purpose: to redeem people (to purchase them from a kind of slavery), so that they could receive the promise of the Spirit by trusting in Christ.

Whose faith has most significantly formed your own? How is the Holy Spirit at work in your life?


Week 1 Day 6: Promise, not performance read Galatians 3:15–29

Using an analogy of inheritance, Paul now continues the idea of what the law cannot do (vv. 15–18). The Greek word for ‘will’ in verse 15 is the same word translated ‘covenant’ in verse 17. His point is that the law—something given to God’s people after the promise of a covenant of blessing with Abraham—cannot alter that promise or make it void. Inheriting the promise is not a matter of having to do what the law requires; in fact, the real heir is Christ himself (who fully kept the law when God’s people failed to), in whom both Jews and Gentiles now trust. What was originally given on the basis of faith cannot be changed by the addition of the law hundreds of years later, any more than someone else could write in changes in a person’s will. What is more, receiving the inheritance is a matter of promise, not performance.

Of course, that raises the question of why and how the Law came in the first place (vv. 19–22). The Jewish people would say that it was given for many reasons, including to teach them about God, to indicate the way of maintaining their relationship with him, and to establish a constitution for his people. As descendants of Abraham, they were to be the channel through whom God would ultimately bring blessing to all the nations.

Unfortunately, the power of sin proved stronger than human will, and the law had the effect of highlighting human transgression and inability, until the heir came who did perfectly obey it. Unlike the law, which was an indirect revelation and was unable to deliver the Jewish people from the power of sin, Jesus himself brought a righteousness through faith for all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile.

In hindsight, Paul as a Christian sees that the law acted as a pedagogue or custodian for the Jewish people, keeping them together (but imprisoned by their human inability to obey it fully) until the possibility of faith in Christ came. But those who trust in Christ and are baptized into him are no longer disparate groups separated by the law; they are all one family, belonging to the one heir of Abraham and sharing in Christ’s inheritance because they are his.

In what ways is authentic Christian faith based on promise and not performance? What barriers have been broken down by your own baptism?


Week 1 Guidelines

At the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Martin Luther read Galatians against the background of his experience within Roman Catholicism. At that time, many in the Church believed that forgiveness and acceptance with God came through one’s own meritorious deeds and actions as well as through faith in Christ. Reacting strongly to that, Luther insisted on salvation by grace through faith alone, apart from anything a person might do. Since then, many Protestants, and especially those in the Lutheran tradition, have read Paul’s letters as though he saw Judaism as a religion of works rather than faith. On a popular level, that sort of thinking has led some to devalue the Old Testament, to see the God of the Old Testament as different from the God of the New, and it has indirectly contributed to the persecution of the Jewish people.

Paul would have vigorously opposed such thinking. His quarrel in Galatians is not with the Old Testament, with the way of life it called for, or with Judaism in general, but specifically with the insistence by Jewish Christians that faith in Christ was not enough for Gentiles to be a part of God’s new covenant family. Paul saw the law as holy, just and good (Romans 7:12). He did not automatically reject his Jewish heritage when he came to know Jesus to be the Messiah, any more than the first Christians in Jerusalem did, all of whom would have been Jews. However, he did take issue with Christian and non-Christian Jews who did not see that God was expanding his chosen people to include freely all the nations who had faith in Christ. Any negative comments he makes about the law or the covenant that God made with the Jews at Sinai in the giving of the law need to be read in this light.

A right relationship with God has always been a matter of trusting God and responding in faith and obedience to his commands. A natural human tendency is to think that we must earn acceptance with God, just as we do in many of our human relationships. It is hard to believe that God loves us and accepts us just as we are. But he does, and he has demonstrated that great love in the gift of Jesus, just as he demonstrated his love for the Jews in his gift of the law. The good news is that Christ has done for us what the law never could do, and that God loves us so much that he does not leave us just where we are. He wants to transform us, and he has given us his Spirit to do just that.

Do you know that you really are loved unconditionally? If you find that hard to accept, what events in your past are keeping you from believing it?


Week 2 Day 1: Not slaves but heirs read Galatians 4:1–11

Continuing the theme of inheritance again, Paul now draws on a different but related analogy to emphasize the temporary nature of the law. As long as people are underage, they can’t enjoy their inheritance, despite being rightful heirs as members of the family. For all practical purposes, they temporarily share the same status as slaves. There is a period when they are under supervision until an appointed time. So it was with Paul’s readers. The reference to ‘elemental spirits’ in verse 3 is difficult, but Paul is most probably referring to people being under the sway of basic principles of the world, whether they be super-natural or astral powers (referring to Gentiles) or the tutelage of the law (for Jews).

When the right time came, however, God sent his Son to bring a new freedom, enabling those who were in effect slaves to be adopted as God’s children. The sign of that adoption—the evidence that both Jews and Gentiles are now God’s children through faith in Christ—is the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit confirms our status and prompts us to call God our Father, as Jesus taught us to pray. The old slavery is over, and Christians are now heirs rather than slaves, through what God has done.

Before the Galatians came to faith in Christ, Paul says, they were trapped in bondage to the powers they used to worship and serve. Then they came to know God in their experience—and Paul quickly adds that what really matters is that they were known by God (ultimately it’s not whom we know that matters but who knows us). But when the Galatians follow the advice of the Judaizers, they are putting themselves under a kind of bondage all over again and losing their freedom. They end up having to keep the sabbath and observe all of the special days and seasons of the calendar imposed by the Law (v. 10). In that case, all that has happened is that they have in effect become Jews, as if the coming of Jesus makes no difference; if so, Paul has been wasting his time trying to build their trust in Christ.

In what ways do you still feel ‘enslaved’ or addicted? What difference can knowing God and knowing that we have an inheritance in him really make?


Week 2 Day 2: Staying free read Galatians 4:12–31

At this point, Paul becomes more personal and passionate about his concern for the Galatians’ peril. He wants them to be as he is—free and loyal to the gospel of Christ; his words about becoming like them are probably best understood in terms of 1 Corinthians 9:21 (being free to live and eat with them as one free from the requirements of the law). Paul reminds them of the strength of their original relationship with him, how they welcomed him and would have done anything to help him. He came to them in weakness with a physical affliction; we do not know what that was, although verse 15 and the tradition of Paul’s temporary blindness in Acts (9:8, 18) have led many to speculate that it was an eye problem.

In any case, the situation is rapidly changing and the danger from the Judaizers is real. They are pursuing the Galatians, not with a view to including them in God’s family (as they would claim) but in effect to shut them out from the good news of the gospel. Paul reminds his readers that they are his spiritual children, and strikingly uses the feminine image of undergoing the pain of childbirth as he labours for a Christ-like form to emerge. Although our natural tendency is to read the language of ‘Christ being formed in you’ as the experience of each individual, Paul’s emphasis in the context is corporate. His ultimate goal for the Galatians is that they might as a community (as well as individually) come to resemble Christ in their values, beliefs and behaviour. But this is not what he sees happening, and it leaves him perplexed and anxious.

If the Galatians really want to keep the law, they should listen to what it teaches. Paul sees in the experience of Abraham’s two sons an allegory, which illustrates that only the child of the promise receives an inheritance. The law itself provides an illustration of two kinds of children here: those born of the flesh (i.e. through human plans and effort) and those born of the promise (i.e. through God’s way, vv. 21–23). Their two mothers represent two covenants bearing children into a state of either slavery or freedom (vv. 24–27). Because the Galatians are children of the promise, the children of the flesh are at odds with them, just as in the Old Testament story (vv. 28–31).

What would be the characteristics of a local church in which Christ was truly formed? How does your formation contribute to your church’s?


Week 2 Day 3: Freedom in Christ read Galatians 5:1–12

Paul continues his appeal for the Galatians to remain free, by reminding them that it was Christ who set them free in the first place, and that he did so in order that they should stay that way (v. 1). If they begin to take on the requirements of the Old Testament law through circumcision, however, that brings with it the responsibility to keep the whole of the law’s demands. In effect, it would be to rely on keeping the law to maintain one’s relationship with God. But Christ came so that through faith we might rely on him, and through him be in right relationship with God and a part of the people of the new covenant.

Circumcision had a role to play in its day for the Jewish people. But now that Christ has come, that mark in the flesh has been replaced by the mark of the Spirit, received through faith. Sometimes the good can be the enemy of the best. In this case, to go back to the old way is to reject what God has done in the new, and to fall from grace. Those who were advocating such a move by insisting on circumcision were undermining what Christ had done for them on the cross. Paul’s strong language in verse 12 reflects how seriously he viewed that danger: people who think that cutting the flesh will bring deliverance might as well go all the way with it, for all that it will help them.

Acceptance with God is not something that we can produce through a ritual act; it is a reality that we already have in Christ, which will become visible on the last day when we are vindicated by him. In the meantime, what really matters is not whether we are born a Jew or born a Gentile, but faith in Christ, expressing itself through love. Verse 6 is perhaps the most significant verse in the letter, because it encapsulates the heart of Paul’s message to the Galatians. It also clarifies that what Paul meant by ‘faith’ was not a feeling, emotion or simply mental assent to particular teachings about Jesus. Like James, who wrote that faith without works is dead (James 2:17, 26), Paul believed that real dependence upon Christ leads to the love that Jesus exemplified and called for.

In what ways are you tempted to find security in the old, where God is calling you to the new? What does the word ‘faith’ mean to you?


Week 2 Day 4: What real freedom looks like read Galatians 5:13–26

People have many different notions of freedom today, including freedom from binding relationships, restrictions, particular political structures, disease, money problems and so on. Some think that true freedom means a freedom to do whatever we want. But on our own, we are never free from a kind of bondage to our personal cravings and inherent limitations. For one thing, without wings we can never fly!

For Paul, being free from having to keep the requirements of the law did not mean a chance to live according to the instincts of one’s own limited and weak human nature (what he calls literally ‘the flesh’ in verse 13, although some English translations have ‘self-indulgence’ or ‘sinful nature’). Instead, God calls the Galatians (and every Christian) into his family in order that we might be free at last to serve others from the heart in a voluntary ‘slavery’ that fulfils the essential teaching of the law—loving the neighbour as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). Here Paul is echoing Jesus’ own use of Leviticus 19:18, and Christ’s example as the one who willingly became a servant of all (Mark 12:31; Matthew 22:39–40; Mark 10:44–45; see also Romans 13:9; 1 Corinthians 9:19).

Instead of living according to the old way of the flesh, Christians are given the freedom to live according to the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us. But that is a choice, and living by the Spirit does not come ‘naturally’. There is a real spiritual conflict between these two modes of human existence, which produce different results. Paul characterizes what their corresponding lifestyles look like through a list of vices and virtues. To follow the impulses of the flesh is to live self-indulgently, leading to immorality, idolatry, broken relationships with others, loss of self-control, and ultimately to exclusion from God’s kingdom (vv. 19–21). Obedience to the Spirit produces the Christ-like character of love, joy, peace and good character seen especially in our relationships with others.

It is often difficult to break bad habits, particularly when they are old ones, but it can be done. Paul reminds his readers in verse 24 that to be in Christ means that we have died to our old way of life that left God out, and we have been made alive by the Spirit’s work in our hearts, to walk in a new quality of life (see Romans 6:2–4). It makes sense, then, to keep following the guidance of the Spirit.

In what ways are you aware of being ‘led’ by the Spirit? What fruit do you think the Spirit is currently seeking to produce in your life?


Week 2 Day 5: The law of Christ read Galatians 6:1–10

A part of the appeal of soap operas is that by observing how foolish other people can be, we feel better about our own lot. ‘How can (s)he be so stupid?’ we think, and we comfort ourselves in the knowledge that we wouldn’t make that mistake! Love for others in real life, however, means putting their needs above our own, and giving up any attitudes of superiority that we may harbour. When people fail to live up to the faith in Christ that they profess, it is tempting to play comparison games and feel more spiritual. But that is the way of the flesh.

Instead, the way of the Spirit is humbly and gently to seek out those who have failed, in order to help them know Christ’s seeking love. The word translated ‘restore’ in verse 1 is the same used in the Gospels about the disciples mending their nets (Matthew 4:21); it is a beautiful picture of what it means to bring others back into the fellowship of the family of faith. Bearing one another’s burdens fulfils Christ’s commandment to love one another, after the example of the one who bore our burden of sin on the cross. Unlike the Judaizers, who are trying to place an extra load on others while overlooking their own failures, each person has his or her own labour of love to carry. That responsibility includes sharing good things with one’s teacher (v. 6), which in context may be Paul’s way of asking the Galatians to give him and his message the respect that the Judaizers are denying.

Paul’s gospel is sometimes interpreted as though the way we live is less important than what we believe. His words in verses 7–10 show this to be a profound mistake. How we live and treat others reflects what we really believe. Sowing to the flesh (which would apparently include getting circumcised, as well as the lifestyle described in 5:19–21) does not lead ultimately to life. Eternal life (in Paul, resurrection from the dead) is the harvest of a life of faith and perseverance in sowing according to the Spirit, by whose power we shall be raised (v. 8; see Romans 8:11). True Christianity makes a tangible difference, benefiting not simply those in the church, but those in the larger community as well (v. 10).

Are there steps you need to take to restore gently someone who has failed you or your church? What are you currently sowing?


Week 2 Day 6: Marks in the flesh read Galatians 6:11–18

Although they are not usually mentioned by name, Paul’s usual practice was to dictate his epistles to an amanuensis (secretary) such as Tertius, who did the actual writing of Romans (Romans 16:22). Now, as he winds up his message to the Galatians, the apostle takes up the pen himself, emphasizing the strength of his feeling by the size of the letters he forms.

The Judaizers have been charging Paul that, by not requiring circumcision, he is a coward who wants to please humans rather than following God’s way (1:10). But in their insistence on this requirement of the law, the Judaizers are more concerned about the flesh than the Spirit. They are the ones who are really fearful—afraid of persecution from non-Christian Jews for associating with un-circumcised Gentile Christians who claim to be children of Abraham through the cross of Christ. In fact, the Judaizers themselves are not fully keeping the law upon which they insist, and their motive is not in the interests of the Galatians.

In contrast, Paul’s motive is to lift up Christ and his cross, through which Paul has died to his old life. What really matters now is a new creation—a way of summing up what has come through the new covenant and life in the Spirit, brought about by Jesus’ death and resurrection. Those who follow this basic principle (instead of the basic principles of the world; see the same Greek root in 4:3, 9) are the ones who will have the blessing of peace, including the Jewish people who recognize the crucified Christ as God’s promised Messiah.

Before he ends his letter with a typical grace benediction in verse 18, Paul has one last thing to say. The ‘mark in the flesh’ that means the most to him is not his circumcision, but the marks (stigmata) of Jesus. Although later Christian piety has taken the stigmata to refer to the wounds of Jesus’ hands and feet, Paul is most probably referring to the scars that he bore from beatings for preaching Christ (see 2 Corinthians 11:23–25). Many of those marks came from the very people Paul held most dear in his heart (2 Corinthians 11:24; Romans 9:2–5), but it did not stop him from continuing to share the good news of the one by whose stripes we all are healed.

What are your chief motives in your relationships with others? What ‘scars’ do you bear as part of the cost of following Christ?


Week 2 Guidelines

It was Paul’s passionate defence of the heart of Christian faith and freedom that led Luther and the other Protestant Reformers eventually to separate from the Roman Catholic Church. Ironically, Paul’s concern to argue for one family of Jew and Gentile in Christ on the basis of faith instead of works of the law came to be interpreted as the basis for breaking up the unity of a Church that, in the 16th century, was unwilling or unable sufficiently to reform itself. Paul wrote to defend an inclusive faith; in some circles Galatians continues to be used to exclude!

A major task for Christians today is to rediscover how to demonstrate to the world the love of Christ that unites his followers, rather than what divides us. Concretely, that means learning to respect each other’s traditions and to work together on a local level. If Paul’s letter to the Galatians says anything, it says that what matters most is what we already have in common: allegiance to Christ who died and was raised to deliver us from our sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead us in the path of real freedom. More than ever, we need the humility and gentleness to recognize that family members should not bite and devour one another (5:15). Authentic Christianity frees people to serve others with the goal that ultimately, as one people, Christ may be formed in us. In conscious dependence on the grace, wisdom and strength that the Holy Spirit can give us, let us labour together, without growing weary, towards that family resemblance.

What are the two or three most important lessons that you have learnt through your reading of Galatians? How can those things make a difference in your life and in your community?

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