If your church follows the Lectionary for its Bible readings on Sunday then you’ll have noticed that we currently have a series of readings from Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
We think that what prompted Paul to write to the churches in Galatia (part of modern day Turkey) was his concern that the Christians there were being taught the wrong things about Jesus.
Paul’s angry and passionate letter provide us with a glimpse of a controversy that surrounded the early church as it expanded into Gentile communities around the eastern Mediterranean. And at the heart of this controversy was a thorny question. Were these churches to be understood as branches on a tree that was Judaism, or were they to be understood as belonging to a new community neither Jewish or Pagan?
The question was crucial, for if these fledging churches were going to be thought of as Jewish sects, then they would be subject to Jewish values and practices. This meant following all the Jewish laws and for men the unkindest cut of all - circumcision.
Paul had founded the churches of Galatia during his missionary travels in Asia Minor sometime after the meeting in Jerusalem that he describes in Galatians 2: 1 – 10. And everything points to the members of the churches in Galatia being pagan converts. And these were healthy, thriving churches. Paul tells us in his letter about baptisms, about the Holy Spirit coming on the churches and all in all the churches seem to be running well. We don’t know how long Paul spent with them, but he must have had reason to believe that, when he left them, all would be well.
However, at the time Paul writes his letter, he has received word that his work is being undermined by Jewish – Christian missionaries who had arrived on the scene and were preaching a different gospel. And they were also persuading the Gentile Galatians that they needed to be circumcised.
Now it is worth remembering that these Missionaries were not Jews trying to persuade the Galatians to abandon their new faith. No, they were Jewish Christians who were arguing that for new converts to be followers of Jesus, they needed to take on what it means to be Jewish which includes circumcision. They arrived in Galatia and started to preach that Paul had got it wrong. Paul had not instructed the Galatians about God’s law.
On hearing what was happening, Paul penned his letter to dissuade the Galatian churches from accepting this message from the Missionaries.
The basic element of the Missionaries’ message is clear. They believed Jesus to be the Messiah of Israel and they saw themselves as summoning Gentiles in the name of Jesus, to come under the Law of Moses. In short, they represented a form of traditional Jewish teaching that called for observance of the Law. And they sought, in the name of Jesus, to extend the Good News about the Law of God to the Gentiles.
But in Paul’s eyes the Missionaries were betraying the Gospel of Jesus because it is God’s grace, which was shown through the death of Jesus on the cross that brings salvation. It is the cross not the law that is the basis of a relationship with God. And God’s grace is for all people.
In Galatians 3:28 Paul writes:
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Paul was sure that what he was preaching was the Gospel.
In Galatians 1:11 - 12 he says:
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Paul’s bold, almost boastful, claims of superiority and his assuredness that he was given the Gospel directly by Jesus Christ, is uncomfortable. Because we can be reminded of those strands of the Church today who seem so sure about everything. Who believe they are infallible. Who know their stand point to be true. You know the type. Attempts to discuss with them differences of theology and biblical interpretation and biblical and church authority, can often result in comments like:
“Hey, you’re not arguing with me, you’re arguing with the Word of God.”
This is something that concerns me over the current debate over gay marriage.
I think it is worth noting that according to one article I read recently:
In the Bible there are 7 verses that talk about homosexuality. (Incidentally Jesus says nothing on the subject.) There are 12 against divorce. There are 2,350 verses about money. 300 verses about social justice and the poor. Shouldn’t we have more to say on those topics? But no we seem obsessed about homosexuality.
The United Church of Christ denomination in the USA is similar to the United Reformed Church in this country. The United Church of Christ has as its slogan “God is still speaking.” Apparently this is taken from something the comedienne Gracie Allen wrote to George Burns “Don’t put a full stop where God has put a comma. God is still speaking”
I really like that. “God is still speaking.” In other words, God is still leading us on to understand more of him and of his truth. In John’s Gospel Jesus says:
12 ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, the Spirit will guide you into all the truth;
(John 16:12-13).
In other words, we don’t know the whole of the Gospel – the Good News. It is constantly being revealed to us and the Holy Spirit helps us to understand God’s further revelations. The Holy Spirit helps us hear God speak. For God is still speaking. So we should not assume that everything God said was in a book parts of which were written 4,000 years ago. In my view those Christians who think God stopped speaking 2,000 years ago, and by the way He spoke in the language of the King James Bible, are just plain wrong!
There are those in the Church today who are like the Missionaries Paul spoke out against. The Missionaries believed, when you boil it down, that Jesus merely came to add to the Jewish law. But this was the very thing Jesus did not do. In Matthew Jesus says:
Matthew 5:17
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.
But there are some today in Church who hold on to the Law and forget about the Gospel. They forget what we are told in
John 1:17
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
And that grace and truth brings with it freedom. A point Paul goes on to make in chapter 5 of the letter to the Galatians. We are freed from the burden of obeying laws.
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
We are freed from the burden of sin. We are freed through Christ Jesus. Through his love for us. Through his dying for us and rising for us.
There is a story about an ancient Persian king who had injured his ankle quite severely. None of his court physicians knew how to help him. A member of his court told him about a certain slave who was said to have a great insight into matters of the body.
The Persian king sent for the slave who was brought to him weighted down with chains and dressed in rags. However, the slave was indeed able to give him great assistance with his problem. The pain ceased and the ankle soon healed. The king was elated and justly grateful for the slave's help. He was so grateful that he sent the slave a gift - a new set of golden chains.
Some people shy away from Christianity because they are afraid that they may be trading in one set of chains for another. Some Christians can do that to people, but not Jesus Christ. Christ sets us free! And he is still speaking!
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