unity, or meddling

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 2:11-14 (JDV)

Galatians 2:11 But when Cephas came into Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was the culprit.

Galatians 2:12 since he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. Yet, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he was afraid of those from the circumcision party.

Galatians 2:13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force Gentiles to live like Jews?”

unity, or meddling

Peter was the one who saw the vision of the impure animals (Acts 10:9-16). He – of all people – should have known not to give in to peer pressure. It took Paul, the outsider, to confront the Jerusalem hero in Antioch. Paul also recognized the heart of the matter. It was not about preserving truth as much as trying to establish a superficial norm. When we have to establish a tradition to establish unity, there is something wrong with our unity.

There were some common Gentile behaviors that Paul objected to, because they were sinful. But he reminded Peter that there are some Gentile things that are not sinful, and the church has no business meddling in those things.

Lord, give us discernment – the ability to distinguish between different behaviors and wrong behaviors.

1 All instances of the second person (you) are plural except for 2:14; 3:8, 16; 5:14 and 6:1.

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same gospel, different missions

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 2:6-10 (JDV)

Galatians 2:6 Now from those who seemed to be something (what they once were makes no difference to me; God does not take the face of a human) – they added nothing to me.

Galatians 2:7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter was for the circumcised,

Galatians 2:8 since the one achieving1 things in Peter as a missionary to the circumcised was also achieving things in me for the Gentiles.

Galatians 2:9 When James, Cephas, and John– those who had come to be known2 as pillars – acknowledged the favor that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of partnership to me and Barnabas, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

Galatians 2:10 They asked only that we would remember the poor, which I had made every effort to do.

same gospel, different missions

The gospel of God’s favor to all is appropriate for all, but it will take people with different commitments and different gifts to reach each people group with the message. The Jerusalem pillars recognized this fact, and agreed to partner with Paul and his team. The Judaizers were trying to undo the differences, which is not at all what God wants.

The change that God wants to make inside you is not to make you a cookie-cutter version of other Christians. He wants you to different, because those very differences can be the key to reaching others with the one gospel.

Lord, open our eyes to the differences we can make as we partner with others to share the same gospel.

1ἐνεργέω

2γινώσκω

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we did not give up

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 2:1-5(JDV)

Galatians 2:1 Next, after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, also taking Titus along with us.

Galatians 2:2 I went up as a result of a revelation and presented to them the gospel I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those recognized as leaders. I wanted to be sure I was not running, and had not been running, in vain.

Galatians 2:3 But not even Titus, who was with me, was forced1 to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

Galatians 2:4 This matter arose because some false brothers had slipped in so as to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us.

Galatians 2:5 But we did not give up and submit to these people for even a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would stay with you.

we did not give up

Paul is again speaking with his missionary “we.” He’s saying that when his team went to Jerusalem, they encountered some of those false brothers whose only goal was enslaving Gentile Christians with outdated Jewish traditions. They did not give in to peer pressure. They did not give up the gospel in order to fit in. They were interested in seeing what was happening in Jerusalem, to see if perhaps they had been off the mark a bit. But they found nothing in the new legalism that made it any more palatable than the old legalism. They realized there was more at stake than simply following a new trend. They recognized the effect that their change might have on the Galatians, and other Gentile converts. Fitting in was not worth it.

Lord, thank you for a truth that does not go out of style.

1ἀναγκάζω

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he who formerly

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:21-24 (JDV)

Galatians 1:21 Next, I went to the districts of Syria and Cilicia.

Galatians 1:22 My face remained unknown to the Judean congregations that are in Christ.

Galatians 1:23 They only kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now announces the gospel of the faith he once tried to annihilate.”

Galatians 1:24 And they glorified God because of me.

he who formerly

Paul talks about the power of his transformed life. Those who witnessed his transformation glorified God because no other cause for such a change made sense of the evidence.

Paul and his team had dedicated their lives to announcing the gospel of the faith that he had once tried to annihilate. For them, it meant going to places where they would not be welcome, and suffering many troubles and dangers. They did not always have success. But their commitment was always a testimony to the reality that they proclaimed.

When people look back on our life’s work, may they be left with no other answer to the question of why we did what we did.

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magna carta

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:18-20 (JDV)

Galatians 1:18 Next, after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days.

Galatians 1:19 But I didn’t see any of the other missionaries except James, the Lord’s brother.

Galatians 1:20 Notice under the scrutiny of1 God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

magna carta

Perhaps the Judaizers in Galatia had designated one or two of the other missionaries as their opponents and had suggested that Paul colluded with them. But Paul points out here that the only Jerusalem Christians that he has seen for three years were Peter and James – people whose reputations the Judaizers were not about to sully. One of the positive things about being innocent is the evidence usually speaks in your defense.

In the process of simply answering the charges against him, Paul is doing more than defending himself. His defense of his missionary message will serve as a theological magna carta for the congregations. We owe much to those who fought about their faith in the first century.

Lord, thank you for your truth, and the amazing way you revealed it.

1ἐνώπιον

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stand-alone gospel

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:13-17 (JDV)

Galatians 1:13 You see – you have heard about how I once behaved as a representative of Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s congregation and tried to annihilate1 it.

Galatians 1:14 I progressed in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, because I was much more a fanatic in behalf of the paternal traditions.

Galatians 1:15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his favor, resolved

Galatians 1:16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could announce his gospel among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh2 and blood.

Galatians 1:17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become missionaries before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.

stand-alone gospel

Paul had gone from radical traditionalist to a devoted follower of the new way. The difference was not a doctrine, nor was it a new experience. It was Jesus Christ himself. So, when Paul decided to preach Christ, he did not immediately seek out the other believers to find out the accepted protocols and parameters. What began in God was good enough for Paul. The Christ revealed on the Damascus Road was the true Christ. The message about him was a stand-alone gospel.

Paul had taught that Christ to the Galatians, and they believed him. But later, a group of teachers came along and told them that their understanding of Christ needed to be perfected. They told them that they needed to become good Torah-toting Jews in order to be on God’s good side. This was the human influence that Paul argues against in his letter.

Lord, thank you for your stand-alone gospel.

1πορθέω

2 σάρξ

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not through human tradition

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:11-12 (JDV)

Galatians 1:11 You see – I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel announced by me is not of human origin

Galatians 1:12 because I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation from Jesus Christ.

not through human tradition

Paul had just accused the Galatian Christians of adopting a different gospel than the one he and his team had taught. Now he appears to be answering the unasked question of why they should accept his version of the gospel instead of the one they were being taught. His answer is that Paul got the gospel by direct revelation from Christ himself, not through human tradition.

Paul knew what it was like to rely on human tradition to explain divine truth. Most of his life, he had followed strictly the tenets of the Pharisees. It took a jolt to his world-view on the Damascus Road for him to shake free from that bondage. That made Paul the perfect instrument for ridding early Christianity of the disease of legalism.

Lord, thank you for the gospel that sets us free from slavery to tradition.

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independence day

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:9-10 (JDV)

Galatians 1:9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is announcing to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

Galatians 1:10 You see – am I now trying to persuade humans, or God? Or am I striving to please humans? If I were still trying to please humans, I would not be a servant of Christ.

independence day

On this day when the USA celebrates its independence, it is quite appropriate to think about what Paul is saying in today’s text. He is declaring that the gospel message which is the basis of his ministry did not come through human instruments. What Jesus did on the cross for us did not originate in any ecclesiastical committee. Paul and his missionary team did not answer to a hierarchy in Jerusalem or Antioch or anywhere else.

Paul and his team are taking criticism and don’t feel the church support they expected to receive. At such a point, they could give up, but they choose not to. They choose to keep going, because their calling did not come from humans. Like their message, their calling originated in God. They are ministers, but their ministry is primarily to God, not to the church.

Lord, when we don’t feel the support we expect, ground us in the reality that our calling is from you.

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if it’s new

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:6-8 (JDV)

Galatians 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly transferring away from him who called you by favor to a different gospel – Galatians 1:7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Galatians 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven1 should announce to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

if it’s new

We should be careful about spouting off new things when explaining what the Bible teaches. The Bible is not new. So, we can just about be certain that if something we are being told seems new, it isn’t true.

Of course, there are those rare times when we discover truths revealed in the Bible that have been concealed for a long time – by traditional understanding of the text, or by faulty translations. Fortunately we have thousands of years of biblical scholarship that can help us sort those things out.

The caution I see in today’s text is the tendency for people to jump on the bandwagon of new trends in Christian thought. Most of the time, different is not better. Different is wrong.

Lord, keep us from the tendency to try to find new truths in your revelation.

1οὐρανός

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the real rescue

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Jefferson Vann
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Galatians 1:3-5 (JDV)

Galatians 1:3 May you experience favor and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

Galatians 1:4 who gave himself in behalf of our sins to rescue us from this present evil age,1 according to the preference2 of our God and Father.

Galatians 1:5 To him be the glory for ages and ages. Amen.

the real rescue

The common view of the fate of the lost is that they will suffer unending torment in the next age. But Paul says here that Jesus gave himself to die on the cross not to rescue us from a future hell, but to rescue us from this present evil age. God lives on for ages and ages, and he wants his children – created in his image – to do the same. But this present evil age always ends in death.

The gospel that Paul defends and explains in Galatians is about rescuing us from the mortality of this age. It offers a new chance at immortality, made possible by the substitutionary death of Christ, and the resurrection that he promises. No laws could do that – not even God’s laws.

Lord, thank you for the real rescue – the eternal life that is ours only in Christ.

1αἰών

2θέλημα

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