diff --git a/content/bible_journal/galatians_5:1-15.md b/content/bible_journal/galatians_5:1-15.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24ce3d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/galatians_5:1-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ ++++ +title = "Galatians 5:1–15" +date = "2023-08-18" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Galatians5.1-15) + +On the heels of the allegory of the slave woman and the free woman, Paul +declares that Christ has set us free for the purpose of freedom and that we +should not, therefore, put the slave collar back on. The rite of circumcision +has been used by both Paul and the Judaizers as a shorthand for the whole law +of Moses. Now, though, Paul is saying that it's more than a representation, but +inseperable from the rest of the law. One can't just become a Jew only in the +body, but in one's whole life. And if one thinks becoming a Jew is what counts +as righteousness, then it is not the one obvious distinctive that makes it +count, but a whole lifestyle. But again, it isn't keeping the law that saves +anyone, and anyone who thinks it does is saying to Christ, "No, thanks. I'll +handle this justification thing on my own." Of course, doing the works of the +law out of love for the Lord is not a bad thing, either. + +Paul encourages the Galatians to say they had been living out the Christian +life well. They just needed to not listen to the agitators who were causing +divisions. It sounds as if Paul believes that it is the work of only a very +small group. Leaven, or yeasted flour, is often a metaphor for sin in +Scriptures, and just as yeast makes bubbles throughout the dough, a little bit +of sin gets into everything it touches. + +Again Paul refutes the accusation that he has been changing up his message for +different audiences, and this time pointing out that it contradicts some of the +other things he had been accused of. Either he's a rogue apostle who's going +against the leaders in Jerusalem, or he's trying to please them by preaching +the need for circumcision to Jewish audiences and preaching something else to +Gentile audiences in order to please them, but he can't really be both. Of +course, neither one is true, and Paul is just so fed up with these people +leading Christians astray. If circumcision makes someone holy, maybe they +shouldn't settle for just the tip, he says. + +As believers we have been freed from the laws demands, but the freedom we have +is not a freedom to please our sin-loving flesh. Instead it is a freedom to +serve God and His church. The divisions that have sprung up in the churches of +Galatia are nearly as important as the division between God and His people. +There is a danger that the churches could collapse under the strain. + +* * * + +You empower us to do Your will so that Your church may be built up and Your +kingdom is advanced.