From d9884e6a49d3cc7608e0cae8e3d5966b48b2ebfc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lyle Mantooth Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2023 08:51:54 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Galatians 1:10-24 --- content/bible_journal/galatians_1:10-24.md | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 43 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/bible_journal/galatians_1:10-24.md diff --git a/content/bible_journal/galatians_1:10-24.md b/content/bible_journal/galatians_1:10-24.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..977d842 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/bible_journal/galatians_1:10-24.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ ++++ +title = "Galatians 1:10–24" +date = "2023-08-02" ++++ + +### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Galatians1.10-24) + +In order to back up his claims that the gospel he preached to the Galatians, +Paul relates to them how he received the gospel, his conversion, and his early +history with the Church. His opponents had been accusing him of changing his +message to suit his audience and that he was a renegade preaching something +different from the "true apostles" in Jerusalem. + +Paul begins his argument by saying he wouldn't be a servant of Christ. Most of +the time when you see "servant" in the New Testament, the Greek word is more +literally "bondservant" which would be better translated as "slave", with all +the connotations that implies. Slavery was very common in the Roman Empire, but +it was usually entered into voluntarily and there was more opportunity to buy +one's freedom back than there was in the Atlantic slave trade system. Paul +considers his service to Christ as bought and paid for. What he preaches, then, +comes directly from his Master and not from some chain of apostolic authority. +(Which is how the Jewish rabbis taught: "As was said by my teacher Gamaliel, +who was taught by…"; a practice Paul was very familiar with.) + +After his conversion, Paul takes great pains to say where he went and whom he +spoke with during that time. Shortly after meeting Jesus on the road to +Damascus, he escaped to Arabia to avoid those who wanted to kill him. (See +[Acts 9:23–25](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Acts9.23-25).) He returned to +Damascus at some point, but only after three years did he go to Jerusalem to +meet the other apostles. Yet, when he went, he only saw Peter and James +(Jesus's brother, not John's) and only for fifteen days. He had already been +preaching in the synogogues before this visit that Jesus was the Messiah, and +he didn't need any training or approval from the apostles to do so. + +Note how Paul says in verse 15 that his conversion was planned out by God +before he was even born, and that it was the grace of God that brought it +about. Throughout his letters he brings up both of these concepts. God's will +and His purposes bring about salvation to all who believe, and there's nothing +anyone can do or not do to deter it. + +* * * + +You are mighty to save and only You can bring it about.