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