The Battle Within

Reading:  Galatians 5:16-21
    
    So if Christians do not keep the Law of Moses, does that mean anything goes?  Does freedom mean we can keep sinning?  How can sin be overcome when there is no law to limit it?  Paul posits an entirely new framework:  “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh”(Gal 5:16).  God’s powerful Spirit makes possible true reform that mere law could never achieve.  When we follow the Spirit, we no longer give in to our flesh.  “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do”(Gal 5:17).  There is an issue:  the flesh (shorthand for our own will) conflicts with the Spirit (shorthand for God’s work and will).  We don’t always want to obey God—and this explains the disconnect between what we proclaim and what we do.  There is a battle going on.

     Who is winning this battle?  We can tell by the “works” or “fruit” that show up.  “Now the works of the flesh are evident”(Gal 5:19).  When we are living out our own desires, it leads to sexual misconduct (v. 19), false gods (v. 20), serious interpersonal sins (v. 20-21), and a penchant for excess (v. 21).  When this is the pattern of our lives, we “will not inherit the kingdom of God”(Gal 5:21).  This behavior does not please God in any era.  The issue here is not that we need more laws, but that we must choose to follow the Spirit.

    Each of us has his or her own battle within.  We want to follow God, but we also want to go our own way.  We want to say no to evil, but we also want to do evil.  God’s solution to this is not to forbid evil more loudly, but to send his Spirit to change the equation.  Now, when we are willing to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23), “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions”(Titus 2:12), and crucify the flesh (Gal 5:24), that decision has real power.  The Spirit works within us to produce good fruit (Gal 5:22-23) and the voices of the flesh quiet down.  “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

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One Thing to Think About:  Who is winning this battle in my life?

One Thing to Pray For:   Courage to deny myself and follow the Spirit
 

A Little Leaven

Reading:  Galatians 5:7-15
    
    The Galatian churches are beset by teachers who are promoting their hybrid “Torah + Jesus” gospel.  They “hindered”(Gal 5:7) the Galatians, “troubling”(Gal 5:10) and “(unsettling)”(Gal 5:12) them.  The essence of the message is that there is something lacking in their service to Jesus that circumcision and law-keeping would resolve; this deeply bothers the young churches.  “A little leaven leavens the whole lump”(Gal 5:9) as this thinking spreads throughout the region.  Paul insists that circumcision is not a part of the gospel—or else why would he be persecuted primarily by Jews (Gal 5:11)?  In holy frustration, he wishes that these troublemakers would castrate themselves (a pagan practice, Gal 5:12) rather than forcing such surgeries on the Galatians.

    These teachers have also caused some friction between the Galatians themselves.  “For you were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another”(Gal 5:13).  Freedom from the Law does not mean freedom to harm or hate others.  Even the Law teaches us to love our neighbors (Gal 5:14), an instruction Jesus also repeated.  “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another”(Gal 5:15).  Like wild animals, Christians can turn on each other and (emotionally and spiritually) destroy one another.  Faith is wounded, unity is compromised, and the gospel is stymied.  Satan wins.

    I am convinced that the “little leaven” Paul refers to here is the nagging sense that our service to Jesus is incomplete as-is.  We are not good enough.  There is something more (circumcision, law-keeping, etc) that we must do, say, or be to be right with him.  Like leaven, this thinking is contagious and tremendously damaging.  It promotes insecurity amongst otherwise faithful disciples.  It starts us looking for that new idea, teacher, or book to fill in the “missing piece” of our faith.  While we should always seek to grow in Christ, we can live secure in the fact that as we respond in faith to Jesus, we remain “in Christ.”

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One Thing to Think About:  How have I seen “a little leaven” spread and do damage?

One Thing to Pray For:   A heart to serve my brother rather than “bite and devour” him

Fallen Away from Grace

Reading:  Galatians 5:1-6
    
    Paul’s concern about the Galatians adopting the Law of Moses boils over here.  “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery”(Gal 5:1).  Since the Law makes slaves, it would be like returning to their former slavery to paganism (Gal 4:8-9).  But what exactly are they considering doing?  “Look:  I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.  I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law”(Gal 5:2-3).  These Gentiles—who are perfectly acceptable to God now through their obedient faith in Jesus—are contemplating being circumcised to be a part of God’s covenant people.  Paul warns that this will make Christ “of no advantage to you” and instead they will be signing themselves up for keeping the entire Law of Moses (not just one or two parts).

     His next words are his strongest:  “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace”(Gal 5:4).  Christ and the Law are two different paths; we cannot serve two masters.  Either we will be saved because we perfectly keep the Law or because we receive forgiveness from Jesus by faith.  When we attempt to save ourselves by law-keeping, we “have fallen away from grace” because we declare that we no longer need God’s mercy.  We’re fine on our own.  “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love”(Gal 5:5-6).  Christians live by faith, awaiting our hope by the Spirit, working Jesus’ will through love, unconcerned with physical markers like circumcision.  It is a new path.

    “Fallen away from grace” describes the clear and present danger of Christians leaving Jesus behind and forfeiting his gift.  Yet the reason for this estrangement is not relapsing into sin, but our insistence that we can save ourselves.  Jesus’ grace has conditions—and one of them is that we trust him (rather than ourselves) to save us.  I never graduate past obedient faith in him.

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One Thing to Think About:  How might I try to “save myself”?

One Thing to Pray For:   A faith that works through love

Freedom

Reading:  Galatians 4:21-31
    
    Paul’s strategy in this section is daring: he argues that Christians are children of Sarah while Jews who continue to keep Moses’ Law are not.  He does this by allegorizing (Gal 4:24) the Old Testament story of Hagar and Sarah, who both bore children to Abraham.  “But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise”(Gal 4:23).   Hagar represents both slavery and “the flesh”(because by her Abraham attempted to “help God out” by his own wisdom), while Sarah represents both freedom and “promise”(because God promised that she would bear Abraham’s son).  “One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.  Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children”(Gal 4:24-25).  Those who continue to keep the Law of Moses are slaves (see Gal 3:23, 4:1, 8-9), which means they have more in common with Hagar than Sarah.

    But followers of Jesus are not so.  We are citizens of “the Jerusalem above”(Gal 4:26).  In the same way that barren Sarah rejoiced when God blessed her, so we rejoice that God has fulfilled his promises to us (Gal 4:27).  “But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now”(Gal 4:29).  Ishmael (Hagar’s son) scorned Isaac (Sarah’s son) (see Gen 21:9), just as religious Jews persecuted believers in Jesus.  But Paul assures us that this is not the last word on persecution; just as Ishamel was cast out, so Jesus’ people stand to inherit while unbelievers will not (Gen 4:30).

    The thrust of Paul’s argument is that disciples of Jesus are free from slavery to the law.   We are not bound to a standard of complete perfection we can never meet, to sins we cannot rid ourselves of, and to a curse we cannot remove.  We are free.  He is also teaching the Galatians that any system that brings us back into slavery is not from Jesus (see Gal 5:1, 13).  God wants us to be free, but we must remain in (and guard) that freedom.

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One Thing to Think About:  What do spiritual slavery and freedom look like?

One Thing to Pray For:   Confidence that whatever persecution I endure is not the final word
 

Have I Become Your Enemy?

Reading:  Galatians 4:8-20
    
    In this deeply personal section, Paul pleads with the Galatians not to “turn back again”(Gal 4:9) to something inferior to following Jesus.  While Jewish Christians were previously enslaved to the Law of Moses (Gal 3:23, 4:3), these Gentile believers “were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.  But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”(Gal 4:8-9).  Beginning to keep Moses’ Law now is a retreat.  Intriguingly, Paul says that it will be the same as regressing to their former pagan polytheism.  He spells out the concern:  “You observe days and months and seasons and years!  I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain”(Gal 4:10-11).  By keeping the Jewish calendar (along with Jewish rules and regulations), they are signing up for a new way of being saved in which Jesus is dangerously absent.

    Then Paul pulls out all the stops.  He reminds them of their past together (Gal 4:13-15) and how warmly they received him despite his “bodily ailment.”  “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”(Gal 4:16).  He questions the goals of the teachers influencing them (Gal 4:17-18).  He opens his heart:  “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!  I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you”(Gal 4:19-20).  Paul trades on all his credibility with them:  Don’t do this!

    “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”  It is a bitter experience to watch friends become enemies.  Harsh words are said.  Past joys are tarnished.  We are bitter and angry all at once.  Paul’s words show us that gospel matters carry deep emotions with them.  It hurts when we disagree about spiritual things.  Yet there is also hope here that we don’t have to be enemies!  With open hearts and the humility to reconsider, we can often come to positive resolutions that preserve our relationships with both God and our brothers.

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One Thing to Think About:  How would I approach someone who began to believe or practice something false?

One Thing to Pray For:   The humility to reconsider whether I am right