Day 4
Lisa Scheffler, author
Listen at bit.ly/EngageGodDaily
In Galatians, Paul answers two big questions that people still ask today: 1) How is someone accepted into God’s family? 2) How then do they live? We’ve seen him insist over and over that it is by faith in Jesus Christ that a person becomes a child of God. Nothing else is needed. In this final part of Galatians, we’re going to consider what this means for how we live.
The Galatian Christians had been misled by Paul’s opponents. Gentiles don’t need to covert to Judaism by following the law before they can find their seat at God’s table. When a person, Jew or Gentile, turns to Jesus Christ, they come out from under the law and live under the dominion of Christ and the Spirit.[1]
Once again we see a frustrated Paul speaking against his opponents in unyielding terms. Notice the different metaphors, or deep comparisons, that Paul uses in this section.
[1] McKnight, 242–243.
Read
Galatians 5:7-12
7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
What metaphors did you find?
Do you find Paul’s tone shocking in this section? Why or why not?
Reflect
In this section, Paul’s frustration has him jumping around a bit. First, he begins by addressing the Galatians using the metaphor of a race. I’m not much of a NASCAR fan, but every once in a while I see a clip showing a huge pile up on the track. Sometimes the cause of the crash is one car clipping another one as it tries to cut in front and take the lead.
Of course, Paul knew nothing of race cars, but I can imagine him envisioning one runner cutting in on another and running them off course. That’s what he believes his opponents did. They persuaded, cajoled, and even coerced the Galatians off course.
Paul then switches to a metaphor that describes his opponents. This is a metaphor that Paul also uses elsewhere to describe the pervasive influence of something that might seem small, even insignificant. Here he’s describing the massive effect even a small number of agitators can have. Yet Paul displays confidence that the Galatians will stick with him and his opponents will “pay the penalty” for causing such discord and confusion.
Finally, Paul makes one last personal appeal. Apparently his opponents accused him of being a hypocrite for suggesting circumcision in some cases, but forbidding it in others. If that were the case, Paul wonders, why would he be experiencing persecution?
According to Fee, Paul’s opponents may be referencing an incident described in Acts 16:1–3 where Paul had Timothy circumcised as to not offend the Jewish community in Derbe and Lystra, cities in the region of Galatia. Yet Paul already gave an explanation for why this is not an example of hypocrisy back in 5:6. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Paul’s view of freedom as explained in 1 Corinthians 2:19–23 helps us understand Paul’s actions.
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19–23)
Fee explains, “This is precisely the kind of freedom in Christ that those who live by the law simply find intolerable; and their way to fight it is to argue for ‘inconsistency’ on the part of the apostle. But Paul’s consistency is to be found in his very gospel-oriented view of life, in which the law…has been replaced by God’s own empowering presence, the Holy Spirit himself.”[1]
[1] Fee, 196.
Respond
Wright explains, “Wherever Paul goes he is attacked by those Jews who think he is letting his side down, who cannot bear his message of a crucified Messiah. As always in this letter, the cross is at the heart of Paul’s gospel, and Paul knows it is always a ‘scandal’ (the word means ‘something people trip over’). Of course it is: it demolishes the boast of those Jews who suppose themselves superior to the rest of humanity simply because of their ancestry.”[1]
In what ways are we tempted in the church to view ourselves as superior? How does the message of the cross correct and humble us before God? As we deal with any who oppose us? As we strive to better love and help the people in our life find and follow Christ?
[1] Wright, 66.
