.jpg)
Song: Open My Eyes, That I May See
Scripture: Galatians 3:23 - 4:7
Paul’s missionary journey to Galatia changed the complexion of the brotherhood. Christian Jews seemed content to leave Gentile believers alone as long as they were in their own churches, and as long as Jews outnumbered them. That changed after Paul’s Galatian trip. The church would never be the same. Jewish Christians panicked.
The problem was a complex one. Consciences of the Jews had been trained by centuries of law keeping. And to accept as brethren the Gentiles, whom their Jewish family and friends regarded as unclean, would sever once and for all their ties to Judaism and fan the flames of persecution from the Jewish authorities. Requiring Gentile Christians to be circumcised seemed like the way to satisfy conscience, escape reproach and persecution, and maintain some control over the “newcomers.”
They had a doctrinal argument too: the OT promises were clearly made to “Abraham’s seed.” The only way for Gentiles to meet this requirement was to be circumcised. Paul answers this argument in Galatians, written (in this author’s view) shortly after his first missionary journey. His argument is simple: Abraham’s sons are not those who share his circumcision but those who share his faith.
There is one big picture lesson to be learned from Galatians and the circumcision issue. If local churches could emerge united from an issue full of social, ethnic, moral and doctrinal dynamite, then what issue ought ever to divide us? Divisions will come. When men stop reading Galatians.
Jason Moore
