Sunday, March 1 - Galatians 5
What verse spoke to you in this chapter?
"For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the children of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord."
Who am I? What defines my life? How am I to live? Paul uses this chapter to answer these questions over and over. I am a child of God. I have come out of the darkness of sin to live in the light of God. What he is saying is that I should never forget this and allow this to shape how I live. This is the will of God for my life.
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(This is not really from Carol - but she can remember her sign-n)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I heard that, too, Pastor Ken.
And in v.14 he even tells us how to live: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Now I hope I can just do that.
Paul goes on to caution that we are not be conceited that we are any better than others - just servants.
humbly, Russ
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The fifth Lenten reading is Galatians 5. A buzz word in the past decade was WWJD, what would Jesus do? The current generation’s concept of Jesus is a mild mannered philosophic teacher whose hair always was combed and his beard always trimmed. Rarely is there any focus on the bellicose side of his personality which occasionally shows up as when he overturns the tables of the financial frauds/cheats who deprived the Gentiles of their place in the temple. In starting to read Galatians 5 the question comes to mind, WWPD, what would Paul do?
ReplyDeletePaul had taught the Galatians they did not need to conform to Jewish rules but others taught them Paul was wrong. Paul did not ask WWJD but in verse 10 wishes God’s judgment on those so teaching and in verse 12 says “ I wish that those who are unsettling you would castrate themselves!”* There are sufficient instances in scripture of Paul’s temperament, like this one, to justify some Bible students labeling him a small little mean spirited Jew.
This chapter gives a glimpse of Paul’s preaching. Long since gone are the days of Methodist Hell Fire Brimstone pulpit thumping to scare the sinner back to God, but what does Paul say he had been preaching? He outlines his sermons in verses 19–21. “19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, such as immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, magic arts, animosities, strife, jealousy, bad temper, outbreaks of selfishness, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousings and everything of the kind, of which I warn you as I did previously, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Luckily Paul also preached on “22 But the Spirit’s fruition is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, generosity, fidelity, 23 gentleness, self–control.”
At this Lenten season Paul should be read as teaching that “the new birth does not imply the elimination of that old carnal nature, neither does it imply a change in it, but rather the impartation of an absolutely new nature born of the Holy Spirit of God, and these two natures abide side by side in the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.~
Paul concludes this chapter stating that those who belong to Christ already have crucified the passions and desires of the flesh. At this season Christians think of Christ’s offering of Himself but this passage also teaches the recipient of grace needs to think about the reason for the Christ’s sacrifice, the recipient’s own sin. “The old nature is so corrupt, so vile, that it can never be sanctified, and the new nature is so pure, so holy, that it does not need to be sanctified.”~
Burton Patterson
*International Standard Version, 1998
~Henry Allen “Harry” Ironside, 1876–1951, H. A. Ironside Commentary—Galatians, Horizon Press, 1941.