Galatians 3:3 - Faith, Perfection, and the un-American Way

"So mindless, are you, having begun by Spirit now by flesh are you being completed?"

-Mindless.  Foolish.  They have lost their minds, these.  They started out so well, by faith, trust, leaning not on their own understanding or on their own self-effort, not trusting in their flesh, in their own innate (in)ability to somehow make themselves better, perfect, more acceptable and pleasing to God.  They were trusting in Him, in His indwelling Spirit for that, for acceptance, for guidance, for power, for the understanding of and enabling to do all that God wanted, for an increase and harvest of fruit and righteousness.  It is folly indeed to ever try and do this thru good deeds done in my own strength, but all the moreso to go back to doing so after having been enlightened by God’s Spirit and introduced to the way of faith.  The best my flesh can do is filthy rags (Isaiah 64.4), dirty deeds done dirt cheap.

-Yet at some point, as a result of the teaching and influence of some Judaizers, these believers in Galatia have begun to believe that the way forward to progress in their faith is to exercise not their faith but their flesh.  There are certain works which they must do in order to please God, in order to follow and become more like Jesus.  Self-effort, self-help, pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.  It sets nicely in the heart of fallen man, loathe as we are to ask for help and to have to depend on another in any way.  That’s humbling.  It’s "inefficient".  It’s outright embarrassing.  Frankly, it’s un-American.  Rugged individualism - that’s what made this country great, right?  Apparently that set just fine with the Galatians too.

-In no uncertain terms are we talking about the abandonment of a sound work ethic, about embracing and enabling laziness and sloth.  No, no, faith and hard work must always be held in tension, with the awareness that in the way of holiness, work which is truly good in the eyes of the God with Whom we have to do always issues forth from faith.  Absolute trust in and dependence on (someone else, on) God to save us, to make us clean and right in His eyes (thru Jesus our Savior).  Yes, I am always to work hard when it is time to work, and earn my pay (2Thessalonians 3.10-12; Ephesians 4.28; Proverbs 10.4, 18.9; Nehemiah 4.6), but faith always precedes truly good and perfect deeds, and there is nothing meritorious, no progress towards spiritual perfection apart from faith, from absolute trust in God’s grace and power and provision thru Christ.  Perfection - that which is necessary in order to gain entrance into heaven - is arrived at not by any fleshy self-effort, and to come to know this truth but then abandon it would be the height of folly.

Galatians 3:2 - The Proverbial Proof of the Tasty Pudding

"This only I am wanting to learn from you: out of works of law the Spirit you received or out of hearing of faith?’

-The proverbial proof of the pudding, this.  God’s Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.  He comes into the life, into the heart of each and every person who puts their trust in Jesus, baptizing them into the body of Christ, regenerating them, sealing them - sent from above by the heavenly Father.  And He comes bearing gifts, distributing to each one individually, just as He desires (1Corinthians 12.11).  Gifts of teaching and healing and mercy and faith and miracles and service and languages and interpretation and administration and prophecy, some of which are quite inexplicable in any human terms (by design).  These gifts can manifest right from very beginning, the moment of conversion - we see this happen quite clearly in the book of Acts (i.e. the acts of the Spirit!) as God confirms His work of salvation for those who first believed (cf Acts 10.45, 11.17).  In fact, it was this visible, tangible manifestation of the Spirit which was definitely needed at that time in order to convince the Jewish leaders of the early church that God was actually accepting Gentiles into His faith family without the need for them to be circumcised and observe the rest of the law of Moses (cf Act 11.17-18, 15.5-9ff).

-No doubt this is what did happen in Galatia, when Paul preached the Gospel and God was pleased to save some and plant an assembly of believers in that place, no doubt God’s Spirit manifested in some demonstrable, visible way - some kind of sign gift(s), supernatural gifting and working, proof positive that He had saved and accepted those ones who merely believed, saved by faith alone and not by any work of the law or religious pedigree.  And this is what Paul is asking them to recall here.  There was no thing, no good deed, not one command of the Jewish Law (or any other religious creed) which anyone did in order to obtain the gift of God’s Spirit.  They heard, they believed what they heard, God accepted them through faith, and they simultaneously received His Spirit (with the tangible manifestation thereof) entirely by faith.

-Which somewhat begs a question for each of us today - I say I have faith, but is there any corroborating evidence of the Spirit in my life?  Is there any sign of Him, any giftedness, any fruit whatsoever, any whiff of stuff of heaven, any of that surpassing peace or unspeakable joy or selfless love which lays itself down for my brother?  When the unbelieving world levels the charge at the church that it is full of hypocrites, what they are fundamentally saying is that they see so many folks who claim to have a direct personal connection to the God of heaven, but there is not really much of that stuff of heaven in their lives.  All these religious people don't really look or live much differently than me.  They do get up early on Sundays to go to a meeting, and they don't swear as much, but as far as I can tell they marry and divorce and shop and eat and vacation and struggle and live their lives pretty much the same as I do.  And so the claim rings hollow.  Disingenuous.

-Here we find what Jesus stated was a primary reason that He returned to the Father, so that He could send the Holy Spirit (John 16.7), that Helper Who would not only be with us but would live IN us and give us the power to do greater works than Jesus Himself did, deeds and exploits of glory which earn not salvation but which indeed do show off the breathtaking goodness of almighty God.  It matters not one little bit what I claim to be if there is no substance, no confirming tasty fruit to back it up.  Truly the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Galatians 3:1 - Is it finished...?

"Oh mindless Galatians, who bewitched you, who according to eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth as having been crucified?"

-Seeing is believing, right?  Jesus Christ was crucified and somehow, these Galatians saw it.  Well, not the actual event itself, but the crucifixion of the son of God - which was fairly recent history - was re-created for them visually, in some way or fashion, the portrayal was clearly combined with an explanation of the meaning and the significance of that blessed event, along with an invitation to respond, and they believed.  They saw with the eyes of their heart, and that seeing was believing.  They trusted in Jesus, in His death on the Cross for the forgiveness of their sins.  They made what skeptics and cynics and moderns and educateds would call a foolish decision, but it was the wisest, most sensible decision they could have made.

-Fast forward a bit, and now they are fools.  Mindless - literally, Paul says they have lost their minds.  They are apparently deserting the Gospel (Galatians 1.6), the very truth which Paul himself preached to them (Galatians 1.11), and are embracing a contrary message.  They have been bewitched.  Someone has somehow cast an evil spell on them to get them to begin thinking that there is something they must now do (circumcision?) in order to gain or keep God’s favor and right standing with Him.  Baptism?  Attendance?  Quiet times?  Tithing?  A specified dress code, or church membership?  Well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) leaders and followers have throughout the centuries added and layered all kinds of works-based merit to the by-grace-through-faith simplicity of the pure Gospel message.  When Jesus bled out on that cruel Roman cross, He declared, ‘It is finished’ (John 19.30).  Once-and-for-all.  But is it?  Is it really?  'Cuz if it is, then there is nothing to add, nothing more we must ever do in order to satisfy our heavenly Father, for us to be able to rest in that place where in His eyes we have done everything right (again, solely because of what Jesus did on the cross).  So many things which even believers are foolishly tempted to think we must do in order to maintain right standing with God.  And even though they had as much as seen it, these Galatian believers were listening to someone was trying to lead them away from that, down a primrose path of enslavement to the law.  They had lost their minds!  Next verse...

Galatians 2:21 - Monumental foolishness

"I am not rejecting the grace of God.  For if through law [is] righteousness, then Christ died for nothing."

-The grace of God...  The grace of God.  Grace is God’s undeserved favor.  Grace is God loving unlovely me.  Grace is God accomplishing for me what I could never do, and that is salvation, rescuing me from the death penalty which I justly deserved.  Grace is God giving Himself up and dying on the Cross for me.  Grace is God saving me - calling me, drawing me, granting me repentance, baptizing and sealing me with His Spirit when I believe.  And so the last thing a thinking person would want to do would be to somehow reject God’s grace or make it of no effect in my life.

-One way to reject God’s grace would be to proceed with works-based righteousness, the notion that I could somehow do something, anything, perform some kind of ritual or obey some set of commands which would somehow cleanse my soul and atone for my many many misdeeds.  But as Paul points out, if there were any good deed I COULD do which would earn me right standing, then there would have been no need for Christ to do what HE did, for Him endure the Cross to begin with.  No need for God to in essence kill His beloved Son, to allow the Romans and the Jews to do what THEY did to Jesus.  If I can get there on my own and save myself by obeying the law, any law in fact, then Christ (Who DID die) died for no reason whatsoever.  A waste beyond compare.

-But really, who in their right mind would do such a thing, what thinking person would reject a free gift, particularly a gift of this magnitude, of such eternal import, especially considering the Source?  Exactly.  Rejecting the grace, the favor of God so underserved yet so rich and free can only be the act of a fool (Romans 1.22).  And such monumental foolishness...!   

Galatians 2:20 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

"With Christ I have been crucified, but living no longer am I, but living in me is Christ.  But the [life] now I am living in flesh, I am living in the trust of the Son of God, the One having loved me and having given over Himself  for me."

-Few verses capture the essence of the Gospel message better than this.  What the law and my best filthy-rag efforts could not ever do, God did in Christ.  He loved me and died for me, and when I trust in Him, His death and His life all get transmitted to me.  They all get deposited into my spiritual bank account - and talk about a hitting the lottery!  The motherlode of all jackpots, this.  But it's not blind luck, and it is more than a just transaction in the heavenlies - we’re talking about the deliberate imparting of divine glorious essence, a transposition of life itself.  Me-myself-and-I, we are having been crucified - a true, completed act in the past with ongoing results in the present.  I died - in Christ, both freeing me from the law AND satisfying the righteous requirement of that death penalty.  Because in truth without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.  But this, Christ did for me.  What great love, none greater, so rich and free, and I love how Paul personalizes that here (twice!).  The Son of God loved ME.  He gave Himself over - for ME.  He is the One Who did it, He wasn’t simply some hapless victim of cruel circumstances, some helpless ignorant lamb led to slaughter (altho He was indeed the perfect Lamb of God).  No, He knew exactly where His life was headed, He knew precisely what was going down, was in control of the entire process, and allowed it all to transpire - for ME.

-But let us not miss this - Paul says, no longer living am I.  That’s the word order in the Greek.  Sounds like Yoda.  :)  But i am no longer living.  I am not calling the shots, nor am I the one making them - at least in theory.  Living in me is Christ.  I am in fact dead (supposed to be anyways), and Christ is living in me!  This is the true-to-life version of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, starring Jesus Christ as the consummate Body-snatcher Himself.  Sure, it still looks like me and sounds like me - for the most part at least, altho words, facial expressions, responses, habits, spending patterns, pastimes, values and priorities - these all begin to morph, perhaps even dramatically.  Metamorphosis, creepy-crawly-earthbound caterpillar to glorious butterfly - that’s the kind of change we’re talking about (altho it’s not really a body snatching as much as a transaction of soul and spirit).  It is not just a matter of a slightly different vocabulary and someplace I gotta be on Sunday morning.  Surely most professing Christians have next to no idea what they are saying when they claim to be a Christian.  Christ - the holy Creator God of the Universe - lives. In. Me.  That’s what Paul says.  Such a bold audacous statement, this.  It crosses right over the line of presumption, and sets me up for a charge of blasphemy.  Or hypocrisy.  In fact, is it not possible that unbelievers see this hypocrisy more clearly than do believers?  Don’t they often know to expect something extraordinary when say I am a Christian, something heavenly even?  For way too many, isn’t the church full of hypocrites, isn’t this what they say?  Surely this is the crux of the Christian faith, the litmus test of my personal faith - can someone look at me and say, living in me is Christ?  Can they look at my life and get even a whiff of the divine, even a fleeting glimpse of Emmanuel, God with us, the King of Glory?  It requires that oh-so-difficult and elusive death, a daily dying-to-self, hefting that same blood-stained cross onto my shoulders and like the One Who did that for ME, I deny myself and I live for HIM and for my fellow man.  Sadly, when I, like Peter before me, make it more about do’s-and-dont’s, rules and rituals, when I douse my faith with worries and worldliness and that which is sombre and joyless and self-righteous and all about me, when I refuse to die then truly it is Christianity which dies a thousand deaths and the life of Christ cannot be revealed thru me.  Lord help us!

Galatians 2:19 - the end of Me

"For through law I myself to law did die, in order that to God I should live."

-Paul emphasizes that for him, the law was actually the catalyst which brought about his dying to it.  He tells us further down that the law was his tutor (Gal 3.24) - it didn’t make him more acceptable to God, but rather effectively taught him that there was no way he could ever keep it all, no way he could measure up to God’s standard of perfection as embodied in those hundreds of commands.  His flesh knew he was guilty, that he was a transgessor and separated from his Creator, and the law simply confirmed that fact, pointed out in stark relief that he was in fact hopelessy guilty and separated. 

-Guilty people do one of two things - they run and try to hide, or they try to make it right and work it off.  The law in fact energizes both of these responses.  Some people run from it, they might even go off and rebel against it, perhaps thinking to go out in a blaze of glory (it’ll be a blaze of something, according to Jesus - cf Mt 13.41-42, 18.8-9, 25.41).  But others, they are inclined to work it off.  Our flesh naturally gravitates towards deeds we can do in order to assuage our guilt, to somehow pay off our guilt and make things right, make us right with God.  Yet in the end, if we would live with our Creator, if we would experience the blessedness, the surpassing peace and unspeakable joy of being rightly related to Him and in His eyes having done everything right, we must die.  Well, Jesus is the One who did die physically, but we must die to the law - to that entire system and fundamental(ly flawed) philosophy of works-based righteousness - and furthermore we must die to self.  We must come to the end of ourselves, to the end of our self-effort AND of our self-centeredness.  It must be the end of Me, the death of the threefold-self: Me-Myself-and-I.  If we would be alive TO God we must be alive FOR God.  It’s all about Him...

Galatians 2:18 - Mending the unmendable...?

"For if what I destroyed this I am building, I am proving myself a transgressor."

-The truth is, I died to the law, and in doing so, destroyed it, destroyed its power to hold me captive.  In Christ I entered in to the reality that the veil of the temple - that which barred sinful man (including Jews) from the presence of God - was torn in two, never to be mended.  The law (and the curse contained therein) was both fulfilled and forever removed, never again to hold any jurisdiction over me whatsover.  And yet, if for some reason I am beginning again to obligate myself in any way to observe the commands of the law in order to earn or maintain right standing with God, I am simultaneously abrogating what Christ did on the cross and embracing a standard of performance which no one has ever been able to keep.  I will be vainly mending the unmendable.  The intent of the law to begin with was not to ultimately enslave us to an impossible set of do’s and don’ts - rather the whole point was to point us to our need for a Savior, because on our own even on our best days we fall short.

-Yet Peter was supressing this salient truth and essentially rebuilding the law when he succumbed to the pressure to disassociate himself from uncircumcised Gentile believers in that assembly in Antioch, when he gave credence to the defunct notion that circumcision was necessary in order to be acceptable in God’s eyes (and Peter’s).  Not only was he wrong to do this, but in doing so Peter was essentially placing himself back under that from which he had been freed in Christ.  It’s like he was re-igniting the fire of the law in his life, and in so doing, immediately rekindled the searing heat of condemnation brought on by the law.  The law shows us that we are transgressors, law-breakers, guilty as charged.  Even Peter - under the law - was guilty.  What we all desperately need (for which we need to be constantly reminded) is not the law but mercy, forgiveness - which totally levels the playing field.  We need to die - to sin, to the law, to self.  Which is where Jesus comes in...

Galatians 2:17 - On sin and the stuff of heaven...

"But if seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves also were found sinners, then [is] Christ a servant of sin?  May it never be!"

-Is Jesus Christ a servant, a minister of sin?  He did call Himself a servant, but when He shows up in a person’s life, when they trust in Him, does sin tend to increase?  Paul gives us his emphatic, may it never be!  That would never happen, not in a million gazillion years.  No way, not here, not now, not ever!  In this case, the question is at least somewhat legitimate, in that Paul is contemplating how on God’s green earth a God-fearing Jew could trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and end up falling into sin, 'cuz that's what it looked like was indeed happening in Galatia.  But it flies in the face of reason and of Scripture that anyone - especially those who are no strangers to the ways of the God of Abraham - would, after giving their heart to Christ, be found doing things which break His heart.

-Which begs one of the questions of the ages: how is it that we can account for the missteps and the massive tragic screwups of those who name the name of Christ?  Sheldon Vanauken wrote about Christianity dying a thousand deaths when those who claim to follow Christ "are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive".  But surely the power of the Gospel is siphoned off completely when God’s people fall into sin.  Abuse, infidelity, greed, worldliness - one does not need to look very hard to see the stain of sin in the lives of so many who say they are Christians, leaders in the church even!  Yet even the darkest fallen heart knows instinctively that sin and the stuff of heaven are incompatible.  Some insist that the very reason they choose not to believe in Christ is because those who (allegedly) are following Him are hypocrites, and that the church is full of them.  Our job then, those who follow Christ, is to walk in the grace of God such that we are free to unmask ourselves and be honest about the fact that we are not yet perfect - simply forgiven - even as we make every effort to cooperate with His Spirit in living a life which increasingly reflects what He is like.  Give 'em heaven as much as possible and own it when we don’t.  Authentic, honest, aspiring, transforming, life-giving - a minister of life.  When we - those who are truly following Christ - show up, LIFE (not sin) happens. Life abounds in fact, life as it was always meant to be...

Galatians 2:16 - Perfection now.

"[But] having come to know that man not being justified out of works of law if not through trust of Jesus Christ, even we unto Christ Jesus did trust, in order that we should be justified out of trust of Christ and not out of works of law, since out of works of law all flesh will not be justified."

-Three times Paul says these words here - justified, not works, trust of Christ.  The Good News in a nutshell, this, the very simple formula of how to be right with God.  And that is precisely what we mean when we talk about being justified.  Declared right with God.  In His eyes, I am having done everything right.  Justified - just as if I had never sinned.  Perfection.  This is the bar-set-high, the gold standard for gaining entrance into the eternal dwellings of heaven, into that perfect paradise where no filth or moral stain can intrude.  I must be perfect, and the only way for fallen me to get that way is to be justified.  Justification.  I must be declared perfect, innocent, right with God - BY God Himself.  And to be sure, this perfection cannot ever come through works.  The word in the Greek is ergon, which gives us our English word ‘erg’, a scientific term for a unit of work or energy.  There is no unit or any amount of energy I can expend which can ever remove the guilt and stain of my transgressions or in any way make me right in the eyes of almighty God.  Not any unit of work or formula thereof.  Work happens to be the default posture of fallen man, however.  I instinctively try to work my way back into God’s good graces.  In fact, every other religion in the world besides Christianity is based on work, or works, founded on the principle of self-effort, that I must exert myself and perform a prescribed set of works and rituals in order to achieve whatever religious goal is set before me.  Every single one.  Nirvana, Enlightenment, Paradise - you name it.  It’s all works, and it’s all false, a fools paradise, leading the masses down the primrose path.  And it’s all about me, what I do, what I must do - the focus is on self.

-Becoming right and perfect is not a work, it is an undeserved gift.  And God’s good grace is not about me, and it is not ever warranted or earned in any way.  It comes simply and solely through trust.  Trust Christ, trust in Him today... And discover that true soul rest and peace which comes from being able to really and finally rest from work, from forever trying to earn God's favor because I am not right with Him.  Come to that place where you can exhale a huge sigh of relief knowing that finally and forever in His eyes you have done everything right.  Perfection now.  Not because of any work you did, but solely because of what Christ did...

Galatians 2:15 - Chosen bigots...?

"...'We by nature [are] Jews and not sinners out of Gentiles.'"

-Paul still speaking to Peter here, even though we have a new paragraph.  He states something to which Peter and every other Jew would readily assent.  

-God’s chosen people, these - and nobody else.  This was the prevailing sentiment among the Jewish people.  They were special, they were better, they were cleaner than any of the other peoples of the world, simply because God chose them.  They flew in God's first class.  God had chosen them out of all other nations to be His people, and nobody else.  These were the true sons and daughters of Abraham, a covenant ratified in perpetuity by observing the ritual of male circumcision on the 8th day and maintained by an endless series of blood sacrifices.  (Of course we know now that these sacrifices were meant to prepare the Jews to embrace and trust in the One Who would be the True once-and-for-all sacrifice to fully and finally and forever remove the guilt of their sins).  But God had chosen them, He had repeatedly blessed them and delivered them and spoken to them - even if their hearts were not fully given or surrendered to Him, they enjoyed special status as being clean in the eyes of the God of Abraham because they were descendants of Abraham.  They were pretty much born into a state of ‘spiritual purity’ (which of course bred a strong sense of spiritual hubris), and everybody else, all other nations, were... sinners.  Say it with disdain and disgust.  Filthy.  Dirty, rotten, morally bankrupt by virtue of their birth.  Strangers to the covenants and promises of God - their only hope of gaining some kind of acceptance with God was the Jewish way.  They needed to be circumcised and then begin to observe the Mosaic law as best they could, pilgrimage to Jerusalem, pray facing that holy city, alms in the temple (sounds a bit like the formula which Muhammed passed on to his followers).  Jewish spiritual bigotry and blindness ran so deep that the Jews had long since concluded that rather than bless the nations they needed instead to avoid any contact with non-Jews whatsoever, lest they become contaminated simply by being in their presence.  So contemptible were these that the Hebrew word for 'nation' (goy, plural goyim) became a pejorative for any Gentile.  Peter and all other good Jews had been steeped in this thinking from birth, it was part of the very core of their cultural identity.  Jews were the spiritual elite, and the Jewish way was simply better, way better.  This was the social current against which the Gospel was swimming from the get go, and this was what reared its ugly head in the assembly in Antioch.  Recall that almost all the opposition which Paul and the early church (and Jesus!) faced was from Jews, increasingly so as Gentiles were brought into the fold in increasing numbers.  It was going to take time and effort to get this massive ship turned in a different direction, even after repeated direct revelation from God Himself - in Whom there is no partiality whatsoever.

-Are there any attitudes of superiority or even any social/cultural preferences in my heart which keep me from embracing the least of these among my brethren?  Who do I tend to avoid when the church gathers?

Galatians 2:14 - Nobody flies in coach

"But rather when I saw that they are not straight-feeting toward the truth of the Good News, I said to Cephas in front of all, 'If you, being a Jew, Gentile-like and not Jew-like are living, how are you compelling the Gentiles to be judaizing?'"

-Peter (and all the other Jewish believers in Antioch) erred by literally not being straight-footed towards the truth of the Gospel.  They were not walking in a straight course towards what was true.  They - Peter - were saying one thing (you don’t need to be circumcised to be an acceptable follower of Christ), and yet were doing another (only those who are circumcised are acceptable - to us, and by extension, to the Lord).  And they should have known better.  Peter knew better.  He knew full well that the Gospel completely levels the playing field.  All have sinned, Jew and Gentile alike, and all are equally separated from their Creator, an insurmountable distance apart from the grace of God and the blood of Christ, in which trusting all are brought near.  Jews get no closer, get not one ounce more of God’s infinite grace or everlasting love than do uncircumcised Gentiles.  In Christ there is no residual stain or moral filth which might somehow rub off one person and contaminate another.  There is no spiritual second class.  Nobody flies in coach.  It matters not who you are, into what race or religion you were born, where you’ve been, what you’ve done - by trusting in Christ (and by that alone), all are welcome, all is forgiven and washed whiter than snow.  All in Christ become family, sons and daughters of their heavenly Father, brothers and sisters forever.

-So Paul did speak to Peter face-to-face, but did so in public, in the presence of the entire assembly.  They could have been gathered for worship, to break some bread or perhaps more likely for some corporate meal, when Peter would have blatantly disassociated himself from the Gentile believers in an otherwise informal setting.  All the rest of the Jewish believers there had followed his example - even Barnabas(!), and the entire assembly was fractured.  Thus it became an object lesson for all, and a desperately needed one at that.  Imagine how Peter must’ve felt - exposed, embarrassed, humiliated.  No doubt by giving in to his spiritual prejudice and pride he had made many in Antioch feel the same way.  They had been led to believe that he was their friend, this one of ‘the three’, this de facto leader of the twelve.  He had embraced them as brothers... And then he did not.  How disillusioned they must have felt because of Peter, this alleged spiritual leader, questioning his character, perhaps even questioning their very salvation.

-In Christ, all are family, beloved, accepted, acceptable - everyone, all one.  All.  Everyone gets upgraded to spiritual first class - and should be treated as such.  Are there any areas where you and I are not living into this truth?

Galatians 2:11-13 - Paul (and Jesus) vs. Peter

"But when Cephas came unto Antioch, according to his face I stood against, because he was having been condemned... For before the to come of certain ones from Jacob, he was eating with the nations.  But when they came, he was drawing back and he was separating himself, fearing the [ones] out of circumcision... And the rest of the Jews hypocrited with him, so that even Barnabas was led away by their hypocrisy."

-Caught in the act, he was, that Peter - that’s the rough meaning of the word here.  You know how someone screwed up, cuz you saw them doing it.  Peter/Cephas was caught in the act, seen doing that which was wrong.  And Paul called him on it - to his face.  He didn’t post it on social media or send it in an email or a text.  All too easy it is in our day and age to simply mail in our critical conversations - literally or digitally, to approach them indirectly.  Or not at all.  When someone is in the wrong, we have a divine opportunity to show that we care about them by pointing that out - in love - face to face.  Now it is certainly possibly to call them out to their face in ways that fall short of caring - we may care more about how that person’s misstep affected our own bottom line or perhaps that of our organization, or we do not actually care about the person much in the first place.  But it can be just as uncaring to say nothing at all.

-Sadly, Peter was ensnared in a kind of hypocrisy which, given his position as a leader, influenced a whole bunch of others to follow.  He had gone on record as saying that God does not receive anyone ‘according to face’, He shows no partiality whatsoever towards anyone, most certainly not to Gentiles (Acts 10.34), that He does not see or treat or receive the uncircumcised any differently than Jews.  Peter specifically gave his blessing to the affirmation of the Jerusalem council (to which Paul just referred), that the trappings of Judaism were not necessary, not salvific in any way.  And giving every appearance of having learned the lesson that he should not regard as morally filthy what God had clearly declared to be clean (Acts 10.28), Peter was actually hanging out with Gentile believers in Antioch, eating with them, treating them like family.  Until...

-When some of his Jewish fraternity brothers showed up from the home office in Jerusalem, personal representatives of the lead dog James himself, Peter made the choice to no longer hang out with the ones his old friends saw as uncool, beneath them, dirty.  He gave into some peer pressure, some old cultural biases, and disrespected his new friends.  So influential was he that even Barnabas, that faithful friend and gifted encourager and one who helped plant the church in Antioch to begin with, followed his example.  No doubt some of the ones Barnabas began to snub were those he himself had led to and nurtured in the faith.  If you've ever been snubbed by someone you thought was your friend, you know how painful that can feel.

-The word is hypocrisy.  Pretense.  It is what actors do - they pretend.  Two-faced.  They are not quite who they appear to be.  Liars, in essence.  They say one thing, but then do another.  There are few things more reprehensible and disappointing than seeing hypocrisy rear its ugly head in a person’s life, especially if they are a leader.  It betrays that they don’t believe a word of what they’re saying, so why should I?  Most people want less than nothing to do with a hypocrite.  And most assuredly Heaven feels the same way.  Jesus had the most forceful words of condemnation for those who say one thing and do another (cf Matthew 22.13ff).  Sometime after this, Peter will pen a letter where he talks about obeying the truth and sincere love for fellow believers and putting aside hypocrisy (1Peter 1.22-2.1), so, clearly the Lord uses this occasion to help Peter learn an important lesson, and to his credit, Peter apparently had a teachable heart.  He received Paul’s correction with humility.  May we each find a similar grace...

Galatians 2:10 - A Heart for the Have-nots

"Only the poor in order that we may be remembering, which also I was eager this same to do.’

-By virtue of their relative lack of resources and relationships, those who have-not (aka the materially poor but not necessarily confined to that group - could be children, immigrants/refugees, minorities, women, handicapped, uneducated) find themselves particularly susceptible to injustice and oppression at the hands of those who have, whether it be wealth or power or influence with others who do.  They don't have access to any of these things.  And so these so-called Have-nots can be much more vulnerable to the vagaries of life in a broken world - illness and injury, disaster and tragedy - living on the margins means you don’t have the same margin to withstand the onslaught of brokenness, which is no respecter of persons regardless of socio-economic status.  For far too many, it doesn’t take much for life (or bullies) to push them past the point of being able to weather the storm, over the edge, out of hearth and home (and even onto the streets), smack dab in harm’s way.  The Least of these need a voice, need to be heard - they need someone to visit, to take the time to show up and see how they’re doing (cf Matthew 25.36, Acts 7.23, James 1.27).  And to care.  Not only to slow down long enough to be able to glimpse a need but to care enough to have mercy on them, to actually stop and do something about about helping to meet the need (cf Luke 10.29-37).  To seek their welfare, doing something good for them (and in so doing showing them the goodness of the God Who really does see and care about them).  What’s more, in remembering and giving voice to these on the margins the church finds its own voice, rising above the level of mere rhetoric and into substance (faith without works is dead says the brother of Jesus - James 2.14 - right after he chastises believers for disrespecting the poor - James 2.6-10), a substantial empowering to make a real difference in the world, to increase the manifestation of true shalom and well-being in the lives of those in its community (Jeremiah 29.7), and yes, to give a glimpse into the heart of God Who truly is breathtakingly good and really does care.  Safe to say many of us in the west today have grown up spiritually in a version of evangelicalism which almost seems to prioritize knowledge and attendance over obedience and compassion.  We gather to hear good sermons and good Bible lessons and good Bible studies and yet what difference does it make in our lives, in our marriages and families, in our communities and schools and in our city?

-To be sure, remembering the poor, not only thinking about them but finding ways to help them, is really nothing more than pursuing the heart and living into the desires of almighty God Himself.  Scripture is replete with enjoinders for God's people to help meet the needs of those less fortunate, those whose socio-economic circumstances have rendered them more vulnerable not only to hunger and illness and death but also to things like injustice and exploitation and discrimination, neglected, forgotten, eking out an existence on the edges of society.  In this regard, Homie don’t play.  We see this theme particularly stressed in the Old Testament  (Exodus 22.22-24; Leviticus 25.35-36; Deuteronomy 10.17-18, 14.28-29, 15.4, 15.7-11, 27.19; Proverbs 14.31, 19.17; Isaiah 1.16-17, 58.6-8; Jeremiah 5.27-29, 7.5-7; Ezekiel 16.49-50; Daniel 4.27).  It is still a thing for Jesus (Matthew 6.2-4, Luke 18.21), and for the early church (Acts 4.34, 6.1; Romans 15.26, and as we see here), altho the language is perhaps not as strong.  Nevertheless, since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we can be certain that His heart of compassion for those who are vulnerable and less fortunate has not waned in the least.

-And let us not miss this - Acts says there was not a single needy person among them, in the assembly of that early church.  Not. One.  The Haves would sell what they had and bring the proceeds to the leaders who would redistribute to the Have-nots according to need.  That’s right - redistribution of wealth (aka socialism), and while it is a nasty stench in the nostrils of any modern-day capitalist, apparently it set just fine with the 1st century church.  Note that Scripture does in no way seek to subsidize or otherwise endorse laziness (2Thessalonians 3.10-12, 1Thessalonians 4.11, Matthew 25.26, Proverbs 12.27), and in fact makes provision for even those on the margins to actually earn a living of sorts (Leviticus 19.10, 23.22; Ruth 2.2), but thus we see the bar set particularly high for God’s people in taking care of the least of these who are in their midst - their own brethren, as well as the alien among them who is likewise vulnerable due to his lack of resources and local knowledge/relationships.  We as God’s people in the 21st centrury would do well to examine our own efforts and commitment towards remembering the poor AND for having not one needy person among us... 

Galatians 2:6-9 - Family ties

"But from the [ones] being reputed to being someone - of what sort formerly they were is not differing to me, God is not receiving face of man - Indeed, to me the [ones] being reputed imparted nothing... But rather instead having seen that I had been entrusted with the Good News of the uncircumcised just as Peter of the circumcised... For the [One] having worked in Peter unto apostleship of the circumcised worked also in me unto the nations... And having known the grace having been given to me, Jacob and Cephas and John, the [ones] being reputed to being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas right hands of koinonia, in order that we [should go] unto the nations, but they unto the circumcised."

-Paul refers in this section to those who were of high reputation, and specifically to Jacob (aka James, Jesus’ brother) and Peter (aka Cephas) and John (the two remaining members of the ‘three’) as having the reputation of being pillars, i.e. the primary key supporting pieces in the structure of the church.  We must remember that Paul didn’t know these guys very well.  He had very little relationship with them whatsoever.  In the time since his conversion he had spent almost all of it in Damascus or Tarsus or Antioch.  But their reputation meant very little to Paul.  Man does tend to idolize, to put people on a pedestal.  It is the cult of celebrity, the tendency to confer honor and special status on others for reasons of achievement or position.  And while it is not entirely inappropriate to honor our fellow man under certain circumstances, the impartial eyes of God do in fact ultimately level the playing field.  For his part, Paul in now way allows himself to be unduly influenced by the status of these reputed pillars.

-Paul reiterates that nobody in Jerusalem, not even Peter or James or John, gave him anything with regard to the content of the good news he was preaching, no requirement vis a vis circumcision, gave him nothing at all except what he refers to as ‘right hands of fellowship’.  They never at any time asked or instructed him to modify or change his message in any way.  Paul does mention here that those in Jerusalem did ask them to remember the poor - something very close to the heart of God and which Paul was quite glad to do.  In Acts we read as well that those in Jerusalem (at James’ suggestion) did ask the believers in Antioch to abstain from four things (Acts 15.20, 28-29) - from things sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled (which would still retain their blood), and from fornication.  These were not held up in any way as being salvific (necessary works for earning salvation), yet all four would have been readily associated with rituals found in the worship of pagan idols at that time.  And while freedom in Christ would have perhaps still allowed for the first three, with only that last one being straight up sin (cf Matthew 15.19; 1Corinthians 6.13, 6.18; 1Thessalonians 4.3), abstaining from all four would undoubtedly help the Gentile converts to not offend the religious sensibilities of their Jewish brethren (Paul takes up this theme in some of his later letters - cf Romans 14.21; 1Corinthians 8.13, 10.25-28) - which does bring up a crucial point.  In Christ they were all brethren.  As in family.  Note that there was never any allowance or consideration that the families of those who followed Christ in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia (or any other place) would ever assemble for worship separately according to race or ethnicity or even cultural preference.  They were all together, all to be of one heart and soul, one mind, intent on one purpose, striving together for the progress of the Gospel, fully aware that their oneness and demonstrated love for one another was powerful confimration of the truth of their message to the ones outside looking askance at Christ.

-And in that spirit, these leaders of the Jerusalem church gave both Paul and Barnabas the so-called right hands of fellowship.  This was a special gesture of affirmation - shaking hands may not have been as commonplace in that culture as it is in the present-day united states.  James and Peter and John recognized these two essentially as partners and as missionaries, specifically for carrying the Gospel to the uncircumcised, meaning to non-Jews, just as they had clearly been marked out as missionaries to the Jewish community.

-But in the end we see not a building or a meeting nor any cult of celebrity or sibling rivalry but a family of brothers and sisters in Christ who have each and all been rescued by grace and not by any work or religious ritual, a spiritual family who comes together to worship and serve in order to further the progress of the Good News, a family that loves one another beautifully, and one which remembers the poor in that place, that community where they assemble.  More on that in verse 10...

Galatians 2:1-5 - No strings attached, no skin detached

"Then through fourteen years again I went up unto Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking with also Titus...But I went up according to a revelation and I set before them the good news - the [one] I am preaching in the nations, but [I did] according to private to [those] being reputed, not somehow unto emptiness I may be running or did run...But rather not even Titus the [one] with me, being Greek, was compelled to be circumcised...But because of false brothers brought in secretly, who entered to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order that we should be enslaved...to whom not even toward an hour did we permit the obedience, in order that the truth of the Good News should continue toward you all.’

-We come to Paul’s second post-conversion visit to Jerusalem.  Again, his point is that the Message he preached to the Gentiles had not been affected by anyone in Jerusalem in any way.  Not at any time had he been influenced by anyone there to teach that circumcision was required for salvation.  He only went Jerusalem twice in 17 years, the first time only for 15 days, and this second time only because God told him to go.  

-The occasion was the so-called Jerusalem Council (Acts 15.2ff), a private meeting between this delegation from Antioch and the Apostles and Elders in Jerusalem, to whom Paul refers here as ‘those of reputation’.  This was actually the great watershed moment for a growing church which was now rapidly expanding beyond the borders of Judea (Judaism) yet still heavily dominated by those who had been raised to think that they were the people God chose, and that the traditional Jewish approach of circumcision and keeping the law of Moses was the only way to approach God, and they were slow to jettison that notion, even in Christ (Acts 15.1, 15.5).  These were the same ones had been extremely hesitant to believe at first that other nations (non-Jews) were actually included in God’s plan of salvation through Jesus (Acts 11.1-3, 11.17-18), much less that it was even okay to associate with them.  Now, once and for all, the church desperately needed to affirm that the God who ultimately made no distinction between Jew and Gentile (Acts 15.8-9) had in fact fully and finally freed all who trust in Christ from the unbearable yoke (Acts 15.10) and trouble (Acts 15.19) of the law.  Which is precisely what they did.

-In Acts it says Paul and Barnabas went up from Antioch ‘with others’ - here Paul mentions only Titus, but to the point, Titus was both Greek and uncircumcised, thus he would have been an ideal case-in-point for this debate, the perfect poster child for the Way, this new and one true way to approach God in Christ (and in fact the only way, if you want to actually succeed in doing so), which was through faith alone, with no strings attached (and no skin detached).  When presented face-to-face with a real live, in-the-flesh, bona fide uncircumcised Gentile believer, one whose life had no doubt been transformed and who could give firm testimony of faith in Messiah (perhaps even with evidence of sign gifting?), those Jerusalem leaders would have been forced to officially affirm the truth that circumcision was in fact not necessary in the least.

-Interesting to note that this was in fact a private meeting, just Paul and his entourage together with the Apostles and Elders of the Jerusalem assembly.  Paul here admits to a(n albeit temporary) level of uncertainty as to whether or not the message he WAS preaching was on target.  But in the end, not only was his message affirmed but what we really have is the final step in the journey of the Way to escape the confines of Judaism.  We had the baby step as God forced Peter to go witness to Gentiles (Acts 10.34-35)(a development to which the Jerusalem leaders were likewise forced to accede - Acts 11.2, 11.18), then large numbers of Greeks coming to Christ in Antioch (Acts 11.20-21), where Barnabas and then Paul were teaching and where the disciples began to be called Christians (Acts 11.26).  Antioch was a real catalyst, for it was here that the debate about circumcision for new Gentile believers in Jesus reached its tipping point, which is what then had prompted that assembly (with the Lord’s guidance) to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem in the first place.  That’s what Paul says, that some false brothers snuck into the Antioch assembly and were trying to force new Gentile believers in Jesus to receive circumcision.  No doubt Paul let them have it with both barrels, and God made it clear that this issue needed to be settled once and for all.  Paul not only did not yield to these guys and what they were saying, he fought back against what they were saying.  And once at the council with those Jewish leaders, again, they did not ask that his message - the truth of the Gospel as he had received it from the Lord - be modified in any way.  No strings attached.