Galatians 6:13 - Pretense and Programs Ad Nauseam

"For not even the [ones] being circumcised themselves are keeping [the] law, but rather they are wanting you to be circumcised, in order that in your flesh they should boast."

-Hypocrites.  The church is full of them, yes,  But so is the world.  People who say one thing and do another.  Liars, in other words.  Duplicitous.  Two-faced.  That was the first response of our first parents after they transgressed, and it has been a default position for humanity ever since.  We cover up and gloss over and try our best to hide our screw ups, our shortfalls, our sins.  At their finest these are people who lay down the law or enforce rules which they don’t even keep themselves.  "They honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" - says the Lord (Isaiah 29.13).  They give lip-service to a veneer of religiosity, but it goes no further than skin deep.  White-washed tombs - that’s how Jesus put it (Matthew 23.27).  These were the same ones who were troubling the Galatians, coming at them with circumcision and the law of Moses, insisting they must keep it while they themselves couldn’t even keep it.  And it is the pretense which is so nauseating to those outside the church (and to Jesus! cf Revelation 3.16).  They are sinners, but they know it, and there is no expectation to be something to the contrary.  It is the ones who are trying to be religious, who act one way in a religious service and then live differently the rest of the week, who talk the talk but don’t quite walk the walk - these are the ones who make the whole thing look like a sham, because their lives are a sham.

-Paul concludes therefore, that what the Judaizers were really after - was foreskins.  Notches on their belt, little rings of honor in their spiritual trophy case.  It was more of a numbers game, not about people at all.  They didn’t care, not really.  They were more interested in being able to boast about their program.  And is that not the case in too many churches even today?  Are we not too often more caught up in counting nickles and noses, boasting in baptisms and buildings, getting all enamored with the latest and greatest strategies and catchy vision statements?  When people show up, and they don’t feel like we truly care about them, when they feel like the program is more important than the people - isn’t that when we lose them, when we lose period?  The mission IS people.  It is ALL about people, people.  The mission is love, to care for people, to serve people, like Jesus, Who came to serve and to give His life a ransom for people (Matthew 20.28).  Yes, many people.  But people, first and foremost.  It's not about the numbers.  Put the numbers first, put the programs first, boast in these, and we are little better than those nauseating Judaizers.  Put people first, and they will know it, and then we really have something to boast about, something close to the heart of our Savior.