The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:1-15 (day five)

“I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”  Paul’s words in our Re:verse captured my attention this week. Did you sense the continued urgency of His message for freedom in Christ expressed through loving obedience?  But in these verses add another emotion- anger. Anger at the one (ones) distracting, disrupting, discouraging these newer believers in their faith (race). His words sound really harsh. What would cause Paul to be this urgent and this angry?  I believe it is love. A Holy regard and affection for the Word of God and the People of God. There is no doubt of Paul’s love for the scriptures and the church (God’s people). Maybe a teachable moment for us as we examine our own faith and hearts. Do we have this kind of protective love for the Word of God and the People of God?  How do we communicate it and live it?  How do we (should we) teach and model that to our children, grandchildren, and others? The stakes are high and the consequences are eternal!! We must love God’s Word and God’s People.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:1-15 (day four)

Paul has made it clear throughout this letter to the Galatians: Christ brings freedom. Subjugation to anything else will inevitably bring us back under the yoke of slavery. Now, though, we get a picture of what this freedom is meant to look like.

This message of freedom doesn’t promote the post-modern idea that “anything goes” and that we all ought to “pursue our own truth.” It isn’t a license to do or believe whatever we want. Rather, this freedom from Christ allows us to live in such a way that we can love one another with the very love of God. The freedom that Christ offers isn’t just an absence of shackles, it is the presence of divine grace. It is a perfect freedom.

The certifiable stamp of real freedom, then, is love. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we are living in true freedom. The only yoke worth submitting to is that of Christ, because mysteriously, it is under this yoke that we experience perfect freedom.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:1-15 (day three)

“I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.”

Is Paul the one still writing this letter? Just a few sentences back, he spoke eloquently of faith making itself evident by way of love. Now, he’s envisioning a scenario in which the ones who’ve make so much of the saving power of circumcision get bonus points with God by doing some extra slicing. That goes way beyond what one normally associates with the legacy of the apostle Paul. But he gets your attention, doesn’t he? Paul’s jolting crudity is a marker that this isn’t some kind of ivory tower theologian’s debate. It’s either Christ’s sufficiency, or it’s Christ’s irrelevance. Paul unequivocally declares that the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate and died a criminal’s death did all the bleeding that will ever be necessary for the human race.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 5:1-15 (day two) 

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. vs. 6

Searching for meaning? At some level, conscious or otherwise, all of us are. We have picked apart Paul’s letter to the Galatian church for nearly three months, and have spoken over and over again about the how they let the Law become something greater than Christ. In a beautiful turn in this passage in chapter five, Paul reminds them of what the are called to do: Love and serve. It is also worth noting that this call is from the Law! He later quotes it in vs. 14  For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus calls us to this very statement when cornered by the Pharisees. To love and serve through faith is our new assignment. Not despite the law, not shackled by the law, but informed and set free by Christ’s fulfillment of the law.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day seven)

But the Jerusalem above is free. vs 26

Did you know that you belong to a Kingdom that is not of this world (John 18:36)? Through the New Covenant, you belong to the New Jerusalem. In this Jerusalem, “there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Revelation 21:4).  As Pastor Chris said last week, we have hope because we know the end of the story. When the trials of this world seem too much, we have hope because we know Jesus is with us. When it seems like we will never be good enough, we have hope because Jesus is enough. When it seems like there is no one we can trust, we have hope because Jesus is King.

Even when the old Jerusalem is surrounded by chaos, we have hope because we know that the New Jerusalem will resound with praise. King Jesus, let Your Kingdom come quickly! In the meantime, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of all.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day six)

It’s no mistake that Paul returns to Abraham. Earlier in the letter, Abraham served as an example of how the “righteous live by faith” in God and not by works of the law. And now? We find Abraham trusting in his own effort to fulfill God’s promise of an heir. (The results were not what he had hoped. In fact, we are still experiencing the results today.)

The point is this. Abraham had started off so well, yet even he stumbled into trusting his efforts along the way-just like the Galatians-but he finished strong.

I think this was a not-so-subtle way of Paul saying, “You can finish strong, just like Abraham! Don’t get caught in the allure of your own effort! Return to Jesus alone, by faith alone.”

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day five)

But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

It’s one of the things I love about the scriptures. Honesty and integrity when telling the narratives of the Bible Heroes.  The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. Abraham (the father of God’s promised nation) acted out of fear and impatience. He didn’t wait and/or completely trust the Lord to fulfill His promise of a son to him (Abraham) and Sarah. So, he finds his own solution to fulfill God’s promise.  Abraham acted in faith- faith in himself and his own efforts. Wasn’t that he forgot the promise. He lacked patience and complete trust. Sounds like… me (us) sometimes. We do well to be reminded and remember God’s promises to us (in the scriptures). We must also trust God to fulfill His promises in His timing and His through His supernatural grace and power. It is difficult and exhausting at times. Paul says “Work out your salvation with fear and rambling”. Requires energy and dedication. Our faith must be focused on Him not in our own abilities.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day four)

When we think of Biblical lessons that teach us about courage, we often think of the Israelite army going into battle, or David facing Goliath, or even the prophets speaking out against the sins of Israel. But often, being courageous simply means staying steadfast and waiting on the Lord. Waiting on God’s timing is an act of immense courage.

Abraham received a promise from God that he would have a child in his old age, but he tried to bring it to fulfillment in his own power and his own timing. To be fair, the promise God gave to Abraham didn’t make logical sense – he and Sarah were well passed child-bearing years. But that’s part of what makes faith an act of courage – it defies logic.

We have all attempted to rush-order the fulfillment of a promise we received from God. And just like Abraham, we’ve seen the consequences that come with our lack of patience. When Abraham chose to take matters into his own hands, it caused grief for Hagar, Ishmael, and for Abraham. There are always consequences on the other side of disobedience. Thankfully, despite our disobedience, the promises of God will never return void.

We can have courage to wait on the Lord because we know that his Word is good. Sometimes the most courageous thing to do is to be still.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 4:21-31 (day three)

“Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law?”

Paul’s question here presupposes a crucial point: it is not the law that is the enemy of the gospel, but rather an abuse of the law. The law is the word of God. It proceeds from the mouth of God. It is altogether lovely. It is God’s revelation to human beings. But what is the law’s rightful function? It takes us to Christ who fulfills it. There is then nothing left for the law to do because Christ has done all that the law requires —and he is the only one who could do so. The law’s magnificence and brilliance now emanate from its wonderful accomplishment of having heralded the Christ. To declare that it has any other purpose is to misread it. Its work is done.