Tag: Galatians

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Unity is Hard Work – Galatians 2:8-14

In this passage, Paul discusses “The Incident at Antioch.” It comes after the vision that Peter has in which Christ declares all foods clean. It also comes after the Council of Jerusalem made the determination that gentile Christians did not have to become culturally Jewish in order to join the Church.

After this time, per Paul, Peter lived much like a gentile in terms of cultural and ceremonial rules. But when he was with more culturally Jewish Christians, Paul would revert in how he behaved and most importantly how he treated gentile Christians.

For Paul, this was a big deal. The “New Perspective on Paul” movement suggests that much of Paul’s discussion of the “works if the law” are really focused on these cultural identity markers, those “signs of the Covenant” that marked the distinctions between Jews aha Gentiles. For Paul, unity within the church is vital because Jesus came to bring all people to himself and break down those barriers.

But real unity is hard work. It requires more than social media, but real investment in each other, across those barriers of ethnicity and culture. No matter how ‘aware’ you are, you can be called out – just like Peter, but also even in situations where you have the best of intentions.

Unity is hard work because promises get broken, and we can get hurt. The Jerusalem church and Paul agreed to how they would do ministry, but the leaders in Jerusalem backslid on that agreement. Related, leaders will disappoint us.

Unity is hard work because politics and power win the day too often. History is full of the church being co-opted for secular political ends. Peter’s behavior here was simply an early form of this, changing behavior to maintain influence. We see this across the ages of the church and certainly into the present day.

Unity is hard because it counter-intuitively involves conflict. In order to keep unity we must be willing to confront those who would subvert unity.

Unity is hard because it will mean surrendering things. This is one of the reasons Sunday mornings are so segregated – we are not willing to give up our cultural expectations of worship and church in order to come together. These things are not core to our relationship with Christ, but at cling to them because we see them as “markers of the Covenant” much like the leaders Paul came into conflict with.

So in the end the only answer is to love like Christ did, loving across boundaries and against the gradients created by culture and society. The only answer is to do this hard work on unity as we seek to be more like Jesus.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, September 29, 2024

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Not Greek or Jew – Galatians 3

The book of Galatians largely revolves around how gentiles can be saved, addressing specific issues around circumcision, food, etc. The church was rapidly becoming significantly more diverse as it spread through Asia and into Southern Europe.

In chapter 3, Paul is explaining the role of the law, in that it reveals sin, versus the role of Christ, who redeems is from sin. That redemption is offered to all, no matter their ethnic background, and the gentiles baptized into Christ are just as saved and sanctified as the Jews.

The term used here is “put on Christ,” using the metaphors of a piece of clothing, for as we take the person of Christ as our savior, we both wrap him around us as our warmth and protection, and show and demonstrate him to those around us.

The church of Galatia would have been primarily gentiles, which is why he emphasizes so strongly the unimportance of that particular distinction. But Paul goes above and beyond that – not only is the distinction that most of the Galatians are thinking about unimportant, but so are other distinctions that they may have taken more seriously. Slaves and free – that distinction also goes by the wayside. Even the very basic, biological, social and political division between men and women – that, too, is meaningless when looked at from the perspective of salvation.

This is in some ways a radical statement, but in other ways it calls back to the oldest Jewish teaching. All are created by God, and all who God saves are children of Abraham.

There is a clear way that we as Christians are called to live this out today in America. The Black Lives Matter movement presents us with the undeniable fact that there is a group of people in our country whose lives are treated as less important than others. Briona Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmad Arbury, Philando Castile, Elijah McClain – all of these people should still be alive. That they are not presents a stark challenge to the church.

Overt racism, belief that one race is superior to another, is clearly evil and against Paul’s teaching here. But the more subtle racism that nags at so many of us is also evil, and systemic racism is as well. As Conservative Christian writer David French writes:

This is how we live in a world where a white person can say of racism, “Where is it?” and a black person can say, “How can you not see?”

So now I sit in a different place. But where do I stand? I believe the following things to be true:

  1. Slavery was legal and defended morally and (ultimately) militarily from 1619 to 1865.
  2. After slavery, racial discrimination was lawful and defended morally (and often violently) from 1865 to 1964.
  3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not end illegal discrimination or racism, it mainly gave black Americans the legal tools to fight back against legal injustices.
  4. It is unreasonable to believe that social structures and cultural attitudes that were constructed over a period of 345 years will disappear in 56.
  5. Moreover, the consequences of 345 years of legal and cultural discrimination, are going to be dire, deep-seated, complex, and extraordinarily difficult to comprehensively ameliorate. 

But there is an important point to understand – the solution to any form of racism, whether overt or subtle, whether individual or corporate, whether personal or systemic is the unity that Christ offers.

So where do we start? As ever, we must start with repentance, both for ourselves and for the groups and organizations we are a part of, for our actions, words and thoughts that have minimized, discriminated against otherwise made life more difficult for people of color. Second, we must listen openly and honestly, without putting up the guards that we so easily put up. We can put political pressure on our leaders and representatives to take on this issue, whatever ideological methods we see as the best way to address our. We can protest, we can consume media and art from minority perspectives.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, July 5, 2020

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Do Not Grow Weary of Doing Good – Galatians 6:7-10

This passage brings to mind Jonathan Edwards, considered the greatest theological mind America had ever produced. He famously set down 70 resolutions for himself that

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is an emotional defense of justification by faith alone and the work of the Holy Spirit. In this section, his primary concern is that we do not give up. He gives two guarantees to strengthen our resolve. First, that we will reap what sow, and second, we will reap in due season. If we plant wheat, we get barley. If we eat unhealthily, we reap unhealthy results. In parenting, if we sow a lack of discipline, we will reap undisciplined children. In relationships, if we sow kindness and time, we will reap friendship. Paul is applying this principle to our moral behavior overall.

In chapter 5, he outlines more directly what we will reap if we sow to the flesh & self: dissention, rivalries, etc. On the other hand, reaping to the spirit means we reap the fruit of the spirit: love, kindness, patience, etc.

The second promise is that we will reap in due season. This is a promise for those who are sowing to the spirit – promising us that the spirit of God will produce fruit in our lives. This fruit of the spirit then itself produces good works. 

Then Paul goes on to call on us not to grow weary of doing good. But how can we tell if we are growing weary? Six possible signs: first, if you are high in criticism but low in participation. Criticism is not itself bad, but without participation in the life of the Body, it is a sign that you have grown weary of doing good. 

If you are embittered by others’ failures, and letting other people’s behavior make you bitter or turn you away from service in the body, that is another time. It is a given that we are going to hurt each other – this is why the New Testament is full of calls to forgive each other.

If you resent those who serve less than you, that is another sign. If you evaluate church in terms of “Me”, behaving like a consumer seeking the “most for your money” then you certainly have grown weary.

If you neglect giving, whether time or money, that can be another sign.

Last, if you have abandoned your neighbors and the world around you because Jesus and truth are unpopular, then that is definite sign that you are growing weary of doing good.

So what can we do about it? In verse 10, we are given guidance: as we are given opportunities, we are to do good – and it starts here within the church.

There is a real danger that we grow weary but do not honestly grapple with it or get help.

Our righteousness and sanctification all come from our union with Christ and the grace of God, but we are still called to persevere and not to grow weary.

– Sermon Notes, Sean Harrelson, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, February 3, 2019

Galatians 6:7-10

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