Lent Readings v. 2.3
Current mood: 
enthralled
Lent Readings v. 2.3
11 -12As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then—it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves! 13 -15It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
Galatians 5:11-15 (The Message)
Holy crap, Paul knows how to throw down.
There have been times when I have heard people say things that didn’t sound like the way to live for God and I kept my mouth shut. If Paul had been around he probably would have called for their castration like he did here.
I guess when you live a life that has been so intensely bound to trying to live as somebody that you’re not, and then you become free of it, you are repulsed by the idea of someone trying to chain your friends up in the same bondage.
I can only imagine what happened when this letter was read publicly to the believers in Galatia. Just think, the people that Paul suggests castration for were present at the reading. They must have been furious. They would have jumped up to defend their teachings.I have the feeling that maybe they did jump up to say something. I also think that the Galatians underwent a very, very real change of heart while they heard these words for the first time and they probably did not let them speak.
Think about it.
You’ve spent your entire life trying to fit into the model of perfection that your people have passed down for thousands of years. Every day you wake up and you know that no matter how hard you try that you can NEVER be everything that the law calls for.
You might hit your thumb with a hammer and cuss beofre you had a chance to think about it.
Maybe you ran into that one person that knows how to get under your skin and you let them know what you REALLY think of them.
Perhaps you just don’t feel like going to church and so you don’t.
If any of these things happens, everyone knows about it. Everyone knows that you have failed. Everyone looks at you and wonders why you have elected to sin. If you do something bad enough, they even take you outside of the city and stone you to death.
This law stuff is very serious.
And you can’t do it.
You can’t be perfect.
You can’t get it right all of the time.
You will fail at times.
People will forget to acknowledge your hard work.
You will hurt someone without trying.
It is bound to happen.
So there you are. Paul came a while back and told you about the way to live a life free in Jesus. You immediately accepted it. These new guys come to town, and they start telling you all over again that you have to fit in the mold. Paul gets word of it and writes a letter.
How do you feel when you hear what he wrote?
I would feel furious. I hate being lied to, as I’m sure you do. More than that, I hate being rejected. The law makes you feel inadequate; it can lead to feeling rejected.Perhaps that’s why Paul was so upset…
Listen, you don’t have to be perfect to follow Jesus. You don’t have to be something that you’re not. You just have to be you.
The power of following Jesus is in the realization of the freedom that He gives. When you understand that He loves you in spite of you, it is like realizing that you have found the one sure thing that there is in life.
Now, as Paul said, this is not an excuse for sin, but it is the key to living without sin. Look at the passage again.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
…
…
…
…
Okay, did you see what that second paragraph says?
There are two keypoints. The first one, if you live a life of love, freedom will grow in you. Spending your life on others causes them to become forgiving of your flaws. It also causes their love for you to grow. That’s the amazing thing about love, it doesn’t know how to shrink, when you use it, instead of diminishing, it grows. The only way that your freedom can be taken from you is if you stop loving people-and God, who consequently, you can’t love without loving those whom you can see-in the perfect love that Jesus has shown.
The second keypoint: what good is it to be free if you can’t share that freedom? When you withold love from people you are making a brash statement. What if Jesus witheld His love for you? Where would you be? When you, as an heir-nay, a joint heir-with Jesus withold the love that He has given you from others, He is mocked.
But there is something beautiful on the flipside of that thought. When you share that wondrous love that He has shown you, you make His name famous.
So, here’s to shaking off chains and living with bold love, absolute freedom, and the grace that could only come from the Son of God.
Grace and peace be with you all.
-m
