Dear Student of the Word,
It's time to start another study, this time of Paul's letter to the Galatians, which many believe to have been his first epistle sent to one of the church plants in the Gentile world. Paul wrote this letter to address a problem and that problem was an attempt by some to pervert the gospel of faith that Paul preached and on which the church was founded. Paul is passionate and uncompromising as he refuted the gospel aberration and insisted that his gospel presentation was the only one the Galatians were to follow. Anything else was heresy!
In this first seven-part study, I wrote in part six:
1:21 – Paul was a man on the move. He was an apostle. I do not understand modern-day apostles who don’t go anywhere. They pastor a church or get on the conference circuit and go from place to place preaching. They do not, however, plant churches or do much to personally engage the people except from the pulpit. I don’t understand this. Paul did not pastor a local church and also try to travel to speak in churches. He focused on his apostolic travels.
1:22-24 – Paul once again tried to distance himself from any connection with the Jewish church that would allow others to connect him in a favorable way to the heresy he was confronting. He had met with Peter once and had not even visited churches in Judea. The churches were worshiping and praising God because of Paul’s testimony, but they had never met him.
Paul had been quite an enemy of the Church when he was Saul. By his own testimony Paul was a nasty man when he was opposing the church of Jesus Christ:
For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (1 Corinthians 15:9).
No one is beyond the reach of God’s redemptive touch. That fact should encourage you and me to pray and have faith and hope for even the most hardened person who opposes the gospel. In fact, someone’s running “hot” against the gospel is actually preferable to them not caring at all, as Jesus informed us in Revelation:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:15-16).
The early church was praising God for what He had done to convert Saul to Paul. Praise always comes from who God is and what He does. What are you praising the Lord for these days? I praise Him every morning for allowing me to write thee studies and send them along to you!
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger (Psalm 8:2).
I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies (Psalm 18:3).
I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you (Psalm 22:22).
In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever (Psalm 44:8).
I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints (Psalm 52:9).
Perhaps it’s time for you to take a praise inventory? How often are you praising the Lord? What are you praising Him for? What have you forgotten that He has done for you for which you can praise Him?
As always, I welcome your comments to this week's study. For additional Bible studies, check out my website archive, which contains a complete collection of all my verse-by-verse New Testament studies, along with the unpublished volumes of The Faith Files.
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