Letter writers are affectionate people aren't they? I'd never really thought of it before, but how often in the course of normal conversation do we greet people with 'my dear?' But when we write letters, we do it all the time. It's just convention of course, the letters we write to the bank, or the health insurance company, or the taxman might not end up very affectionate!
Letter writer's in Paul's time had conventions too. Introductions, greetings, and a wish for beneficence. Paul normally followed this tradition, but not when he wrote to the Galatians. His letter to them opens with more of a punch in the face than a kiss on the cheek.
Why? Because important matters were at hand, and time couldn't be wasted. The Galatians, by their actions if not their words, were denying the Gospel. They were turning away from the Gospel to 'another' Gospel, really no Gospel at all, and were risking anathema because of it. This was no time for convention, this was a time to confront his readers with the reality, the very God-ness of God.
How does he do that? He starts by reminding his readers who he is. He's an apostle, sent by Jesus, for Jesus, to them. Sent by God, not by another man, with God's message, not the message of another man. It was a message that had cost him a lot, a message that would eventually cost him his life. He didn't care to be made much of, like his opponents. The Galatians were challenged about who they were listening to, and why they were listening. We live in a culture of a million voices don't we. Voices on tv, on the internet, in the workplace, in the culture. Who are we listening to? God's messengers, or the world. The divinely commissioned Apostle or the Judaizers? God, or man?
Paul then reminds his readers why these things matter so much. He reminds them that God the Father has raised Jesus from the dead. They didn't gather to worship a dead icon. Jesus isn't a new Moses, helpful and holy, but dead. He's alive. And because He's alive, prayer works, and repentance is free, but sin is deadly and abandoning the Gospel suicidal. Paul reminds the Galatians, and us, that church is not a game. Jesus is alive, so don't turn away from Him. Jesus is alive, and has proved Himself by walking out of the tomb, it's astonishing that you leave him as soon as you see something shiny. The Galatians, and us. Paul doesn't leave us with the option of a Gospel-lite, of adding a Jesus layer to our American dream. Jesus is alive, so desecrate the altars of your idols. Who is our Gospel about? God, or man?
And Paul reminds is in verse 2 that we're all in this together. He doesn't need the authority of 'all the brothers who are with me,' but he has it. The Gospel wasn't Paul idea, the brothers are with him, the brothers that God has saved and added. Are you with the brothers? Galatians, are you with the brothers in Jerusalem, in Antioch, or Corinth and in Thessaloniki? Or have you abandoned us? Are we with the brothers in Greenville, Reading, Provo and Seoul or have we abandoned them? If we've abandoned the brothers with our bodies, maybe it's because we've abandoned the Father with our heart.
Paul never got over being knocked off his horse on the way to Damascus. He was overflowing with His Savior till his dying breath. He knew what was of God, and what was of man, and he was prepared to pack a punch with that truth...even when he was saying hello.
No comments:
Post a Comment