1,000,000 Chapters – Part 3 预览

Do you know someone who is extremely ‘health conscious’? You know the kind of person I’m referring to, right? They read every ‘Nutrition Facts’ label before buying or eating certain foods, have a ‘Black List’ of ingredients that they will never (ever) put in their bodies, and (if we’re being honest here) aren’t too shy to tell you that YOU should never eat such things either! And the brands of people like this are endless – There’s Paleo, Vegan, Lo-Carb, Atkins, Ultra Low-Fat, Whole-30, High-Carb, Gluten Free, High-Fat, HCG, Intermittent Fasters – always a new person telling you a new way NOT to eat.

It’s a funny illustration, but the book of Galatians (in its own way) serves as a kind of nutrition label for our spiritual lives. It describes several ‘artificial spiritual additives’ and their toxic effects on our lives. In Galatians 1:7, for example, Paul writes “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” 

Those ‘some people’ were certain Jewish religious leaders who claimed to support the apostles (guys like Paul – who wrote the book of Galatians), but were actively trying to discredit their teachings. They had begun to teach a hybrid gospel that caused people to believe that salvation was not by faith in Jesus alone. These religious teachers were trying to sell Jesus+ (as if to say, only “Jesus + ______” will save you). They wanted people to follow the law, in addition to their faith in Christ, but Paul confronts this false message head on.  The challenges he poses to these false messages help lay a firm foundation for the faith of the people in Galatia, and can do the same for us even today.

Galatians will take you back to the basics of faith. What is the gospel? How can I receive it? How does it impact my daily life? The things we read in these chapters are meant to persuade us toward ‘healthy’ Christian living. In a culture that loves to tell us what to think, believe, follow – and how to vote, act, spend, etc. Galatians serves up many much needed reminders. Primarily that if we are in Christ than we are free (5:1)!