Listen to D. Thomas Lancaster in The Holy Epistle to the Galatians (given to me by my good friend Jason Hess), "Scholars tell us that the Holy Epistle to the Galatians is the oldest document in the New Testament. Paul wrote it before any of his other epistles. It is older than Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and the Acts of the Apostles. It almost certainly predates the other epistles and the Revelation. Paul most likely composed the epistle before 50 CE, less than twenty years after the resurrection."
This is important context for us because it speaks to Paul's courage and boldness but also the challenge facing the readers. After reading through Galatians, imagine if you had only ever had what we know to be the Old Testament today as your sacred, God-inspired texts for spiritual instruction? One is being asked to set aside everything they have held as sacred, conviction that has been passed to them through millennia of generations.
I share that because when we today witness our faith in Jesus with others, may we be patient and gracious with those for whom Christianity means a complete and utter re-orientation to life. Our sense of urgency to see those who are spiritually lost come to faith in Christ should not be mistaken as permission for hurriedness. We are not "bringing" Christ to anyone. He is already there! Let them weigh the truths that you share, keep the conversation going, we are not trying to win an argument or close the deal so to speak but rather be an instrument of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness to Christ, having faith that they too will have an epiphany, a revelation of Jesus, that is Spirt born.
Appreciate the magnitude of a call to full devotion. May we never misrepresent the radical, absolute, utter abandonment for which Christ calls, but at the same time, not be dismissive of the enormity of such a vow of devotion.
Pastor Fred
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