Galatians 1: 1-9

Monday, August 26, 2013           Galatians 1: 1-9

Recently I was taking a day trip down to Helen, Georgia. The default position for my GPS is for the fastest route, but on this day I wanted to take the scenic route. The GPS kept recalculating because I was initially driving in the opposite direction the device had selected, so I just turned it off. After an hour of magnificent views I knew it was time to check my bearings for my destination and I turned on the GPS. For multiple reasons, sometimes in life we can get sidetracked and off the course Jesus wants us to follow. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians provides us with an opportunity to check our bearings to make sure we are on Jesus’ course for our life.

Paul was writing to a church that had gotten sidetracked from the foundation in Christ he had first laid for them. To help them find their bearings, he uses two terms many times: Good News (or Gospel, depending on which translation you are using) and apostle. It will be helpful to get a clear understanding of what Paul meant by these terms.

The Good News is the announcement that God has won victory over sin and death through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah. The good news about the Good News is that all people, everywhere, may partake of God’s victory through faith that Jesus is the Risen Son of God. And, when people accept Jesus as God’s Messiah, they are adopted into God’s own family.

The word apostle means a person who is sent to proclaim the Good News. At the time of Paul, the title apostle was reserved for those people who had personally been with Jesus when He was on earth. Some people accused Paul of not being an apostle because Paul was not one of Jesus’ followers before Jesus was crucified. Others suggested Paul was only a ‘junior’ apostle, because he was sent by the real apostles like Peter and John. Paul makes the point in chapter one that he is qualified to be an apostle because He has been with Jesus, and that it was Jesus who called him to proclaim the Good News.

The question for the Galatians, and for us, is what do we believe and why do we believe it? Paul is making the case that there is only one Gospel, and that he has been commissioned by God to proclaim this Gospel. As we read this epistle we will have the opportunity to consider whether we have added to or taken away anything from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ll also want to consider whether we fully subscribe to the Apostle Paul’s teaching about the Word of God in our lives:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

 Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.