Galatians 6:1-5

Friday, September 20, 2013       Galatians 6:1-5

God created us to be in community. Sin destroyed our ability to enjoy loving relationships in community. God, in Christ, restored our relationship with Him and thus restored our capacity to be in community.

Living as the new people of God in community is threatened when we are not seeking the life in Christ. When we are focused on the law and rule keeping, the inevitable result is pride, as we compare ourselves with others. It is tempting to feel smug and superior when we think we are doing better than others.

When we are seeking the life in Christ as our way of life, and we encounter a brother or sister making wrong choices, we can “gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path” (6:1). We maintain community.

In verse 3, Paul identifies one of the foundational principles of living in community: “If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.” That may seem like a harsh statement, but remember, Paul would be the first to tell you that God is head-over-heels, passionately in love with you. You are hugely important to God. Because this love of God is eternal, unfailing and fulfills all of our needs, we are then free to love the world the way Jesus loved the world: sacrificially. We will explore this idea more when we get to Paul’s letter to the Philippians, but for now just remember a few of Paul’s words from Philippians 2:

“Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (V. 4-8 NRSV).

God created us to be in community. When we look not to our own interest, when we have the same mind that was in Christ, we maintain community.

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.