When the Flesh is Tugging

Meditations on the Book of Galatians

May 6, 2020

When the Flesh is Tugging

For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:14

Read: Galatians 5: 13-21

Jesus Christ has set us free from the power of sin that separated us from God. Our New Covenant relationship with God has been won by, and secured by Jesus for all eternity. Paul wants us to embrace our freedom, to rejoice in our freedom, and to choose to live each day in our freedom in Christ. In this passage, Paul begins to demonstrate how different our freedom in Christ is from the law. The law provides a list of do’s and don’ts. Keep the law and you’ll be in a right-relationship with God. Of course, the problem we know all too well is that no one can faithfully keep the law.

Freedom doesn’t provide a list of do’s and don’ts. Freedom provides us with sign posts pointing the way toward God, and then we have the freedom to choose which way we want to go.  The more we choose the ways of God, the more we train ourselves in the life of Christ. However, in keeping with the truth Paul has been teaching in this letter, choosing the right path is vitally important.

The apostle Paul was not too big on shades of gray. He saw things as black and white. You are either in Christ, or you are not. You are either living by grace, or you are living under the law. You are either living by the Spirit, or you are living by the flesh.

My Takeaway: Paul’s argument is quite simple. If your lifestyle resembles the characteristics of the flesh life in Galatians 5:19-21, you are making the wrong choices in life. Paul wants us to know we don’t have to follow the desires of our sinful flesh. Through the power of Christ, we can choose to follow Christ in the ways of God. When we feel the tug of our flesh, let us always recall Paul’s words in Romans 7:24-25: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

P.S. Also, hold on to the promise of Romans 8:1-2.

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.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also 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.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

It Matters A Great Deal

Meditations on the Book of Galatians

May 5, 2020

It Matters A Great Deal

You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?

Galatians 5:7

Read: Galatians 5: 7-12

The Apostle Paul is a master of mixed metaphors, as he so well demonstrated in this passage. He moved seamlessly from running a race, to cooking, to a courtroom setting, to a personal reference and closes with a reference to castration. Whew! The depth of Paul’s passion for Christ and for the church of Jesus Christ is clearly evident. There are times in Paul’s writings when he seems to exhaust a thesaurus as he proclaims the marvelous grace of God. There are times, like this passage, when it seems like his passion overwhelms his ability to clearly communicate. In today’s passage, Paul is clearly very angry.

I think it was in the writings of Fred Craddock that I read, “in a country where everyone is a Christian, no one is a Christian.” The truth observed in that statement is that it is possible to water down the Christian faith to a point where nothing really matters, and anything goes. Paul was so angry, so passionate because he believed it matters a great deal what we believe about Jesus. Paul told the Romans that just because God’s grace is so marvelous, we do not have a license to sin with impunity. (See Romans 6) Here, he is telling the Galatians that the grace of God launched a New Covenant relationship with humankind, and that it is grossly offensive to the price God paid to set us free to require people to take a step backwards into the Old Covenant, before moving forward with God into the New Covenant.

My Takeaway: The Christian experience of most Americans is pretty tame. We go along to get along. As you are reading about Paul’s passion to keep his friends in the Galatian churches on the right path with God, is there anything in your journey with Christ that invokes such passion? Should there be?

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(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.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also 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.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Freedom in Christ

Meditations on the Book of Galatians

May 4, 2020

Freedom in Christ

“For freedom Christ has set us free”

Galatians 5:1a (NRSV)

Read: Galatians 5: 1-6

“Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery” (Galatians 5:1 PHILLIPS).

I believe the greatest gift we can give God is to accept our acceptance. God wants us to wrap our arms around ourselves, and love ourselves as He loves us. When I truly embrace myself as the beloved child of God everything changes, I “become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is the truth that Jesus said would set me free, and Jesus gave his life for me so that I can live in his freedom. (John 8:32; Galatians 5:1)

Living in the freedom of Christ allows me to love and accept myself as I am, where I am. Living in the freedom of Christ allows me to be pleased with myself just as I am, because God my Father is pleased with me. This freedom in Christ is not a license to keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace. (Romans 6:1) This freedom in Christ is a license to love myself because Christ loves me, and he died for me while I was still a sinner. When I love and embrace myself, the one that Christ gave himself for, I become fertile ground for the Holy Spirit to form Christ in me. The more I join the Trinity in loving myself, the more Christ will become visible in my mortal flesh. This is the freedom for which Christ has set me free.

My Takeaway: This freedom in Christ empowers us to do and say what Jesus would do or say, because Christ lives in us. (Philippians 4:13; Colossians 3:11b) We can stand up and go forth as the beloved of God, empowered to stand firm in the freedom Christ has won for us. Remember, “Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us” (Colossians 3:11b).

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(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.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also 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.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Children of The Promise

Meditations on the Book of Galatians

 May 1, 2020

Children of The Promise

And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac.

Galatians 4:28

Read: Galatians 4: 21-31

In today’s passage, Paul jumped back into the deep end of the theological pool to press on with his argument. I suspect his argument here was more for the Judaizers than the Gentiles, because his argument is somewhat convoluted and depends on a pretty thorough knowledge of the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar in order to grasp Paul’s point.

In its simplest form, the argument of the Judaizers was that the people of God had their origin in Abraham and are subject to the Law of Moses. Therefore, if a Gentile wanted to accept Jesus as the Messiah and become a part of the people of God, he must first be circumcised and then submit to the Law of Moses. Paul countered this argument by pointing out that the origin of God’s people came through the promise of God to Abraham and Sarah. The child Isaac was born through Abraham and Sarah’s faith in God’s promise; the child Ishmael was born out of Abraham, Sarah’s and Hagar’s wisdom and strength, or as Paul likes to call it, their flesh. For Paul, keeping the Law of Moses was a work of the flesh; to become the people of God is an act of faith, believing God’s promise that Jesus is His Messiah.

This passage may seem archaic and obsolete for Christians today, until you ask them if they believe they will go to heaven when they die. The most common response is, “I hope so.” When pressed further, the typical Christian will say they hope they are good enough. “Good enough’ is reliance on performance, on keeping the law. I have encountered many Christians through the years who believed God was angry with them or that they weren’t good enough for God, and therefore, they interpreted the bad things in their life as God’s punishment.

My Takeaway: God’s not angry with us, but I believe His heart aches over the difficulty we have in simply believing His promises. Somehow, we need to own those powerful words of Brennan Manning: “God loves us unconditionally, just as we are; not as we should be. Because no one is as they should be.” (All is Grace by Brennan Manning)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(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.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also 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.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

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.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.