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.

Afterword

Saturday, August 24, 2013                   Afterword

I began this series of meditations on April 29, 2013 with sweeping affirmations of God’s incredible love and acceptance of you. The glorious truth is that God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth really loves you. In fact, He is quite fond of you. He is head-over-heels, passionately in love with you, His beloved child. I believe the more you allow yourself to be loved and accepted by God, the closer you move toward that place Bernard of Clairvaux calls the fourth stage of love: you love yourself for God’s sake.

The more you love and accept yourself for the Glory of God, because God truly loves and accepts you, the more passionate you will become in seeking the life in Christ as your way of life. This goal of living the Christ-life does seem daunting and from the outside looking in, it may appear to be just another do-gooder philosophy of life. However, from the inside looking out, from the place of kinship and friendship with Christ, the view is altogether different. The Christ-life is not a philosophy of life, it is the real, authentic life you were created to live. These mediations point to different qualities of the life in Christ. However, living the life in Christ isn’t about mastering these qualities. Life in Christ is resting each and every day in God Almighty, your Abba’s smile of affection for you. Life in Christ is learning that even on your absolute worst day, God looks at you with tenderness and love, not being repulsed by your sin and unfaithfulness, but being drawn closer to you for the potential of the authentic life you carry within you.

There are many who say that the life in Christ is not a very realistic expectation for our way of life. When I hear those claims, I recall something I heard Stephen Covey say. (Covey is the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.) While Covey was discussing Habit Number Four, have a Win/Win attitude, a businessman said to him that such an attitude was totally unrealistic in business. Covey responded by asking the man a question: “How long do you think you would stay in business if you were a winner but your customers felt like losers? Or, how long do you think you would stay in business if your customers were winners, but you were the loser in your business deals?”

I respond in a similar manner to the assertion the life in Christ is pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic for our time and culture. What kind of life would you have if it were dominated by the opposite of the Beatitudes? What follows a person with a haughty attitude? What happens when people are demanding, divisive, or critical? Seeking to live the life in Christ is setting a very high expectation for life, but it is so much better than the alternatives. Actually, for the Christian, there are no other alternatives. Jesus died so that we could have his life as our way of life, and the Christian has no other alternative than affirming with the Apostle Paul,

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Yes and Amen.

Sē’lah

(My new series of meditations on Go Eat Popcorn: Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; and Colossians will begin on Monday, August 26, 2013.)

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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. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book 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.

Blessed are the Persecuted

Friday, August 23, 2013             Blessed are the Persecuted

“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” (Matthew 5:10).

Let’s begin first with the blessing: “the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” The New Testament is written from the perspective that human history is divided into two periods: the present age and the Age to Come. The Age to Come is when the Kingdom of Heaven is fully established on earth, and evil, sin and death have been banished. Jesus the Messiah inaugurated the Age to Come through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. The Kingdom of Heaven or Age to Come will not be some spiritual experience above and beyond life on earth; it will be new life on the earth, as the paradise God intended. Everything will be made right, and truth and justice will flourish. In this new age, life would be full of possibilities. There will be absolutely no barriers, or obstacles to fulfilling every Godly dream and ambition you have. Whether you long to create beautiful music or art, experience deep, fulfilling relationships, or any other noble pursuit, in the Age to Come your dreams will come true. Often, those who live with abundance now assume that the culture in the Age to Come will operate the same as this present culture. However, Jesus taught that where this present age is wedded to materialism and performance-based acceptance, the Age to Come will be wedded to the magnificent grace of God.

As we seek the life in Christ as our way of life, it is vital that we, just like Jesus, keep our eyes on the prize. “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus endured the cross because of the joy awaiting him; we can endure persecution because of our hope in the Age to Come.

In Revelation 19, the Apostle John teaches us that the Christian witness for God in times of persecution is the most powerful witness for God in the world. The faithfulness of God’s people in standing firm on the Word of God is crucial to the defeat of the forces of evil. In Revelation 21, we get a glimpse of what it will be like when the persecution of God’s people has ended. With the ultimate and final defeat of evil, God’s people will be completely unrestrained in worship. Worship will not be confined to times and places; worship will be a state of being as God is worshiped through everything that a person does, wherever they may be. The followers of Christ have been commissioned to speak God’s Word and God’s truth into this present darkness. Our commission is to remain diligent in our responsibility to honor God as we wait for Christ to come in final victory and fulfill all of his promises for the Age to Come.

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. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book 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.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Thursday, August 22, 2013                  Blessed Are the Peacemakers

“God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)

Peace is a vitally important subject in the New Testament. Jesus spoke of peace over twenty times in the Gospels and peace was discussed over sixty times in the rest of the NT. The heart of our motivation to become peacemakers is the Apostle Paul’s affirmation of our own peace with God in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” This truth inspired Paul to practice was he preached, and the short epistle of Philemon reveals Paul’s work as a peacemaker.

Paul wrote from his prison cell in Rome to a man named Philemon who lived in Colossae. According to Colossians 4:9, the letter was sent to Philemon together with Paul’s epistle to the church at Colossae. Philemon was a wealthy businessman who probably came to faith in Jesus when he heard Paul preach in Ephesus. Philemon opened his home in Colossae for a new community of faith to be established.

Onesimus was a slave owned by Philemon. He had deserted Philemon and had at some point come into contact with Paul, and like Philemon, had come to faith in Christ. Onesimus had grown in faith, and had become an important contributor to Paul’s ministry. Even so, Paul knew that true growth in Christ comes through accountability. Paul was seeking to be a peacemaker so that Philemon and Onesimus could be reconciled. Paul knew that for Philemon and Onesimus to live out the life in Christ in this manner would be a huge testimony to the community of Colossae about the authenticity of the church, and the power of Christ to change lives.

Paul does not share his counsel to Onesimus, but I think it is safe to assume his encouragement for Onesimus would have been substantially the same as we see for Philemon. Paul built his case by reminding Philemon of whom he was in Christ, and that the cause of Christ has priority over everything in our life. Paul appeals to Philemon to do the right thing, because that’s what followers of Christ do. What a powerful affirmation of the power of Christ that Onesimus returned to Colossae and that Paul entrusted his friend Onesimus to Philemon.

While we do not know for certain what became of this reunion, we do know that in the years following this reunion, the church in the area of Colossae elected a Bishop named Onesimus. Onesimus was quite an unusual name, and though we cannot be certain, it is quite possible that the slave Onesimus became the Christian Onesimus who then became Bishop Onesimus. And the Apostle Paul was a peacemaker and a child of God.

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.  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. The Kindle version will follow soon.

·        The second edition First Think – Then Pray has been released as an e-book 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.