Morning Moments

GALATIANS

FREE INDEED!

Today I would like to begin a devotional consideration of the book of Galatians. I will give to what I see as God teaching me morning after morning. I will not waste your time with information you can find in your commentaries, but will simply offer on a heart to heart basis.

This is a sensible consideration of Paul's letter as opposed to a scholarly one. I think you will find it doctrinally correct and spiritually helpful. I will not spend time seeking to prove authorship or date of writing for those things you may easily read elsewhere. I am convinced that the average Christian is bored by all the scholarly emphasis when it has little or no relevance to how they live and what they need. I do not underestimate the importance of those things though for they are critical for attestation to the reliability of Scripture which is Divinely Inspired, but my desire is to reach the heart while others reach the head. We have entirely too much knowledge and too little wisdom among Christians today as far as I am concerned.

My purpose is not Structural, but devotional. It is simply an attempt to help Christians get passed all the boring stuff about a Bible book and get to the "heart" - their heart - of the matter. That being the case, we shall proceed.

I. THE AFFIRMATION OF APOSTLESHIP 1:1-5

Paul had been to Galatia twice and maintained a deep love for the folks there, but in his absence some had crept into the congregation who wanted to draw the net of legalism around the necks of these Gentiles who had found liberty in Christ.

It's like those today who seek to place limits and laws ON believers rather than getting the love for God and one another IN believers. In other words, if I love you with the love of God, I want the best for you and believe the best about you and hope the best for you. I am patient, kind, understanding, and long-suffering toward you because I love you and not because I am under some law to do it. God doesn't merely give love, He IS love and so whatever we say or do is to be an expression of that love for Him and for one another - even when we rebuke, correct, and encourage.

The whole truth of the Christian life comes from the inside out, not the outside in. So Paul is attempting to affirm his apostolic authority in an effort to get the attention of the Galatian believers. We shall first see how he accomplishes this.

Stay with us and I believe our hearts will be "strangely warmed" as we open our hearts to this old truth in perhaps a new way in the days to come.

BLESSINGS!