How have you struggled and suffered? Did you grow in your faith through those trials and experienced God’s redemptive power at all in your life?
Galatians 3:1-4
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?
These foolish Galatians, “spiritually dull”, were believing a lie. The book of Galatians was written to all the churches in Galatia, where Paul have traveled to, on one of his missionary trips. Paul knows a foundational truth is under attack. There were as many non-Jews, as there were Jewish people in the church at this time. The Jewish people were in a covenant relationship with God. They had been set apart to bring God’s truth to all the people. One of the ways they could do this by obeying the practices in the Torah, like circumcision, only eating Kosher foods, and observing the Sabbath. There were many Jewish leaders who believed that non-Jews needed to obey the laws of the Torah to truly become a part of God’s family. These leaders demanded that all the male, non-Jewish Christians had to get circumcised. So many of them were.
When Paul found out about this, he wrote a letter to challenges the Galatians with his summary of the Gospel message. These Christians had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives when Paul had first visited them. But the Judaizers had convinced them that their salvation wasn’t complete. They needed obedience to the Law of Moses. These false teachers had charmed them, and they had received this foolish counsel. They were believing lies and become spiritually dull. They were giving up Christian common sense. Paul reminds them that they had truly experienced a meeting with God. So why would they choose to go into any spiritual battles, in their own fleshly power? Let’s ask ourselves the same question. Then we can repent and move forward in truth and victory.
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through these scriptures?