Galatians 1:1-12 – The second Sunday after Pentecost – for Sunday, May 29, 2016
“If I were still trying to please people, I wouldn’t be Christ’s slave.†(Galatians 1:10)
It’s never easy to craft a note with honest, heartfelt criticism. Especially when it’s to a person, or people, you deeply care about.
When Paul wrote to the folks at Galatia, his intentions were obvious in the opening sentences: confronting their false faith, challenging them to choose “the grace of Christ,†and asserting his claims to authority.
Galatians is the ninth of twenty-seven books in the New Testament.
According to most scholars, it’s indisputably one of Paul’s authentic works.
Along with Romans and the Corinthian correspondence, it reveals Paul’s theology, serving as a benchmark for “Pauline†Christianity.
For believers, it is sacred text and holy verses.
And yet, isn’t Galatians first the most difficult of love letters?
Paul frets. Paul worries. Paul struggles. Paul . . . loves. Continue reading →