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 →