The Risk of Running in Vain: Galatians 2:1-10

At the beginning of chapter two, we see the continuation of Paul's history. Except there is a 14-year gap. Paul had been ministering in Syria and Cilicia and doesn't really record much about it here except that he didn't go back to Jerusalem during that time. So he finally makes his way to Jerusalem because of a revelation that he had--in order to weigh it against the counsil of a few influentials to insure that he was not wandering into LaLa Land.

And that's where we pick up:

[Gal 2:1-5 ESV]

[1] Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. [2] I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. [3] But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. [4] Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in--who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery-- [5] to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

(Read the rest of this passage here, because once again, I don't want to bog the blog.)

You know, Paul is a pretty smart cookie. He receives this revelation and instead of immediately proclaiming it to He Who Hath Ears, he decides to weigh it against godly counsil. I think a pit fall of many preachers is that sometimes the first time they audibly hear something "from God" is when it's coming out of their mouth when they're standing in the pulpit. Now, I'm not above thinking that God can cause spiritual epiphanies, because I know that he does that. But the majority of the time those epiphanies need to be studied out and weighed against the Word of God and spiritual authority. They need to be thought over and prayed over and considered very carefully before they are preached as "gospel."

But Paul's not like that. He knows better than that. So, he takes this revelation to the Headquarters of the First Church, Jerusalem. There, he meets privately with a few influential people, explaining this revelation (which was the proclaiming of the Gospel to Gentiles). Paul was geniunely desiring to do the work of God and he just checking himself to make sure that he was not "running in vain." How great would the impact have been if he had just ran a marathon in the wrong direction? How much damage would have been done to the Church? How often does that happen today? (Wow, let's insert Altar Call here.)

So the influential people heard Paul out. But, there were some others who had slipped their way in. Their sole purpose was "to spy out [the] freedom that we have in Christ." And they were doing this so that they could attempt to bring Paul back into slavery--or the law that the Jewish Christians were still following.

Paul is borderline superhero. He immediately sniffs these people out and realizes their, shall I say, demonic intent and does not yeild in submission to them AT ALL. Why? Because he wanted to make sure that the Gospel was being preserved in it's purest form. He wanted an untainted Gospel to spread around the world.

I won't lie. I was going to use verses 4 and 5 as the bulk of this blog because, I'll be honest, I love to rip on those who try to distort the Gospel by mandating unnecessary submission to laws from which Jesus brought us freedom. But something else completely grabbed my attention while I was studying this passage--and I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to rip on those Accursed People (Paul's words, not mine) later.

Do you see how important the aspect of good Christian counsil is to Paul? He weighs the validity of his revelation on the examination and opinion of a few influential men. He trusts them with task of confirming this sacred conversation between him and God.

Luckily, as we read through the rest of this passage to verse 10, we see that these influential men (and James, Cephas and John) saw the sincerity of Paul and his adherence to the Gospel of Christ and the fact that he had been entrusted with the Gospel for the Gentiles--and they accepted him. They extended the right hand of fellowship to him. They granted him the power to preach his revelation--this Gospel of Christ, to the Gentiles and to the poor.

We could all learn from the wisdom of Paul. We could all benefit from having someone (or multiple someones) in our life who are a spiritual sounding board for our "divine" epiphanies. I am very lucky to have multiple people in my life like this. My mentor has always been willing to give me a reality check when I come up with some crazy, earth-shattering revelation (not that I'm a crazy person, I just have a wild imagination, ok?!). He is also there to encourage me when I have a thought that is worth something. He provokes study and thought, causing my ideas to grow and develop far past anything they would have blossomed into without proper care. I have friends and peers who walk largely down the same spiritual path as me and we are constantly bouncing ideas and thoughts off of each other. We are each other's worst critics and each others biggest fans. I am so thankful to have people that I can trust with the voice of my innermost being.

Now, I must continually strive to keep these checks and balances in place. It is very easy for me to hear something from God and immediately want to act on it. But I would rather map my course out before I run too far in vain.

So what about you? Have you ever caught yourself running with an idea only to realize that you were running in vain? Do you have people in your life that you can trust with the ideas that no one else will ever hear? Are you that person to someone else, if so, how do you handle that responsibility?

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan

The Wrong Road Home: Galatians 1:6-9

Seven years ago, I had just graduated from high school and I was feeling all adult-ish. And what do adults do? They take road trips with their friends. Duh. So me and three of my friends piled into my mother's (yes, my mother's) car to drive downstate for a Friday Night Youth Camp service. I know, some road trip. But we were adults and that's what adults do. None of us had ever driven down to camp before--we'd only ever been along for the ride. So as we were pulling out, we got directions. I'm not sure about the others in the vehicle, but all I heard was the name of the first highway and then it all went fuzzy and weird from there. So off we went.

Well, we made it down to camp fine. We only got lost for about half an hour (which, when you read the rest of this story, you will realize was pretty much perfect), but we made it. We enjoyed our friends and our fellowship and our flaunting of our adultness. And then we were ready to go home. (Once again, some road trip, huh?!)

As the Driver-Elect, I tried to piece together the bits of directions from the other three before leaving town so that I could at least attempt to get us home in a timely manner. Once again, after the first highway it all went a bit fuzzy. So off we went.

Well, we drove and we drove. And we drove and we drove. And C complained that she needed to use the restroom. But I said, "Hold it. We're not stopping." And we drove and drove. And C complained that she needed to use the restroom. But I said, "Hold it. We're not stopping." And we drove and drove. And finally, C said that if we didn't stop at the next rest stop, then we would be having a mess to clean up in the backseat. So we stopped. We all clamored out of the car and into the rest stop. C went to the ladies' room while I consulted (for the first time, I might add) the map.

My face went pale. I know it did. I may have even wet myself a little bit. Something was wrong. The little "You Are Here" sticker on the map was NOT where we were--some little teenager must have wanted to play a trick and moved the sticker. We WERE NOT lost, we were right on track. How could the map be so wrong?! Well, soon all four of us were gathered around the huge map on the wall, staring in disbelief at our present location. You see, we were in the outskirts of Chicago. We do not live in Chicago. We do not live in the outskirts of Chicago. We do not live near Chicago. Somehow (although, it doesn't take much thought to figure out just how), we had driven about 3 hours out of our way.

All kindred spirits were left lingering around the the map as we piled back into mother's car. Everyone was verbally blaming/abusing everyone else. And guess who got the bulk of the blame? Me, the Driver-Elect. Yes, me. The thing was, I had never claimed to know where I was going in the first place. I was just trying to follow the "directions" that someone else had gotten from someone else. From the rest stop on, we didn't get lost once. After consulting the map, I knew exactly how to get home. And the map didn't fail me. We pulled into town as the sun was just peeking over the horizon.

We were all tired, livid, worn-out and we never wanted to see each other again. I'd say it was a pretty successful road trip.

If only we would have looked at the map instead of half-listening to someone give us sketchy directions. It would have saved us about 4 hours of driving and a 1/2 tank of gas. And a lot of apologies.

Gal 1:6-9 ESV

[6] I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- [7] not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. [8] But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9] As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Paul has the same reaction that my dad had. "Why didn't you look at the map? Why were you so quick to accept the "directions" when you hadn't even looked at the map. You could have at least asked me, I've driven that route hundreds of times. I could have given you step by step directions, straight from the map. Why didn't you make sure you had the right directions?"

Remember how yesterday, we looked at how Paul was asking blessings upon the churches of Galatia? Well, this is why. He immediately goes into challenging their actions/decisions. And not just challenging them, but he's all-out pulling the drama card. He says, "I am astonished..." I can just imagine him getting all excited and his neck turning red (basically, I'm just picturing my dad's ranting when I've done something incongruent with common sense). I AM ASTONISHED!

Now, we'll get into all the ins-and-outs of his astonishment later, but lets look at what he is basically upset about: the churches of Galatia have so quickly turned from the Gospel of Christ (which he notes is founded on grace) to another gospel--as if there was even such a thing.

They weren't guilty of completely abandoning the Gospel of Christ; they weren't guilty of anything blatantly, blaringly wrong. They were guilty of practicing and following a distorted gospel. They were guilty of building a house of straw on a firm foundation. And that's just as faulty as a strong, well-crafted house built on sand.

In fact, Paul is extremely harsh towards those who distorted the Gospel in the first place. It doesn't need much explaining--if any angel in heaven or any human on earth should preach something that doesn't line up with the Gospel of Christ, LET HIM BE ACCURSED. And he doesn't just say it once, but he immediately repeats it again: LET HIM BE ACCURSED. Obviously, this Gospel of Christ is not something to be tampered with.

And this is what he's really getting at: check your directions. Weigh your instructions against the Word of God. If at any time something does not line up with the Gospel of Christ, then DO NOT follow it! By following it, you will end up in quite a different place than you had intended.

Trust me--I never want to see Chicago again.

So, what about you? Have you ever been in a situation where you are being told something that you know (or discover) goes against the Gospel of Christ? What did you do? How would you handle a situation where a spiritual leader presented you with something that "wasn't quite aligned" with the Gospel of Christ?

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan

Dear Reader,

I've had it. I've sat through one too many sermons that skew the Word of God so perversely that the resulting "message" causes anything from innocent visitors claiming a pseudo-salvation in attempt to get people to leave them alone to man-made Frankensteins terrorizing with truth because they haven't been taught to love. I've seen the shock-frozen eyes of the "heathen" who plugs his nose because of the spiritual stink only to receive a mouthful of HALLELUJAH when he gasps for air. And I've seen the blood-vessel-bursting rage in the eyes of the zealot ready to go cut someone's ear off in the name of the Almighty because he has been fed sour milk and really is just hungry for one -just one- well-prepared steak. And I've seen everything in between.

And frankly, it makes me sick.

Now, I don't claim to be an authority on scripture--not by any means. But I do read my Bible. And I happen to have my Bachelor's Degree in Biblical Studies (woohoo--everybody wants my resume). But mostly I just love the rawness of scripture.

I love that when we let it speak for itself, it has more power in it's voice than the preacher who shreds his vocal chords and sweats through shirt. It has more authority than the man who won't continue his message until he gets an "Amen". It chatsizes more than the most well-known eschatological speaker can condemn. And it changes lives more than any repeat-after-me prayer, any forced altar call, or any do-you-want-to-go-to-heaven-or-hell question.

If we let it, God's Word will rip us to pieces. And it will build us up again. When added to prayer and fasting and godly fellowship, it has the ability to create a lethal weapon. It isn't some rallying cry amplified through a megaphone boot-camping crowds to a productive life, but it's a voice spoken sternly or softly, whispered or accompanied by a slap in the face, it brings peace or repentance, joy or weeping, to nations, congregations or to an individual--but it always speaks with authority. Unwavering authority.

So that's what this is. Just an outlet to study and discuss the wonderful Word of God. To break down, to exegit, to understand. You may agree with everything; you may agree with nothing. But I would love for you to join me on this journey--to understand, without religious or cultural bias, the message of the Bible.

Just trying to get it right,

Hermeneutical Dan