A TWO-THOUSAND-CENTURY-OLD ADVICE TO THE RADICAL CHRISTIANS OF TODAY

Galatians Chapter 2

Adviser and Writer: Paul 

[THE MESSAGE]

 [Concerning our process in sharing our new ideas]

1-5 Fourteen years after that first visit, Barnabas and I went up to Jerusalem and took Titus with us. I went to clarify with them what had been revealed to me. At that time I placed before them exactly what I was preaching to the non-Jews. I did this in private with the leaders, those held in esteem by the church, so that our concern would not become a controversial public issue, marred by ethnic tensions, exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry.

           My notes:

 Leaders must follow revelation, not imitation.  

People tend to criticize what they do not understand. So, explain.

 Explain controversial issues in private. Simply, use inbox not shout-outs.

The reason why issues become full-blown controversial issues is because we always use the pulpit or the stage to address them.

If after explaining they oppose, take your stand, but disagree agreeably.

No issue should get in the way of the spirit of Love.

 [Concerning the prejudice and opposition of traditional and legalistic people against us]

Significantly, Titus, non-Jewish though he was, was not required to be circumcised. While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. We didn't give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you.


          My notes:

I rather light a candle than curse the darkness.

We cannot fight an issue with the same spirit which made them. 

The issue of people who criticizes you is not about you, but about them. They cannot just take how happy and free you are, while they are imprisoned by their own rules and laws.

The response? Paul said, "Don't give them the time of the day." Being affected by them means to be reduced in their level. You are far, far from their level - you are free, happy, positive, loving, forgiving, open-minded, passionate for Jesus, and radical.

 [Concerning our process in dealing with the people who are so enamored with positions in the churches]

 6-10 As for those who were considered important in the church, their reputation doesn't concern me. God isn't impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I. And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching. It was soon evident that God had entrusted me with the same message to the non-Jews as Peter had been preaching to the Jews. Recognizing that my calling had been given by God, James, Peter, and John—the pillars of the church—shook hands with me and Barnabas, assigning us to a ministry to the non-Jews, while they continued to be responsible for reaching out to the Jews. The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that.


           My notes:

Let us not reduce Christianity to mere appearances. 

Be very sure that the standards which you are fighting for is really the standard of the word of God, and not your group preference or one country's culture. Check it out. 

No one has the monopoly of the power of God. It is available to anyone who believes.

We serve God not because of position, but because of compassion.

The only one position we need to have is - serving others. 

Of all the things the church ought not to forget is not if they have a big conference, or a big event, or a big building, or a big party, but if they remember and helped the poor. 

[Concerning our process in dealing/responding with those who really go out of the line of disrespecting and opposing us thinking that they are standing for their faith]

 11-13 Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here's the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That's how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that's been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

 14But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: "If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you're not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?"

        My notes:

Jesus came near to sinners, while we separate ourselves from them. 

The thing that drives people who opposes us is not conviction, but - fear. If they fully believe that God is in charge and He can take care of the present and the future, why fear change? 

Many will not understand your radical stand, and some will be swept along in the charade, but still in the spirit of love and humility, keep loving people.

You cannot win over hate with a response of hate, or over angst with angst. You can only win with the radical love of Jesus.

No one has the right to impose a rule to us just for them or their organization to look good. You cannot impose anything to John the Baptist, right?

[Concerning legalism in our churches]

 15-16 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

 17-18Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

          My notes:

I can relate to the above verses. I've been there.

The love of God is not based on our performances. Whether you perform well or not, God loves you.

Our love for God must not be performance-based, but relationship-based.

We are not set right by our own goodness but only through faith in Jesus Christ. This is not just salvation, but also after salvation. 

Don't be surprised that even the seemingly-so-good-Christians are not perfect. They can never be.

People will always mis-interpret and misjudge you because of your radical love. They will think you are carnal, apostate and crazy. Never mind. Stay positive, loving and caring. You are not alone. Jesus was accused the same thing by the pharisees.

 [Concerning our response with grace. I can speak these words as if I am Paul. Speak these words too as your declaration to the world.]

 19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

   Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

[That says it all.]