Gal 5:13-6:2, theme verse Gal 5:13
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this eleventh Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. During last few weeks, we have been looking at the details of His last exhortations in the farewell discourses of the Book of Glory, yet this week, we would like to learn few lessons after looking at the seven “I AM” Statements of Jesus.
1) In the Epistles of the New Testament, there are the epistles which Paul wrote such as the Galatians, the First and Second Thessalonians, the First and Second Corinthians, the Romans, the Ephesians, the Colossians, the Philemon, the Philippians, the First and Second Timothy and Titus, and the James written by James the brother of the Lord, the First and Second Peter, written by Peter, the Jude written by Jude and the First, Second and Third John and the Hebrews whose author is un-known.
2) Among 13 Pauline Epistles, regarding the Galatians which is known as the first Pauline letter, based on the recipient of this letter, there are two theories; southern Galatian theory in which some believe that the term Galatia, as used in Acts 16:6; 18;23 refers to the southern part of territory which includes Antioch in Pisidia and Iconium, where Paul preached during his first missionary journey and formed churches as Acts 13-14 said, and the northern Galatian theory in which others believe that the term Galatia refers to the north and east territory where actual ethnical Galatians inhabited.
3) Yet, since the Bible does not say anything about Paul’s missionary journey in Northern Galatia area, so I will explain the occasion of this letter based on the Southern Galatian theory where the Bible says that Paul visited to proclaim the Gospel in his first missionary journey. In their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas preached the Gospel in the southern Galatia area including Antioch in Pisidia and Iconium, yet not long after they returned to Antioch in Syria, some Jewish Christians visited in the churches in Galatia, saying Paul’s gospel of the justification by faith alone without the identity badge of circumcision is insufficient for salvation and living the Christian life and also conducting a smear campaign that Paul is not a true apostle, yet is dependent on the Twelve.
4) So, Paul who heard this from Antioch wrote this letter, arguing the legitimacy of his circumcision-free gospel against this heresy of legalism which insisted that Gentile Christians in Galatia had to receive the circumcision and keep the Mosaic law, to explain that people are justified by faith in Christ alone through which they were redeemed from the curse of the law and adopted as God’s children, receiving the promised Holy Spirit who leads the Christian life and makes them bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and also enables them to love one another to fulfill the requirement of the law.
5) By the way, if we look at the Pauline epistles, we can know that Paul followed the ancient epistolary pattern of fourfold structure of opening, thanksgiving, body and closing with the ancient letter-writing conventions so that by comparing these, we can easily catch out what Paul tried to emphasize in his letters. For example, in the opening of the Galatians, instead of typical sender formula that “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, and so-and-so, our brother,” by writing a long sender phrase that “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” we can know that he tried to defend the divine origin of his apostleship and the legitimacy of his circumcision-free gospel. And also in the thanksgiving section, after omitting the thanksgiving, he replaced it with the rebuke section, saying “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” and also declared the curse to those who preached different gospel to rebuke them strongly. In addition, in the body, Paul insisted that his apostleship had a divine origin and the circumcision-free gospel in which people would be justified by faith in Christ alone who gives the redemption from the curse of the law and the adoption as God’s children and the promised Holy Spirit who makes the believers bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And then he ended with the closing with the conditional benediction saying “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God,” so that we can know that Paul strongly exhorted them to walk in his Gospel.
6) Actually this promise of the Holy Spirit goes back to the the Genesis, I mean, after the Holy Spirit left from human beings as God said in Gen 6:3 that “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh” when Adam and Eve committed the sin so that all the earth was full of the sins and even every intension of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually, as God prophesied in Ezek. 36:26 "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rule”, our Lord also promised in Jn 14:16 that “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” and finally in the Pentecost day, 10 days after Jesus’ ascension, the Holy Spirit came down upon His church to give the gifts to proclaim the Gospel and started to indwell in the heart of the believers to lead and make them be sanctified.
7) As such, Paul pleaded against the legalism which attacked the Galtian churches, saying that “a person is justified only through the faith in Jesus Christ” who redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us to open the way of redemption so that when we believe in Jesus, we can receive the forgiveness of sin, I mean, the salvation, and adopted as God’s children and also receive the promised Holy Spirit who will indwell in us and makes us bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit and enables us to live the life of love through which the law will be fulfilled.
8) Through Today’s text, we would like to learn few things. Firstly, as the Greek word “ἄγω((ago)” which is translated as to lead, to direct or to guide, means to so influence others as to cause them to follow a recommended course of action so that we always are sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and discern God’s will for us. And also as the Greek word “στοιχέω(stoicheō)” which is translated as to keep in step with, means to live in conformity with some presumed standard or set of customs, we always have to walk in step with His leading to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not gratifying the desires of the flesh and also can live the life of love through which we can fulfill the requirement of the law. Secondly as such, since this is not the personal element that is formed through our cultivation or practice, but a fruit of the transformation in our being that results from the complete renewal of our spirit so that it is said that this is not our fruit, but the fruit of the Spirit which the Holy Spirit produces in us as the fruit is written in singular so that in our life, the fruit of the Spirit appears all at once in our life as we are led by the Holy Spirit and live according to His will. Therefore I pray that we all may discern the leading of the Holy Spirit and walk in step with the Spirit so that our life may be full of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and that we may become people of love to fulfill the law of Christ for the glory of God.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, it is said that the Holy Spirit who is indwelling in us leads us so that we have to be sensitive to His leading and discern His leading. After reviewing whether we always are seeking His leading and try to discern His will, I hope we could share our experience and thought with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also it says that when we walk in step with the Holy Spirit, we could bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit and live the life to love one another. So after reviewing our life, if we are living to walk by the Spirit and keep in step with His leading, I hope we could share our experiences with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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