In 1976, when I was stationed on a ship in Norfolk, Virginia, some friends and I were talking about getting an apartment together onshore. We were all Christians, and one of the things we discussed was seeking to live as a Christian community, with mandatory times of corporate prayer each day. One of the guys in that discussion became very angry at the suggestion that anything should be considered mandatory. He didn’t object to the idea of praying together, but he strenuously objected to the idea that people would be required to meet together for prayer. He bristled at the thought that he might be deprived of his freedom in this area. He stated his concern in terms of Christian liberty; he said this kind of requirement was legalistic and contrary to the freedom of the gospel. But I suspect his objections had more to do with his being a contemporary American. Freedom is very important to us in America, and freedom in our contemporary society has increasingly been defined as the ability to do whatever I want whenever I want to do it. And we bristle at the thought that someone might want to deprive us of this freedom.
In the early 1980's, Bob Dylan recorded a song called “You’re Gonna Have to Serve Somebody.” He was saying to contemporary Americans, “You’re not really as free as you think you are.” We’re not created with the ability to exercise complete freedom. And when we try to live in that way we end up being enslaved. Dylan said, “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” He was making an observation about the way we’re made, as creatures in the image of God. We may object to the whole idea, and we may try to fight against it, but in the end we’ll still be servants. We can’t escape our nature. If we won’t acknowledge God’s lordship, we’ll serve something less than God.
It’s also true that as humans we have to trust in something or someone. We don’t have complete knowledge about anything, so no matter which direction we go we have to act in faith. This is how Eugene Peterson describes the message of the false teachers in Galatia: “The religious product being promoted by Judaizing interpolators was more self-control, more self-determination. If we engage in particular rituals and keep certain rules, we always know where we stand. If we know what we can do that will make us more acceptable in God’s eyes than a person who doesn’t do them, we, by doing them, can advance our status. Such a religion puts us in control. We no longer have to live by faith, trusting to God to accept us in mercy. We no longer have to live in love toward our neighbor, trusting, often against all appearances, that that neighbor is God’s child. What we are being offered is a security system in which we do not have to live by faith, will not have to trust in God, but can trust instead in ourselves” (Traveling Light, p. 128). In the past, the Galatians have trusted in the gospel of grace, and now they’re beginning to trust in themselves. They’re beginning to rely on their own ability to do things that will make them acceptable in God’s sight.
We might ask, “does this really make such a big difference?” Of course, we know Paul was pretty worked up about it, but, after all, he was a Pharisee; all his training in the law had caused him to be obsessed with theological questions. What difference can these ideas possibly make in our daily lives? Paul shows here that this basic shift in the Galatians’ allegiance is having a major effect on their daily lives. We’re made in such a way that we have to trust in someone or something, and the object of our trust will affect the way we live.
Paul shows, first, that the Galatians have become suspicious and distrustful of the wrong people. In verses 12-16, he contrasts their current attitude toward him with the way they treated him when he was there. It seems that his intention was not to minister in Galatia, at least initially. He says, “As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.” We don’t know exactly what this illness was, but it was something that detained him and kept him from going where he intended. It forced him to spend time in Galatia, and while he was there he preached the gospel and founded a church. Some commentators have suggested that Paul caught malaria while he was on the coast of Pamphylia and sought relief on the mountainous plateau of Galatia (see John Stott, Only One Way: The Message of Galatians, pp. 113-14). In any case, it was because of an illness that Paul ended up in their region.
Paul also makes it clear that this illness was a trial for them. It made him repulsive to them. The great apostle Paul didn’t come to them in full control of his faculties, taking charge and impressing them with his ability. He came to them in weakness, needing their hospitality. And they gave it to him: “And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God – as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you?” (The Message). He goes on to say “There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me – that is how deeply you cared!” (The Message).
That’s how they responded to Paul in the past. But now their attitude toward him has changed: “What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time?” (The Message); or “What has happened to all your joy?” (NIV). Something has happened to them; their whole attitude toward life has changed. They were able to joyfully serve Paul when he was there and in need, because they were living out of a foundation of trust in God. Now that they’ve begun trusting in themselves, they’ve changed their attitude toward Paul. Now he’s become their enemy, because he’s been speaking the truth to them. They’ve become suspicious and distrustful of the wrong person.
That leads to the next point, which is that they’ve begun trusting in people who shouldn’t be trusted. In verses 17-20, Paul contrasts his own motives with those of the false teachers in Galatia. Several years ago, Annie and I went into a furniture store looking to buy something. As we were looking, a salesman came over, sat down on one of the couches, and started talking to us. He was warm and friendly and interested in our lives. He wanted to help us find what we needed. He seemed like a great guy. A few days later I went back to ask him a question and this same man was rude and cold. He could see he wasn’t going to make another commission from me, so he turned off the act. The first time we met, he had been warm and friendly and interested in our lives because he was trying to get something from us. Paul is saying that the false teachers in Galatia are like that: “Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important” (The Message). The Galatians are being manipulated by people who want something from them.
Paul’s motives are just the opposite. His concern is to see Christ formed in them: “Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration” (The Message). The false teachers are trying to gain a following for themselves; Paul wants them to follow Jesus Christ. The false teachers are serving themselves; Paul is serving Jesus Christ. This is a good test to apply to a Christian leader: ask yourself whether that leader is seeking to direct you to Jesus Christ, or to himself. Is that leader truly concerned about your spiritual welfare (even when it won’t benefit him personally), or is he seeking to gain a following? The Galatians should be distrustful and suspicious of the new teachers among them; but, for the moment, they’ve gotten everything backwards. They’re distrustful of Paul, who’s seeking their spiritual good, and they’re trusting these flatterers who are out for their own benefit.
Because of all this, because they’re trusting the wrong people, the Galatians are being deceived, they’re being conned into giving up their priceless inheritance for the privilege of returning to slavery. In verses 21-31, Paul draws another contrast: he compares the children of slavery with the children of the promise, then, at the end of the passage, he says “Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
God had promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land, and that all families of the earth would be blessed through him. And Abraham believed God. But then nothing had happened. Year after year had passed by, and Abraham and Sarah had grown old without ever having children. So they decided to take things into their own hands, since God obviously wasn’t doing what He’d promised to do. Sarah gave her servant girl, Hagar, to be Abraham’s wife, to provide an heir for him. Ishmael had been born through Hagar, but then, several years later, Sarah had conceived and given birth to Isaac. This is the story Paul is referring to: “one son was born because God had promised, the other son was born because Abraham and Sarah doubted. Ishmael was a product of human impatience, the human trying to do God’s work for him; Isaac was the result of God doing his own work in his own time.... The great disaster of Abraham’s life was that he used Hagar to get what he thought God wanted for him; the great achievement of his life was what God did for him apart from any programs or plans that he put into action. The lesson of that old piece of history is clear enough: the moment we begin manipulating our lives in order to get control of circumstances, we become enslaved in our own plans, tangled up in our own red tape.... The life of freedom is a life of receiving, of believing, of accepting, of hoping. Because God freely keeps his promises, we are free to trust” (Peterson, pp. 131-32). If ever there was a time when it looked like God wasn’t going to come through with His promises, it was when Abraham grew old without a son. But God freely keeps His promises, even when things look impossible. Because of that, we are free to trust in Him.
The choice is not between trusting and not trusting. The choice is between freedom and slavery. If we choose not to trust God, we’ll end up trusting someone, or something, other than God, which will lead us into slavery in one way or another. The Galatians were being taught to trust in themselves, in their own ability to do things that would make them pleasing to God. Paul is saying that what they’re doing is aligning themselves with Abraham in his misguided attempt to do God’s work for Him.
We’re going to end up trusting in something, or in someone. We can’t help it; it’s the way we were made. So the choice is between freedom and slavery. We either trust in God, which leads us into freedom, or we turn ourselves over to a life of slavery. And, of course, those who are in slavery will resent our freedom. That’s the point Paul makes in verses 28-31: “Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless connivance (Ishmael) harassed the child who came – empowered by the Spirit – from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern?” (The Message). The false teachers who’ve been trying to win them over are jealous of the freedom of the gospel. They themselves are living in slavery and they want to enslave the Galatians also.
Outwardly, people trusting in themselves and people trusting in God do pretty-much the same things. But they do it all in a different spirit. Those who are trusting in their own ability to live in a way that pleases God are in slavery. They’re fulfilling their duty, but there’s no joy in it. They’re suspicious and cynical; there’s a hard edge to their spirituality. They’re closed in on themselves, trying with all their might to do something they’re incapable of doing. “The life of freedom is a life of receiving, of believing, of accepting, of hoping. Because God freely keeps his promises, we are free to trust.” When God is at the center, we can relax and trust in Him to continue His work. It doesn’t depend on us. We’re not children of slavery; we’re children of the promise. The most important thing about our lives is not what we’re doing, but who we’re trusting.
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