Love (I Corinthians 13.1-13)

This was not posted back in 2022 – enjoy an extra post from Martin!

Nothing without love (13.1-3)

What do we particularly esteem? Apostles, prophets and teachers (12.28)? Sensational gifts of tongues and working miracles? Of course, all such gifts and ministries have their place in God’s purposes, but without love they remain worthless. Paul is probably suggesting that the Corinthian Christians were in danger of over-emphasizing such things, but diplomatically he uses the first person ‘I’, as if he himself were the guilty one.

Paul picks out just a few spiritual gifts which can easily be exercised without love and therefore be over-valued. He starts with the gift of tongues, which is sometimes thought to be the primary sign of the Holy Spirit’s filling. But without love even speaking in angelic tongues (13.1) has no importance. Paul describes such loveless speaking in tongues as “a resounding gong” or “a clanging cymbal”. The word for ‘resounding’ was used for the sound of the sea in a fierce storm (e.g. Luke 21.25). And the word for ‘clanging’ relates to grief-filled wailing (e.g. Mark 5.38) or a war cry. These are strongly emotional words.

In these verses Paul in no way denigrates the good gifts of the Spirit. Speaking in tongues (13.1) is a positive gift of the Spirit, given to build up God’s church. Prophecy and knowledge of God’s mysteries and truths (13.2) plays an essential part in the edification of God’s people. All Christians earnestly desire greater faith, even such faith as can move mountains (13.2; cf. Matthew 17.20), but without love such faith can lead to arrogance. Was Paul thinking of the rich young ruler when he wrote about giving away all we possess (13.3; cf. Luke 18.22)? Even such generous giving without the underlying motive of love is worth nothing. This is also true of sacrificing our lives to the flames of martyrdom (13.3), the ultimate self-sacrifice. Everything finds its worth in the supreme gift of love. Loving God and loving our neighbour fulfil God’s law and give value to everything else.

God and Neighbour

It is easy to talk piously about the primacy of love in the Christian faith. But we need to ask the vital question of who should we love. The lawyer’s question to Jesus hits the nail on the head: “who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10.33). Jesus’ reply with the Good Samaritan parable challenges us to practical love for those in need – whatever the danger or cost. We note too that it was a Samaritan who helped a Jew in need; true love is inter-ethnic, crossing racial boundaries. Relations between Jews and Samaritans were very tense at that time. Christian love reaches out beyond family and friends to embrace even our enemies (Matthew 5.44).

Many people with unloved or damaged backgrounds find it hard to love themselves. But Jesus’ command to love our neighbour includes loving ourselves – “love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 19.19; 22.39). While pride and arrogance top the biblical list of sins, self-deprecating failure to appreciate all that God has given us in our own lives also displeases the Lord. We have an example of this in the call of Jeremiah. Jeremiah plays down his abilities and his maturity. Although God has assured him that he had been forming Jeremiah’s life since before his birth, Jeremiah nevertheless responds: “I don’t know how to speak; I am only a youth” (Jeremiah 1.6). God firmly opposes such false humility.

The primary source of all other love is the glorious truth of God’s amazing love for us. This stimulates the greatest command in God’s law, namely that we are to love God. We are commanded not only to believe in God and acknowledge his supremacy, but to love him. How well I remember the life-changing joy when Elizabeth and I came to love each other. Being loved by God himself and consequently coming to love God, with all that we have and are, stands above even the greatest of inter-human love. I often find myself praying: “Lord, I do love you, but please help me in my lack of love”.

Love’s character (13.4-7)

These verses reveal the active nature of true love. In the original Greek, 13.4 starts with an active verb plus a connecting participle (“love ‘patiences’, being kind”; unfortunately the English language doesn’t have an active verb ‘to patience’). Love should never remain merely as an emotion, but must work itself out in practical living. Together with the positive descriptions in 13.4, the equally positive verbs in 13.7 bracket a list of negative descriptions of love. These relate strongly to our inter-personal relationships and demand particular attention in the fellowship of the church.

We don’t have space for a careful exposition of each characteristic of true Christian love listed here, but it would be good if each of us would pray through them one by one to stimulate greater love in our own lives and in the life of our churches.

The final three characteristics of trusting, hoping and persevering (13.7) are meant to relate to our attitude to other people, but they could also apply to our relationship with the Lord. As we trust in the Lord, so we are called where possible to trust our neighbour – not always easy if previously they have acted beforehand in a dishonest or untruthful way. We are also to have assured hope that God will surely keep his word and his promises. Likewise, we are called to relate to other people with confident hope of their goodness and truth. The call to persevere in our faith in the Lord challenges us in our faithfulness, but wonderfully our God never lets us down. But sadly, our fellow believers, as well as our non-Christian friends, may well disappoint us. Nevertheless, we should never give up!

Future perfection (13.8-13)

How we look forward to the glory that awaits us! When that day comes, everything imperfect will pass away (13.10). We shall no longer need prophecies, the gift of tongues will be silenced and intellectual knowledge will not be needed any more (13.10). Such gifts may be vital in this world, but in the coming glory they will be quite infantile and redundant (13.11).

In our present life it is as if we see everything in a misty mirror and we only discern a small part of people’s nature and of what is happening around us (13.12). Even our knowledge of the Lord is only partial. But the glorious day will come when we ‘shall know fully, even as we are known’. God knows everything about us absolutely perfectly and we shall “know fully” too (13.12).

Paul concludes this wonderful chapter by stating that, in the future glory and even now, faith, hope and love remain. We marvel at and rejoice in the beautiful gifts of faith and hope, but love gloriously out-strips them. True love (not what some modern song-writers sing about!) is the greatest gift of all (13.13).

Lord, give us love – more love – perfect love!

Justification by Faith: “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4.1-20)

 Abba, Father
A reverend silence reigned as our Sunday Service was about to begin in our village church. Suddenly the high-pitched voice of a small boy from Israel rang out through the church: “Abba! Abba!” We were all struck by the easy familiarity of the boy addressing his dad. That cry of “Abba” remained firmly in our hearts and minds.
Using the example in Chapter 3 of children growing up and finally receiving their inheritance, Paul points out that as sons and daughters of God we have God’s gift of his Holy Spirit,  who inspires us to address God as ‘Abba’ (4.6). It doesn’t come easily to us to address Almighty God with such familiarity, but the Spirit in our hearts leads us in calling God “Abba”. Today’s equivalent in English would be ‘Dad’ or ‘Daddy’. Of course we must never lose our sense of awe before the absolute majesty and holiness of the Lord God, our Creator and Saviour. But this needs to be balanced by God’s desire to have an intimate, loving relationship with his people.

This reminds me too of a special conference over fifty years ago, which had somewhat surprisingly invited me to be their speaker. The conference was for Christian ‘Teddy Boys’ in the days when Edwardian styles dominated youth culture. I was the only non-‘Teddy Boy’ present! How well I remember the challenge of their early morning prayer meetings! One morning someone reported how he had been witnessing to another young man who was not yet committed to Jesus. Immediately the leader of the prayer time stood up, banged the table in front of him with his fist, and  cried out, “Lord, get a grip of that kid! Amen!”. The room erupted with everyone banging their fists on their table and shouting out “Yes, Lord! Amen!”. How different their prayers were from mine with my often carefully worded content! But God responded to their prayer and that young man was converted that very day, beginning a radically new life. Did I need to learn to relate to the Father in a more intimate and informal fashion?

Paul asserts that we need to graduate from our ‘slavery’ to religious legalism in the Law. We may now enter into our full inheritance, which Jesus has bought for us through his incarnation and his redeeming sacrifice on the cross (4.5). Jesus was born miraculously of a virgin (not just ‘of a woman’ (NIV) – all humans are born of a woman, so that would not be worth mentioning!). Now we have miraculously become God’s children and inherited the gift of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit we gain that close intimacy with God that inspires us to call out “Abba, Dad/Daddy” (4.6).

The world’s way of life

Twice Paul mentions the danger of submitting to the world’s ‘basic principles’ (4.3, 9; Greek: stoicheion), its way of life which he describes as “weak and poor”, spiritually powerless and lacking the riches of the Gospel. He further defines these ‘worldly principles’ in terms of observing all sorts of special “days and months and seasons and years” (4.10). The repeated “and” underlines the stupidity and emptiness of it all.
Paul strongly resists any wavering or compromise on the foundational, Christ-centred biblical truths, but he unhesitatingly attacks the promotion of too many special days or seasons, with the folly of particular regulations which so easily adhere to them still today – e.g. no meat on Fridays, no flowers in church during Lent etc. How easily such unnecessary irrelevancies gain importance in the life of the church and push out the joyful assurance of the Gospel! Paul even finds it necessary to ask the question, “What has happened to all your joy?” (4.15).

Observing such tendencies in the Galatian churches, Paul is stricken with deep anxiety concerning their spiritual welfare (4.10/11). He loves the Galatian Christians and still addresses them as his sisters and brothers (4.12) and as his “dear children” (4.19), but fears that he may have ‘wasted his efforts on them’ (4.11).

Become like me (4.12)!

Although Paul seems usually to have followed the Jewish Law in his daily life, he also observed the basic mission principle of cultural adaptation. He believed in down-playing his own rights and preferences, making himself “a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible”. He therefore “became like a Jew” when with Jews. But with Gentiles he followed their pattern of life (1 Corinthians 9.19-23). So, to the Galatians he says that he became like them (4.12), pleading with them that they might return the favour and become like him. In spite of his strong Jewish heritage, he was willing to demonstrate his freedom in the Messiah Jesus, sharing food and fellowship with Gentile believers. He longs for them to do so too.

But, as we saw in chapter 2, Peter/Cephas and other Christians had come to Galatia from Jerusalem and had undermined the Galatians’ faith. All fellowship with Gentile believers had been broken. Paul objects to the Galatians following such teachers who were “zealous to win you over, but for no good” (4.17). They had previously accepted Paul and followed his Gospel teaching. Although he had only come to Galatia because of illness (4.13), they had nevertheless welcomed him ‘as if he were an angel, as if he were Christ himself’ and ‘would have torn out their eyes and given them to him’ (4.15) – did his illness affect his eyes? It seems clear that Paul’s eyesight was poor (cf.6.11). Paul was suffering agonies in his anxiety about the Galatians and he longed for Christ to be formed in them (4.19). Paul’s example still today presents us all, but particularly Christian workers and church leaders, with a model and a challenge.

Justification by faith: children of God (Galatians 3.15-29)

Covenant, promises, grace (3.15-18)

Paul changes the feel of the letter in 3.15 by addressing the Galatians as “brothers/sisters” rather than “You foolish Galatians” (3.1). He then speaks in a familiar everyday human way concerning human covenants, repeating ‘human’ (3.15; NIV ‘everyday’).

Legally established human agreements cannot be set aside. That reality applies also to God’s covenant promises to Abraham and to his seed (3.16). With his rabbinic background Paul uses a type of argument which was appropriate to his Jewish context, but which some people today may find unconvincing. He points out that God’s promises came to Abraham and “his seed”, not to the plural ‘seeds’. From this he deduces that the one true seed of Abraham was the Messiah, Jesus (3.16). God’s covenant promises come to Messiah Jesus, and then flow through him to all who are one with him by faith.

The Mosaic Law only came 430 years after the time of Abraham (3.17). So the covenant, with its promises of justification, was by then well established by God himself and certainly could not be changed by the coming of the Law (3.17). Many people today think that Judaism believes that one needs to obey the Law in order to inherit God’s covenant promises. But actually it has always been clear that God’s saving covenant came long before the giving of the Law, and therefore was not dependent on it. If, indeed, the order were reversed and the Law had preceded Abraham’s justification by faith, then our inheritance would no longer depend on God’s promise by grace. “But God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise” (3.18).

The purpose of God’s Law (3.19-25)

God’s amazing grace always stands at the heart of everything. Not only does our God-given inheritance come by God’s grace (3.18), but also the Mosaic Law was ‘graced’  (NIV ‘added’) to God’s people (3.19). How good it would have been if we could have followed the Law perfectly and thus attained righteousness by the Law (3.21)! Sadly, however, disobedience prevailed and “the whole world is a prisoner of sin” (3.22). Indeed, the very Law which was given “through angels by a mediator” (3.19) has now ’emprisoned us and locked us up’ (3.23). Paul even questions the origins of the Law, pointing out that it was mediated to us by Moses (3.19/20). By definition, a mediator has a foot in both camps. Moses was human, but conveying a message from God. So, a mediator is quite distinct from God, for God is one and supremely above the world.
So, Paul asks: “what was the purpose of the Law?” (3.19). In answering, he uses another everyday example. He has already given the picture of a legal agreement (the Greek ‘diatheke’ can be translated ‘covenant’ or  ‘a ‘will’) and of emprisonment, but now (3.24/25) he refers to the education and bringing-up of a child. Good teaching commonly makes use of everyday examples and pictures.

In those days a child was commonly placed under the power of a teacher who had the responsibility of training the child in every aspect of life as well as teaching him/her educationally. Many such teachers were quite cruel in submitting the child to strict obedience. The child remained for many years under their teacher, but finally they emerged into adulthood and gained their inheritance. Paul affirms that the Law acted as such a teacher to prepare God’s people for the coming of the Messiah with his gift of justification, which we receive by faith. So, he declares that “The Law became our teacher (Greek: paidagogos) unto Christ” (3.24), but now through faith “we are no longer under a teacher” (3.25). We have entered by faith into our inheritance with all its gracious gifts of salvation in the Messiah Jesus.

United as God’s children (3.26-29)

By faith in Messiah Jesus we have been adopted as God’s children. And when we publicly profess our Christian faith in our baptism, we declare that we are now ‘clothed with Christ’ (3.27). True baptism muust be inseparably tied to faith. While people of Baptist pesuasion insist on  the individual concerned having a sure faith in Christ, those who practise infant baptism should demand faith in the parents and then complete the baptism with Confirmation when the child becomes able to profess faith himself/herself. Infant baptism without that Confirmation is half-baked and incomplete. Christians may rejoice in being ‘clothed with Christ’, the totally righteous Saviour. In spite of our continuing sin, God in his judgment only sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ which covers us like an all-enveloping cloak.

Our unity as believers stems from the fact that we are now all children of God and therefore sisters and brothers of each other. We are siblings together in the one family of God. We all love the same Father; we all love the same older brother, Jesus; we all love the same Holy Spirit who indwells us all. What a glorious unity we share!
As sisters and brothers together we no longer boast of our different backgrounds. Paul now specifies ethnic, social and gender unity in Christ.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek”  (3.28). Paul faced a major struggle to widen the church to include Gentiles without them having to become part of the Jewish community. Today the boot is on the other foot in the Christian church. Due to replacement theology many Gentile Christians assume that they have replaced the Jews as God’s elect people. For such people Jewish believers are Christ-killers and hardly acceptable as Christians. Gentile believers then become the ‘new Israel’.

So, this affirmation that Jews and Gentiles are equally acceptable in the church stood out as highly controversial. Of course Christians retain their ethnic identity, but the barriers should come down and loving oneness should prevail. Any sense of racial superiority needs to disappear. Those of us who enjoy an ethnically mixed marriage already experience the reality of this loving inter-ethnic oneness.

Down with racism! Let love and honour prevail in the church!

“There is neither slave nor free”.  The church is often criticised for its failure directly to oppose slavery. Actually, however, it so undermined the evils of slavery by its insistence on loving relationships that slavery in a Christian household lost its abusive nature. As Paul’s letter to Philemon makes clear, both the master and the slave were now children of God and therefore siblings of each other. Love totally changes everything. Abusive power should cease.

When I was young, class consciousness reigned supreme. But later two of my aunts retired together with their maid and lived together as close friends. The maids continued to look after the domestic work, while my aunts did the garden and financial side of life, but all sense of superiority and inferiority had gone.

Down with class-consciousness! Let love and honour prevail in the church!

“There is neither male nor female”. The Bible assumes that men remain masculine and women remain feminine. But it opposes gender discrimination, in which women are assumed to be somewhat weak and should therefore live under male domination. In traditional Islam it is even said that women are so weak that they will naturally give in to Satan’s temptations. Women are commonly thought therefore to be naturally prone to evil. In western societies women have had to struggle for equal rights politically, in employment and in the home. Only in recent days has the Christian church allowed women to be ordained, to lead and preach. Now, at last, many Christians are seeing the significance of women being included in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1.1-17), the role of women as Jesus’ friends and followers, and the fact that two women were the first to proclaim the resurrection, the  foundation of the Gospel (Matthew 28.10). Centuries of the church’s sinful failure are now yielding to biblical teaching and social pressure.

Down with sexism! Let love and honour prevail in the church!

Chapter 3 ends with an encouraging  summary statement. “If you are of Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise” (3.29). As followers of the Messiah Jesus, we all join together as Abraham’s children and therefore inherit all God’s promises to him and to his seed. Particularly, we join with Abraham in being wonderfully justified by faith alone.

Justification by Faith: Holy Spirit, Abraham and the curse (Galatians 3.1-14)

In Chapter 2 Paul describes how he confronted Peter/Cephas. Peter had seen the vision of unclean animals with God’s command to “kill and eat” (Acts 10.9ff). As  a result, he knew that believers are not compelled to follow the Jewish Law as a condition for acceptance by God. Bacon and prawns can now be added to the menu! Peter had then met with Gentiles and even gone to the home of Cornelius. Justification and salvation are not dependent on adherence to the Jewish Law, although messianic believers may wish to continue following their traditional Jewish life-style. But this must not prevent full fellowship with Gentile believers, including eating together. Peter, however, had gone back on God’s command: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10.15). So, in defence of the true Gospel and justification by faith alone, Paul had needed to confront Peter.

The Holy Spirit (3.1-5)

Now, he turns to the Galatians who were also in danger of backsliding from their assurance of having been justified by faith alone. He addresses them as ‘unintelligent/mindless’ (3.1 Greek: anoetoi; NIV “foolish”). They needed to get their thinking straight.

Paul challenges them with a direct question: “Who has bewitched you?” (3.1). Lightfoot points out that this word particularly refers to the use of the evil eye, a form of sorcery which is still common in some parts of southern Europe and in many Muslim cultures. Still today, Christians face a spiritual battle with evil spirits and a variety of occult practices.

         
The Galatians had begun so well. The crucified Jesus had been clearly ‘portrayed’ before their very eyes – the word translated ‘portrayed’ seems to indicate that the Gospel had been preached to them beforehand in writing. They had even been willing to suffer severely for their faith in Jesus (3.4).

Paul’s second question lies at the centre of these first five verses: “Did you receive the Spirit by works of law, or by the hearing of faith?”. It is clear from the Bible that God’s lavish generosity is to be received through faith in the crucified Jesus, not by rigid observance of the Jewish Law. Ridderbos helpfully observes that the gift of the Spirit is “the most unmistakable evidence of God’s favour and the plainest guarantee of eternal redemption”. The word used here for God ‘giving’ the Spirit strongly suggests real liberality.

Abraham (3.6-9)

Justification by faith does not come as some new teaching. It has its roots in the Old Testament. God does not change, nor does he go back on his Word which remains true throughout history. Abraham himself, the father of the Jewish people, believed and “it was credited to him as righteousness” (3.6; Genesis 15.6). This became the normal pattern for Israel throughout the Old Testament. If God’s people Israel trusted God, he poured out his saving blessings on them. Of course, trust in God automatically involves people following him in obedient holiness. But such obedience was never the preceding condition for God’s saving grace in justification.
In Genesis the call of Abraham is strongly linked to God’s international purposes for “all nations”. God promises Abraham that he would “be a blessing”, and “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12.3). So, Paul underlines that “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham” (3.9) and “those who believe are children of Abraham” (3.7). The Old Testament Scriptures “foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith” (3.8). The universality of the Christian Gospel lies at the heart of our faith. God’s gift of justification by faith in Jesus should always widen our vision.
While God’s grace reaches out to the Gentiles, this does not mean that God’s election of the Jews as God’s people has been cancelled. “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11.29). Sadly, the Gentile Christian church, including great leaders like Jerome and Aquinas, has taught that Gentiles have now ‘replaced’ the Jews in God’s grace and calling. But, such teaching denies God’s great purpose of justifying both Jew and Gentile. These Church leaders say that the Gentile Christian church has become the new Israel. They have even taught that the Jews are now an accursed people because of their rejection of Jesus.  They have accused the Jews of killing Jesus, whereas it is clear that Roman soldiers were responsible – but Christians never suggest that Italians are accursed as killers of Jesus!
The New Testament shows that God’s church is rooted in the Jewish people, but now Gentiles have been grafted into the Jewish tree (Romans 11).  

The Curse (3.10-14)

In further defence of the biblical teaching that we are justified by faith, not by works of the Jewish Law, Paul shows the Old Testament teaching that all who base their identity on observing the works of the Law are “under a curse” (3.10) – the second time 3.10 speaks of the curse, it adds a prefix to strengthen even more the horror of God’s curse. Deuteronomy 27.26 declares that everyone (Jew and Gentile) who fails to observe every single element of the Law is under God’s curse (3). With our fallen human nature, none of us can possibly manage to live such a perfect life of absolute holiness. All of us sin repeatedly and thus incur the wrath of God.

In Deuteronomy 21.23 it is written that “cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (3.13). Jesus was nailed to a wooden cross and paid the penalty for all our sin. He was entirely sinless, so didn’t deserve to die such a death, but he ‘became a curse for us’ (3.13). Through his death on the cross he has taken our curse on himself and covered us with his righteousness. He has redeemed us (3.14), buying us back from slavery to sin with its fearful consequences. Through faith in Messiah Jesus, God has also opened the door for Gentiles as well as Jews. By faith all of us, not just the Galatian believers, can be justified and “receive the promise of the Spirit” (3.14). The Galatians began by receiving new and eternal life by the Spirit (3.2, 3) and now Paul reminds us all that we do indeed follow Abraham in receiving God’s promise of the Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus (3.14).

Hallelujah! What a Gospel! Justification by faith in Jesus Christ through his death for us on the cross!

Eating together – Jew and Gentile (2.11-21)

Eating together – Jew and Gentile (2.11-21)

The issue at stake

In the multi-ethnic Galatian church considerable issues needed to be thrashed out. Should good kosher Jewish Messianic believers demonstrate their freedom and unity in Christ by eating together with Gentile Christians? Proper adherence to kosher food laws would make such fellowship impossible. Should the salvation of Gentiles depend on their willingness to submit to the Law of Israel? Or is salvation only through faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, with submission to the Mosaic Law only for Jewish believers? Is the Law good but not essential? Paul answers these questions unambiguously:  compulsory obedience to the Law of Israel would deny the central truth of the Christian Gospel. Our salvation would then no longer be by faith alone, but by faith plus good works. As we have seen before in our study of 2.1-10, it would also make the Christian faith into a little messianic sect of Judaism rather than an international faith for all peoples and cultures.

The key issue at stake in the Galatian churches centred therefore on understanding the relationship between faith and Law, which showed itself particularly in the apostle Peter’s example. He had previously shared table fellowship with Gentiles (2.12), but this changed when he faced Jewish Christians from Jerusalem. Peter then stopped sharing meals with Gentile believers. Not only did this break any hope of loving fellowship between Jewish and Gentile believers, but it also denied the very heart of the Christian Gospel. No wonder Paul needed to react strongly! As Luther notes, “Here we must needs be obstinate and inflexible”, for Paul had “no trifling matter in hand, but the chiefest article of all Christian doctrine”.

Paul was standing for the fundamental reality of justification by faith, not by works of the Jewish Law. The word ‘justification’ (Greek: dikaio) means that we are reckoned to be righteous, not that we are actually made righteous. We remain sinners, but our sin has been covered by the absolute righteousness of Jesus. We received the gift of this covering through faith, not by our good works and obedience to the Law. Through our faith, and entirely under God’s undeserved grace, we “have been crucified with Christ” (2.20), nailed to the cross together with Jesus. Expressing his surprise, Paul follows this with “but I  live!” (Greek: zo de) – wonderfully, resurrection follows death. Good Friday is ‘good’ because it leads on to resurrection life. Paul then rejoices in the amazing further truth that it is actually Christ who lives in him, loving and sacrificing himself.

Eating together

In the Bible eating together has enormous importance. For example, in the Old Testament sacrifices, careful instructions are given concerning who should eat which parts of the animal sacrificed. Should God ‘consume’ it all or should the priest be given some part? Or should the family giving the sacrifice retain a portion? When a family went up to Jerusalem at one of the great festivals, it was common for them to bring an animal for sacrifice, go to the Temple for the sacrificial ceremony and then share together a special meal with the luxury of meat from the sacrifice.

Jewish life and worship revolves around eating together. Each week climaxes in the Sabbath meal, which includes worship and teaching at its heart. This is led of course by the family parents, not by a rabbi. The synagogue is known as a schul, a place of teaching and learning – not the centre of worship which remains in the home. The rabbi should concentrate on his/her teaching and pastoral ministry. How I wish that we Christians could return to that model, in which such eating together forms the centre of our worship!

Just as the family meal together represents the climax of the week, so for Jews each year has its highpoint in the feast of Pesach/Passover. Both with the Sabbath and the Passover celebrations, the worship and teaching element is so actively visual that children thoroughly enjoy it – no need to send them out to some special children’s meeting!

Our Christian churches have lost so much in separating our celebration of the Lord’s Supper from the fellowship and joy of a special shared meal. As we have said before, our Communion Services face the danger of becoming more of a fast than a feast. And we have exalted the ordained leader to the detriment of ordinary church members.

Peter/Cephas

Simon Peter was gifted, a natural leader. He quickly became the outstanding representative and spokesperson of the disciples. Jesus must have noted his leadership potential and therefore gave him the new name of ‘Peter’, Greek for ‘rock’. In Matthew 16.18 Jesus declares that “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church”.

When talking positively about Simon Peter, Paul calls him ‘Peter’ with due respect. For example, Paul honours him as “an apostle to the Jews” (2.7/8), calling him ‘Peter’ in that context. But when he needs to downplay Peter’s leadership (1.18, 2.9, 11, 14), Paul merely uses his original name ‘Cephas’. There were times when Peter failed to be a ‘rock’ for the development of the church.

The Roman Catholic Church has seen Peter as the first Pope, the infallible channel of God’s truth, with total authority. More liberal Protestants have rejected papal authority, but see the authority of the church and tradition alongside the written Word of God, the Bible. But this chapter reminds us that, even after Pentecost, Peter remained so fallible that Paul had to ‘oppose him to his face’ (2.11). And the history of the church is also sadly littered with false teaching and sinful practice – for example, the Council of Chalcedon not only gave the church a brilliant creedal statement, but also in its official declarations encouraged badly racist antisemitism. The Bible should stand uniquely above all other so-called authorities.

Why did Peter go astray when visiting the churches in Galatia? Was he anxious to retain his position in the very Jewish church in Jerusalem? Was he unduly respectful of the Jerusalem leaders, including Jesus’ brother James? Or was he somehow hoping that his compromise in no longer eating together with Gentiles would encourage a quiet harmony and peace? Or was he really rather happy to return to his traditional Jewish background? We can only speculate – and check ourselves! Are we compromising and failing to adhere to biblical teaching? If so, what lies behind that compromise?

Paul visits Jerusalem (Galatians 2.1-10)

Paul visits Jerusalem (Galatians 2.1-10)

 The repeated “then” (Greek: epeita; 1.18, 2.1) stands out prominently to underline the fact that Paul didn’t rush to Jerusalem after his conversion. He “went immediately to Arabia” (1.17), returned to Damascus and “then after three years” he went to Jerusalem. Fourteen years later he revisited Jerusalem (2.1). Some  commentators believe that the ‘fourteen years’ date from Paul’s conversion, but it would seem more likely that fourteen years elapsed between Paul’s two visits to Jerusalem. This question has importance for determining the date of this letter and its relationship to the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15). Whatever the dating, however, Paul is clearly asserting his independence.

The church in Jerusalem was looked up to as the ‘mother church’. Its leadership lay in the hands of James, Jesus’ brother, which added to its prestige. Evidently, various other ‘apostles’ were based there too, including Peter (1.19). But Paul emphasizes that his ministry is totally independent of any human authority. He therefore says of the Jerusalem apostles that “they seemed to be leaders” (2.2) and they “seemed to be important”, but their status “makes no difference to me”, for “God does not judge by external appearance” (2.6).

Reading the English translations, Paul may come across as somewhat objectionable and unduly negative about the Jerusalem leaders. In the original Greek, however, it becomes clear that he is merely underlining his absolute independence in his ministry among the Gentiles. His call to work among Gentiles came by God’s revelation, not through any commissioning by church leaders. Likewise, his missionary principles and practice owed nothing to human authority. And the Gospel he preached came direct from God. Although he earnestly desired loving harmony between Jewish and Gentile Christians (2.9), Paul rejected any suggestion that the Jerusalem apostles had any authority over him, his message or his acceptance of Gentile converts without adherence to circumcision and the Law.

In his brilliant commentary on Galatians, Luther writes strongly in rejecting papal or episcopal authority over our ministry for Christ. In God’s church we face the constant danger of over-emphasizing human authority, thus actually undermining “the freedom we have in Christ Jesus” and ‘making us slaves’ (2.4).

“False brothers” (2.4/5)

Titus, an uncircumcised Greek, accompanied Paul in visiting Jerusalem. The apostles in Jerusalem had not required Titus to be circumcised, but ‘false prophets’ were infiltrating the Galatian churches and insisting that all Gentile converts should follow the Law of Israel and be circumcised. They were even ‘spying on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus’ (2.4). Does the word ‘spying’ imply that they watched when Greek Christians attended the public baths, to see whether they had been circumcised?

As Paul said in Romans 10.4, “Christ is the end (Greek: telos, goal and climax) of the Law”. God gave the Law and the sign of circumcision as the marks of his special covenant with his chosen people Israel. They remain vitally significant for Jewish believers in Jesus. But Gentile Christians only receive baptism as the outward sign of God’s covenant promises. Gentile Christians remain free from the demands of the Jewish Law and follow Jesus’ even greater call to love and holiness.

Paul rightly sees that this freedom must undergird the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles. As we shall see again and again in Galatians, requiring submission to the Jewish Law for Gentile believers would make the Christian faith just a little messianic sect of Judaism. Justification by faith alone undergirds the international spread of the Gospel.

Gospel truth

Paul is sometimes accused of being unduly dogmatic and aggressive. In fact, he held passionately to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and therefore insisted on its truth. He knew that this debate was crucial, as the spread of the Gospel was hanging in the balance. It depended on him winning his arguments with those false prophets who were gainsaying the truth of his message. He happily gave his blessing to Peter in his mission to Jews (2.7-9), but argued strongly for biblical truths which were essential for the growth of the church among Gentiles – particularly justification by faith in Jesus Christ, not by works of the Jewish Law. Are we in danger today of what the Roman Catholic Professor Hans Kung has called ‘wishy-washy theology’, emphasising empathetic harmony and popular opinion?

These verses conclude with Paul’s happy statement that James, Peter and John, the pillars of the Jerusalem church, recognised his call to Gentile mission and gave him the right hand of fellowship (2.9). Mutual understanding was established. All they required was that he “continue to remember the poor” (2.10). Our studies in 2 Corinthians have already shown us how Paul worked hard to take a collection to the poor in Jerusalem and thus fulfilled those apostles’ exhortation.