Delve Into Luke-Acts & Paul's LettersSample

DAY 10 – GALATIANS

It’s difficult to know exactly when and where Paul wrote his letter to the churches in Galatia. He doesn’t say where he’s writing from, as he does in his letters to Thessalonica and Corinth. And while he says he’s writing on behalf of “all the brothers and sisters with me,” he doesn’t say who these brothers and sisters are. Many interpreters believe that Galatians may actually be the earliest of Paul’s letters. However, its themes and language are so close to the letter he sent to the church in Rome that it’s quite probable Galatians was written about the same time as Romans. This would mean he wrote it from Corinth around AD 56 or 57, while arranging for the collection to be sent to the poor in Judea. When Paul tells the Galatians he’s been “eager” to “remember the poor,” and that they should “do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers,” he may be referring to this collection.

Galatia was a Roman province in central Asia Minor. The book of Acts reports that Paul traveled through this province on each of the three journeys he made to spread the good news about Jesus. On one of these occasions he needed to stop and recuperate from an illness, and he met the people he later sent this letter to. (As he reminds them, “It was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.”) The Galatians received Paul warmly and cared for him, and through his message they came to believe in Jesus.

But some people that Paul calls “agitators” later came to Galatia and made some unsettling claims. Paul consistently taught that Gentiles (non-Jews) didn’t have to keep the Jewish law in order to be Jesus’ followers. But these agitators insisted that the apostles in Jerusalem taught just the opposite, that Gentiles who believed in Jesus had to be circumcised, keep kosher, and observe the Sabbath and annual Jewish festivals. The agitators also claimed that Paul insisted on these things elsewhere and that he’d only relaxed these requirements for the Galatians to get on their good side. In response to these claims, the Galatians had already begun “observing special days and months and seasons and years,” and they were considering being circumcised too.

So in his letter Paul first has to answer these charges against himself. He then has to correct the idea that certain religious observances have to be added to faith in Jesus. 

Paul could defend himself by appealing to the apostles in Jerusalem, since their message is actually the same as his. But he doesn’t. Instead, he insists that what he preaches comes directly from God. So it doesn’t really matter who disagrees with him. Paul explains that he actually had very little contact with the apostles for the first part of his ministry. But when he finally did visit them to make sure his message wouldn’t be contested everywhere he went, they affirmed his teaching and welcomed him as their partner. But even after that, Paul wasn’t dependent on their endorsement. Once he publicly rebuked Cephas (Peter), one of the leading apostles, for backing away from their shared message.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord for giving Yourself for my sins and rescuing me from this present evil age.