We are going to start a walk through Galatians. As a way to get started, I like to share just a touch of backstory, or context. I am copying from my Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (NASB), whose Executive Editor is Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. This is an excellent resource and I highly recommend it. It is a very high-quality Bible that I enjoy having in a form I can hold in my hands.
Galatia was a Roman province… It is now southern Turkey. The purpose of this Epistle was to eradicate the doctrinal errors which had been recently introduced by hostile Judaizers and to urge the Galatian Christians to hold firmly to what they had been taught by Paul at the beginning. The people were generally impressionable, fickle, and quick-tempered… Paul had started these congregations on his first missionary journey (Acts 13 and 14) with considerable success, proclaiming “a door of faith” open to them (Acts 14:27). Then he revisited them on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:1-6) and again on his third missionary journey (Acts 18:23). In the meantime, Judaistic teachers had subverted his work by teaching a new type of legalism to these innocent Gentile believers.
I will caution that what Paul was addressing in Galatians is often misunderstood, consistent with his other letters and with Peter’s warning in 2 Peter 3:15-16.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
We need to take caution jumping to popular conclusions people claim about what Galatians has to say about our relationship to the Law of God through Moses. (Read more… Understanding the Law – What Does It Mean Today?)
As we read and study Galatians, we will not only seek to understand the word in context of the times, but also seek the timeless principles that apply throughout time to any period, like today… and beyond.
I invite you to pray with me:
Father, please let Holy Spirit open up our minds to fully understand the depth of the knowledge you have captured in Galatians. Prepare us to receive, learn and grow. Help us to understand Your word in proper context and also how to apply it to our lives today. Thank You that Your word is more than just text on a page, but a history of Your relationship with man and the instructions You want us to receive to direct all aspects of our lives. In the name of Yeshua, our Messiah, we pray. Amen.
Shalom. May the grace and peace of our Lord, Yeshua, be with you. Devotion by John in service to Christ
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