If you don't believe what I believe than a curse be upon you.
Wow, so much for inter-anything as far as Paul goes. Do you think he was a difficult dude to be around if you didn't agree with him? How do you navigate the narrow sphere of orthodoxy when it comes to the Pauline letters?
Ignore, skip, retranslate, erase?
"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed," Galatians 1:8-9.
That's about as non-pluralistic, anti-interfaithy, my way or the highway, you're in or you're are out...as it can get. There's not a lot of wiggle & snuggle room.
Paul follows up with a bah-zinger (1:10), "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
So much for dialogue.
It seems to go hair raising, teeth grinding across the grain like a scratch on a record player in today's world.
This passage is dead center in the chapter I'm teaching through this Sunday and I'd like some feedback from all of you that are outside the circle.
How do you respond to this type of passage?
Tracy Simmons | May 19, 2012 | 10:01am
I so don’t envy you having to explain that passage on Sunday :)
Dennis | May 19, 2012 | 12:35pm
Hi Eric,
I believe that you bless your congregation by teaching through passages of Scripture. It keeps us in balance so that we don’t just hand out the candy without the vegetables. May God give you wisdom and courage to use His Word wisely. It is His message, not ours. I always like to go to Paul’s two letters to Timothy to keep myself grounded for any teaching endeavor. We need to hear the truth, not something that feels good to our ears. People are going over the falls without Christ, they need to be warned not affirmed in their lostness. To affirm someone in that condition means we would rather feel good ourselves than to risk being uncomfortable delivering the truth, even though that brings the opportunity for salvation and all the joy and blessing that brings. For my part, I do envy the opportunity God has given you tomorrow to uphold the things that God says to your people. He expects you to and will bless you for it I’m sure! I’ll be praying for your success!
Dennis | May 19, 2012 | 12:43pm
Eric,
I kept trying to remember the reference to one other passage that came to mind, and my pastor helped me find it. It is II Tim. 2:15, a well known verse to many. Paul encourages us to “study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth”. In the greek it literally means “cut it straight” and that is what I strive to do in all the opportunities I have for teaching. That is what I believe would be a good response to this critical passage.
Eric Blauer | May 19, 2012 | 12:57pm
Tracy: yes, I envy others who can watch the turmoil from a distance. :)
Dennis, thanks for the encouragement. Yah, the whole ‘cutting it straight’ thing is tough, I used to take a lot of pleasure in throwing biblical hand grenades, and I didn’t think to much about the aftermath. As the years role on the issue becomes much more about being a loving surgeon more than medical examiner seeking to flay up the body for observation and information. E nuance between the two make me much more slow to speak and quicker to hear these days.
Mark Hudson | May 19, 2012 | 2:15pm
Eric: Great to meet you on Thursday. You teach the truth in love, with tears in your eyes that any would believe a gospel contrary to how the Bible defines the gospel. You preach the truth of the passage out of love and not spiritual arrogance, throwing biblical hand grenades. It is not about trying to prove yourself right, but about the eternal souls of the people you minister to. As a loving shepherd you would not want them to miss the true gospel message and accept a contrary one.
Bruce | May 19, 2012 | 3:52pm
In Acts 8:1 Paul (then called Saul) approved the stoning of Stephen. Then in Acts 9 Paul had a conversion and joined the sect he had previously persecuted. In Acts 15:39 Paul and Barnabas had such a dispute over Mark that they parted company. Then in 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul has changed his mind and decided that Mark is useful to him. It’s a hallmark of religions that God can change people, but isn’t it superior to learn to appreciate the other’s viewpoint from the start?
Eric Blauer | May 19, 2012 | 4:06pm
Mark, it was a very good to chat, small world huh?
Thanks for the thoughts.
Bruce, I guess I see conversion on a large scale being behind the change with Stephen etc and the personal people stuff a result of normal life. But the Galatians passages are all backed up with examples of divine visitation, apostolic authority and severe judgment….that seems a bit more important to deal with than just chalking it up to growth and change.
rhossack | May 19, 2012 | 8:22pm
Hmmmm ... as I take a few moments (not good for reflecting and typing without thinking in depth) to ponder this passage I focus on “preach any other gospel”.
I like Paul’s no nonsense approach and while it may be tempting to take a shotgun approach to those who do not line up with our church/denomination/beliefs structure.
I, as a simple lay person, would like to hear about what I see as the four forms of the gospel message ...
1 - The gospel of the kingdom or the good news that God purposes to set up in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant, a kingdom, political, spiritual, universal, over which the Son of God shall be King.
2 - Then there’s the gospel of the grace of God. The good news that Jesus Christ, the rejected King, has died on the cross for the sins of the world, that He rose from the grave for our justification, and by Him all that believe are justified in all things.
3 - The everlasting gospel ... (depending upon your viewpoint of eschatology) which will be preached to all who are alive at the end of the great tribulation and just before the judgment of the nations. It is neither the gospel of the kingdom nor the gospel of grace. It’s the good news to Israel, to those those who during the tribulation have been saved.
4 - Then there is what Paul calls, ‘my gospel.’ this is the gospel of the grace of God in its fullest development and the out-calling of the church, her relationships, position, responsibilities and privileges. This is the truth of Ephesians and Colossians but seems to be the in all of Paul’s writings.
There is only one gospel ... many aspects of the message
Ernesto Tinajero | May 21, 2012 | 9:22am
Eric,
How did the sermon go? I wish I would seen this earlier. Paul is powerful in Galatians and it very interesting that the whole letter is arguing against the Galatians falling into a legalism. Many who use this passage, and I do not mean you, are arguing for a legalism, the exact thing Paul is most adamantly against.. Paul actually preaches in the letter to dialog in a sort of interfaithy way. ( I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. Gal 4.12) For in the Gospel is clear even from the passage you use, ...who called you to live in the grace of Christ.
It is living in “...the grace of Christ” that Paul says in the gospel. There and only there is the point to which we speak to other believers and to the world at large. We Christians have no new moral law to offer the world, no set of rules or propositions to agree with. What we have to offer is what was given to us, the the love of God in Christ Jesus. We can only offer what is given to us, Jesus.
Dennis | May 22, 2012 | 3:03pm
Eric,
I hope your message went well, I’ve been thinking of you and praying for you over the weekend. I appreciate hearing your heart in some of your other replys.
Ernesto,
I sense some opposition in your tone to some other uses of Galatians. I think I know what you’re getting at, trying to keep the law is useless and insults God’s provision of salvation through Jesus Christ, offered freely, by grace, through faith. What gives me pause is when you talk “interfaithy” that it would include something other than the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15: 1-11). It was Jesus Himself who said,“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father, but through Me”.
Eric Blauer | May 22, 2012 | 4:13pm
The message went great.
This is the second time I’ve taught through Galatians and I find it to be the magna carta or Christian liberty. It’s message of grace through faith, apart from works is the cornerstone of a God glorying gospel.
I love Paul’s no compromise, go for the jugular message in this book. He’s at some of his toughests and most raw cutting edge insight in this letter. He leaves no doubt to what his passion is as he slices open his bones and reveals the marrow of Christ-only pulsating in his blood.
The message of this letter has no place in much of the wishy washy rhetoric being sloshed around these days. It’s refreshing to be stripped naked of the religious additions and be left with only the simple grace through faith message. The church is being “troubled” by its own host of judiazers today and countless folks have bought in to the ‘distorted gospel’.
I’ve rarely heard the message of Galatians let loose in all it’s destructive yet life producing power. I pray a glimpse of that glory will be found in our times in this book. My life was radically liberated by the gospel of Jesus, but today I hear mostly a gospel of man. Most religious stuff is man centered bad news about ourselves…Paul gives Christ. People are hungry for Jesus but starved to death on human betterment and feel good thoughts.
Dennis | May 23, 2012 | 5:52pm
Wow, Eric that is fantastic. Thanks for letting us know the results. I am blessed by God just to hear the passion in your post. God bless you brother.
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