Monday 06 October 2008

Background

Galatians is possibly Paul's most personal letter; he includedin it a great deal of detail about his own journey to faith.Through his passionate writing he establishes who both Paul the manand Paul the apostle really are: the product of the faith whichtransformed him. And this, the opening chapter, is round onebetween Paul and the Galatians, where he uses his passion to takethem to task for "deserting the one who called you in the grace ofChrist and ... turning to a different gospel" (verse 6).

Paul appeals, exhorts, argues, pleads, criticises and offers adviceand insights to his readers in tightly packed paragraphs. He movesquickly from one point to another giving a real sense of urgencyand so giving us, the reader, a sense of how strongly he felt aboutthe issue in hand. He didn't pull any punches with the Galatianssaying that whoever promoted a gospel that was contrary to thatwhich Jesus preached should "be accursed!" (verse 9), includingPaul himself.

This is strong stuff and it is hard to imagine how the Galatianswould have received it. It is harder still to imagine how a 21stcentury version of this letter would go down if it were read outfrom the pulpit, printed in the weekly notice sheet or put on thefront page of the church website. But maybe letters such as thesedo get circulated today. Perhaps they circulate as conversations,sermons, books and blogs - but their challenge gets lost in thegreat mass of Christian literature and the busyness of ourlives.

To Ponder

Paul doesn't get onto outlining 'what' the gospel(good news) of Jesus is in these first few verses. But his wordsare meant to get us thinking aboutwhat we think the gospel is. What doesthe gospel mean for you?

Every one of us perceives Jesus' teaching througha series of filters: our life experiences, the teaching andinfluence of the churches we may have participated in orexperienced, our culture and the time in which we live. In whatways could these, and other factors, impact your understanding ofthe gospel?

Does this mean we each have our own 'version' ofJesus' teaching, or at least elements of it? What does it mean toyou to have a personal understanding of the gospel?