It was an unsettling sight. Regardless of one’s political views, there’s no denying that when pride, power, and conflicting expectations collide, relationships—whether between nations or people—can shatter beyond repair. Some hailed Trump and Vance for “standing their ground,” while others saw a nation using its power to exploit and bully a vulnerable country.

As I watched the events unfold, I couldn’t help but see echoes of my own life, with relationships that have fractured under the weight of pride, unspoken expectations, and a refusal to meet in grace. Over the years, I have felt the rejection from those who should have been sources of love and support especially when we were navigating our children’s childhood trauma, and elder caregiving.

For years, Vanita and I faced an undercurrent of resentment from my family. No reasons were ever given regarding the cause of this animosity—just coldness, distance, and the false accusations culminating in me being ousted from the family at my father’s funeral.

One of the many painful experiences we faced was in our early years of marriage, when we were struggling with the grief of infertility. This was a deeply personal battle, one we chose to share only with both of our parents, hoping for prayers and support. Instead, we were met with judgment and anger by my parents. Why? Because we wanted them to keep it confidential, and they insisted on sharing this with extended family and friends. They accused me of not following the values I had been raised with. And their response was loud and clear—share or we were no longer welcome in their home. My mother refused to talk to us for months, until I apologized.

It was déjà vu decades later when we traveled to India for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary in India. We had just poured time, effort, and money to throw them a very big weddling-like celebration of their marriage, right on the heels of (and still grieving from) Vanita’s beloved grandmother’s death. However, during that time we ended up facing the same coldness and judgment, and were given a cutting dismissal: “Never come back” in front of our children, when we left India to return to the US.

Watching today’s political drama made me feel that deep sorrow once again – not just for President Zelensky and Ukraine, but for all who have been cast aside. In this drama that unfolded in front of the world, we saw America’s leaders trying to exploit Unkrain’s vulnerability to make a mineral deal with them, but refusing to provide any guarantee of security to the country if Russia broke their peace agreement. When President Zelensky asked for this security guarantee, he was gas-lighted into being called ungrateful and disrespectful and falsly accused and slandered with lies. However, my primary concern is not for international conflict such as this, but the deeper issue of what the root behind this kind of confrontation is, and how Christians should handle it when this happens to them. You see, our experiences are not unique, and I have given a more detailed talk about this elsewhere.

There is something uniquely devastating about being discarded after giving your heart, your time, and your loyalty. So, what do you do when those you’ve loved, respected, served, and sacrificed for, turn their backs on you? When you stand there, stunned, asking, What just happened? Is this my fault? Where is God in this valley? Why do I feel so wounded, defeated and alone? Watching others justify it makes the suffering even worse. In psychology, enablers of such rejection are called “flying monkeys”—those who defend manipulators out of fear, blind loyalty, or sheer ignorance. I have seen this play out in families, communities, and in the highest levels of power.

The Bible speaks plainly about pride and the abuse of power. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Yet time and again, people choose dominance over humility. Paul exhorts us, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:3-4). How many of our relationships could be salvaged if we truly lived this way. But sadly, we live in a broken world where ego wins, where wounds remain, where rejection cuts deep, and victims are accused and made to suffer even more. And yet, even here, God sees. God loves. He knows the truth. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).

Will Ukraine and the U.S. reconcile? Will our own wounds ever fully heal? Some things may never be restored on this side of eternity. But I do know this – I am not in control of outcomes. We are only called to stand in Biblical truth, pray, walk in integrity, extend forgiveness. We need to seek the Spirit’s guidance regarding reconciliation – which may or may not be possible, and sometimes boundaries need to be set.

To those cast aside, misunderstood, or rejected—God sees you. He knows your pain. You are not alone. Your worth is not defined by rejection. Keep walking by faith, in truth. Keep loving, even when it’s not returned. Keep extending grace, even when it’s denied. Because at the end of the day, the God who holds all things together in this world, the One who gave His very life to save us from our sins, sees the full picture. He will return as the mighty King of Kings, when every knee will bow down before Him and every tongue will confess Him as Lord. God promises that Jesus will righteously right all wrongs. We are therefore called to follow Jesus’ example. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:22-24). He will lift up the weak and the down trodden who have placed their faith in Him.

Let us look forward to Jesus’ “well done” on that glorious day, and may that be sufficient for now!.

This morning, as I was reading the Bible, I came across the following verse: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chron 16:9). It is a great verse. Wouldn’t it be amazing if as this verse says, I could have the confidence that God was intimately aware of our lives and circumstances, and that He was providing strong support behind the scenes for us? However, when I read this, my instant reaction was not a sense of hope but a feeling of despair. And when I shared this verse with Vanita, she later told me that she had also felt a similar sense of despair. This despair came from the realization that we know all too well that our hearts are not perfectly in tune with God, so this promise could not possibly apply to us. Since this is where both of our thoughts went immediately, I wonder if you also feel this way when you read such promises from God in Scripture. If so, I pray that this article will encourage you.

The reason I felt this this sense of despair, was because I interpreted the phrase “those whose heart is blameless toward Him” to mean “those whose heart is perfectly in tune with, and in total submission to God”. Living on this side of eternity, I fall far short of this bar. Although this may seem to be a valid way of reading this verse, the Bible tells us that this is not the whole story. If you think about it, this is not what the verse is actually saying. It was not for those who are perfect, but for those whom God does not find cause to blame for anything, thus making them “blameless”. Normally both the words “perfect” and “blameless” would mean the same thing. However, the word “perfect” literally describes someone’s behavior and character. The word “blameless” describes how God views that person. And thankfully, God does not make “blameless” synonymous with “perfect”. God has done something remarkable, so that we can be blameless although we are not close to being perfect. He has done this for all those who have put their trust in Jesus. Several verses come to mind “For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Cor 5:21). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). “He (God) has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10).

This is why Jesus came. He came in order to die the death that I deserved, and face the wrath of God that I deserved, and in turn to give me His own righteous perfection. When God looks at me, He does not see my sins but He sees the perfection of His Son. I am reminded of a song I learned as a youth:

I am covered over with the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives to me;
I am cleansed forever by the precious blood of Jesus and He lives in me,
What a thrill it is to know my Heavenly Father loves me so, and gives to me, my Jesus,
When He looks at me He sees not what I used to be, but He sees Jesus.

Because Jesus bore all the penalty for my sins, there is nothing left to make me guilty. I stand tall in the presence of God as a person whose heart is blameless toward God. I can personally apply the promise of 2 Chron 16:9 as a truth in my own life. God is giving strong support to me and my family right now even if I cannot see it, and I can trust Him and take comfort in that.

The apostle Peter says that Gods “precious and exceedingly great promises” have been given to us, to give us the divine power to live godly lives that are pleasing to Him (2 pet 1:3-4). As I read the Bible, I discover that the Bible is flooded with such promises. In fact this verse in 2 Chronicles 16:9 is just another way of saying that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). Do I “love Him“? Yes I do, although imperfectly. Have I been “called according to His purpose“? Yes. And that was not my doing but His! He called me by revealing Himself to me and showing me that He had died for my sake, and invited me to have a reconciled relationship with Him. So by this promise, I can be assured that in every single situation my family and I are in, God is working all things out individually for our good. I do not have to live in defeat and despair. The assertion here is that all my life experiences will actually be used by God to draw me closer to Him in a way I do not fully understand, and one day I will find that it was ultimately good for me. As J I Packer says in his book Knowing God, regarding an extension of this promise in Romans 8:32: The meaning of “He will give us all things” can be put thus: one day we will see that nothing – literally nothing – which could have increased our eternal happiness has been denied us, and that nothing – literally nothing – that could have reduced that happiness has been left with us. This is so amazing, it is hard to completely grasp or believe. But if God is who He says He is, this is true!

So I now take great comfort in the knowledge that the promises of God apply to those who belong to God. Those who have fallen at the mercy of God, and who have received that mercy because of what Jesus did on the cross for them.

The Whole Bible Comes Alive

When we start reading the Bible with the lens of the gospel in this way, it comes alive. We find that God is a strong warrior who works on behalf of those who put their trust in Him. We see this time and time again in the Old Testament, as we read about His dealings with people in various circumstances and from various stations in life. As we read, our hearts are warmed with the realization that God has not changed. Our God today is the same God (Heb 13:8). Then when we continue reading into the New Testament, we get to understand the how and the why of all this – centered around the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, these are insights the Old Testament believers never fully had! It all coalesces together into a beautiful whole – God’s Word to us – which has given us every thing we need to live our lives trusting Him, especially through “His precious and exceedingly great promises” (2 Pet 1:3,4)

Let us look the story of Job from this perspective.

A Fresh Look at the Story of Job

The story of Job, starts this way: “There was a man … whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright” (Job 1:1). The story of Job is about a man who was “blameless and upright“. God uses these exact same words in describing Job to Satan in Job 1:8 and Job 2:3 – blameless and upright. The Bible makes it clear that this is how God viewed Job.

But this immediately begs the question. Was Job some kind of holy superman who was very different from the rest of us? How could God possibly say that Job was “blameless and upright” if he was anything like we are? Well, it turns out that Job himself was aware that he fell short of God’s absolute standards. He said: “How can a man be right before God? If one wished to contend with Him one could not answer Him once in a thousand times” (Job 9:2-3). Like Job, if we were to stand before God as Judge on the merit of our lives, we would be found guilty, a thousand times. But Job does not stop there. He goes on to say “I must appeal for mercy to my accuser” (Job 9:15b). And we are also in exactly the same situation. Without mercy we, like Job, have no hope. But Job knew His God well enough to know that God indeed was merciful. A lot of Job’s struggle is not that he thought he was perfect and did not deserve to suffer, but that he could not reconcile his circumstances to the nature of the God that he had come to know and worship. (This was also partly because Job did not have the knowledge that this life is not all there is, as we do now. But we also sometimes feel this way).

However, Job did have hope in His God. He later said: “Even now, behold my witness is in heaven. And He who testifies for me is on high. … He would argue the case of a man with God as a son of man does with his neighbor” (Job 16:19,21). Although he knew that he himself would not be able to stand and argue in the court of God’s justice, he also knew with the eyes of faith that there is One in heaven who could! And Job was right. Looking at it in the light of New Testament revelation, we know that Jesus was that witness Job was talking about. “If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Thus, even though Job did not fully understand it, he was able to say to his friends in the course of his conversation: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26). The word “redeem” means “to buy something for a price, or a ransom“. That is what Jesus did for Job, and for every one of us who have put our trust in Him. He gave His life as the ransom price to save our souls, and bring us to God. “you were ransomed … not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Job was spot-on, and spoke the truth – and now we understand why.

So when we read about Job, we should not think: “Job was such a righteous man. I can never live up to that standard. This story does not have any relevance to me”. Or worse: “I need to step up my game so that God will favor me like He did Job”. That is the opposite of what God really wants us to learn. The story of Job is ultimately about the God of Job. He is a God whose wisdom and knowledge infinitely surpasses ours and who is in control of all things, and yet He is also a God who is merciful and gracious and who abounds in steadfast love. As we read this story, we should realize that Job needed redemption and salvation just as much as we do today (and his friends did too, as we get to learn later). Although he did not know about Jesus, he had put His trust in God with the limited revelation he was given. God in turn considered Job righteous, just as He did with every other Old Testament saint (e.g. see Gen 15:6), on the basis of the at-that-time-future work of Jesus on the cross. This is why God could  call him a “blameless” man, just like you and I are blameless before Him (see Heb 9:15). Job’s story is a foreshadowing of our own stories. It tells us that although in Christ we are blameless in God’s sight, God may have reasons why  He wants us to go through extremely trying situations, just like He did for Job. Our final restoration and vindication may not happen in this life, but God guarantees that it is coming, and that it will extend to all of eternity!

Hope for the Future

Thus we get comfort from Scripture. The entire Bible is ultimately a story of God. We read about Him and learn about His character. Every single Bible story (Old and New Testament) is about how people lived. But we also get the additional divine revelation about how God responded to them. We read stories there which serve as warnings to us (see 1 Cor 10:6) or as encouragements to us (see the entire chapter of Hebrews 11). We learn how God thinks. We read about His awesome holiness that would burn any of us to a crisp if we were to go anywhere close. Yet we read about the great mercy and compassion He has towards us even though we do not deserve any of it. We read about His Beloved Son whom He sent, who at great cost opened the way to God by His death on the cross, shielding us from the lethal rays of God’s righteous holiness by His own blood (John 3:16). And we also read the countless promises that assure us that God is faithful. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him” (2 Cor 1:20). As we read, we learn to trust in Him more and more, to fall in love with Him, and to turn aside and worship.

This is what enables us to press on and live by faith and hope, through the most trying of circumstances.

He Gives us the Right to Become Children of God (John 1:12)

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12), John has said that His own people rejected Him. But there was a counterpart. Some did in fact receive Him. John calls this “believing in His name”. This is what it means to believe in Jesus. It is not just an intellectual belief that He lived and died as a historical figure. It means to accept all that He is – God Himself and to throw the weight of our lives on this knowledge and trust Him completely. John says that to all who do this, He gives them the right to be called children of God. We had looked at this profound truth in more depth when we studied Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

We saw last week that the reason why John wrote this Gospel is so that we as the readers will be confronted with the magnificent portrait of Jesus, and to receive Him – to put our trust in Him. By believing in this way, we will have “life in His name” (John 20:31),  and in fact become the adopted children of God. As children, we will get to inherit all of God’s wealth – the universe itself, and live in His presence forever – that is enjoy eternal life. Here we see that most people do not get to have this experience. Most people reject Jesus. But John is inviting us to be among the minority that do not reject Jesus but receive Him and believe Him for who He is!

He Helps Us Know God (John 1:18)

No one Has Ever Seen God (John 1:18)

John is asserting a fact here. God is invisible. Paul describes Jesus as the One “who alone has immortality, how dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16).

He Has Come From the Father’s Side (John 1:18)

However, this same Jesus, chose to come down from heaven – from the Father’s side, and to become man.

He Makes God Known (John 1:18)

This Jesus makes God known. Jesus said the same thing to Nicodemus: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:12-13). What a privilege we have, to actually know the God who could not possibly have been known unless He had chosen to reveal Himself to us. Yet this is what He did through all of Scripture, and ultimately in the Person of Jesus Christ!

When we see Jesus, we are actually seeing God. Jesus said “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

We Can Still See God in Jesus

You may think – “Oh no! I did not live at that time. I lost the opportunity to see God”. But that is not true. There are two reasons

Firstly, we have just seen that when He was on earth, the world did not recognize Him. That would most likely have been our lot if we lived at that time. Remember Isaiah said that there was nothing attractive in Him as a human being, and only those who saw Him with opened spiritual eyes could actually see His glory (see John 9:39-41). Today as believers, we have the Holy Spirit living in us. He is the one who opens our spiritual eyes when we read the Bible. And when we read with opened spiritual eyes, this is how Paul describes it: “We all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). This is what we are doing when we study the Bible together. We are getting to see God in His glory through the words of Scripture and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. We see God with the eyes of our heart (Eph 1:18) that are wide open and able to see God. We are privileged to be alive today, with the Bible as accessible as it is (it has only been this way in the last few centuries), with this opportunity of revelation.

Secondly, the Bible says that this life is not all there is. There is eternal life to follow. That is where we fully experience what it means to be children of God. That is when we have unfettered access into the Presence of God Himself, and will actually “see Him as He is” in all of His glory, and that joy will never end (see 1 John 3:2 and John 17:24).

Application

If we ask “what is God like”, a very good place to start is to see God in the Person of Jesus. In Jesus, we see a God full of compassion and grace who is the embodiment of truth.

Let us do a quick recap of the prologue of John’s Gospel. What is John actually saying here? He is climbing a ladder here. He starts by asserting that God is invisible and cannot be seen. This God existed before time, and is the Creator of the universe. Then He says that this God revealed Himself by giving the law through Moses. This helped us to better understand what God was like. But He was too holy and too scary for most people to think they could have an intimate relationship with Him (although some even in the Old Testament who got to know Him, did). But then, God became human. And as a human being, he walked and talked with us, and spoke to us and taught us. And the promise is that when we put our trust in Jesus, He will give us the right to become children of God! God is just not knowable, but He is knowable as our Heavenly Father.

Thus, as we see in this passage, when we read Scripture, God came not just to stock our heads with knowledge, and not just to show us grace, but to give us grace; and we must receive it. Don’t spurn this grace. Receive it. And let your hearts be filled with everlasting joy as children of God.

Questions to Dig Deeper

1. Jesus said “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper [the Holy Spirit] will not come to you. But if I go I will send him to you” (John 16:7). Do you see that living at now an advantage compared to if we had lived at the time of Jesus? Explain why you feel this way.
2. When you think about God in the Old Testament, do you see Him differently compared to what you see in Jesus? Discuss what appears the same or different, and what it means.
3. If no one has seen God at any time, how was it possible for people to not only see Jesus, but to  interact with Him and even touch Him? What do you understand about the nature of Jesus while He was on earth?
4. What is preventing you from knowing God intimately, the way John describes in his prologue?
5. What do you think John means by saying Jesus gave those who believed in His name the right to become children of God?

He has Life in His Essence

John says, “In Him was life” (John 1:4). The life John has in view mainly is new life, spiritual life, saving life, the gift of eternal life, the opposite of spiritual death now and final condemnation later. That’s mainly what John means. Mainly he has in view the life that we do not have even though we are physically alive.

Listen to Jesus as He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). In other words, apart from believing in Jesus, we are all dead. In order to live forever and not “come into judgment,” we need the gift of life. That life is in Jesus.

His Life is a Shining Light

John adds: “and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). He says it because we don’t really know what spiritual death and life are, until we relate them to light and darkness and blindness.

Most of the people we meet every day look alive. If you tell them they are dead, they will think you are crazy. Yet, in a spiritual sense, every human being can be considered blind or dead. Later John talks about how the people in the world did not even recognize their creator when He lived in their midst. This is because they were blind. In one passage, the pharisees said, “Oh no, we are not blind” (John 9:40), and Jesus responded: “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (John 9:41). The point is, people think they can see and understand things clearly, yet spiritually speaking when Jesus lived on earth, very few people could see His glory. Of course some did. John said “We have seen His glory” (John 1:14), but very few did, while Jesus was on earth.

He Has Victory Over Darkness

John introduces the plot into His story immediately. As we have just seen, this Word came into our world that was immersed in darkness. There was a kind of conflict, where the darkness tried to overcome this light. But darkness was unable to overcome the light, and the light had victory over the darkness! We see this in the story of the Gospel, showing Jesus’ rejection and ultimate crucifixion, but having complete victory in His resurrection.

His Glory was Veiled

He Became Flesh (John 1:14)

In his gospel, John points out that Jesus was weary (John 4:6) and thirsty (John 4:7). He groaned within (John 11:33) and openly wept (John 11:35). On the cross He thirsted (John 19:28), bled (John 19:34) and died (John 19:30). After His resurrection He proved to Thomas that He still had a body (John 24:24-29), albeit a glorified one!

But it is important to understand that Jesus became man without ceasing to be God. The diving Word, the divine Son of God became a human without ceasing to be God. Remember Mathew 1:23: “they shall call His name Emmanuel, which means God with us”. John goes on to say “we have seen His glory” (John 1:14). No qualifications. Whose glory? The glory of the eternal Word, the Son.

There are deep theological mysteries here. Want a mind-bender? How is it even possible for the infinite and immutable God (He never changes. He is the eternal “I AM”, John 8:58 and “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever”, Heb 13:8) add a human nature to His divine one? It is hard to wrap our finite human minds around this mystery. It is one of those cases where we need to accept the limitations of our understanding and accept this revelation by faith. But in becoming flesh, He made God knowable in a way that had never been done before. That is why He is the eternal “Word” of God!

He Dwelt Among Us (John 1:14)

Jesus lived on earth, in ordinary dwellings. He invited two disciples who were curious about Him from John’s testimony to “come and see” (John 1:39) where He lived. He had a band of 12 disciples who he lived and travelled with during His entire public ministry.

The words literally mean “He pitched His tent among us”, reminding us of the tabernacle. This is one of the reasons why we know that Jesus did not cease to be God when He came to earth. 

These words are also shocking us because Solomon had declared “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you” (1 Kings 8:27)?

He was Unrecognized (John 1:10)

John says, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him” (John 1:10). To most people, He was just an ordinary man. Maybe a wise teacher, but just a man. This is why Pilate said to Him “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you” (John 19:10). To Pilate, Jesus was just a man. Yes, Pilate could see that he was innocent and did not deserve to die based on the charges against Him. But Pilate could not see that He was in fact God in the flesh.

Isaiah says: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa 53:2). Nothing special to look at!

He was Rejected (John 1:11)

John says it is not just that He was not known or recognized, but that He was also rejected, and worse, by His own people. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11).There is a beautiful song, which talks about how Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified in a tree that He Himself had created. This is the paradox of the Creator coming and living in our midst and not being known.

We see that although He was rejected by His own people, there were some outsiders who did not reject Him. Think of the Samaritan woman in John 4, and He was sought by Greek gentiles (John 12:20). Yet He was spurned by the official representatives of HIs own people.

His Glory Shone in Him (John 1:14)

“We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). So when Jesus cloaked Himself with humanity, His glory was veiled. It was hidden under His human body. It was so hidden, that He was unrecognized by the world. Isaiah says this about Him: As we have seen, Isaiah pointed out that there was nothing particularly attractive about the human body that Jesus took on, and when He was on the cross, it was actually repulsive to look at Him. Isaiah said: “as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa 53:2-3).

Yet, for those who had the eyes to see (and everyone is by default spiritually blind), He shone with glory. Do you remember that when the tabernacle and the temple were dedicated, the whole place was filled with the glory of God? It was so awesome that the people were afraid to look at it. We also see this when Isaiah had his commission. He had a vision of God exalted in glory, and the whole temple was filled with His glory. This God has now become man. He still has all of his glory, but it is hidden in His humanity. 

And His closest disciples, and a handful of others who He revealed Himself to, they saw in Him the radiant glory of God. Decades later when John thinks about those remarkable three years, he is still filled with amazement, and trips over His words as he contemplates the wonder: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us — that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you” (1 John 1:1-3).

He Gave Grace upon Grace out of His Fullness (John 1:16)

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16). This is fantastic news. God could have chosen to become flesh as judge and executioner. All of us would have been found guilty before Him and be sentenced to everlasting punishment. But He did not come in flesh in that way. He came to reveal a divine glory that is “full of grace and truth”. This will be a righteous, God-exalting, costly grace. It will lead straight to Jesus’ death on the cross. In fact, this is why He became flesh. He had to have flesh in order to die in our place (Heb 2:14-15). The Word became flesh so that the death of Jesus would be possible. The cross is where the fullness of His grace shines the most brightly. It is not a wishy-washy, sentimental grace.

Jesus is filled to the brim with all of the goodness and holiness of God. The abundant grace that poured out of Jesus, is in a sense, an overflow of His fullness. This grace is His over-abundant perfection brimming over and spilling to those He came in contact with on earth.

He Spoke Truth Sprinkled in Grace (John 1:14, John 1:17)

“We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Although Jesus came overflowing with grace, He also spoke truth – truth that was not comfortable to hear. It was the truth about our sinful condition. He once said “The world … hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil” (John 7:7). It is not pleasant if someone comes to us and says that everything we do is evil. But Jesus did that. The world hated Him for it, but it was the truth. Grace cannot shine as brightly, without the backdrop of the truth about our real condition. So the truth Jesus spoke was very hard. Most people could not receive it. Yet, the truth that Jesus spoke could have the effect of people receiving Jesus, and being saved from all the consequences of their condition. Grace without truth is too soft. Truth without grace is too hard. Grace and truth together is just right. Jesus had both of these in perfect balance.

John repeats this thought. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). John is talking about the mountain peaks of God’s revelation. Until now the Jews looked back to the time God gave His law through Moses. John is saying that there is a new peak of revelation – indeed a much higher one – the peak of the Word who became flesh, and who gave grace while speaking truth.

The Gospel of John was written by John, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus while He was on earth.

An Eyewitness

He was an eyewitness of Jesus, who witnessed the events recorded here, first hand. How do we know this?

Five times in this Gospel we find one of Jesus’ disciples referenced as: “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23, John 19:26, John 20:2, John 20:7, John 21:20). For example, we see him leaning on Jesus’ shoulder during the last supper (John 13:23). Then, at the very end it says, “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them” (John 21:20). And finally the author identifies himself! Four verses later he says, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things” (John 21:24).

There are other interesting curiosities. This Gospel never mentions the disciple John anywhere. This would not make sense, unless John himself was the author! Also, he refers to John the Baptist as just John. The other Gospel writers distinguish him to avoid confusion.

Inspired By God to Write

One of the reasons that I say it is divinely inspired is that this is what Jesus promised to do. He said: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26) And He also said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak” (John 16:13).

In other words, Jesus chose his apostles as his representatives, saved them, taught them, sent them, and then gave them, through the Holy Spirit, divine guidance in the writing of Scripture for the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20). We believe that John’s Gospel is therefore, the inspired word of God.

When was The Gospel of John Written?

There is nothing in the gospel itself that helps us see when it was written. For this we need to look at external evidence.

A papyrus fragment was found in Egypt in the early 2nd century, which gives us an upper bound to the date of John, given that it also needs to have been copied and to have been available in Egypt. The advanced theology in John makes it likely that it was written later. Many place it in the last decade of the 1st century, when John was an old man. However, other scholars think it had to be before AD 70 for two reasons. First, the destruction of Jerusalem is not mentioned here, and second, John does not use any of the material of the other three gospels. Regardless of when it was written, John had ample time to digest the significance of all that he had been an eye-witness of (and let us not forget, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would aid him in that), and that is clear from his choice of material.

Purpose – That We May Believe

The Gospel of John is a portrait of Jesus Christ and his saving work. It focuses on the last three years of Jesus’s life and especially on his death and resurrection. It’s purpose is clear near the end of the book: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).

Since John wants us to believe in Jesus, we find another theme running through the book. He peppers it with incidents of people who believe. Some have false belief, and some have true belief that saves. By providing us multiple examples, John is explaining what it means to truly believe in Jesus. We will point this out as we go through the gospel.

The book is written to help people believe in Jesus and have eternal life. Reading this gospel, we are confronted with a magnificent portrait of Jesus, and are also confronted with whether we choose to believe that He is who He said He is, or if He was an imposter or blasphemer. In order to do this, John records selected incidents and discourses from the life of Jesus, along with different people’s reactions to Him. All the while, John is inviting us the readers  to make our own decision about Jesus. His hope is that we will conclude that Jesus was really who He said He was, “the Christ the Son of God, and by believing we will have life in His Name”.

Intended Readers – Non-Christians and Christians

John carefully selects a few miracles of Jesus that he calls “signs”. They were intended to not just be miraculous acts, but things that Jesus did that acts as signposts to who He was.

John also lists a few statements called “I am” statements. This harks back to God speaking to Moses through the burning bush and revealing Himself as the “I am”. Jesus naturally takes up this title, and thus claims to be God. He even once said “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). We will be keeping our eyes out for these as well.

However, we should not assume that the book is meant just for unbelievers. Believers in Jesus must go on believing in Jesus in order to be saved in the end. Jesus said in John 15:6, “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” And in John 8:31, he said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples”.

In addition to awakening faith in people who have not put their faith in Jesus, it also sustains and strengthens the faith of those who do. And there may be no better book in the Bible to help us keep on trusting Jesus. Even as I study this book to teach it, my own faith is getting strengthened, as I pray will happen to each of you over the next few months.

In The Beginning Was The Word (John 1:1-3)

In this study, we will focus on the first three verses of John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

Jesus is “The Word”

The first statement is. “In the beginning was the Word.” What or who is this “Word”? The answer is made clear in verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14) The Word refers to Jesus Christ.

In this book, John is going to tell us the story of what Jesus Christ did and what he taught. This is a book about the life and work of the man Jesus Christ — the man that John knew and saw and heard and touched with his hands (1 John 1:1). He was a human being, and not a ghost or an apparition. He ate and drank and got tired. John knew this man intimately by having lived with him for three years. In addition, Jesus’s mother lived with John in the last part of her life (John 19:26).

John wants to tell us who Jesus is before we start reading about Him. For John it took over three years to really understand who Jesus was. He does not want his readers to play this guessing game. He tells us right up front. He wants us to have in our minds, fixed and clear, from the very beginning of his Gospel, about the eternal majesty and deity of Jesus Christ, and that He is the Creator of the universe.

Jesus in His Infinite Majesty

John wants us to read the gospel worship-fully, humbly submissively and full of awe at the man at the wedding, at the well, the one who could control the seas, heal a paralytic and make a man born blind to see – that He is the Creator of the universe. This is what John wants us to see and to feel as we read this. He wants us to think about the stupendous fact that this man was God. This is why John starts the book this way – the way God meant for him to put it together. You or I may have written this story along with a detailed commentary on the meanings of various events. John does none of that. He just lays it up front as to who Jesus is, and then invites us to see for ourselves. This is what Jesus told the first two disciples who approached Him: “Come and see” (John 1:39). This is what we are invited to do as well. To come, to see and to believe!

John says, “In the very first words out of the end of my pen, I will stun you and blow you away with the identity of this man who became flesh and dwelt among us.” John means for us to read every word of this Gospel with the clear, solid, amazed knowledge that Jesus Christ was with God and was God and that the one who laid down his life for us (John 15:13) created the universe. John wants us to know and believe in a magnificent Savior. Whatever else you may enjoy about Jesus, John wants you to know and see Jesus in his infinite majesty. This is why he says speaking of himself and the other disciples “We have seen His glory” (John 1:14). He wants us to see His glory too!

Why ‘Word’?

But still, we may wonder: why did he choose to call Jesus “the Word?” “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). For one thing, John has both Jewish and Gentile readers. He has his Gentile readers in mind, because he often explains Jewish customs in his narrative. Greek philosophy elevated reason to the highest place as the cause of the universe (the Greek word is Logos). Jewish readers thought about the creation of the world as described in Genesis and arising from God’s Word (“and God said … “). So by using this term, He was using a term that would be understood by all his readers. But John makes this “Word” personal. John had come to see the words of Jesus and the Person of Jesus as the embodiment of the truth of God in such a unified way that Jesus himself — in his coming, and working, and teaching, and dying and rising — was the final and decisive message of God. Or to put it more simply: what God had to say to us was not only or mainly what Jesus said, but who Jesus was and what he did. His words clarified himself and his work. But He Himself and his work were the main truth God was revealing. Jesus said, “I am the truth,” (John 14:6).

Jesus came to witness the truth (John 18:37) and he was the truth (John 14:6). His witness and his Person were the Word of truth. He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31), and he said, “Abide in me” (John 15:7). When we abide in him we are abiding in the word. He said that his works were a “witness” about him (John 5:36; 10:25). In other words, even in everything He did, He was the Word.

Jesus: God’s Decisive, Final Message

In Revelation 19:13 (by the same author as the Gospel), he describes Jesus’s glorious return: “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.” Jesus is called The Word of God, as he returns to earth. Two verses later John says, “From his mouth comes a sharp sword” (Revelation 19:15). In other words, Jesus strikes the nations in the power of the word of God that he speaks — the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). But the power of this word is so united with Jesus himself that John says that he doesn’t just have a sword of God’s word coming out of his mouth, but he is the Word of God.

So as John begins his Gospel, he has in view all the revelation, all the truth, all the witness, all the glory, all the light, all the words that come out of Jesus in his living and teaching and dying and rising, and he sums up all that revelation of God with the name: he is “the Word” — the first, final, ultimate, decisive, absolutely true and reliable Word. The meaning is the same as Hebrews 1:1–2: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb 1:1-2). The Son of God incarnate is God’s climactic and decisive Word to the world.

What does John Say About Jesus?

What does John want to tell us first about this man Jesus Christ whose deeds and words fill the pages of this Gospel? He wants to tell us four things about Jesus Christ: (1) the time of his existence, (2) the essence of his identity, (3) his relationship to God, and (4) his relationship to the world.

The Time of His Existence

John begins with: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). This is similar to how the Bible begins in Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). That is not an accident, because the first thing John is going to tell us about what Jesus did is that he created the universe. That’s what he says in verse 3. So the words “in the beginning” mean: before there was any created matter, before time existed there was the Word, the Son of God.

Remember: “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). John begins his Gospel by locating Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, even before time. Jude exults in this truth with his great doxology: “To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 1:25). Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God gave us grace in Christ Jesus “before the times of the ages.” So before there was any time or any matter, there was the Word, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That is who we will meet in this Gospel.

The Essence of His Identity

Verse 1 ends: “The Word was God” (Gen 1:1). One of the marks of this Gospel is that the weightiest doctrines are often delivered in the simplest words. Someone has said that it is good for a child to wade and an elephant to swim! This could not get simpler — and it could not get deeper. The Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ, was and is God.

Every Christian worships Jesus Christ as God. We fall down with Thomas before Jesus in John 20:28 and confess with joy and wonder, “My Lord and my God!”

When we hear the Jewish leaders say in John 10:33, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God” we are invited to think, “No, this is not blasphemy. This is who our Savior really is! Our Lord, our God.”

Think about this for a moment. This means that as we study this Gospel, we are getting to know God, because getting to know Jesus is getting to know God. Do you see what this means for our series on the Gospel of John? It means that we are going to spend week after week getting to know God, as we get to know Jesus. Do you want to know God? Then “Come and see”!

His Relationship to God

The middle of verse 1 says: “The Word was with God” (John 1:1). This is the heart of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Jesus was with God. He was different to God, yet He was also “God”.

Let this statement sink in your minds. The Word, Jesus Christ was with God, and he was God. He is God, and he has a relationship with God. He is God, and he is the image of God, perfectly reflecting all that God is and standing forth from all eternity as the fullness of deity in a distinct Person. There is one divine essence and three persons. Two of them are mentioned here. The Father and the Son. We learn those names later on in the book. The Holy Spirit will be introduced later.

This may be hard to understand, but God has given us this truth for a reason. Let us not discard it because we do not understand it. If Jesus Christ is not God, he could not have saved us. But because He is God, He will be able to satisfy the deepest longings and aspirations of our souls for all eternity. This is why He describes Himself as Living Water, so that if we drink of Him we will never thirst again. As Piper says: “If you throw away the deity of Jesus Christ, you throw away your soul and with it all your joy in the age to come”.

His Relationship to the World

John continues: “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:2-3). The Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, taught us, healed us, rebuked us, protected us, loved us, and died for us, created the universe. Remember to retain the mystery of the Trinity from verse 1. Don’t leave it as soon as you get to verse 3. “All things were made through him.” Yes, another was acting through the Word. God was. But the Word is God. Therefore, don’t let yourself diminish the majesty of the work of Christ as Creator. He was the Father’s agent, or Word, in the creation of all things. But in doing it, he was God. God, the Word, created the world. Your Savior, your Lord, your Friend — Jesus is your Maker.

John makes one more statement here, that affirms that Jesus is God Himself. Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus was not God, but was the highest created Being. John 3 sets that to rest once and for all. He did not just say, “All things were made through him.” You might think that is enough to settle it. Jesus is not a creature he created creatures. But someone could conceivably argue, “Yes, but ‘all things’ does not include himself.” It includes everything but himself. So he was created by the Father, but then with the Father created all other things.

But John did not leave it at that. He said, in addition “and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). What do these final words “that was made” add to the meaning of “without him was not anything made”? They add this: they make explicit and emphatic and crystal clear that anything in the category of made, Christ made it. Therefore, Jesus was not “made”. He always was! He is the eternal “I am”.

May God enable us to see His glory!

He then ends by showing that this will be demonstrated in our attitudes to each other: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Gal 5:26). Paul writes something similar in his letter to the Ephesians: “Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18). This includes “addressing one another (Eph 5:19) and “submitting to one another (Eph 5:21).

The point he is trying to make is that bearing the fruit of the Spirit is not some isolated, mystical experience, but it manifests itself in practical outworkings of love and care that we should have for each other. It is easy to talk about love in a detached, isolated way. In this section, Paul shows that love has to be displayed in real, practical ways.

Bear One Another’s Burdens (Gal 6:1-5)

It is the Loving Thing to Do

Paul says “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). The immediate assumption is that we all have burdens, and we are not meant to carry these burdens alone.

Some people try to bear them alone. They think it is a sign of strength and fortitude. But this is more stoical than Christian.

Others think they should only take their burdens to the Lord. They think of verses like “Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you” (Psa 55:22), and that Jesus invited those with heavy burdens to come to him (Matt 11:28). True, Jesus can carry all our burdens and we are to cast our burdens on Him for He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). But we should not forget that one of the ways God cares for us is through human friendship.

It Fulfills the Law

Human friendship in which we share each other’s burdens is part of God’s purpose for His people. So we should not keep our burdens to ourselves, but seek to share it with other believers, who can bear the load with us. By this kind of burden-bearing, we “fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).

In doing so, Paul is making a side swipe at the Judaizers. They were adding to their burdens. Paul is saying that true Christians do not add to other’s burdens but carry it alongside them. Jesus gave his disciples a “New Commandment” that they “love one another” as He loved them (John 13:34). Loving one another is not some heroic form of self-sacrifice most of the time. Rather, it is the everyday, mundane task of walking alongside other Christians and sharing their burdens. Similarly, we need to be humble enough to share ours with others as well.

It Demonstrates Humility

Paul goes on to say: “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, deceives himself” (Gal 6:3). The thought is, that if we think that bearing others’ burdens is beneath us, then we are deceiving ourselves. The truth is, that we are not something. We are nothing. This is not an exaggeration. We ourselves deserved to experience the wrath of God and condemnation to eternal torment in hell. Our salvation was a free gift that we did not deserve. That is the heart of the gospel. So we are never superior to any of our Christian brothers or sisters who get tripped into sin. We are no better. So in humility and gentleness, we can seek to restore them without judging them. We saw in our last study, that the opposite of love is to “bite and devour one another” (Gal 5:15).

The transgressions Paul is referring to may not be obvious sins. Possibly the transgression the believer falls into is faltering faith. Perhaps the heavy burden makes them doubt the goodness of God. By coming alongside the struggling believer and bearing their burden, we are also helping them see the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

Paul points out that the restoration needs to be done “in a spirit of gentleness” (Gal 6:1). Paul adds, “keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted” (Gal 6:1). Perhaps we can also be tripped up by the same sin, but it is also possible for us to be tripped up by the sin of self-righteousness and pride. We need to be aware that we are no better, and only then can we truly come alongside a fellow believer and restore them. This takes a whole lot of love as well as courage. Jesus compares it to eye surgery (Matt 7:1-5)

A Practical Way to Fight Against Conceit

Paul then gives us a practical way to fight against becoming conceited. He says we should not compare ourselves with one another, but rather, “let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone, and not in his neighbor” (Gal 6:4). 

The reason we become proud (or sink into despair) is that we tend to compare ourselves with others. Paul here gives us the practical advice – “don’t do that”! We have the Word of God, and we have the Holy Spirit. So let us judge ourselves by God’s standards, without comparing ourselves with other people. When we see how far we keep falling short, that will keep us humble. Paul concludes this thought by saying “for each will have to bear his own load” (Gal 6:5) – meaning, each of us is accountable to God for our actions alone, not those of others. (Note that this verse does not contradict verse 2. This is like a small back-pack – our accountability before God. The other is like a burden that is too heavy for us to bear, and we are to share that with others).

Sowing and Reaping (Gal 6:6-10)

The Law of Harvest

Paul now talks about a fundamental principle. “Whatever one sows, that he will also reap” (Gal 6:8). This is a principle of order and consistency that exists in all of life. A farmer sows during seed-time, and reaps in the harvest. If he sows barley seeds, he will get a barley crop. If he sows rice, he will get a crop of rice. He cannot sow wheat and expect a crop of grapes. Similarly, if he sows good seed, he can expect a good crop. If he forgets to sow, then come harvest, there will be nothing to reap. If he sows plentifully, he can expect a plentiful crop. If he sows sparingly, he can expect a small crop (see 2 Cor 9:6).

It is not the reapers who decide what the harvest will be like. It is the person who does the sowing, who determines what the harvest will be like! Hosea warned his contemporaries, “those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).

This is a fundamental law of nature. Paul makes his point clear with a command “Do not be deceived” (Gal 6:7) and a statement “God is not mocked” (Gal 6:7). The possibility of being deceived is mentioned several times in the New Testament. After all, Satan is a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44). There are many who think there will be no consequences for their actions. They think they can get away with it. That is why Paul points out that God will not be mocked.

So there are three kinds of sowing that Paul talks about here. The point he is making is that by sowing the right things, we will reap a good harvest, so ultimately we will be the ones with the greater blessing!

Take Care of Those Who Feed Us Spiritually

The first thing Paul talks about is to sow into the ministry of our local churches. Our pastors and church staff need to be supported, and it is our duty to provide for their needs. As they nourish our souls spiritually, we should provide support to their physical needs.

Yes, this will bless the minister. But actually there is a bigger blessing for us! This is what Paul explains to the Philippians. “it was kind of you to share my trouble. … Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit … And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:14-19). The Philippians had provided for Paul to “share his trouble” (Phil 4:14), and these seeds that were sown, as it were, would cause fruit to increase to their credit! This caused Paul to “rejoice in the Lord, greatly” (Phil 4:10).

Sow to the Spirit and Not to the Flesh

The next thing Paul mentions is sowing to the Spirit, or in other words, to fight the battle for holiness. 

The Bible makes it clear that we are not helpless victims of our nature, temperament and our environment. Who we become tomorrow is shaped by how we behave today. So the Holy Spirit is likened both to the path that we walk as well as the field where we sow. How can we expect to reap the fruit of the Spirit if we do not sow into the field of the Spirit?

This saying is true:

• Sow a thought, reap an act
• Sow an act, reap a habit
• Sow a habit, reap a character
• Sow a character, reap a destiny.

In our last study, we saw the works of the flesh. Sowing to the flesh is to pander to the desires of our flesh rather than crucifying it. Every lingering bad thought we have, every time we are in bad company, every time we decide to sleep and not to pray – all of these are seeds that we are sowing to the flesh. Some Christians, myself included: sow to the flesh every day, and wonder why they are not becoming holy. Paul says, “God is not mocked”. Holiness is a harvest. Whether we reap it or not depends entirely on what we sow.

On the other hand, to sow to the Spirit is the same as to “set our mind on the Spirit”, or to “walk in” or “keep in step with” the Spirit. Again, we sow with our thoughts and our deeds. The books we read, the music we listen to, all of this can be sowing to the Spirit. We are to “set our minds on things above, not things of the earth” (Col 3:2).

The two harvests come from two sowings. The results are logical. If we sow to the flesh, we will “from the flesh reap corruption” (Gal 6:8), but if we sow to the Spirit, we “will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal 6:8).

Do Good to Others, Specially Believers

Then  Paul talks about doing good to others. He says we should do this “as we have opportunity” (Gal 6:10). This earthly life is full of opportunity. 

Our first responsibility is to those “who are of the household of faith” (Gal 6:10). This means other fellow-believers. As the saying goes, “charity begins at home”. Christians claim our first loyalty.

However, this then extends to everyone else. We are even commanded to “love our enemies” (Matt 5::44).

Do Not Grow Weary

And as Paul winds up this section, he reminds us that much patience is required. He knows that we will be tempted to get weary. So he exhorts us “let us not grow weary in well-doing” (Gal 6:9). Active Christian work is tiring, and we are tempted to give up and to “slack off”.

So Paul gives us an incentive with a promise. “In due season we shall reap if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9). The seed that we plant does not bear fruit immediately. There are seasons of waiting. Paul tells us to stick with it. We need to “wait on the Lord” (Isa 40:31), for His harvest in His time. And the promise is, that harvest is coming! Our patience is evidence of saving faith.

The Cross is All that Really Matters (Gal 6:11-18)

Until now, Paul has been most likely dictating his letter. But as he does in most of his letters, he ends the letter with a few words by his own hand. Sometimes it is just a final greeting or a signature. The reason Paul did this was to guarantee his letter against forgery. In this case it is several sentences.

Some Boast in the Flesh

The Judaizers “boast” in the flesh. Paul says several things about them.

1. They are braggarts. forcing the Galatians to become circumcised in order to “make a good showing in the flesh” (Gal 6:12). They were more interested in numbers and statistics than the souls of the people.
2. They are compromisers. Another reason Paul gives is that they want to avoid being persecuted (Gal 6:12)
3. They are persuaders
4. They are hypocrites – they themselves do not keep the law (Gal 6:13).

The key point is that they are doing these things to exalt themselves. Paul goes on to talk about his motivation. It is not himself, It is the cross of Jesus; i.e., it is the work that Jesus did on His behalf that he wants to proclaim from the roof-tops.

We Should Boast only in the Cross

Paul says “far be it for me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 6:14). He goes on to say that the cross is “by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). This reminds us of what he wrote in Gal 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. As far as Paul is concerned, the cross of Jesus shattered every confidence he used to have in the flesh. He was willing to “crucify” it all for the sake of his relationship with Jesus Christ as a part of Abraham’s lineage of faith.

Application

So here are some ways we can evaluate our own faith.

Is our faith inward or outward?

Paul says: “for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision” (Gal 6:15). The point is that circumcision is an outward symbol. Yes it is meant to signify something. But it should never be exalted to the position of a required “work”.

In our world today, the critical issue may not be circumcision. But for example, thinking about baptism and nit-picking how it is to be done or to whom it is to be done, or worse still, thinking that baptism is a necessity for salvation, brings all the issues that Paul is so strongly opposed to in this letter. Yes, baptism is an important part of a Christian’s life. But it can never be a requirement for salvation. If anyone says it is, then they are nullifying the work of Christ on the cross for our salvation, for precisely the same reasons that Paul says the Judaizers are. So we need to be careful to put baptism, and every other tradition we may practice, in its right place. What really matters for salvation, is that we become children of God, through faith in the completed work of Christ for us on the cross. Everything else is secondary. That is why Paul is willing to boast only on the cross.

Paul says “I bear the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:17), meaning, he has scars from all his suffering for Jesus, that proves that he is not self-serving and is willing to sacrifice his very life for his faith.

Is our faith human or is it divine?

Paul also goes on to say “neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15). The new creation is the new birth that we experience when we put our trust in Jesus. It is being “born of the Spirit” or “born again”, as Jesus put it. Ultimately, that is all that matters. Am I born again? Is the Holy Spirit living in me? That determines everything. That is how I bear the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 5, and that is how my new life in Christ grows.

Paul concludes: “And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16). As children of God, peace with God and mercy follows, and we are the “true” Israel of God. The spiritual Israel. The spiritual descendants of Abraham! Paul’s final benediction is “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen” (Gal 6:18).

Janagaṇamana-adhināẏaka jaẏa hē
Bhāratabhāgyabidhātā!
Pañjāba Sindhu Gujarāta Marāṭhā
Drābiṛa Utkala Baṅga
Bindhya Himācala Yamunā Gaṅgā
Ucchalajaladhitaraṅga
Taba śubha nāmē jāgē,
Taba śubha āśiṣa māgē,
Gāhē taba jaẏagāthā.
Janagaṇamaṅgaladāẏaka jaẏa hē
Bhāratabhāgyabidhātā!
Jaẏa hē, jaẏa hē, jaẏa hē,
jaẏa jaẏa jaẏa jaẏa hē.

The following link is a very powerful rendition, sung by many famous Indian singers.

The Indian National Anthem is actually a prayer, which can be translated in this way:

You are the ruler of the minds of all people,
Dispenser of India’s destiny.
Your name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat and Maratha,
Of the Dravida, Utkala and Bengal;
It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,
mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is
chanted by the waves of the Indian Ocean.
They pray for Your blessings and sing Your praise.
The saving of all people waits in Your hand,
You dispenser of India’s destiny.
Victory, victory, victory to You.

Jesus is the God who is described in this prayer, although the poet Nobel prize winner Rabindranath Tagore did not realize it. Below, I have broken down this translation along with corresponding verses in the Bible ascribing these attributes to Jesus.

The National Anthem reminds me of a passage in Acts 17:23. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. There is an urgency, because the Bible says:The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a Man [Jesus] whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:30). May God reveal Himself in truth and glory to all the people of this great nation.

For example, India celebrated our freedom from the British on August 15, 1947. Indians felt that British colonialism was oppressive, and so celebrated their freedom in independence. There are economists who believe in free trade, and the lifting of tariffs. Capitalists hate constraints from central controls because they hinder free enterprise. Communists desire freedom from capitalistic exploitation.

Paul’s point becomes clearer when we think of those who want “free sex” or “free love”. These are people who do not like the constraints society puts on our behavior and think that to break out of these social norms is freedom. A teenager may have considered themselves free when he or she left the home, but ended up becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. Is that really true freedom? Whatever other kind of freedom this may be, we can say clearly, that this is not Christian freedom.

Jesus said “anyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Slavery is not freedom. So the discerning reader may ask,  “What is true Christian freedom”? So Paul spends the rest of Galatians chapter 5, to clearly define for us the meaning of true Christian freedom.

Before we dig in, let me give you a thousand foot view of Paul’s answer, by way of an illustration. Consider a railway train. It is free to go to any part of India it pleases. But suppose the train were to think: “I hate being forced to only go on these railway tracks. It is so constraining! Oh to be truly and completely free! I am going to break train etiquette and go wherever I please, in the fields and over the hills”. What would happen to the train? We would have a train wreck! A train is truly free, when it does exactly what it was designed to do by its maker, and that includes only moving only on the tracks designed for it. For the same reason, we would call the addicted teenager described earlier, as a “train wreck”! This is because human beings are truly free and can flourish, only when we stay within the boundaries God has designed for us, that Paul describes as “fulfilling the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). James describes this as the “perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25).

Freedom, legalism and license (Gal 5:13-15)

We can think of human behavior on a linear scale. On the one end is the bondage of legalism. On the other end is “license” – doing whatever we feel like doing. Somewhere between these two extremes, lies Christian freedom. This is what we saw last week:. “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). Here Paul says “you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Gal 5:13). So if you picture a Christian in a state of true Christian freedom, he needs to guard against once again submitting to the yoke of slavery of legalism, and he also has to guard against making this an “opportunity for the flesh”, i.e. licentiousness. He goes on to say: “through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:13-14).

Paul is referring to the moral law – i.e. the last 6 commandments – honoring parents, not murdering, committing adultery, not stealing, not lying about people, and not coveting other people’s goods. All of these are covered if we truly love others. In other words, God’s law had a purpose. It has the effect of being our “railway tracks”. The problem was that the law cannot save us, as we have seen. However, once we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts, and empowers us to actually “fulfill” the law. Otherwise we would “bite and devour one another”, and be “consumed by one another” (Gal 5:15). He also says: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Gal 5:26). How could this be freedom?

Before we move on, I would like to make an important observation about this verse: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The most common error is to assume that this is a command to love yourself and that self-love means self-esteem. Both of these assumptions are wrong! As we read the explanation by Moses (Leviticus 19:18) and Jesus (Luke 10:27), they assume that all people love themselves; so they don’t command it. We should understand it to mean “You shall love your neighbor in the same way as you already love yourself.” And the self-love they assume is not self-esteem but self-interest: all people want to be happy, even if they often don’t know what will really make them happy. We know that this is what it means, because Paul says so explicitly in Ephesians 5:28–29. “Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church.” In other words, self-love means the strong interest you have in your own health and safety and happiness. To take this command to mean “you need to love yourself first”, you are stripping this verse of its power.

To summarize, we see:

• Christian freedom is not freedom to indulge in self-centered desires
• Christian freedom is not freedom to exploit my neighbor
• Christian freedom is not freedom to disregard the law

This is why even though the gospel says that our salvation does not require us to keep the demands of the law, our salvation “frees” us to fulfil the requirements of the law through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The battle within (Gal 5:16-18)

Paul goes on to say “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16).

What does Paul mean by the phrase: “the desires of the flesh”? When Paul uses the term “flesh”, he does not mean our physical bodies. He means “our fallen sinful nature”. So this phrase includes all the natural sinful desires and tendencies that we have”. More simply “the flesh” refers to everything we desire due to our natural birth, and “the spirit” refers to everything we desire through our new birth in Christ. The Bible never says that by nature we are morally neutral by default so that we can choose a path either towards good or towards evil. Rather, the Bible teaches us that in our natural state, our desires are all opposed to God.

In contrast, the indwelling Holy Spirit within us gives us new desires – “the desires of the Spirit” (Gal 5:17). These desires are in direct opposition to the desires of the flesh, and that causes an intense inner struggle, that will never ease up all our lives. In a similar passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. (Rom 8:5-8). However, the purpose of the gospel and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit is given “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom 8:4).

Thus every Christian is in the middle of an internal civil war. This battle is unique to Christians. It is not that non-Christians do not sometimes wrestle to make good moral choices. However, because the Holy Spirit plants completely new desires within us, our sinful nature opposes it actively, and the battle has an intensity and ferocity that only Christians experience.

The works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21)

Paul starts off by saying “the works of the flesh are evident” (Gal 5:19). In other words, it is pretty obvious because this behavior is clearly wrong.

Sexual indulgence (public and private)

The first three sins Paul lists are “sexual immorality, impurity and sensuality” (Gal 5:19). The word for immorality is sometimes translated “fornication”. It means sexual intercourse between unmarried people, and includes any kind of “unlawful” sexual behavior. We could translate “impurity” as “unnatural vice”, and “sensuality” as “indecency”, alluding to an open and flagrant contempt of propriety. These words together include every kind of sexual sin, whether a person is married or unmarried, whether it is done in public or in private, and whether it is “natural” or “unnatural”.

Spiritual sins

The next two sins listed at “idolatry” and “sorcery” (Gal 5:20). First of all note, that these sins are no less serious than the sexual sins. Idolatry is the flagrant worship of other gods or idols, and sorcery involves dabbling with the powers of evil. Both of these kinds of sins are highly displeasing to God. 

Let us not be too quick to say that we are not idolaters. You can think of an idol as any person or thing that takes the place of our allegiance that only God deserves. Calvin said “the human heart is an idol factory”. Vanita and I have shared elsewhere how God used our circumstances to shatter some idols in our lives that we may not have recognized – idols of social status, and of our childrens’ success that we craved. God severely disciplined me to shatter the idol of intellectual pride and spiritual arrogance that I had. He allowed my own illusions of righteousness to come crashing to the ground, to expose my morality as a house of cards, and therefore not as a fruit of the spirit, but a work of the flesh. I think many of us middle class Christians need to evaluate our lives, and ask God to show us our own idols so that we “know our enemy” and can fight against them.

Sorcery includes witchcraft, tarot cards, etc., and also superstitious practices we may have that do not honor God.

Social sins 

The remaining sins listed are “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal 5:19.20). As you can see, these things are the exact opposite of loving our neighbors the way we are supposed to.

A strong warning (Gal 5:21)

Paul gives a strong warning here. “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who practise such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:21). Living according to the flesh means we will not go to heaven! Since God’s kingdom is one of godliness, righteousness and self-control, those who indulge in these things are excluded from it.

How do we reconcile this with the truth of the gospel we have been studying all these weeks? If there is nothing we need to do except trust Jesus for salvation, how is Paul saying that if we indulge in the deeds of the flesh we will not inherit the kingdom of God? The answer is that when the gospel truly takes root in a person’s heart, and the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence, we “cannot” continue indulging in the works of the flesh. He says it this way in Romans: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:13-14). To be a Christian is to be led by the Holy Spirit, and He will never lead us to indulge in the deeds of the flesh.

This passage is consistent with the rest of the New Testament. This is why Jesus often talks about looking at our fruit as evidence of salvation. This is also James’ point in his letter. It is easy to externally profess faith. True evidence of saving faith is seen by our behavior.

The fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23)

Paul has so far described our natural desires apart from Christ. We are being encouraged not to indulge in them.

However, our salvation does not just enable us to resist the “deeds of the flesh”. It enables us to actually make positive choices through the power of the Holy Spirit, that Paul describes as the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5:22). The Holy Spirit is mentioned no less than nine times in the fifth chapter of Galatians.

The fruit of the Spirit is singular. The things described here do not exist in isolation, so that we get some but not others. Think of them as parts of the same cluster of fruit.

God-ward (love, joy, peace)

These first three parts of the cluster come from our relationship with God. Our love is our love toward God. Our chief joy is the joy we have in knowing God. Our deepest peace is our peace with God. These are an anchor to our souls in the midst of the most difficult circumstances.

Other-ward (patience, kindness, goodness)

Patience refers to putting up with one another’s faults and failures. The Bible says: “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col 3:13) and also, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love” (Eph 4:2). Kindness is the way we treat others, and goodness is our words and our deeds.

Inward (faithfulness, gentleness, self-control)

Faithfulness refers to the reliability of a Christian, and gentleness refers to an attitude of humble meekness that we see exemplified by Jesus. Both of these require self-control.

Finally, Paul says “against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:23). The purpose of the law is to curb, to restrain, to deter. None of these have to be done when one has the fruit of the Spirit.

The way of Christian victory (Gal 5:24-26)

As we have seen, Christians have a unique internal struggle. We are in civil war within ourselves. Paul is very careful to ensure that he does not say we need to strive hard and beat the flesh. Why, because the truth of the matter is, it is impossible.

Paul describes this battle in Romans. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Rom 7:15, 18-19).

So where does this leave us? Are we just to be helpless and say that we cannot help continuing to do wrong things? The answer is “no”! We are not left on our own to fight this battle. We have the Holy Spirit living within us. And the Holy Spirit gives us the strength to win battles though we may lose some. But His Presence in our lives will enable us to eventually win the war. How do we go about this?

We must “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24)

Paul says “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). What does Paul mean? Paul is just using the same words Jesus used when he said “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Paul is expanding on this metaphor. We should not only take up our crosses and walk with it, but we need to ensure that the execution takes place. We are actually to take our wilful and wayward selves and nail them to the cross.

This metaphor enables us to say that it will be painful, but that this is a choice we need to make. The secret of our holiness is in how decisive our repentance is. If we are plagued by besetting sins, it means either we have never really repented, or that we did repent, but have then ceased to take it seriously.

When we are tempted to have a sinful thought, we need to consciously kick it out of our minds, and stop indulging in it. Or to stay with the metaphor, we need to crucify our flesh and leave it there on the cross.

We must “live by” or “keep in step with” the Spirit” (Gal 5:25)

There are two things Paul says about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. First, that He is the one leading us (Gal 5:18). However, it is a mistake to think that all we need to do is to surrender to His leading. Paul says second, that we are choosing to walk with Him as He leads (Gal 5:16).

If “crucifying the flesh” is to choose to reject what is wrong, then “walking by the Spirit” is to choose to do what is right. This requires discipline and self-control (which is one of the fruits of the Spirit).

Application

This passage is very relevant to us today. It helps us clearly understand the relationship between “liberty”, “license”, “law” and “love”.

There is a real battle within us. However, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, who enables us to experience real victory. Victory is within our reach. As we fight this war, we will gradually start winning battles and progress in holiness and become more godly in our character. That is the fruit of the Spirit living in us.

So the challenge for each of us is, to persevere with this fight, and to prevail because of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives.

In Gal 4:21-31, Paul refers to a well-known Old Testament story about Hagar and Sarah. He then draws theological implications from the story, and finally applies it to us today. He says that in a manner of speaking,  all of mankind can be classified as spiritual descendants of one of two mothers – Hagar and Sarah. He then goes on to talk about the implications of this in Gal 5:1-12. We who believe the gospel are the ones who are Sarah’s spiritual descendants, and it means we are completely free in Christ. However, if we try to earn favor with God, we automatically forfeit all the benefits of the gospel. The gospel is exclusive. We need to either accept it as a free gift from God in Christ Jesus, or we would be “fallen from grace” and “severed from Christ”. The implications are very serious. This is the main reason Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians.

The Example of Sarah and Hagar (Gal 4:21-31)

He starts off by facing the false teachers directly. “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you listen to the law”? (Gal 4:21). We can ask: who are those “who desire to be under the law”? Certainly it applies to Jews, and to the Judaizers who had infiltrated the church. But it also applies to every person alive today who thinks we need to do something to earn favor with God – basically every one of us, before we knew Christ. So let us see what Paul has to say!

To make his point, Paul first looks at the historical situation, then makes a theological argument, and finally applies it to us today.

The History (Gal 4:22-23)

Paul is drawing extensively on Old Testament History here. This was well known to the Jewish readers in Galatia. However, for those who are not familiar with the Bible, this can be very confusing. So let us walk through the Old Testament story of Abraham that is being referenced here. We will look at the incidents of Abraham’s life according to his age at the time they occurred.

Abraham at 75: God calls Abraham to go to Canaan, and promises him many children – too many to even count. At this time, Sarah is barren (Gen 12:1-9). In obedience, Abraham packs his bags and leaves, trusting God in faith (see Heb 11:8).

Abraham at 85: 10 years later, the promised son still hasn’t arrived. Sarah becomes impatient, and tells Abraham to have a child through her Egyptian slave maid Hagar. Abraham agrees and thus they both take matters into their own hands because they do not trust that God will fulfill His promise without some help (Gen 16:1-3)!

Abraham at 86: Hagar gets pregnant, and Sarah becomes jealous. We may think we can do things better than God, but the outcome may not turn out the way we planned, and it can be painful. It gets so hard for Hagar that she runs away. God intervenes and sends Hagar back, promising to take care of her. Then she bears a son, who Abraham names Ishmael (Gen 16:4-16).

Abraham at 99: 13 years later, God appears to Abraham and promises him a son through Sarah and tells him to name that son Isaac  (Gen 17:15-19)! Sarah is past the age of child-bearing at this point. Later God makes the same promise to Sarah (Gen 18:9-11). She laughs at the thought, but lies about it when confronted by God (Gen 18:12-15). Sarah laughed, because she knew that it would need a miracle for this child of promise to be born. Things got even more complicated at this time when Abraham again acts in fear and lies to King Abimelek that Sarah was his sister. Abimelek takes Sarah to his harem, but God graciously intervenes and prevents the king from touching Sarah, and warns the king to return Sarah to Abraham immediately (Gen 20:1-18). Do not miss that fact that God waited 24 years after he made his promise to Abraham. In fact, God waited until Abraham and Sarah were “as good as dead” (Rom 4:19). 

Abraham at 100: Exactly as promised, Sarah bears a son, who they call Isaac (Gen 21:1-3). He was the son of promise, and God accomplished this promise through humanly impossible odds.

Abraham at 103: There is a celebration after Isaac is weaned at age 3. At this time Ishmael who is now 17, mocks Isaac. Sarah sees only one solution to this problem but this is a costly one. Both the slave Hagar and her son Ishmael should be cast out of the family. This breaks Abraham’s heart, but God confirms that Abraham should do this and both Hagar and Ishmael are “cast out” (Gen 21:8-14).

Reading this, it just appears to be the story of a family problem. However, beneath the surface are meanings of tremendous spiritual implications. Abraham, the two mothers Hagar and Sarah, and the two sons Ishmael and Isaac, represent two different spiritual realities, as Paul will go on to explain.

One of the things that caused Jews most pride was that Abraham was the father of their race. God had made a divine covenant with Abraham and his descendants, so Jews thought they were eternally and irrevocably safe. This is why John the baptist warned them: “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise children to Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Similarly, when Jesus taught the Jews: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32), they responded: “Abraham is our father, and we have never been enslaved to anyone” (John 8:33,39). Jesus then said that their actions proved that spiritually they were not children of Abraham, but children of the Devil (see John 8:39, 44).

Paul elaborates on what John the Baptist and Jesus had taught. He said that true descendants of Abraham could be either a Jew or a Gentile. “If you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:14).

So there is a double-descent from Abraham. The false and the true. Paul sees this illustrated in Abraham’s two sons Ishmael and Isaac. Both had Abraham as their father. But there are two important differences between them.

• One was the son of a slave, the other of a free woman. Ishmael and Isaac took after their mothers. So one was a slave, the other was free.
• In a sense Ishmael was born “of the flesh”. His birth was done completely apart from God in a totally natural way. On the other hand, Isaac was born because of God’s promise. His father was 100 years old, and his mother who was barren, was 90 and past the age of child-bearing. Ishmael was born according to nature. Isaac was born against nature, supernaturally, because of an exceptional promise of God.

Allegorical interpretation (Gal 4:24-27)

Although this was a human story, there is a deep spiritual meaning to it. The two women Hagar and Sarah, stand for two covenants – the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

It is hard to understand the bIble without an understanding of the two covenants. After all, the bible is divided into two parts – the Old and the New Testaments, meaning the Old and the New Covenants. A covenant is a solemn agreement between God and men. God established the Old Covenant through Moses, and the New Covenant through Jesus. Remember how Jesus said during the last supper: “This is my blood of the New Covenant …” (1 Cor 11:25). The people under the Old Covenant were Jews, but the people under the New Covenant are Christians. The law was given at Mount Sinai in Arabia representing the present Jerusalem (Gal 4:25), but Christians worship in the “Jerusalem from above” (Gal 4:26), or the New Jerusalem that the book of Revelations talks about (Rev 21:2).

Let us see what the apostle writes about the two women Hagar and Sarah.

Hagar is the mother who bore her son in slavery, and this stands for those under the Old Covenant of the Mosaic law. She also represents the present Jerusalem, for “she is in slavery with her children” (Gal 4:25). 

Sarah is different. She is our spiritual mother, representing those from the “Jerusalem above” (Gal 4:16). As Christians we are under the New Covenant. Our citizenship in this New Jerusalem is not bondage but freedom.

Paul then goes on to quote from Isaiah: “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband” (Isa 54:1). This prophecy was made to the Israelites who had been driven away from their land in exile. The prophet likens them to a barren woman whose husband has turned away. He says that the future state will be a restoration to a fruitful mother with more children than ever. In other words, God promises that his people will be more numerous after their return than they were before. This did not happen when the Jews returned from exile. Paul is saying that the real fulfillment was spiritual. He is saying that the growth of the Christian church is the true fulfillment of the promise, and that Christians are the true spiritual descendants of Abraham.

I would like to make a small, but important digression here, so that we can spend some time digesting the significance of this quote from the Old Testament. God is promising to add children into His family from the far reaches of the world. This means that there is something far more significant than bearing physical children. If we are believers, then sharing the gospel and adding new “children” into God’s family is better than having physical children. Paul, for example, called the Galatians “my little children” (Gal 4:19), and the apostle John says: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth” (3 John 1:3). This is good news for married couples who have not been able to have children and also for single men and women, including those who are divorced or widowed. They also can play a significant role in God’s Kingdom by adding spiritual children or by discipling them. This is why Isaiah says: “Rejoice, O barren one” (Isa 54:1). Everything radically changed after Jesus came. Remember that when his family came to take him home thinking he was mad, he looked around at his disciples and said, “here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my mother and brother and sister” (Mark 3:34-35). In a sense our “real” family is no longer our physical families, but our eternal, spiritual one. As adopted children of God, we have a much larger group of brothers and sisters – and they constitute our “real” family. If you struggle because you have not been able to have children, or if God has called you to be single for whatever reason, or if you are still waiting for God to show you the right person to marry, take heart. Invest your lives in fulfilling the Great Commission, and your lives will be truly significant and fulfilling. Jesus was single and was the most complete human being who ever lived. We don’t know if the apostle Paul was ever married, but we do know that he was single when God called him, and that he remained single for the rest of his life. Yet God used him in such a powerful way spread the gospel in the first generation, and 2000 years later we are also the fruit of his labor.

Anyway, let us get back to Paul’s argument. Paul has used the story of Sarah and Hagar to illustrate freedom in Christ and bondage apart from Christ. Both Isaac and Ishmael were sons of Abraham, however they were very different. Similarly, Paul is saying that the real question spiritually is: who is our mother. Is it Hagar or is it Sarah?

Practical Implications (Gal 4:28-31)

Having drawn the parallel between the historical story of Hagar and Sarah with Jews and Christians, Paul goes on to elaborate on the consequences by way of application.

Namely, if we are Isaac’s descendants, we can expect to be treated the way Isaac was treated. The treatment that Isaac got from his half-brother Ishmael is the treatment Isaac’s descendants can expect from Ishmael’s descendants. And the treatment that Isaac got from his father Abraham is the treatment that Isaac’s descendants can expect from God (Gal 4:28).

We must expect Persecution (Gal 4:29): Isaac was weaned and was a boy of 3 years old. Ishmael was 17. We do not know the details of exactly how Ishmael persecuted Isaac, because we only read that he “laughed” or “mocked” Isaac (Gen 21:9). Yet it is clear that Isaac was the subject of Ishmael’s scorn and derision.

We must expect the same. The persecution of the true spiritual descendants of Abraham is not always from the world, who are strangers and unrelated to us. It can come from our half-brothers – religious people, those who are just nominally in the church. Jesus was bitterly opposed and ultimately killed, by His own people the Jews. The fiercest opponents of the Apostle Paul also came from the Jews. The greatest enemies of Christians today are not unbelievers. Many of them embrace the gospel when they hear it. The greatest enemies often come from within the church itself. So let us not be surprised when we experience such things, but rather as Jesus said, let us “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt 5:12).

We will receive an inheritance (Gal 4:30-31). There was a time Abraham wanted Ishmael to have his inheritance, but God said it would be Isaac (Gen 17:8-21). Paul quotes the verse: “Cast out the slave woman and her son” (Gal 4:30, quoting Gen 21:10). Jews had traditionally interpreted this as God’s rejection of the Gentiles. However, Paul boldly asserts that in reality it is “the law rejecting the law”. i.e., the exclusion of unbelieving Jews from the inheritance.

This then is the double-lot of the Isaacs. The pain of persecution on the one hand, and the privilege of an inheritance on the other. This is the paradox of the Christian experience, that Paul describes elsewhere that our lives are “through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Cor 6:8-10).

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free (Gal 5:1-12)

Paul summarizes the entire section of chapters 3 and 4 of Galatians with this comment: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1). If you think about Paul’s teaching so far, it echoes the words of Jesus: “The slave [i.e., those apart from Christ] does not remain in the house forever; the son [i.e., those in Christ] remains forever. So if the Son [Jesus] sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:35-36). As often happens, you see a seed in the teaching of Jesus, and it is expanded and explained when we read the rest of the New Testament! After making this statement, Paul reminds his hearers that this freedom is exclusive. We cannot have one leg on both sides. He gives his warning in three ways

Slave: Don’t Lose Your Freedom (Gal 5:1)

The freedom Paul is describing is not so much to set us free from the bondage of sin (at least, not yet), but to set our conscience free from the guilt of sin. It is not freedom from sin, but freedom from legalism. It is freedom from the dreadful struggle of trying to be good enough to be accepted by God. So he is encouraging his Galatian readers as he is encouraging us today – don’t lose your freedom and become enslaved again.

Debtor: Don’t Lose Your Spiritual Wealth (Gal 5:2-4)

As we have seen, the false teachers were insisting that Christian converts needed to be circumcised. Why is Paul making such a big deal about it? Circumcision is a pretty superficial, minor surgery. However, it has deep theological significance. The issue represented a particular type of religion, namely – salvation by good works. Thus they were declaring Jesus to be insufficient for salvation. So Paul says that if they did this, then “Christ will be of no advantage to you” (Gal 5:2). He goes on to say that to rely on good works brings them back to square one. They would need to keep the entire law perfectly (see also James 2:10). They will be “severed from Christ” and “fallen away from grace” (Gal 5:4).

You cannot have it both ways. It is impossible to receive Christ and thereby acknowledge that you cannot save yourself, and then go back to circumcision, thereby claiming that you can. You have to choose between a religion of law and a religion of grace.

So what is the true gospel? Paul summarizes it in Gal 5:5-6.  It involves faith given to us by the Holy Spirit, that enables us to trust God’s promises that the death of Jesus is sufficient payment for all of our sin, and for our acceptance before God. That is our hope. It is a “hope of righteousness” (Gal 5:5) – a hope that even as today we have a right standing before God, one day we will be completely cleansed and holy and stand in God’s presence forever. Therefore Paul says that this salvation has nothing to do with whether we are circumcised or not, but involves faith that works through love (Gal 5:6).

Paul makes it clear that the freedom in Christ does not give us a license to live any way we please. Our lives are lived “through the Holy Spirit” (Gal 5:5), and it is “working through love” (Gal 5:6). What he is saying is that our righteousness is not obtained by external controls and rules, but by something God does inside us.

Runner: Don’t Lose Your Direction (Gal 5:5-12)

He starts this section by saying “You were running well. Who hindered you … “ (Gal 5:7)? The picture is that of a great race. They started well, but someone had cut into their lane, and they started running in a different direction.

Here are 3 things Paul says about the false teaching:

• • Its origin was “not from Him who calls you” (Gal 5:8)
  • Its effect was that they were being hindered in their race (Gal 5:8). Also, Paul describes it as the false teachers were “troubling” them (Gal 5:9), and that they were being “unsettled” (Gal 5:12). Paul also said that this false teaching was contagious. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal 5:9).
  • Its end: There would be punishment. The false teachers would “bear the penalty, whoever he is” (Gal 5:10).

Paul then turned to them. It appears that the false teachers had dared to even say that Paul was supporting them in what they taught. Paul denies it. “If I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted” (Gal 5:11)? He has already pointed out that the true children of promise would be persecuted. If Paul was preaching circumcision, he would be saying that people could save themselves by their own good works. If that were so, why was the cross even necessary? “In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed” (Gal 5:11). If there was nothing offensive, he would not be persecuted, so clearly the false teachers were misrepresenting Paul. So he finally says”I wish those who unsettle you will emasculate themselves” (Gal 5:12).

Persecution or opposition is the mark of every true Christian preacher. As we saw in chapter 4, the “Isaacs” of this world are always persecuted by the “Ishmaels”. The Old Testament prophets experienced it, and so did the apostles. To this day, Christian preachers who refuse to dilute the gospel have had to suffer for their faithfulness.

Application

The good news of the “cross of Christ” is still a scandal. It is a deep assault against the self-sufficiency of man. It tells people that they are sinners and rebels, under the wrath and condemnation of God, and that they can do nothing to secure their salvation. However, Jesus came to die and to take that condemnation on Himself, and only through Christ crucified can they be saved. The only way to be popular and avoid offending people would be if we preach “circumcision”, i.e., if we teach morality rather than the gospel. This is often tempting, because morality is never offensive and has universal appeal. On the other hand, if we preach the gospel, we will arouse ridicule and opposition.

Today we are living in an age of tolerance. We love to have the best of both worlds. However, the gospel forces us to choose. We have to be decisive. Is it the free salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ or is it us trying to add our own good works and merit to gain acceptance before God? The one represents human achievement, while the gospel speaks of divine achievement. The one means bondage, while the gospel means grace, faith and freedom. Each of us must choose. It is impossible to try to do both. By attempting to add good works, we are forfeiting all that we could have gained through Jesus Christ.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Jesus + Anything = Nothing

Behind all of this is our attitudes and motives. Under the law we flatter and praise ourselves for our goodness. Under Christ we humble ourselves in our helplessness.

Now Paul goes through that same history again, contrasting people’s condition under the law Gal 4:1-3), with their condition when in Christ (Gal 4:4-7). He then makes an impassioned appeal, asking them how they could want to go back to their old condition (Gal 4:8-11). In the process we see a little bit of the heart of Paul for the Galatians (Gal 4:12-20).

We Were Slaves (Gal 4:1-3)

Imagine a young boy who is the son of a rich man owning a vast estate. One day it will all be his. Indeed, it is already his by promise. However, in experience he does not have access to it, because he is still a child. Although he is lord of everything by title, he “is no different from a slave” (Gal 4:1). Moreover, he will remain in bondage until the date set by his father (Gal 4:2). In the same way, Paul says when we were children, we “were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (Gal 4:3).

What are these “elementary principles”? It can perhaps mean elementary things, like the ABC’s of faith, in contrast with Christ who is the “Alpha and Omega”. Children only know elementary things and have limited knowledge. It can also mean the basic elements such as earth, wind, water fire,. It also has undertones of demonic oppression. Legalistic superstition and demonic domination are closely linked.

Basically, Paul is saying that just like an heir who is a child, we were once in bondage to various things.

We Became Sons and Heirs (Gal 4:4-7)

Then there is a great “but”. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Gal 4:4). This is the heart of the Christmas story that we have just celebrated. Jesus came at just the right time. That involved a wait for over 1,300 years!

Various factors made this the perfect time. Rome had conquered all of the known world. They created roadways that enabled travel to remote places. Also, the Greek language had become common across the entire Roman empire, and that gave a certain cohesion to society. It was a time when the Greek and Roman gods were beginning to lose their popularity. Further, the law of Moses had done its work in preparing people for Christ by holding them in its tutelage and prison, giving them a longing for the freedom which Christ could give them.

And at just the right time … Jesus came!

Why did Jesus come? Paul gives four reasons.

1. To redeem us (Gal 4:5)
2. To enable us to receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:5)
3. To send the Holy Spirit into our hearts (Gal 4:6).
4. Being sons of God means being heirs of God (Gal 4:7)!

We looked at the meaning of being redeemed last time. It has the sense of setting free by the payment of a price or a ransom. We were slaves. Jesus ransomed or redeemed us, and set us free from slavery. The price was the blood of Jesus, shed for us on the cross. That was why Jesus came. That is how He redeemed us.

Jesus also came to enable us to receive adoption. Paul describes it in Romans like this: “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons” (Rom 8:15). We were not just set free from bondage and slavery, but we were adopted into the family of God. What a privilege that is!

Then Paul says that because we have been adopted into God’s family “God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba! Father” (Gal 4:6). A similar passage in Romans says: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15-16). “Abba” is an Aramaic word. It is the way Jesus addressed His Heavenly Father in His native language. It is like “appa” in many Indian languages – you can see the sense of intimacy in the relationship. The Holy Spirit gives us this sense of intimacy with our Heavenly Father.

Finally, Paul says “So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal 4:7). He puts it this way in Romans: “and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:15-17). Being an heir of God is mind-blowing. This is made crystal clear by Paul saying this means we are “fellow heirs with Christ”. What is Jesus Christ’s inheritance?  All of God’s creation. The bible says that we get to share this with Jesus! As children of God, we become fellow heirs along with Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “only begotten Son of God”. We are adopted sons of God. Because Jesus redeemed us to become sons, we will share all of God’s inheritance with Jesus. I.e. We will inherit and rule the entire universe. This is much more than we can imagine, but it is explicitly stated this way. Jesus rules “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but the age to come and He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church” (Eph 1:21-22). And it then goes on to say: “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:22). Jesus rules all things, and as His body, we will be the means by which He fills all things! 

Let us not be obsessed with our meager “bucket lists” in this life. We will have eternity to explore and enjoy any galaxy and planet to our heart’s content. We cannot even imagine the kind of inheritance we will have in Christ one day! “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined – all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9). 

How Can We Go Back? (Gal 4:8-11)

Paul says “formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved” (Gal 4:8). He then continues, “But now you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” (Gal 4:9). A change has happened. The slave had been adopted and had become a son. Why would that son want to go back and become a slave again?

We just talked about being sons and heirs of God. This has a mind-boggling implication. As sons, we have not only “come to know God”, but also “to be known by God”. Let that stew for a moment. Can you imagine “knowing” the Creator of the Universe? How is that even possible, except that He in His grace has chosen to reveal Himself to us. But even more stupendous: Can you imagine being intimately known by the Creator of the Universe. That He knows us personally among the billions of people in the world? There is a verse which says that He has engraved us in the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16 ). So Paul’s question is: if we have been exalted to the position of sons and heirs with all the privilege and freedom that it entails – why would we want to go back to the things to which we were enslaved in the first place?

Wiersbe points out the following differences between sons and slaves.

• Son has the same nature as the father, slave does not
• Son has a father, slave has not
• Son obeys out of love, slave obeys out of fear
• Son is rich, slave is poor
• Son has a future, slave does not.

Paul says “you observe days and months and seasons and years” (Gal 4:10). In other words, why would you go back to the very things from which Jesus Christ rescued you? Why would you trade that vibrant relationship with Jesus for external formalism? Think of the folly of this. It makes sense for the Prodigal Son to say “I am no longer worthy to be called a son, make me as one of your slaves” (Luke 15:19). But the Galatians were saying “You have made me Your son, but I would rather be a slave”. That is utter foolishness.

What does this mean for us today? Does this mean Christians should not celebrate Easter and Christmas, or worship on Sundays? No. Paul is referring to bondage to ceremonial practices.

Today it would be superstitious things Christians may do. Some obvious examples are if we read our horoscopes in the morning newspaper, and then change our behavior based on what we read. It is subtle, but it means we are putting our trust in something that God says is wrong (e.g. see Lev 19:31). Same with having our palms read, or using astrologers to figure out who we or our children should marry. The list can go on.

There are also actions that may not be wrong in and of themselves, but if we feel something is wrong if we do not do those things, then it is a kind of bondage. For example, it is a good thing to pray before we embark on a journey, and ask God to guard us and keep us safe. However, if we think that this gives us a special kind of protection, in such a way that if, for example, we forget to pray when we start the journey, and quickly pray during the journey because we think we are vulnerable because we forgot – that is bondage, and that is wrong.

The same principle can be extended to almost every other thing we do, including praying first thing after we wake up, reading the Bible every day, going to church every Sunday, etc. I know a couple who was proud that they had never missed going to church any Sunday for 40 years. Going to church is good. Making it a rule to go to church every Sunday is bondage. How about eating meat on Fridays, or fasting in Lent, etc. None of these are evil, and doing it may be good if done with the right motives. But doing them with the wrong motives to earn some kind of merit before God would be worse than not doing it at all. I hope you get what I am trying to say. Each of us can evaluate our lives, and see how this applies, and repent and submit it to God.

Paul’s Heartfelt Appeal (Gal 4:12-20)

As we move on to Gal 4:12-20, we see a different side of Paul. The curtain is opened for us to see his human, deeply emotional side. He first calls the Galatians “brothers” (Gal 4:12), then “my little children” (Gal 4:19), and he then likens his concern to them as being “again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). In the first three chapters of Galatians, “we have been listening to Paul the apostle, Paul the theologian, Paul the defender of the faith; but now we are hearing Paul the man, Paul the pastor, Paul the passionate lover of souls” (Stott).

Paul starts by saying “become as I am, for I also have become as you are” (Gal 4:12). What does he mean by saying “become as I am”? He said the same thing when he was in trial before king Agrippa. When Agrippa asked ‘In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian”? (Acts 26:28). His response in Acts 18:29 was in effect: “I do not want you to become a prisoner like me, but I want you to become a Christian like me”. All of us should be able to say the same thing. That we are so satisfied in our relationship with Jesus with His freedom, joy and salvation, that we wish other people to be like us.

Paul goes on to say “for I also have become as you are” (Gal 4:12). He is referring to his attitude to them when he visited Galatia. He did not “stand on a pedestal”, so to speak. He put himself in their place, and identified with them. This is in accordance with his principle: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor 9:19-22).

Here is a good principle for us. Our desire in reaching those who don’t know Jesus is to make them like us, in our faith and relationship with God. But in order to achieve this, we need to identify with them and walk alongside them, as we present Jesus to them.

Paul goes on to recount the Galatians’ attitude to Paul. He starts by saying “you did me no wrong” (Gal 4:12). He then says “you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you” (Gal 4:13). We do not know exactly what happened here. Commentators suggest that possibly Paul contracted malaria, so cut short his visit in the mosquito-infested swamps of coastal Pamphylia. They speculate that this is why John Mark may have lost his nerve and gone back home (Acts 13:13), and a very sick and fever-ridden Paul may have headed north to the invigorating mountainous plateau of Galatia. However, this is speculation, and Acts does not give any indication that Paul became sick in this way. So more likely, this is a reference to what Paul described elsewhere as his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor 12:7). It does seem that Paul was constantly plagued with ill health. His “thorn” can be translated as “a stake thrust into my body”, which suggests intense pain. If Paul’s ailment was not just incapacitating but also unsightly then Paul may be saying “you resisted the temptation to show scorn or disgust at the state of my poor body” (Gal 4:14). They did not show disgust to the messenger or the message because of Paul’s bodily condition. They instead, received him as a messenger from God or as Christ Himself. So he asks them, “what became of your blessedness”? You received the message and came to know Christ. What happened? What happened to the extreme devotion you showed to me (see Gal 4:15)? Why are you treating me as your enemy now, because I told you the truth (Gal 4:16)?

We then go on to see Paul’s attitude to the Galatians. Paul contrasts his attitude to the Galatians, with that of the Judaizers. “They make much of you …. that you may make much of them” (Gal 4:17). They flatter you so that you will exalt them. It is not for your best interest. In reality, “they want to shut you out” (Gal 4:17). I.e., they want to cut you off from Christ so that they can be exalted. Paul in contrast does not care about his own exaltation, but that of Christ. He says “I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). A true preacher or teacher will not seek his own glory, but Christ’s. This is a good test we can apply to discern false teachers. If someone is building up their own kingdoms or seeking their own glory, it is a red flag.

Application

By way of application, I would like you to consider the experience of two Johns. John Wesley and John Newton.

John Wesley’s experience is a good illustration of what it means to be a Christian. As a post-graduate in Oxford, he formed a “Holy Club”. He was the son of a clergyman and already a clergyman himself. He was orthodox in his belief, religious in practice, upright in conduct, and full of good works. He and his friends visited inmates of the prison and the work-houses of Oxford. They took pity on the slum children of the city, providing them with food, clothing and education. They observed Saturday as the Sabbath, as well as Sunday. They went to church and to Holy Communion. They gave alms, searched the Scriptures, fasted and prayed. This describes so many of us today. However, they were bound to the fetters of their own religion, because they were trusting in themselves that they were righteous, rather than putting their trust in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A few years later, John Wesley in his own words, came to “trust in Christ, in Christ only for salvation”, and was given the inward assurance that his sins had been taken away. Later, looking back at his pre-conversion experience he wrote: “I had even then the faith of a servant, not that of a son”. Christianity enables us to be sons, not servants!

So how do we live the Christian life? Paul was perplexed at how the Galatians could have turned back to their old lives of bondage (Gal 4:20). However, this is easy for us to do as well. The way to avoid it is to constantly read the Word of God, and remind ourselves of the gospel, and of who we are in Christ. Doing this will help correct and re-orient our perspectives. John Newton’s experience is a good illustration of this. He was an only child and lost his mother when he was 7 years old. Later at the age of 11, he became involved in the atrocities of the African slave trade. He plumbed the depths of human sin and degradation. When he was 21, when his ship was in danger of foundering during a terrible storm, he cried out to God for mercy, and God reached down to Him! He was truly converted, and never forgot how God had saved him who was a former blasphemer. He wrote in bold letters and fastened over the wall of his mantelpiece, the words from the BIble: ”You shall remember that you were a slave … and the Lord your God redeemed you” (Deut 15:15). Let us also strive to remember this, so that we will have an increasing desire to live as sons of God.

I would also like us to think about how we witness. There is a place for tract distribution, or door to door evangelism. But that can never substitute for actually identifying with and walking alongside those to whom we witness. One of the reasons Paul was so effective is that he really identified with the people he was witnessing to.

What should be the attitude of a church congregation to their pastor? To begin with, it should not be by his appearance. He may be ugly like tradition says the apostle Paul was, or he may be good-looking. He may be sickly like the apostle Paul was when he visited Galatia, or he may be physically fit. He may have a pleasing personality, or he may be quite unimpressive. He may have unusual gifts, or he may be a faithful man with no unusual brilliance. But our hearts should not be swayed by these things. We should neither flatter him because we find him attractive or despise him because he is not. Further, our attitude should not be based on our own theological whims. The Galatians started off venerating Paul, but later became his enemy because he told them hard things. Instead, our attitude to our pastors should be based on their faithfulness to the apostolic message. Finally, we need to discern if our pastors or leaders are doing things that will exalt them or if their preaching and teaching leads us to become more like Jesus and to exalt Jesus. Those who flatter us or just seek to prop us up may not be true ministers of the gospel at all!