Humble obedience

Galatians 1:22-2:2

“But Paul did set his godpel before the apostles, and this was done, he says, “for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain” (NIV). The Greek phrase rendered “for fear that” indicates “the accompanying and determining feeling of apprehension” with which Paul communicated his gospel to the Jerusalem authorities; positively expressed, his concern was to assure that they would recognize his converts as genuine Christians and members of the Church. He was concerned, in other words, with officially securing the freedom of the Gentiles from the requirements of the law and their equality of status with Jewish Christians.” NICNT

Scripture never ceases to amaze and delight me no matter how often I read it. Like so many other passages in Scripture, it is very easy to go right by the implications of this section of Galatians when reading the letter. It is a short section and taking the time to halt and figure out the implications has widened my eyes to what Paul did here. Here is a man who was called by God in a dramatic fashion, who puts all of his energies into doing God’s work, and yet who takes the time to not only reassure his brothers for the sake of the Gentile Christians but is humble enough to make sure that he is on the right path.

I have been thinking about that for several years in my own life and the lives of the Christians around me. In my experience as a Christian, I find that we talk about fundamentals when we take a membership class for a church or occasionally in a Sunday School class or Bible study but rarely do we speak about it amongst each other on a regular basis. And yet what could be more important to do on a regular basis? It is a wonderful thing to be able to pray for one another and encourage one another in witnessing for the Lord and doing His will in the dark world around us. But every so often we should be humble enough to stop and take stock of what it is we are communicating. We should grab another wise Christian and say “Hey, this is the Gospel that I am proclaiming and this is the manner in which I am presenting it. What do you think of that?” And not only that but we need to have an open heart to be able to accept criticism or refinements to either our message or our approach. This is so important for if we are to be ambassadors of the one true God and the light that He gives we need to make sure that we are indeed proclaiming the light. I am not talking about gross misinterpretations of the Gospel (although we should indeed be wary of that). It is the more subtle effects of legalism that creep in that make what we have to say less than it ought to be. We need to be agents of liberation in the freedom that the Gospel provides and not the shackles of legalism and human self-centeredness that can so often infest our message.

To see Paul stop and do this is an encouragement and rebuke to my neglecting to do so. I pray that God will strengthen us to learn from this and be humble enough to seek one another out.