Written by: Tim Rourke - Church Army
Galatians 5 v 1-6
We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong. Do not change
and go back into the slavery of the law. Listen, I, Paul, tell you that if
you go back to the law by being circumcised, Christ does you no good. Again,
I warn every man: if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, you must follow
all the law. If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life
with Christ is over - you have left God's grace. But we have the true hope
that comes from being made right with God, and by the Spirit we wait eagerly
for this hope. When we are in Christ Jesus, it is not important if we are
circumcised or not. The important thing is faith - the kind of faith that
works through love.
Notes
I have always loved helium-filled balloons. I love the smiles they bring to
children as they play with them. Every time we leave a restaurant my kids
try to take as many of them as they can. Recently I have introduced my kids
to the best bit about them: the joy you can get when letting them go and
watching them float away. They twist and turn and dip and dive and disappear
over the horizon.
In this passage Paul was trying to help the Galatians learn the joy and freedom that can be felt by letting go and accepting Christ. There was an argument raging where Jewish Christians were claiming that to be made right with God you needed to follow the law (shown outwardly through circumcision) as well as accepting Christ. Paul argued that God's grace shown in Christ was all that was needed.
So today I want to encourage you to look at what you are holding on to; what balloons you cannot or will not let go of. It may be hurt feelings, sadness or anger. It may be things you can't believe Jesus can cope with or accept in you. It may be an understanding of God that makes him smaller than he is. Or a way of worshipping him that you may be unwilling to let go of. Today try to cut a string or two and trust these things to God's grace.
Prayer
Lord God, help me to focus wholly on you, to put all other things aside for
the sake of knowing you more and more each day. Amen
Galatians 5 v 7-10
You were running a good race. Who stopped you from following the true way?
This change did not come from the One who chose you. Be careful! "Just
a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise."But I trust in the
Lord that you will not believe those different ideas. Whoever is confusing
you with such ideas will be punished.
Notes
I am a keen golfer. I play about once a fortnight and can score fairly well
on a good day. Every so often, I have a set of golf lessons to help me put
my swing back on track and to help me to hit the ball straighter and longer,
until the next time I forget what to do. I would love to play professionally
but I have two major things which make it an unachievable aim.
Firstly, I haven't got a strange enough name - I'm not called Fred Funk or even Terry Pilkadaris. In a world where the greatest player is called Tiger, what hope has a simple Tim ever got? The second, more serious reason I will never play on the hallowed courses with the greats is that I don't have the application to the task. I can be put off by rain, or even strong wind. Other things take up the time needed for practice and I can think of many other things I would rather be doing.
Today (19th June) sees the final round of the 2005 US Open Golf Championship. One of the players will end the day crowned a major championship winner. The winner will be dedicated and focused on his goals and I will be watching the TV dreaming yet again.
Today's reading asks us: what is it that knocked us off of our love and commitment to Jesus? What stopped us from following the true way? Many things do disturb our commitment to Jesus: busyness; stress at work, college or school; even our commitment to church. We need to look at our lives now and again and ask: what has begun to move God out? Then we need to pray and do something about it.
Prayer
Lord, help me to follow in your way today, tomorrow and for evermore. Amen
Galatians 5 v 11-12
My brothers and sisters, I do not teach that a man must be circumcised. If
I teach circumcision, why am I still being attacked? If I still taught circumcision,
my preaching about the cross would not be a problem. I wish the people who
are bothering you would castrate themselves!
Notes
Paul seems a bit annoyed today (to say the least). He was preaching about Christ
crucified and everyone was arguing about what he saw as unimportant distractions.
He appears passionate about helping people to hear and respond to the message
of Christ and immensely frustrated at the things which were being built around
that message which could draw people away.
Nowadays the arguments about circumcision don't often cause any debate in the church. I can't remember our church councils ever discussing it as a vital current topic. However, we as Christians regularly replace it with other issues as they come around the corner into view. Should we use the organ or the band in worship; should children be allowed to receive communion or not; should we remove the pews, and what colour should the chairs be anyway; do we use screens or books … and all the time Paul tells us to focus on Christ.
One of my roles in my present job is to be the chair of a group called "Hanley Churches Together". Many church denominations in Hanley join together from our different perspectives to work alongside one another in sharing in the work of preaching the cross of Christ. We may hold vastly different views on all the above issues, but we share our experience of Christ's love for us and the forgiveness and salvation he offers.
Prayer
Lord, help me to focus on you. Take down the barriers and distractions I build.
Amen
Galatians 5 v 13-15
My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom
as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love.
The whole law is made complete in this one command: "Love your neighbour
as you love yourself." If you go on hurting each other and tearing each
other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.
Notes
"Serve each other with love" - a simple sentence at the heart of today's
passage. Let's break it down and see what it means.
Serve - My great-grandma used to be a servant in a big house. She would clean and cook and prepare and help in many different ways. Servants are people who put themselves at the call of the master. Today's reading is a call to be in service to others, to show Christ's love in our willingness to be there when others need us.
Each other - You must serve other people and allow others to serve you. Sometimes it is hard to serve others, but often it is even harder to let them serve you. To let others serve you means that you need to let them know that you need help, and that means making yourself vulnerable. Too often in our churches and our friendships we will always appear fine and happy, often hiding the truth. Who can serve you if you never need help?
With love - Love is patient and kind. Love is happy with the truth. Love never gives up. Faith, hope and patience never fail. Love is eternal. (See 1 Corinthians 13.)
Prayer reflection
Sit for a few moments and let God speak to you through the sentence: "Serve
each other with love."
Galatians 5 v 16-18
So I tell you: live by following the Spirit. Then you will not do what your
sinful selves want. Our sinful selves want what is against the Spirit, and
the Spirit wants what is against our sinful selves. The two are against each
other, so you cannot do just what you please. But if the Spirit is leading
you, you are not under the law.
Notes
Last year there was a charity football match where a team made up of celebrities
from the world of pop music, TV, film and the media came together to play
a team of famous football legends. I was watching the match when the Arsenal
and England legend, Ian Wright, came on to the pitch. My son, who was watching
with me, was very confused. "He's playing for the wrong team, Dad," he
said. The confusion was caused by my England hero now being better known
as a TV game show host and occasional pundit with the BBC. I began at that
moment to feel a bit old.
TV has changed the way we watch sporting events. The football, tennis or whatever, is now always accompanied by preamble and discussion that can sometimes be as entertaining as the sport. Our Bible reading today is a kind of build-up and preparation for the main event (which we will be looking at over the next two days).
If today's reading was on TV it would probably go something like this:
"This week's main bout is a tug-of-war between two teams. On the blue team is the Spirit of God, and on the red, our sinful selves. Previous matches show that on any given day it is too close to call which will win, and the conditions of our hearts and minds are so often the deciding factor. Let's go now over to pitch-side where the battle is about to start..."
Prayer
Help me, Lord, to focus on you. May your Spirit lead me and help me to follow
you today. Amen
Galatians 5 v 19-21
The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful,
not being pure, taking part in sexual sins, worshipping gods, doing witchcraft,
hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making
people angry with each other, causing divisions among people, feeling envy,
being drunk, having wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like
these. I warn you now as I warned you before: those who do these things will
not inherit God's kingdom.
Notes
What a fearful list today's reading is. It is a passage full of the sinful
desires that can ruin our lives and the lives of others. Interestingly, amongst
some of the more obvious ones - sexual sin, worshipping gods or witchcraft
- there are many less obvious sins - being selfish, causing divisions, envy
and drunkenness.
In the world today many people look at others to justify their behaviour. Very few people try to pretend that they have never sinned, but most people take what they see as acceptable by saying, "I'm not perfect, but I'm better than them." One person will say, "I only take a few pens from work, that's not stealing", and at the same time they will be appalled to see someone not paying their fare on the train. The other person will say that taking the train free is OK, but taking a handbag is terrible. Paul took a different line - not comparative, but absolute.
Paul warned the Galatians and us that when we are walking with Jesus it makes no sense to listen to our sinful self as that can only lead us away from God. We need to be careful that in all that we do we walk hand in hand with him.
This passage taken alone could be a huge weight on our shoulders. Who hasn't broken the high level of behaviour that Paul sets out? However, I don't think it should be read like that. We need to be assured that Christ died that we might be forgiven. We need to know that he will forgive us, whatever we have done, and help us to walk with him together.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, walk with me, talk with me and show me what you want me to do today.
Amen
Galatians 5 v 22-26
But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says
these things are wrong. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their
own sinful selves. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the
evil things they wanted to do. We get our new life from the Spirit, so we
should follow the Spirit. We must not be proud or make trouble with each
other or be jealous of each other.
Notes
Regeneration and restoration are big themes in my life at the moment. The area
of Stoke-on-Trent where I work is having a lot of money spent on it to be
regenerated and one of our church buildings is being restored to its former
glory.
Both of these words infer change, improvement and development - moving from where we are now to where we might be in the future - and both of them involve tension, discussion and a lot of effort.
The main difference between regeneration and restoration is very clear to me. Regeneration is about travelling forwards into a new and unknown place where, hoping and trusting that it will be better, whereas restoration means putting things back to where they have been before, so that we can move on from safer foundations.
The Bible passage today talks about what we shall see happen to us when we walk in the Spirit of God. We shall show love and patience and kindness and the rest.
Walking in God's Spirit is a process of regeneration, of difference and dynamic change. Walking with Christ is a movement into the unknown. It is a case of "travelling to our place of resurrection", as the Celtic Christians called it. It is to be drawn into God daily and transformed into who he wants us to be.
Prayer
I pray, Lord, that you will regenerate my life and draw me to you this day
and every day. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes