Galatians 5:2-24

Dear RTB’ers,

Every time I read today’s passage, I get hung up on this one verse: But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. (v. 11) As worded, that verse was very confusing to me. A few years ago I explained it to myself. First, I looked it up in the New Living Translation: Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. That’s clearer, but Paul’s “dashed offset” still left me a bit confused (as his parenthetical expressions often do!). So then I re-worded this NLT text: “Some say I am preaching that you must be circumcised; if that’s true, then why are the faithful Jews still persecuting me? Because if I were not preaching Christ, I would be one with them and everything would be OK.” Hopefully that might help some of the rest of you to understand a confusing verse.

The ”Fruits of the Spirit”, Galatians 5:22. I expect that many of us memorized these “fruits of the Spirit” in our growing-up years. But I doubt that anyone memorized the “works of the flesh”. (No, I didn’t either!) But as we make our personal confessions – in church, at home, anywhere – Galatians 5:19-21 offers a good list of current and past sins of omission and commission for us to consider. Here’s the list – typed out one-by-one (not cut-and-paste) to make it more personal: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. Some of these hit home, still…! But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (v. 16)

Blessings! 

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See also: November 28 (2023) / Galatians 3-6

Galatians 4:8-5:1

Dear RTB’ers,

I often look for one or two key verses for each day’s reading. Surprisingly, 4:20 is that verse for today: I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Yes, these words encapsulate Paul’s thoughts for today’s reading, especially the second half of that sentence: … for I am perplexed about you. Paul is indeed confused as to why the Gentile and Jewish converts would be listening to the “Judaizers” – those “converted” Jews who were trying to lead these converted believers back to circumcision and the rigors of the Law. Why would they listen to people who were trying to enslave them when Paul had offered them the freedom of Jesus and His Holy Spirit? Paul challenges their behavior: …how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world … ? You observe days and months and seasons and years! (4:9b-10) Both the Gentiles with their pagan gods and the Jews with their regular feasts and daily rituals were returning to slave conditions, obeying the formalities set down in the Law. Why??!! Yes, Paul is perplexed about them!

At last night’s healing service we had a reading from Revelation 21, talking about the “New Jerusalem”: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away … And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God… (Rev. 21:1-2a) Now compare today’s reading: Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. (vv. 4:25-26) My Study Bible noted that this “Jerusalem above” was a standard Rabbinical teaching – a city that would be at the center of the Messiah’s activity when He comes. Pastor David used to talk about “divine echoes”, when we have a message from the Lord repeated to our eyes and ears. So today, for me, a divine echo. So, what am I supposed to take from this “new Jerusalem” and this “Jerusalem above”. A thought for today…!!

Hope to see you at our RTB gathering later this morning!

Blessings!

Galatians 3:19-4:7

Dear RTB’ers,

Although Paul spends many words and various examples to explain his theology, to me it seemed that today’s reading could be stated very simply. First, the Law was there to show the Jewish people their sin, their need for God. My NASB notes had a second translation for It was added because of transgressions… (Gal. 3:19b), that it could be translated as It was added for the sake of defining transgressions. That makes it more clear. Then Gal. 3:23-25 form the transition from the Law to Jesus: Now before faith [Christ] came, we were held captive under the law, … So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian… Finally, Gal. 4:6b-7a clarifies that the Holy Spirit is now our “guardian”: …God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, … So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

So that’s my take on today’s reading.

RTB gathering tomorrow!!

Blessings!

Galatians 3:1-18

Dear RTB’ers,

We continue where we left off yesterday, justification by faith: …we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, … because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal. 2:16) Let’s follow Paul’s argument in today’s reading. First, Abraham was the father of many nations: In you shall all the nations be blessed. (v. 8b, Genesis 12:3) Second, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. (v. 6, Genesis 15:6) Third, the Law came 430 years later and did not nullify the Covenant. (v. 17) Finally, do we now set aside the Promise and instead follow the Law, with all its spiritual and fleshly (circumcision!) demands? Paul’s conclusion: For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse… (v. 10a) and Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law… (v. 11a) and Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us… (v. 13a). We are saved, not by works, but by faith!

My Study Bible mentioned at verse 2 that Paul mentions the Holy Spirit sixteen times in the last four chapters of Galatians. Sweet!

Blessings!

Galatians 2

Dear RTB’ers,

Scholars disagree as to when Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written. Basically it comes down to either (1) after Paul’s first missionary journey and before his second or (2) after his second. In between his first and second missionary journeys we have the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 where the leaders of the church discussed the circumcision issue and held that converted Gentiles did not need to be circumcised. The leaders found that converted Gentiles need only to …abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. (Acts 15:20b) There was no need to have converted Gentiles circumcised. But even with this outcome decided by the church leaders, it seems that fervent, hard-line Jews had continued to make this an issue in the Galatian churches. Paul deals directly with this issue in the first half of today’s reading. The word “circumcise” and its derivatives occurs seven times in today’s first twelve verses. It was important to Paul that …James and Cephas and John … gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (v. 9) With all this, it is my conclusion that this letter to the Galatians was written after Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13-14) and before the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) and his second journey. (Acts 16, ff.)

There is a lot of theology packed into the second half of chapter 2 (Gal. 2:15-21) Verse 20 is the one verse in this section that is most often quoted: I have been crucified with Christ… However, with such a focus on verse 20 we can easily miss the next verse: …for if righteousness were through the Law, then Christ died for no purpose. (v. 21b; the NASB has Christ died needlessly, an even more powerful phrase to me). Jesus dying needlessly…??!! Through all that suffering…??!! What a horrible thought!! That thought alone ought to propel us to grab onto the Gospel of grace – it’s not by our works that we are saved!! Folks, this verse is an evangelism tool. When someone says something like, “I think I’ll go to heaven; I’m basically a good person…”, then you can respond with “So Jesus wasted His time dying on the cross…?”

A final quick comment – Paul will frustrate you with his parenthetical expressions (Gal. 2:2,4,6,8; comments set off by dashes or by parentheses). These side comments can easily distract you from his main point in the rest of the sentence. So my advice is that you jump over these parenthetical expressions and read the full sentence by itself; it will be much more clear. Then go back to what he has said in the parenthetical expressions – what he has said there is relevant and worthwhile. [BTW, different translations may or may not set those comments off by themselves. The ESV clearly sets them off.]

Blessings!

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See also: November 27 (2023) / Acts 15:1-35; Galatians 1-2

Galatians 1

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we begin another of Paul’s epistles, our third, this one to the Galatians. To get a better handle on Galatians, we need to go back to Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 13-14. After he and Barnabas had shared the gospel in Cyprus, they sailed north to Asia Minor and continued their missionary work in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Just to hear those city names, we surely recall the “Jews from Asia”, specifically the Jews in Antioch who caused an uproar over Paul’s teaching: But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. (Acts 13:45) These Jews from Antioch ran Paul and Barnabas out of town, then continued to follow them to Iconium and Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14). Then further, even after many years had passed, they still had it in for Paul – recall the “Jews from Asia” in Acts 21:27 and continuing through Paul’s “trial” before Felix and Festus in Acts 24-25. So this week, as we read Galatians we need to remember the “Jews from Asia”, with Paul writing to the Christian converts in those cities who are (presumably) still being hassled by the hard-line Jews.

So what’s the big issue? Circumcision! Not specifically stated, but clearly the issue: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and … [that] there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (vv. 6-7) It’s clear to me that Paul is writing this letter soon after his visit to these cities and before the “Jerusalem Council” (Acts 15), where the issue of circumcision was set aside by the church leaders. There is no mention of this Council in this letter or of their four-fold “rules to follow” for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Hence, written before that Council…!

Paul tells his own history at the end of today’s reading and continuing tomorrow with chapter 2. Scholars have long done a “compare and contrast” analysis of these verses with Paul’s conversion in Act 9 to more fully understand his conversion and his early years. More tomorrow…

Blessings!

Joshua 1-24

Dear RTB’ers,

Today we have no new reading; STS calls it a “Revision” day. I like the second half of the second question in STS – God’s character and His purpose for us…

A couple of my own thoughts from Joshua. First, my Study Bible noted seven occasions when the Israelites set up altars or memorial stones in the Promised Land. Off the top of my head I could only name four. How many can you find. (Use a “search” option in your browser.) Let’s name them this Sunday (the 25^th) at our last RTB gathering before Carol and I leave.

Second, the slaughters of all the men, women and children… That certainly sounds harsh to our 21^st-century minds with our sense of righteousness, mercy and justice. So how to explain it? No answer – except that God is God and I am not.

Third, God gave the Israelites the Promised Land. They promptly disobeyed (read the book of Judges!) and eventually lost it in 722 BC and 586 BC, then gained it back after 70 years of captivity in Babylon – such that the Jews had “centers” in Jerusalem and Galilee separated by Samaria during Jesus’ life. But then they lost it again in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the Temple and dispersed the population. Never again did the Jews have their own homeland until 1948. And today maintaining that homeland is a constant battle. So, what to make of the Jews’ claim to that Promised Land? What to make of that 1948 “gift”? What to make of the WWII Holocaust? What to make of “God’s chosen people”? What to make of our own Jewish “heritage”?

See you Sunday!!

Blessings!

Joshua 24

Dear RTB’ers,

Yesterday we had two sets of three times that Joshua had reminded Israel of God’s giving them the Promised Land and of the possibility of them losing that land due to their disobedience. Again today, we have two sets of three interchanges, “And Joshua said to the people…” (vv. 2, 19, 22), together with the people’s responses, “And the people said to Joshua…” (vv. 16, 21, 24). Their intent is solid, but we will see, even in the very next book of the Bible (Judges) that their follow-through is weak!

Today, probably the most famous verse in the book of Joshua, “…choose you this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (v. 15) I’ve seen this verse on plaques in many Christian homes, typically as I’ve first walked into their houses. It’s a good testament to a household’s faith, and a good daily reminder to the family.

Blessings!

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See also: March 11 (2023) / Joshua 23-24

Joshua 23

Dear RTB’ers,

Three times Joshua warns the Israelite leaders that they could lose the Promised Land: until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you (v. 13); until He has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you (v. 15); and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that He has given to you. (v. 16) Prophetic words from Joshua… The Northern Kingdom went into exile in 722 BC and the Southern Kingdom in 586 BC. And even today Israel is still battling for their land, with opposition from the Palestinians within their borders, from all their neighboring nations, and from the entire Arab world.

The contrast, again three times: And you have seen all that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, for it is the LORD your God who has fought for you. (v. 3); The LORD your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. (v. 5) For the LORD has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. (v. 9)

Our choice – Joshua 23:3,5,9 or Joshua 23:13,15,16. The key: Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day. (vv. 6-8) For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you. (vv. 12-13) So, what’ll it be: verses 3, 5, 9 or verses 13, 15, 16?

Blessings!

Joshua 22

Dear RTB’ers,

Two sets of sentences stood out for me today: And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” (vv. 7b-8) The Israelites had accumulated much wealth through the destruction of the peoples they defeated. And Joshua thought to send a great deal of that wealth with the Trans-Jordan tribes as they returned to their homes. Again, the fairness that I’ve talked about the last two days…

War averted!! Then the people of Israel sent … Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, … And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them… (vv. 13-15) It was a simple matter of sending a delegation instead of an army! I wonder how often I need to go talk to someone instead of “warring” with them in my head!

Blessings!

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See also: March 10 (2023) / Joshua 20-22