Thoughts on Galatians 1

Today’s reading: Exodus 23; Galatians 1

Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. (Galatians 1:10)

There are a few things I wanted to write about this morning out of both of today’s passages. I love where we see God’s justice and mercy drawn out in His law for His people as He governs them in Exodus and Leviticus, and we are right in the thick of that in Exodus, and Paul’s sharp warning against a gospel contrary to (or “beyond”) the gospel he taught the Galatians is a large part of why I ultimately became a Christian. But as I prayed about it, I felt like God was saying that Galatians 1:10 is what most holds me back from living more fully for Him.

Paul says that if he were still trying to please other people he would not be a servant of Christ. Too often, this holds me back. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want to be a follower of Christ, but also please the people around me. The problem is that even Jesus Himself tells us, over and over in the gospels, that it does not work this way.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! (Luke 6:22)

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)

Jesus warns us again and again that following Him will not be easy and that it will cause us to be hated and reviled, just as He was hated and reviled, to the point where He was hung on a cross and murdered. This warning also shows up throughout the apostles’ letters in the New Testament, that if we are going to follow Jesus, we have to be ready for hatred and persecution from the world.

But then Jesus also makes this that much harder when he tells us that we have to choose which master we are going to serve:

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24)

Here Jesus is talking about money, but His point is that we cannot serve two competing masters because when their instructions come into conflict, we have to pick who we are going to follow. And here in Galatians Paul is talking about two competing masters: God and other people.

So which master am I going to serve? When following Jesus doesn’t grate against the world’s values, the answer is easy, I’ll follow both! But where the rubber meets the road is where they come into conflict, where people are unhappy with the decisions I make, the routes I go, the way I spend time, money, or resources, the things I talk about, etc. The problem is that only one of those two masters is in front of me at the time I have to choose…

If, in those moments, Jesus Himself, the glorified Lord who appeared to John on Patmos, was standing there, that makes the decision easy, but He’s not. I mean, He is always there, but I don’t physically experience Him in the same way I experience the awkwardness and discomfort of difficult or weird conversations/confrontations for following Christ.

But Jesus is worth it all. He was willing to step out of eternal paradise, humble Himself to the point of being born into this world, suffered all the temptations we do, yet without sin, all so that He could be unjustly arrested, tried, beaten, flogged, hung on a cross, and killed for us. He subjected Himself to so much He didn’t need to so that we could be drawn to God through Himself and brought into eternity with Him in glory. He was willing to face the the ire of the world for us, so shouldn’t we be willing to do the same for Him?

And yet, knowing all this, I still, too often, choose to follow a different master. I prefer to be comfortable over being faithful. I prefer to avoid conflict or awkwardness rather than following the One who gave His life so I could have true life. I try to please men rather than God…

I want, and need, a heart less divided. I need a heart more deeply rooted in and grateful for all that Jesus has done for me. I need a heart that more longs to bear His name well than to please the people around me.

This feels like kind of an awkward way to end this post because I don’t feel like I have any real conclusion to this or helpful thoughts or anything to offer because this is ultimately an area of weakness for me. But this is an area I know can look different and I want to grow here in faithfulness to God.

God, I need you to give me a heart less divided. I want my affections and desires to be more deeply rooted in You. Draw me to that…