Thoughts on Galatians 1

Today’s reading: 2 Samuel 12; Galatians 1

I don’t often get into the original languages here on this blog for a couple reasons, but the biggest one is that I don’t want people to think it is necessary. I somewhat regularly hear this notion that, “You should be studying the Word, not simply reading it,” and I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, I think a big part of why people struggle to enjoy the Bible is that they have been convinced that they need to treat it differently from every other book they have ever read, and so they try to “study” it for not real purpose. Nobody ever came to love Lord of the Rings because they picked a sentence out of the middle and started doing Elvish word studies on it. No, people love Lord of the Rings because they read it, loved the story enough that they read it again, and maybe noticed some things when they were reading it a second or third time that led them to want to dig a little deeper into some of the lore or histories that Tolkien wrote that aren’t part of the trilogy. The Bible should be this way for us. If you haven’t read the Old Testament, for example, then I wouldn’t bother ever looking up a Greek word to study the New Testament. You would be much better off taking that time and reading the Old Testament instead to gain a deeper context and understanding for the New Testament book you are wanting to get deeper into.

I tell people they should read the Bible like fiction. Not in the sense that they should consider if fake or anything, but they should read it in the same manner that they would fiction. Just read it and let how the author wrote it, what they focused on, how they focused on it, etc. guide how you absorb the material and think about the story. Stop treating the Bible like a series of disconnected chapters and verses, and read it like a story. You will enjoy it more, learn more, and understand a whole lot more of the broader picture of what God has done in the past and is doing today.

Anyway, that was bit of a rant of an introduction, but despite the fact that I don’t normally get into the original languages on this blog, there are some places where I have learned and taken note of things over the years because there is something really important or interesting to be gleaned, and Galatians 1 is one of those places.

Near the beginning of the chapter Paul says,

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

What is really striking to me here, and I also think is helpful in understanding the rest of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, is that the Greek word for “contrary” doesn’t just mean “different” or “opposite,” but can be understood as, “different because it goes beyond.” This is important because Paul is not dealing with people showing up to the Galatians teaching something completely different from what he taught them. The people Paul is contending with in Galatians were showing up saying something like, “Oh, Paul told you about Jesus? Great! Now you just need to get circumcised and follow the Jewish food laws and you’ll be saved!” That was what made their message so insidious; they weren’t claiming to be teaching something different, they were just trying to convince them to add works of the Law to their understanding of the gospel, but even to this Paul says those teachers should be accursed, damned to Hell!

This is such an important reality for us to understand. Paul is not, in context, saying that the person teaching Zoroastrianism or Scientology is accursed (though if they are trying to turn people to it from the gospel I'm sure he would), he is saying that the person who teaches the gospel+ is accursed. The person who tells you that you need faith in Christ plus any work of your own to complete your salvation is accursed. That is why I am pointing out that the English translation doesn't quite do this passage justice. The word "contrary" makes it seem like Paul is saying, "If someone tells you that you don't need faith in Jesus and are saved a different way, let them be accursed," but that might honestly just be too obvious to say. How Paul says this should give us pause to always take great care to not add anything to the gospel of faith in Jesus.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:8-10

As Paul says here in Ephesians, we contribute nothing to our salvation. God does have good works that He calls us to once we are His children by faith in Christ, but those works come after, as a result of the salvation we have by faith. It is by the grace of God alone, through faith in Jesus, that we are saved, and the one who seeks to add anything else to that, Paul says, is accursed.