Welcome back to Authentic Faith! I hope that you have been enjoying this series so far, because I have absolutely loved getting to do this. All of these churches and places are so rich in history, and understanding the people that Paul was writing to really helps me understand the letters as a whole. I had known for a long time that some of Paul’s letters were written to churches, so I could take direct applications from it, but I never thought to study out why Paul wrote these. Now, I understand how important it was for Paul to share the gospel and its intricacies with new churches, and it can even give me a glimpse into church life today. Today, we are diving into the churches in Galatia.
About Galatia
Unlike the other letters we have studied, the letter of Galatians was written to multiple churches in Galatia (Galatians 1:2). This is because Galatia was not a city, but a province, which was under Roman control at the time. Some of the cities in Galatia that you may have heard of include Iconium, Derbe, Lystra, and Antioch. If you see any of these city names in your Bible, usually in the book of Acts, you can trace them back to Galatia and the churches there.
At the time, these churches in Galatia consisted of both Jews and Gentiles, which was very common at the time. This is amazing, because it means that the Gospel was being spread to different people in different areas. However, as we have seen before, this can cause lots of issues, especially when it comes to doctrine. Here, we see the disturbing presence of false teachers…do you see a pattern? Anywhere the Gospel is, false teachers will always follow. This is Satan’s way of bringing chaos into newly established churches and muddling the true Gospel of Jesus.
At the time, there was a group known as the Judaizers, and they were Jews who believed in salvation through both Mosaic Law and Jesus. Instead of teaching that Jesus gave us salvation as a free gift, they taught that you had to ask Jesus for salvation, and also to follow all the old Mosaic laws, including circumcision and only eating certain things. We see this in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15: “But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’” (Acts 15:1). Because of the newness of the Gospel, many people did not fully understand what was true and what was not, and a lot of this was due to the lack of information. In the present day, we all have countless resources to use if we are confused, and we have the complete compiled Bible that can guide us and show us what the Gospel really is. However, these churches had neither of these, which allowed people to set their own rules and regulations and claim that it was true. This is exactly what the Judaizers were doing. Some didn’t even allow Gentiles to join the family of God!
Paul’s Letter to Galatia
In the Bible, there are actually two times where Paul is recorded to have visited Galatia. The first time was during the end of his first missionary journey, and the second was during his second missionary journey. Paul and his companions were speaking the Gospel boldly to anyone that would listen, and did their best to counter the false teachings that they heard.
“Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel.” (Acts 14:1-7)
In some of these Galatian churches, Paul was welcomed and greeted, and in others, he was stoned. No matter how he was treated, he continued to do the work of the Lord, because he truly understood how important it was. After Paul left Galatia, these false teachers and Judaizers continued to spread their false teachings, which turned many believers back into trying to earn salvation through faith and works together. When Paul heard about this, he knew he had to write a letter to Glatia to guide them back to Christ. In fact, the very first thing that he does in his letter after his introduction is show his surprise that Galatia turned away from the true gospel so fast.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 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.’ (Galatians 1:6-9)
Here, Paul is clearly angry, because they continue to listen to false doctrine time and time again. He keeps this tone consistent throughout his letter, even calling the Galatians foolish in Galatians 3:1! For the rest of chapter one and all of chapter two, Paul reiterates what true salvation is, through faith and not works. Here, he needs to clearly retell Galatia what is true, and sternly tell them to turn away from anything contrary to this. As we have seen all throughout the Old Testament, “by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). He even explains that if the Judaizers are right and you must have both faith and works, then the Gospel is contradicting itself: “for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2:21).
This, of course, brought up many questions about the law. If God knew that no one would ever be able to completely follow the law and become justified by it, why have it in the first place? Paul explains that the law was temporary, but necessary. We will never choose to accept Christ until we understand our need for a Savior, so this law proved that no matter how hard we try, no one can ever fully justify themselves. This proved the need for a Savior to justify us, as we could not do it on our own. Chapters three and four explain this, and give the Galatians a fuller understanding.
Finally, in the last two chapters, Paul shows the aftermath of becoming saved, which is the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the laws showed people what to do, but did not provide the power to obey them. Now, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us do what is right. This is where Paul states the all-famous fruits of the Spirit, showing that if we are constantly looking to the Spirit for guidance, we will bear fruit in our lives that glorifies God.
Interestingly enough, Paul ends his letter with a final warning, which talks all about circumcision. Because Paul watched the churches in Galatia turn time and time again to false doctrine, he knows that they will be tempted many more times to fall back into that old habit. So, his final words in this letter warn that circumcision does not provide salvation, and those that pressure others to be circumcised have not, and never will, find justification through the law.
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In conclusion, Galatia’s greatest weakness was that they were too susceptible to false doctrines, which is something we still see in multitudes today. We are most susceptible to lies when we don’t know the truth, so when you are spending less and less time in our Bibles, Satan is able to use our lack of knowledge and twist the truth in our minds. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). The more we spend time with God in reading our Bible and prayer, the more we know what the truth is, and the less we believe the lies of false teachers.
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