June 28, 2008 Ephesians Chapter 3

Ephesians Chapter 3

Originally posted Monday August 25, 2008  

 

General Comment: In Galatians we read Paul's strong argument against the Jewish Christian attempt to convince the recently converted Christians to embrace the Law of Moses, specifically circumcision as a sign of their salvation rather than by faith alone. Ephesians, written some four decades later, has moved well beyond such debates. Church and Synagogue stand apart and Christianity in no longer considered a sect of Judaism. In Ephesians we read of the dividing wall between Judaism and Christianity as having been broken down and the two becoming one, not in any unity of belief or even association, but in access to God and inclusion as children of God. Judaism cannot claim special privilege because of the Law of Moses for in Christ that Law has been abandoned as a means of justification. We also become aware of the changing face of eternal life as the outcome of the believer's physical life, generally following resurrection. The tripartite view of eternal life as God's gift in the present is claimed for all who have faith in Christ; for God has "made us alive...with Christ...raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places" all as a present yet mystical reality. For this writer, as with the Gospel of John written at about the same time for the same area of western Asia Minor, eternal life has already begun, yet to be perfected at the beginning of the new age. We are already with Christ in the heavenly places. It is on that foundation that the writer can assure the Gentiles that they are "members of the household of God...built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

 

Ephesians Chapter 3:1-13 Ministry to the Gentiles

 

For the sake of the Gentiles of Ephesus Paul became a "captive of Christ." He was commissioned according to God's grace and by revelation was given an understanding of the mystery of Christ (2:1-22) to be preached to them. This mystery had been hidden from humankind until God revealed it by the Spirit to "his holy prophets and apostles." This once hidden mystery, revealed through the Gospel of Christ, has proclaimed that the Gentiles "have become fellow heirs, members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Christ."

 

It is this Gospel for which Paul, the "very least of all the saints, has been called by God to be a servant on behalf of the Gentiles that they might share in the "boundless riches of Christ." But as with the blessing of Abraham which was passed on through his descendents, knowledge of this mystery proclaimed by prophets and apostles cannot stop with these Gentiles as if the last days were already upon them. For the writer of Ephesians that end time is far off and of secondary concern. It is now the Church, the "holy sanctuary in the Lord," in whom all Christians are joined together, that is invested with authority. It is in and through the Church that the work goes on. In effect, the writer has pronounced the end of the Apostolic Age and the beginning of a structured (catholic?) Christianity. The Church has taken on the mantle of Paul and others to proclaim the mystery and wisdom of God (Gospel of Christ). Through the Church the Gospel is to be proclaimed to the "rulers and authorities in the heavenly places" according to God's preordained purposes in Christ. Just who these "rulers and authorities" are in this case is difficult to interpret. Are they the cosmic powers of Greek and Roman mythology, the rulers of the air? Against that conclusion1:20-23 indicates that these cosmic powers have already been defeated and God "has put all things under [Christ's] feet and made him the head over all things for the church." Perhaps the answer can be found in Paul's understanding of the Gentile's bondage to idol worshipping in which it is the demons represented by the idols that are being worshipped and to whom they are making sacrifices (1 Cor. 10:20-21). In this understanding it is the Church as the body of Christ in the world that the "wisdom: of God expressed in the Gospel must be proclaimed in this present world among the pagan Gentiles.

 

The writer's attention to the sufferings of Paul, who was executed by Roman authority as was Jesus, is important. He reminds us of the early church's understanding of the demonic nature of the authority vested in Roman Imperial religion and personified in the Emperor. The wisdom of God "in its rich variety" must be proclaimed to the powers and principalities of the State and the mythology of power it wields. The church that will not speak truth to temporal power fails to serve the eternal power.

 

Ephesians Chapter 3:14-21 A Prayer for the Readers

 

In benedictory form the writer prays that God the Father will, through God's Spirit, strengthen the readers' spirits (inner being) with power; that Christ may dwell in them and they be "rooted and grounded in love. He prays for their comprehension of the immeasurable love of Christ and so "to be filled with all the fullness of God.

 

June 27, 2014 Ephesians Chapter 2

(Sorry for the interruption in posting!)

Ephesians Chapter 2

Originally posted Friday August 22, 2008

General Comment: Reading the salutation and thanksgiving gives the impression that the audiences in the churches are Gentiles. Church history shows that it is more than an impression, it is reality. By the last decade of the first century the acrimony between Synagogue and Church was at a high level often punctuated by violence. In the years following the destruction of the Temple and much of Jerusalem, Judaism had come together under Pharisaic leadership. The task was to define what Judaism would be in a post Temple era. A much greater emphasis was placed on ritual and racial purity, part of which was to cleanse the communities of Jewish Christians. The choice became either to reject Christ or be expelled. One could no longer be part of what was seen as a threat to Jewish self identity. We already notice this shift in Matthew and more so in John where the anti-Judaism rhetoric is the highest of all the Gospels. Once we understand the Gentile nature of the Church we can read Ephesians as a document of encouragement to unify the churches under a common understanding of how it is that God has brought them out of their past bondage to sin into a new life in Christ.

Ephesians Chapter 2:1-10 From Death to Life

The writer begins by reminding the hearers of this letter of their former state as pagans worshipping idols. In this state of sin they were spiritually dead, following the "ruler (a lesser, pagan god?) of the power of the air" (occupied by demons) and guided by the spirit working in "the sons of disobedience." Everyone including the writer walked in this spirit controlled by the "passions of [their] flesh" and so all were by nature "children of wrath" (condemned by God). However, even though they were spiritually dead the grace of a merciful and loving God brought them from spiritual death to spiritual life "with Christ." Using the present tense, the writer adds that having been brought from death to life in Christ they have already been raised up (exalted) with Christ and have been "seated... with him in the heavenly places." Thus the believer has been "made alive with Christ" (vs.5), has been "raised up with him" (vs. 6a) and has been "seated with him in the heavenly places" (vs. 6b). The image is similar to Paul's use of the mystical phrase "being inChrist." The distance between the believer's earthly existence and exalted state with Christ disappears. The believer is already exalted with Christ to the heavenly places while living in the temporal places of this world. All of this is a demonstration of God's "immeasurable riches of...grace" poured out upon those who, by faith, are in Christ. And even that faith is not the ultimate determiner of their salvation. It is God's gift and not some work the believer has done. To say that "by faith we are saved" is to misunderstand the dynamic of salvation. If it were true that their faith per se had saved them it would have been by their own effort - a work they had accomplished. The writer makes it clear that faith is a response to an offer of the gift. The gift is given by God as an act of God's grace. Faith is everything as a human response. It is nothing without a divine validation. Faith and Grace paradoxically occupy the same moment in time but are separated by two worlds, one that is present and one that has yet to come.

So there is no room for boasting. We are what God has made us to be. Lest we become too oriented to the lofty language of exaltation to the "heavenly places," we are reminded that as a Christian we are a new creation, a special creation. The gift of grace creates a new person who, while already exalted with Christ in the heavenly places, is meant for earthly work. This is the Biblical idea of perfection, to be doing that for which one has been created. The purpose that drives the Christian life as a new, spiritual creation is not preparation for heaven as some would have it, but "for good works." These good works are already placed before us. In prophetic terms we know them as doing justice, loving kindness, generosity, loving our neighbor and showing substantive compassion.

Ephesians Chapter 2:11-22 One in Christ

The passage expresses the unity of Gentile and Jew being forged by the work of Christ on the cross. It is a work of inclusion, including the previously alienated Gentiles within the "commonwealth" of Israel. The writer mentions Gentiles being called the uncircumcised by the circumcised but removes the significance of circumcision as anything important for it is "by human hands." Because they were strangers to and separated from the prophets and "covenants of promise," their only hope was God. Now with Christ's appearing this has all changed and the Gentiles have been "brought near" to God by Christ's work on the cross. Through his death Christ has unified both groups, Jew and Gentile, into one and has put away the mutual hostility, broken down the wall of separation (the law) and created a new humanity. In Christ the two have become one. He has abolished the law (commandments and ordinances) in order to create a new humanity, reconciled to God and joined as one body (by abolishing the law). With Christ's death on the cross the hostility between Jew and Gentile has died; peace is extended to both. Through faith in Christ both have access to God through the same Spirit.

Therefore, the Gentiles "are no longer strangers and aliens" to God having also become members of God's household which stands upon the foundation of apostles and prophets with "Christ...himself as the cornerstone." In Christ the unified structure of Jew and Gentile Christians becomes a holy temple and each member of it a dwelling place for God.

June 24, 2014 Ephesians Chapter 1

Ephesians Chapter 1

Originally posted Thursday August 21, 2008 

 

General Comment: Ephesians presents a number of challenges to both reader and interpreter. Although Paul had worked in Ephesus for an extended period the recipients of this letter do not seem know him except through his writings. The author does not address any problems in the church nor does he address any issues with discipline or false teachings to be corrected. He seems to have little knowledge of its members other than their Gentile heritage. Many important early manuscripts of this letter do not have a recipient named. This would indicate that it was originally a generic letter written to a number of different churches in western Asia Minor with the name of the church filled in. In a number of the later collections of Paul's letters Ephesians served as a cover letter. The letter's polish, style and vocabulary as well as the absence of a number of major Pauline themes has placed its writing toward the end of the first century, approximately 90 CE or some twenty plus years after Paul's death in Rome. That being said, the author is a devoted disciple of Paul who knows his letters well, making extensive use of Paul's Gentile oriented Christology. Of interest is the degree to which this author distances the church from its connection with God's Israel, a central concern for Paul. It also has a more universal view of the larger church of a later time and its unity, the hallmark of a more organized "catholic" concept of Christendom.

 

Some readers may be concerned about the question of authorship. It was quite common in ancient times for the disciples of a great teacher to carry on their work. It was not considered a fraud or fiction to use the ideas of the master and apply them in a new generation. For example we see this in Isaiah in which a school of disciples extending over more than a century reapplied the great prophecies to new situations over a span of two centuries. Ephesians was accepted by the church fathers of the second century for inclusion in the Canon of the New Testament. By doing so they announced their opinion that Ephesians was in keeping with the apostolic tradition and was to be accepted by the Church as having the authority of scripture. We have no reason to decide otherwise and can receive it as speaking with authority to our Christian lives nineteen centuries later.

 

Ephesians Chapter 1:1-2 Salutation

 

Many of the early manuscripts address the letter to "the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus," with "Saints" used as the standard title for the collective members of any church. Grace is extended to the Saints and comes from both God as Father and Christ as Lord. Depending upon how late the letter was written and distributed the title "Lord" for Christ could have political implications. We know that during the latter period of the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian (after 89 CE) a requirement to honor the Emperor as a god by ritual sacrifices had been briefly imposed. Refusing to abide by the Imperial edict could cause severe persecution. It is generally held that the Book of Revelations was written in response to Domitian's cruelty.

 

Ephesians Chapter 1:3-14 Spiritual Blessings in Christ

 

The opening blessing and the following Thanksgiving (vss.15-23) both consist of single long sentences which have been divided by the translators for reading clarity.

 

The blessing (praising) of God by the readers is considered appropriate in view of God's abundant blessing of the Saints in Christ who are blessed "with every spiritual blessing." The blessings have been given "in the heavenly places" in which the Saints will abide with Christ in the presence of God. Thus the blessings are given in this life in anticipation of their fulfillment in eternal life.

 

God has chosen the Saints in Christ (when we believed through faith) "before the foundation of the world." This is not to be interpreted as predestination, but as setting of the standard for inclusion in eternal life. God has predetermined before time that those who believe in Christ through faith are destined to eternal life. Whether one Believes or not through faith is not predetermined but its outcome is. The agency of our free will is not compromised by God.

 

Included in God's predetermination and related to the "heavenly places" in which the chosen Saints will abide, is the imagery of their adoption as children of God, being presented "holy and blameless" before God through Christ (Rom. 8:29; Jn. 1:12). This is the fulfillment of Paul's important understanding of our being justified - forgiven and therefore made holy, by Christ. All of this is by the will and "glorious grace" of God working for the Saints in Christ who is our redemption through the cross (Rom. 3:24-25).

 

In Christ God has revealed the mystery of God's plan for the coming "fullness of time," the new age when God will "gather up all things in heaven...and on earth" to bring about God's Kingdom (the inheritance of the Saints). While those who were first to believe have (already?) "obtained an inheritance," those who came after and responded in faith to the preaching of the Gospel received the "seal" (of acceptance) of the Holy Spirit, the "pledge" or promise of their heritage of final redemption as children of God (2 Cor. 1:21; 5:5). Here we note in this section echoes of John's understanding of realized redemption of believers in the present time and the final redemption at the end of the age.

 

Ephesians Chapter 1:15-23 Prayer of Thanksgiving

 

Addressed to the various church communities, the author gives thanks for their faith in Christ and love of the Saints (of all the churches of Christ). He prays that God will give them a "spirit of wisdom and revelation" (discernment) so as they grow in faith. They will also grow in their assurance of the hope (resurrection and eternal life) that awaits them - the "riches of [God's] glorious inheritance" for all who have believed. Not only will they come to know the nature of this inheritance more clearly, they will see "with the eyes of [the] heart" the presence of God's power already working through them - that same power that was with Christ in his resurrection and ascension to the heavenly places. In the heavenly places Christ has been placed by God above all earthly and heavenly powers and above all names (other Lords) in the present as well as in the new age. God has put all power and dominion, rule and authority under Christ's authority for the sake of the Church which is Christ's own body (1 Cor. 12:27).

 

Note:

 

As we read through each of these extended passages and those that follow, we may be impressed with how much they read like small homilies tied together into a teaching format. If we understand the letter as addressed to the church in general and is meant to be read aloud to the community by its leader, we might understand its power. The soaring language of redemption, of the heavenly things and the saints being blessed may bring to mind the image of small gatherings of Christian's in house churches, hanging on every word with a hope in their hearts only they can feel. In our "cut to the chase" century we want more than soaring oratory. We want bullet points, concrete action statements and we want definitive answers. But what of inspiration! What of the lifting rhetoric that for a few moments can carry us beyond ourselves to another realm of possibility, to the "heavenly places?" The author of Ephesians, with skill and the vision of mystery, does just that. The listener is swept up into another reality to catch a glimpse - just a glimpse of the other and for a moment they are face to face. For a moment it is all so clear and the listener is never the same again.

June 23, 2014 Galatians Chapter 6

Galatians Chapter 6

Originally posted Wednesday August 20, 2008

Galatians Chapter 6:1-10 Proverbs for Christian Life in Christ

To live a life which exhibits the fruit of the Spirit - to walk in the Spirit, is not a perfect life. The first part of Alexander Pope's quotation, "To err is human," relates to all who strive for perfection. John Wesley knew this to be so in his own life. So did Paul. Transgressions happen and they happen within the church. Paul's emphasis on love as the work of one's faith is to be part of how the community deals will those who have erred. If a Christian who walks in the Spirit acts with genuine love, joy, kindness and gentleness, these qualities can be expected when dealing with those "detected in a transgression." Paul urges a spirit of gentleness when doing so for the object is not to condemn but to restore the other to fellowship. In many of Jesus' acts of healing, forgiveness and restoration were integral parts. Healing broken relationships with forgiveness is not the exclusive purview of the religious community. Injured relationships are part of life. Paul urges the Galatians to mend them with gentleness and kindness. He urges us to do the same and not to be tempted to carry our resentments with us.

In an extended proverb on "walking in the Spirit" Paul exhorts the community to a unity expressed through mutual gentleness and kindness. We are to bear one another's burdens, offering our helpful presence. Doing so fulfills the "law of Christ" to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are not to think of ourselves as more important than others. Doing so is self-deception, which ignores the equality of all who are in Christ. We are to be concerned with our own discipleship, testing it against the standard of "the law of Christ" and not be concerned with that of our neighbor's lest we "think we are something" and our neighbor is not. After all each of us has our own work to do and our concern should be to do it as well as we can and not to judge another's. Our work and our neighbor's will be impartially judged by God.

The ending element of the proverb calls for the material support of those who teach. While this seems to set particular persons apart in importance, it is likely the teachers in the various small communities of Galatia are fellow evangelists who have worked with Paul to establish the churches. They probably are not new Christians but those who know Paul's message well. Titus and Timothy come to mind for such a role. Their function would be to read and interpret the Scriptures and to ease the transition from a pagan culture to the new life in Christ. Such people, Paul writes, deserve the support of the community. Those of us who are old enough or who were raise in a rural church will remember the delightful tradition of "pounding" the Pastor. All the members would gather, usually at a "dinner on the grounds" or "pot luck" dinner. The idea was that each member would bring a pound of some food item for the new Pastor and family (lemon pound cakes were always welcome).

Paul ends this passage placing his exhortations within the frame of the final judgment. He makes the connection for the Galatians between present actions and future accountability. The two roads are well lit. Spending one's best energies on "works of the flesh" will lead to "corruption from the flesh" (spiritual death). Living a life in which the fruit of the Spirit is made manifest in all things leads to eternal life from the Spirit. This is the meaning of accountability, that we will reap what we sow. Therefore, he writes, "[do] not grow weary in doing what is right...work for the good of all, especially for those of the family of faith."

Galatians Chapter 6:11-18 Final Admonitions

Paul writes the closing for his letter himself in "large letters." He wants to be sure they understand the true nature of his primary concern. In a reference to his earlier comment about being persecuted for his message of "freedom in Christ" apart from the law, specifically the tradition of circumcision, he casts doubts upon the sincerity of those who want to compel the Galatians to be circumcised. Their goal is to make themselves look good in the eyes of their fellow Jewish Christians, to boast by pointing to the Galatians as a success story for the Law of Moses. By convincing the Galatians that being a complete Christian requires circumcision they hope to avoid being persecuted "for the cross of Christ." Possibly Paul thinks these false apostles really do believe in the freedom Christ brings in reference to the Law of Moses. But they cannot bring themselves to admit it or preach it for by doing so their fellow Jews will persecute them just as they have persecuted Paul. As for Paul his only boast will be the cross of Christ through which he and his world have become new creations. His old world and his old self have been crucified with Christ. By comparison this new creation is everything while circumcision is nothing.

Paul speaks his benediction of peace upon all who will "follow this rule" (those who will renounce circumcision). The benediction is also pronounced over "the Israel of God." Because he has characterized the Galatian churches as the seed (descendants) of Abraham and inheritors of God's blessing (the Kingdom yet to come) Paul makes the bold claim that the church is the new Israel. It is the new Israel God has created in the work of Christ. Thus Paul blesses not just the Galatian church with peace and mercy but all communities of Christ.

Vs. 17 is not a flippant remark. It is a reprise of vs. 3:1 in which Paul, referring to his own life as a much battered apostle, points out that when he came to Galatia Christ's crucifixion was "publically exhibited" to the Galatians in Paul's scarred body (see also 4:12-14). His devotion brought on the severe persecution, "the marks of Jesus branded on [his] body." This is the stigmata, the signs of his own disgrace and humiliation at the hands of Jews and Gentiles alike. He has had enough of this trouble over circumcision. He has demonstrated in his own body his freedom in Christ, a freedom for which he has paid a heavy price.

June 22, 2014 Galatians Chapter 5

Galatians Chapter 5

Tuesday August 19, 2008 

Galatians Chapter 5:2-15 Christian Freedom

The fledgling Gentile Christians of the Galatian churches are conflicted. After Paul had finished his initial mission in the Roman province of Galatia in north central Asia Minor he moved on to Macedonia. He delegated the responsibility for widening the evangelistic mission to trusted co-workers. Shortly after his departure Jewish Christian evangelists arrived in Galatia with a different understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. In keeping with the conservatism of the Jerusalem leadership, especially James, these evangelists were able to convince the Galatians that Paul's idea of freedom in Christ with respect to traditional Jewish practices of the Law of Moses was wrong. Not only was it wrong it was misleading, for to abandon such practices was against God's will. In effect, to be an acceptable Christian required the Gentile convert to become an acceptable Jew. When Paul received news of this "deconstruction" of his work he was devastated and angry. In his letter he lays out how wrong the Jewish evangelists are. Using the same biblical references his adversaries would have used, he walked the Galatians through the meaning of God's covenant with Abraham including a powerful depiction of the difference between the inheritance of freedom in Christ through Sarah and continued slavery under the law through Hagar. Paul places before the Galatians a defining question: "How can you who were once enslaved by the worship of idols so quickly turn back again to another 'yoke of slavery' to the same beggarly spirits by placing yourselves under the yoke of the Law of Moses?

In this first passage Paul gives a clear and persuasive image to the Galatians of what their choice means. If they follow the mandate of this "new gospel" by being circumcised they will have lost all spiritual gain. All freedom received through faith in Christ will be lost for such an action puts a person under the law requiring obedience to the entire law. Christ will become a mere cipher in whatever this new gospel promotes as Christian life. Paul draws a dividing line in the sand. Those who wish to be under the law expecting the law to bring justification have crossed the line and have cut themselves off from Christ. They have "fallen away from grace." In Christ circumcision is meaningless and has no benefit one way or another. "The only thing that counts," Paul writes, "is faith 'made effective' through love."

We would do well to meditate on this last phrase about the singularly important joining of faith and love. In 1 Cor. 13 Paul wrote that there is faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love. Here Paul clarifies under what circumstances love is so important. Rather than some abstract cerebral notion of love as a virtue to be emulated through an act of reasoning, love is an instinctual product of a transforming faith. It is the dynamic component of faith at work in the world. Paul would not understand any defining of faith as simply something we have as if it were a possession or an inner gift we might share. Faith is at work, he writes, and its work is accomplished through love - agape, the recognition of the other in the world and the passion to work for the best for the other. The old argument of faith versus works is a red herring for the Christian. The only thing that counts is not just faith it is faith working, demonstrating itself through love.

Paul pauses to consider the progress the Galatians had made while he was among them.  They were "running so well" in obeying the truth of faith in Christ. It is difficult for him to understand how they could have been persuaded otherwise. It certainly did not come from God who is the ultimate author of their freedom in Christ. But a little corrupting leaven has been set loose among them and it is growing. He is confident (but not very convincingly so) they will recognize this corruption for what it is and he assures them whoever these corrupters are they "will pay the penalty."

Vs. 11 strikes us as odd. Paul seems to indicate he is being persecuted because he is stillpreaching circumcision. That certainly contradicts everything we have read so far in his letters. What he has written of is the deceit these enemies have used and will use to destroy his credibility. It is likely those who have created the upheaval among the Galatians and turned them (or some of them) against Paul are claiming he does preach circumcision to others but has chosen not to do so among them in order to placate their Gentile rejection of such an idea. He was "getting in their good graces." To do such a thing, he writes, would negate the power of the cross as an offense to those who want to keep walls of separation and identification such as circumcision. He certainly was being persecuted for what he preached but what he preached to both Jews and Gentiles was freedom from the law and that includes freedom from circumcision. In a rather crude outburst of anger he wishes these interlopers who think circumcision is so important would go beyond that and castrate themselves.

Paul turns from his condemnation of those who would bring the Galatians under the yoke of the law. Emphasizing the freedom to which they were called in Christ, he admonishes them against thinking that this freedom is a license for self-centeredness. Rather, as he has already written, faith expresses itself through love. Far from being a chance to feed self interest, the freedom they have been given is an opportunity through love to become servants of one another and to live the words of the proverbial adage, "love your neighbor as yourself," for that is the summation of the entire law in one commandment. Without such a love for one another they could be reduced to mutual self-destruction. This is not freedom, it is chaos.

Galatians Chapter 5:16-26 Works of the Flesh versus Fruit of the Spirit

The life of the Christian is grounded in "faith working through love." Our faith is expressed in our relationships with one another as well as with the wider world of the neighbor. Love is expressed in concrete acts toward others and not just in hopeful feelings. Paul envisions two opposing ways to "walk" in life. One is according to the flesh and the other is according to the Spirit. Reading the catalog of each "walk" paints a clear enough picture of both. In general we might conclude that the works of the flesh as a way of life is self-centered, involving the pursuit of pleasure and relationships that are based upon notions of superior/inferior classifications in which others are valued according to their practical utility. Such people, Paul writes, "will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

On the other hand those who walk or live in the Spirit exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in all aspects of life. His list reflects many of Jesus' instructions to his disciples as well as those of the prophets of Israel. There is no law against such a life. Those who strive to live in the spirit, though doing so imperfectly, have practiced the discipline of being the new person in Christ Paul has claimed we could become: Spirit filled and Spirit guided, living out faith in love.

June 21, 2014 Galatians Chapter 4

Galatians Chapter 4

Monday August 18, 2008

General Comment: Paul has written that Christ is the singular offspring of Abraham and therefore the recipient of the God's Covenant promise and blessing. It follows that all who "belong to Christ" and are "in Christ" (believers) are also, by faith, recipients. We are Abraham's offspring and heirs of the promise. Genesis defines this covenant/promise/blessing in terms of the multitude of Abraham's descendants and the "promised land." In later history the land was the Kingdom of Israel established to its greatest extent during the reign of King David. This was considered the Golden Age. To the Israelites this was the ideal fulfillment of God's blessing and promise. Out of this grew the prophetic declaration of God's promise of the perpetual existence of the Davidic ancestral throne. There would always be an Israel and there would always be a King of the lineage of David. Of course, as history shows, this only lasted until 587 BCE when the line of David disappeared in the Babylonian exile. From then on, during and after the exile, the hope of regaining this ideal Kingdom was kept alive. There were various understandings of the re-emergence of the Kingdom to its former splendor. Most involved God working within history by raising up a new King to sit on David's throne. Some involved God's final intervention in a more cosmic sense in which God becomes the King who wipes away all enemies of Israel and establishes a new Israel as a Kingdom of justice, peace and plenty. The hope that this Kingdom would soon arrive became a central feature of Jewish Theology and was adopted and adapted by early Christianity.

For Paul Christ was the one who had already begun to establish this Kingdom. Belief in Christ became its point of entry. To believe in Christ through faith was to become "Abraham's offspring, heirs [to the Kingdom] according to the promise."

Galatians Chapter 4:1-7 The Purpose of the Law Continued

Paul addresses the Galatians who are being persuaded by "false apostles" to rely on the law for their justification. Writing of the Jewish experience, he characterizes the law as serving as a guardian and disciplinarian, a definer of sin but ineffective as an agent of justification. The law was incapable of assuring the receiving of the promise. In this chapter he develops the idea of the heir to the promise. Using the analogy of an inheritance he writes about the status of the heir. For all practical purposes the infants are like household slaves. They may own the father's estate but as long as they are minors under a guardian and before the appropriate date set by the father, they cannot possess it. The Jews, who are under the law which could not justify them, are slaves to the "elemental principles" of the world which he understands to be Satanic in nature. They could not receive the promised inheritance of justification until the "fullness of time." That time, Paul writes, arrived with the appearance in Israel of Christ, the Son sent by God, "born of a woman...under the law," to bring justification (redemption) to those under the law (Israel). Those "children" who believed received the inheritance (justification) from the Father.

In vs. 5b Paul shifts from the first bringing of redemption to those under the law to that of the Galatian Gentiles' experience when they first believed in the Christ preached by Paul. He interprets the initial sending of the Son and the offering of redemption to Israel as a necessary precursor to the mission to the Gentiles. Because they are not children of God in the way the Israelites are, Paul describes their inclusion in God's family as by adoption. In confirmation of adoption God has sent the Spirit of Christ through which they can respond from their hearts, "Abba." So then, the Galatians are no longer slaves without inheritance. They are children and heirs just as certain as are those who were under the law and believed.

Galatians Chapter 4:8-20 Paul Chastises the Galatians

Now Paul reminds the Galatians of the dire situation they were in before they came to know God. They were "enslaved" to the demonic nature of what they believed to be pagan gods. Now that they know the true God, how, he asks, can they succumb to the false gospel delivered by false apostles and turn their backs on what they have gained in Christ?" How can they submit themselves again as slaves to the "elemental spirits" to which those who are still under the law - even though they call themselves Christians, are enslaved? Here they are, adopting the useless mandates of the Jewish tradition, keeping special days (Jewish feast days), months and years, all calculated by the movement of the moon and sun. We should not lose the force of this startling reproach as Paul actually equates the Galatians' former practices of worshipping pagan idols with the celebration of Jewish events! As far as Paul is concerned this is enough to nullify all the work he has done among them. In effect he thinks he may have wasted his time.

Paul moves from chastisement to a plea. He begs them not to enslave themselves to the practices of Judaism being urged upon them but to become as he is in the same way he became the same as they were. In other words, as he has forsaken his Mosaic holiness practices to live among them as if he were a Gentile, he wants them to imitate him in his freedom in Christ. Vs. 12b is an indication that the Galatians have not completely abandoned Paul. They have not "wronged" (rejected) him yet. When he first preached among the Galatians they readily welcomed and gladly accepted him as if he were Christ. Even though he was suffering from a "physical infirmity" (thorn in the flesh) they did not shun him. So, he asks, what happened to that show of caring hospitality, that eagerness to have him among them and to hear his message? Have the false apostles depicted him as their enemy by deprecating the truth of the Gospel he preached? He charges them with deceitfully trying to flatter (make much of) the Galatians in order to win them over to their side against and to reject Paul. If it were possible to be with them he could stem this rising tide engulfing the Galatians. If he were there he would not be faced with the prospects of starting all over as their spiritual mother, going through labor pains again until they returned to the truth of Christ they first learned from Paul.

Galatians Chapter 4:21-5:1  An Allegory of Hagar and Sarah

(1) Paul supplies another example from the Abraham saga to demonstrate the false path to justification offered by the law. In the story of the birth of Ishmael, son of Hagar the slave, and Isaac, son of Sarah, a "free woman," he distinguishes between the two:

(2) Ishmael was born "according to the flesh ' while Isaac was born according to God's promise to Abraham.

(3) Fitting the two women into a rather loose allegory, Hagar represents the covenant of Mount Sinai "bearing children for slavery" to the Law of Moses.

(4) The reference to slavery to the law is understood in Paul's terms as the law being a dead end on the road to the justification the law cannot provide.

(5) Extending the allegory further, Hagar is Mount Sinai and "stands in line with" the present earthly Jerusalem of Paul's time and she is in slavery with her children.

(6) The allegorical connection here between Mount Sinai and Jerusalem is found in the similarity of the rigid demands of the Sinai covenant (Law) and that which is practiced by the Jews of Jerusalem. The false apostles who have come from Jerusalem to turn the Galatians away from Paul's freedom in Christ message represent the Jews of Jerusalem.

(7) However, if Hagar is the covenant of Mount Sinai whose children are born to slavery under the law in line with those in the present Jerusalem, the other woman, Sarah, is in line with the heavenly Jerusalem.  "She is free and she is [Paul's and the Galatians'] mother."

The cited scripture is from Isa. 54:1 in which the childless woman is meant to be the barren Sarah. She will ultimately rejoice at the birth of a son, the child of the promise. The desolate woman is Hagar whose children are many. One would think Hagar would be more blessed than Sarah based on the number of children. However her children are all under the curse of the law while Sarah's son is the bearer of the promise that ultimately comes through Christ. On another level, Sarah's line has been far more successful in bringing the Gentiles to God than Hagar's children under the law, which is the context of the Isaiah quotation.

Paul closes his argument from scripture reminding the Galatians they are children of the promise. He points to the false apostle from Jerusalem, equating their attacks against Paul with Ishmael's harassment of Isaac. Just as Hagar and Ishmael were driven out with no inheritance, so these false apostles should be driven out. They are "under the law" and, their being Christians not withstanding, they have rejected their inheritance by remaining under the law. Again for emphasis, Paul affirms the Galatians' entitlement as children of the promise, set free by Christ to remain free. He exhorts them to "stand firm" and not to turn away from what they have gained in Christ thereby submitting "again to a yoke of slavery."

June 20, 2014 Galatians Chapter 3

Galatians Chapter 3

Originally posted Friday August 15, 2008

General Comment: In chapters 1-2 Paul identifies the problem. The Galatians are being influenced to accept a Gospel of Christ which is contrary to what Paul had preached among them. Such a Gospel is a perversion of how one is justified (forgiven) and thereby considered righteous by God's grace. Paul has preached that the entry point is the faith of the believer. Through faith in Christ comes forgiveness and righteousness. In the perverted Gospel which has caused so much confusion among the Galatians justification is not a matter of faith but is received through obedience to the tradition of Moses. While faith in Christ is useful in so far as it is a witness to one's commitment, it is but an entry point to a life in which obedience is the gate to the Kingdom. Paul goes on to establish his own credentials as one chosen to bring Christ to the Gentiles and the absolute truth and authority of the Gospel he has received in Christ and not from human sources. He relates the trip to Jerusalem where his mission to the Gentiles and the content of his preaching were accepted by the leadership. When that approval was challenged in Antioch by Pharisaic Christians - the same  ones who were confusing the Galatians, Paul stood his ground and vehemently rejected any attempt to compel the Gentiles to "live like Jews," - to accept the traditions of Moses as the path to forgiveness apart from faith in Christ. To do so, he wrote, was to remain in the state of sin as if Christ had died for nothing.

Galatians Chapter 3:1-14 Law or Faith

Now to the heart of the matter, Paul begins an extended essay on the law and its inadequacy - utter worthlessness, as regards one's justification in contrast to faith in Christ. First he explores the Galatians understanding of what they have heard from him which comes from the Holy Spirit as the indwelling witness to truth and which they received at baptism. They have heard of Jesus' public crucifixion which serves as the effecting foundation of their justification. What they heard, and at first accepted was of the Spirit not of the flesh - meaning that while Paul was in the flesh as a human being, what he preached was in and of the Spirit (given as visionary revelation "in Christ"). We might think of this as prophetic speech where the prophet is "in the Spirit" while addressing the community. "Modern speak" might say he was "in the zone." So, Paul can be very direct in asking the simple question: "Did you receive the Spirit through 'works of the law' or by believing what I preached?" Assuming they answer yes to the latter choice, he asks how it is that they can so easily abandon the Spirit and revert to the flesh - relying on works of the law. He asks a follow-up question: "Did God supply the Spirit and work miracles in the community because the Galatians did works of the law or by your believing in what you heard?" The unspoken choice being made in answering these questions is whether the Galatians are depending on works of the law, thus being in the flesh, or on faith in Christ, thus being of the Spirit. For Paul this is the choice of eternal life versus eternal death.

Paul summarizes his favorite story to establish that faith is the only approach to God and one's justification. Based on Abraham's faith in the absurd possibility that what God told him about his future heir and the land his descendents would receive through his offspring was "reckoned to him as righteousness." Abraham's faith brought him into a right relationship with God. Therefore, Paul concludes, anyone who has faith is a spiritual ancestor of Abraham, including the Gentiles (Gen 12:3) who through their faith also have received the blessing God gave to Abraham. As we will read later, this blessing can be understood in several ways. One of them which is important in Paul's issue with the Galatians is the promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit to those who have faith in Christ. 

Now Paul gives his understanding of how Christ can be the source of the Galatians' justification through their faith; what does Christ have to do with their justification (redemption) and why is faith in Christ necessary?

(1) Against the ability of the law to bring justification,  Paul cites the command in Deut. 27:26 which in effect says that unless one "observes and obeys" all the commands in the law one is under a curse.

(2) Since, according to Paul's thinking, it is absolutely impossible to "observe and obey" all the commandments everyone who relies on the law is under the same curse.

(3) Works of the law cannot justify because no one can possibly obey them all.

(4) Citing a later text from Hab. 2:4 he adds to the scriptural precedent that it will be those who live by faith who are considered righteous.

(5) In typical first century language relating to Christ's saving work on the cross, Paul makes the necessary connection:

(a) First, the Old Testament declares that "everyone who hangs on a tree" (is crucified) is cursed (Deut. 21:23).

(b) Second, "everyone who relies on works of the law is under a curse."

(c) So, Christ is under a curse and those who rely on works of the law are cursed.

(6) The resolution of these assertions is found in Christ's death on the cross. In the crucifixion, Paul contends, Christ has become cursed. It is only because he has become a curse that he is "qualified" to redeem those who are "under the curse of the law" and to send the Spirit. What is necessary will not be found in the personal effort of works. It is found in the faith of Abraham, that the rationally absurd is somehow true. In human experience it is often the person who suffers that is best qualified to support those who suffer (e.g. Divorce Recovery, Alcoholics Anonymous, etc.).

Galatians Chapter 3:15-18 The Promise of Abraham

Paul adds one more example from Abraham to illustrate the ancestral effect of his act of faith. Using the common idea of one's will (last covenant), he points to its finality. Once ratified it is not changed or annulled, not even by the law which came centuries later. The covenant made between God and Abraham included God's promise that Abraham would be a blessing to the "nations" which would include the Gentiles as well as the Jews as his descendents. Although it would not be a good grammatical choice for us, Paul uses the term "offspring" to refer to a single descendent, not plural. By doing so Paul can point to Jesus as the one offspring of Abraham who is the recipient of the covenant blessing which Abraham received from God by virtue of his faith. Abraham not only passes down God's covenant blessing to Christ, he passes down the means of access for others to that blessing. Christ is the offspring who has received the covenant blessing. God makes that blessing (redemption) available to everyone who has faith in Christ as the bearer of the blessing which includes the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians Chapter 3:19-29 The purpose of the Law

Having ruled out any benefit of the law in one's justification leading to redemption or receiving the Holy Spirit, Paul writes to rehabilitate its relevance. Simply put, the law was given "because of transgressions." The law is a "disciplinarian" that defined the transgressions humanity was already committing but was not aware that it was before the law came. However, that purpose has now been put aside with the arrival of Abraham's offspring, Jesus, the recipient of the covenant promise.

Paul's writing at this point becomes rather dense and almost circular. Perhaps we can condense his thinking. 

(1) The law consigns ("imprisons and guards") all humanity (creation itself) to sin.

(2) Since no one is capable of perfect obedience everyone is a sinner.

(3) This consignment to sin remains in force until faith arrives in the person of Christ.

(4) Now that the possibility of faith has come in Christ humanity is no longer subject to the law.

(5) Because faith has come we can all become children of God through faith in Christ.

(6) Through baptism in Christ we are clothed with Christ (we are a new creation through faith - see 2 Cor. 5:17).

(7) To belong to Christ through our faith is to become - with Christ, Abraham's offspring.

Paul collects these claims into one of his many profound insights. Beyond individuality which he sees more of a separating than a unifying influence, Paul sees the ideal image of the Christian Church. Among the collective people of faith barriers disappear. Each person plays an equally important role in the ministry of the community. As Paul envisions the Church he sees that all are clothed with Christ and "there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male of female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." When the barriers disappear the Church prevails.

June 19, 2014 Galatians Chapter 2

Galatians Chapter 2

Originally posted Thursday August 14, 2008

Galatians Chapter 2:1-10 Paul Visits the Apostles

Paul has established his credentials as an apostle to the Gentiles, relating his call and the Gospel that had been given "in Christ." He has emphasized the purity and authority of the Gospel he preaches by claiming there has been no human influence or suggestion that it be changed. He did not ask for anyone's opinion, not even from Cephas or James during his Jerusalem visit. Now after fourteen years and a long and successful mission among the Gentiles, he has returned to Jerusalem (Acts 15) accompanied by Barnabas, a Jewish Christian, and Titus, a converted Greek who had become a trusted evangelist working in Macedonia and Corinth. As with the giving of the Gospel, this journey is in response to a Spirit revelation. The purpose of this visit was to present to the "acknowledged leaders" of the Mother Church the content of the Gospel he had been preaching among the Gentiles. The "acknowledged leaders" are not identified, but it would have been a larger group than the original Apostles. Luke refers to an initial leadership group of one hundred and ten involved in replacing Judas (Acts 1:15). Paul expresses a concern that what he is proclaiming might be found deficient. His previous insistence that any change in the Gospel he preaches would be a perversion (1:7) leads us to ask why he would be subjecting it to any human examination. This may have been conciliatory language to show the Galatians that what he had delivered to them had been presented - tested, by the "acknowledged leadership." He follows with the important point that they accepted Titus in their midst and made no requirement for him to be circumcised. Paul mentions this as emphasis that not only did the gathered leaders accept the content of his preaching, they accepted into the ranks of believers an uncircumcised Greek.

However, there were those whom Paul calls "false believers" (the Pharisaic believers of Acts 15:5) who had been "secretly brought in" - by whom we do not know, to hear what Paul had to say. Their opinion was well known. They favored a requirement that any Gentile who wished to be converted must be circumcised and take an oath to keep the Mosaic tradition of ritual purity. For Paul this was a form of slavery and, for the benefit of the Galatian readers, he writes that he rejected their demands "so that the truth of the Gospel might always remain with [the Galatians]." Other than this failed interruption in Paul's visit the results were supportive of his mission as well as the content on his preaching. In something of a dismissive comment Paul suggests that the leadership's authority is no more binding than his as it related to his mission. They had nothing to add to what Paul was preaching or to his insistence that the Gentiles remain free from the imposition of circumcision and any other peculiarly Jewish holiness tradition.

In Paul's thinking the outcome of the meeting was a confirmation of what he had presented to the Galatians. Those outsiders who were disputing his authority and his preaching were, as named in Jerusalem, the false believers." Paul was right, they were not. Paul had been accepted and sent by Christ as the apostle to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been accepted and sent by Christ as the apostle to the circumcised. As a seal upon this affirmation Paul and Barnabas were given the right hand of fellowship by the three "acknowledged pillars" of the church, James, Cephas and John. All that was added was a request that they "remember the poor," a request we read as being fulfilled in 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

Galatians Chapter 2:11-15 Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch

However definitive the Jerusalem leadership's decision in favor of Paul's mission to the Gentiles had been the opposition was not intimidated. Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch to continue their mission in Syria. Later they were joined by Cephas who was carrying out his own mission to the Jews of the area. While there he shared in the harmonious relationship of Jewish and Gentile Christians in which there had been no conflicts over religious traditions. The two groups worshipped as well as ate together without difficulty. It was the ideal "unity in Christ" Paul had sought and promoted wherever he went. It would not last. The assault on Paul's mission occurred when "certain people came from James." The "certain people" who arrived were the Pharisaic Jewish Christians mentioned in 2:4. That Paul writes "they came from James" provides all we need to know about James' Jewish conservatism and Paul's annoyance. What he suspects is James' interference if not a certain deceitfulness in giving his word by the offering of his "right hand of fellowship," as good as an oath. Under the pressure of the visitors the community table was divided along cultural lines. The circumcised separated themselves from the uncircumcised. First Cephas stopped eating with the Gentiles. Then other Jews who saw Cephas' response to the men from James felt obliged to follow his lead. Even Barnabas, Paul's fellow apostle and faithful companion through nearly fourteen years of mission work, joined in what Paul calls hypocrisy. His anger with Cephas is evident as he writes, "I opposed him to his face" for not keeping faith "with the truth of the Gospel." The confrontation was not private. Paul confronted Cephas before the entire community with this breach of trust. How, Paul asks, can Cephas the Jew be living like a Gentile free of the traditions of the law (eating with them at the same table) and the turn away from them by compelling the Gentiles to adopt these same Jewish traditions? This, Paul says, is hypocrisy.

Paul now makes his point to the Galatians concerning the proper understanding of the Gospel. Against the argument from Judaism which says that while faith in Christ is necessary, justification - the forgiveness of sin and God's gift of righteousness, does not come through Christ. It is gained through obedience to the Law of Moses, specifically the holiness commandments. For Paul justification, one's freedom "from the present evil age," is found in one's faith in Christ as the one through whom God reconciles the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:8). All the Law has achieved is to highlight the pervasive nature of sin in the world. Christ brings life. The law brings death.

Galatians Chapter 2:15-21 Salvation for All by Faith

Paul summarizes the key points of the Gospel he preaches:

1. A person is justified (forgiven) by faith in Christ, not by works of the law.

2. A person who seeks to be justified by the law remains a sinner.

3. We believe in Christ so that we can be justified by our faith in Christ.

4. No one can be justified by works of the law.

In an allusion to Cephas, Barnabas and the other Jews who separated themselves from the Gentiles, Paul asks, "what if we seek to be justified by Christ but at the same time we try to re-establish that which we have torn down (re-imposing holiness requirements)? The answer is obvious to Paul. We would have become servants of the law again and found to be transgressors since forgiveness only comes through faith in Christ. The Galatians must know that their faith has freed them from the law - they have died to the law and it has no hold on them. In their baptism they have died with Christ and have been raised to new life in Christ. In a flight of mystical genius Paul claims that this new life we live is no longer our own but is Christ living through us. Only through faith do we enter the mystery, where we are found to have died to ourselves and come alive to Christ. To paraphrase what Paul wrote in 2nd Cor. 12:4, we have "read things that are not to be told."