Lord of goodness and grace, pour out Your blessings upon this dear reader's life; in Christ Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Our reading for today comes from Galatians 5:1-12: 1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. 4 You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? 8 Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. 10 I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. 11 But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!
Ouch! Today's text is a bit painful to consider. Paul was very graphic in stressing his passion about Jesus and the Law. He who was once a Pharisee, married to the law, now is married to Christ. Paul knew the law and he knew that to enter into a covenant with the law, males had to be circumcised, and thus the argument that he is presenting today: You do not have to be circumcised to be a believer in Christ Jesus. The other faction, a Jewish faction, did believe that to be a Christian one had to first become a "good Jew" and thus enter into all that was required of Jews and for men that included circumcision. Paul sees this as a "oke of slavery," a mark that is not required. Paul's interpretation of Christ's message was all about freedom. He understood that all it had taken was for one person to speak against grace and the freedom found in it to "leaven the whole batch." (v. 9). That one person spoke to another and that one to another and before they knew it there was a division that was saying that the Christian church as they understood it, needed for Christians to be Jews.
What rules do you keep about being a Christian? Do you have a set of strong beliefs about what constitutes a Christian and what does not? Do you try to enforce these by speaking against those who do not keep them? Are you serving Christ's Church or severing it? All it takes is one person to share his or her "belief" and before you know it the cause of Christ has become their cause and serves no one or nothing. Paul would tell us, help others run as they run best! It's not the shoes or the strides, it's the forward movement that counts! All it takes is for one Nike runner to say to a New Balance runner, you're running wrong and then the fight begins. Help one another run the race set before us. Encourage others to join in the running. Let us all run towards the prize!
PRAYER: Loving God of the Race, help me to run as Christ Jesus taught me, but while I run, help me encourage others to keep running and to invite others to join the race. I ask forgiveness for the times I have tried to impose my thoughts and feelings on others and while trying to do good I may have harmed some. I pray all this in Christ Jesus' precious name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
