Devotional Sharing, Submitted by Daemin Kim, Gracepoint Berkeley

Galatians 2:3-5

The Judaizers among their midst (whom he calls “false brothers”) had been preaching that Gentile Christians must follow the Laws of Moses, such as circumcision, to be saved. Paul himself was a Jew, who revered the laws of the Old Testament. He grew up in that culture, with it’s finely tuned sensibilities. Most of the Christians of his era were Jews. Reflect on how easy it would have been for him to give into their requirements and agree to have his new converts be circumcised and adopt Old Testament regulations.  What would have been the consequences of such a move by Apostle Paul?  What can I learn from Apostle Paul’s refusal to “not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain…?”  It would have been so easy for Paul to go along with the other Jews in this matter: this was the familiar way he himself grew up.  His mindset and worldview would have readily accepted Jewish practices that he’d been taught was the best way.  Going along would have appeased the Jews and avoided some conflicts and instill a sense of unity with the Jews, would have “validated” Paul’s Jewishness that how he’d lived as a Jew wasn’t a “waste” in the sense that all believers would be required to follow Old Testament regulations, and could have made becoming a Christian more attractive to those Jews who wanted everyone to adopt Jewish ways.  But the consequence of such an acceptance by Paul would have been that he would be rejecting the freedom that Christ won for us on the cross.  It would be saying that followers of Christ aren’t free from the Law that burdened the Jews but rather would be subject to Law again.  It would have been Paul was preaching a less than full form of the gospel, that Christ fulfilled the Law on our behalf, and gave us freedom that we could not earn.  It would mean changing the gospel.

Paul’s refusal to give into the “false brothers” teaches me that the gospel must not be compromised.  The gospel must be upheld and proclaimed as it was preached from the very beginning.  While it seems appealing to want to avoid conflicts or ease tensions, and to make the gospel more attractive to some, such goals cannot come at the expense of changing or watering down the gospel.  In today’s context, it could be a demand to present just the “grace” or “mercy” portion of the gospel without the truth about human sinfulness that some kind difficult to accept for themselves, or a call to add certain human denominational traditions such as a dress code or musical styles as requirements for all Christians.  We cannot cut or add to the truth of the gospel because of a conflict or for any other reason.

Who are the people for whom I need to firmly protect the truth of the gospel?  I must protect the truth of the gospel for everyone I’m called to love and lead.  I must be resolute in protecting the truth of the gospel for the college students I’m ministering to, for my family, and for all of those I co-labor with in ministry.  And not just for them, but for everyone that I encounter and have the opportunity to share about my faith with, people who come to listen when I teach, and everyone I get to witness the gospel to.  Any time I get to present the gospel to someone, I need protect the truth for them.

Galatians 2:7-10

Verse 7 implies that, although ultimately the Church is called to reach the whole world, God can entrust certain people with a particular task that is more focused. Who are the people that I have been “entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel?”    I have been entrusted with preaching the gospel to the college students of San Francisco.  At this time, I’m called to minister to the students in a city full of distractions and worldly values.

What steps need to be taken in my life to be faithful to this entrustment?  I must be connected with the Word of God – that means daily devotions and reading the Bible, meditating on it and reflecting on how it applies to my life.  I must embody the message – that means living out what I learn and I am going to teach.  I must be available – I must be meeting the people and opening up my life and home to share my life with those I’m entrusted with.

According to this passage, what should be my attitude towards those who are given different kinds of entrustment?  My attitude towards those who’ve been entrusted with a different kind of ministry should be to understand that it is God who is at work in all of God’s ministries and that I should be in fellowship with them.  It means I cannot dismiss or lookdown on others who have different kind of entrustment as doing lesser ministry.  We share God’s work and we are called to have unity in him regardless of specifics of our particular entrustment.

Galatians 2:11-15

What can I learn from Apostle Paul openly opposing Peter?  Why was this necessary?  The fact that Apostle Paul openly opposed Peter teaches me that no one is above correction or confrontation with the truth, no one is above being opposed they are in the wrong, and that sometimes we need to oppose those with authority or standing.  Although Peter was one of the top leaders of the early church, Paul had to oppose Peter because he was clearly in the wrong, and Peter’s actions were leading others astray.  Peter’s actions were affecting others in a negative way.

What effect did Peter’s fear have on others?  What are some fears that can lead to hypocrisy in my life that will in turn cause others “to join” in my hypocrisy?  Peter’s fears of the Jews led others to be afraid as well.  Others followed his lead and became hypocritical in not eating with the Gentile believers.  This was so harmful because in effect those acting hypocritically were saying that the bond of Christ is not as strong as that of ethnicity.  My own desire for ethnic or cultural comfort and the fear of losing that comfort and familiarity could lead me to set a bad example to others of preferring certain people and avoiding certain types of people.  A fear of not having enough money or time or whatever other resource could lead to the hypocrisy of not trusting in God as my Lord and provider and end up setting an example of hoarding and not being generous.

Peter began to “draw back” and “separate” himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  Name some circumstances in which people change their views or practices regarding their faith because of fear of disapproval from certain people.    One case where a person could change one’s views or practices regarding his/her faith is when one is afraid of disapproval or rejection from those whose approval are important: this would include one’s parents and family, and bosses at work or professors who have authority over one.  Other circumstances include not wanting to lose the approval of set of friends, or peer group or coworkers or classmates, or neighbors.

What are some reasons people would backtrack on what they had earlier already affirmed?  People may backtrack on what they had already affirmed when they realize that this affirmation may cost them more than they had thought.  This could be from losing approval of some people, or from having to come out in the open to reveal their convictions, or from having to stand up to those with opposing beliefs.  People may not have thought through the “cost” of affirming a truth for themselves, and not taken seriously any consequences, such as disapproval or rejection, or the call to take their beliefs seriously and to put them into practice even when others oppose those beliefs.

Galatians 2:20

How is this verse true in my life?  What are some aspects of my life before Christ that have been crucified with Christ?  In what ways is it the case that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me?”   This verse is true in my life as I reflect on my own testimony.  My life before Christ was full of fears, ambition about academic and financial success, and selfishness.  I was an excessively conservative and self-centered individual who lived for himself.  I thought myself independent from others and I thought I didn’t need anybody.  Such life of pride and insecurity has been crucified with Christ and I no longer live that shriveled self-centered life.  Christ lives in me and I’m amazed to find my life filled with people, and my heart occupied by thoughts for others.  I see my time and energy not as my own, but as God’s, to be poured out for sake of others in ministry, in teaching and counseling, in listening and sharing.  I find myself a part of something far greater – the Body of Christ, and I find myself so grateful.

Devotional Questions:

Galatians 2:3-5

• The Judaizers among their midst (whom he calls “false brothers”) had been preaching that Gentile Christians must follow the Laws of Moses, such as circumcision, to be saved. Paul himself was a Jew, who revered the laws of the Old Testament. He grew up in that culture, with it’s finely tuned sensibilities. Most of the Christians of his era were Jews. Reflect on how easy it would have been for him to give into their requirements and agree to have his new converts be circumcised and adopt Old Testament regulations.  What would have been the consequences of such a move by Apostle Paul?  What can I learn from Apostle Paul’s refusal to “not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain…?”
• Who are the people for whom I need to firmly protect the truth of the gospel?

Galatians 2:7-10

• Verse 7 implies that, although ultimately the Church is called to reach the whole world, God can entrust certain people with a particular task that is more focused. Who are the people that I have been “entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel?”
• What steps need to be taken in my life to be faithful to this entrustment?
• According to this passage, what should be my attitude towards those who are given different kinds of entrustment?

Galatians 2:11-15

• What can I learn from Apostle Paul openly opposing Peter?  Why was this necessary?
• What effect did Peter’s fear have on others?  What are some fears that can lead to hypocrisy in my life that will in turn cause others “to join” in my hypocrisy?
• Peter began to “draw back” and “separate” himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  Name some circumstances in which people change their views or practices regarding their faith because of fear of disapproval from certain people.
• What are some reasons people would backtrack on what they had earlier already affirmed?

Galatians 2:20

• How is this verse true in my life?  What are some aspects of my life before Christ that have been crucified with Christ?  In what ways is it the case that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me?”

Commentary:

v.2 “Those who seemed influential probably includes James, Peter, and John (see v. 9). in vain. Paul is not seriously imagining that he has actually been preaching a false gospel, but he would regard his work as in vain if it were to result in a divided church—a Gentile half and a Jewish half.”[1]

vv.3-5 “There is agreement: Titus—and so by implication all Gentiles—does not need to be circumcised. Or at least Paul, James, Peter, and John agree on this. There is, however, a group of false brothers who continue to disagree. Paul regards the imposition of circumcision on Gentile Christians as a slavery producing betrayal of the freedom Christ has given. (On circumcision, see Acts 15:1–35; Rom. 2:25–29; 4:9–16; Gal. 5:2–12; 6:12–15.) The presence of these ‘false brothers’ within the church in Galatia shows that churches will sometimes have unbelievers in their midst who seek to harm the church.”[2]

“Paul’s response to the false brothers was of huge importance, because if he had yielded, Gentiles such as the Galatians would not have been brought the true gospel.”[3]

vv.7-9 “If the church is God’s temple (e.g., Eph. 2:21), some had apparently made Peter, James, and John the pillars. Significantly, these ‘pillars’ had given the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and Paul, signifying that they approved the message of the gospel as preached by Paul as well as his ministry to the Gentiles. Thus they validated Paul’s apostleship by putting him on an equal footing with these other apostles in Jerusalem. This is significant, because it shows that neither Paul nor the Jerusalem apostles had to change their gospel message, but they were fully in agreement, and this ‘right hand of fellowship’ gave clear expression to that agreement.”[4]

vv.11-13 “The issue that Paul is calling into question is the practice of Jews associating with Gentiles at the table.  ‘It is possible that the pressure to shun such associations (Jews and Gentiles sharing a meal) may have come from a faction in the Jerusalem church that wanted to make the emergent Christian movement look good in the eyes of their fervent Jewish countrymen.  The early church was a movement within Judaism, but the Gentile-friendly form it took in Antioch posed difficulties for Judean Jewish Christians who wanted to avert the suspicion that they were in communion with lawless Gentiles.  Consequently, the response of this faction at Jerusalem was to urge Peter […] to avoid contact with Gentiles, perhaps in hopes of pressuring the Gentile converts into accepting circumcision and full Torah-observance […] The Law of Moses doesn’t prohibit dining with Gentiles.’”[5]

vv.13-14 “Paul describes the mass withdrawal from the one table as ‘hypocrisy’.  Paul’s point is that Peter and the other Jewish Christians at Antioch are caught up in playing a part that does not represent their own considered convictions; they are caving in to external pressure, carrying out someone else’s agenda.  This is another way of expressing the charge of people-pleasing.”[6]

v.16 “‘Justified’ means ‘counted righteous’ or ‘declared righteous’ by God. If people were sinless and perfectly obeyed all of God’s perfect moral standards, they could be justified or ‘declared righteous’ on the basis of their own merits. But Paul says that this is impossible for any Gentile or even for any Jew to do (cf. Romans 1–2). we know that a person is not justified by works of the law. Paul saw that Christ had taught justification by faith, and so he called God the one ‘who justifies the ungodly’ (Rom. 4:5). Paul will soon show that this view was taught even in the Old Testament (see Gal. 3:6–18) […] In Gal. 2:16, ‘works of the law’ means not only circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath, but any human effort to be justified by God by obeying a moral law. faith in Jesus Christ. ‘But through faith in Jesus Christ’ is the opposite of depending on one’s own good deeds for justification, since justification comes through faith in Christ alone. We also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ implies that justification is the result of saving faith. The contrast and not by works of the law shows clearly that no human effort or merit can be added to faith as a basis for justification. (This verse was frequently appealed to in the Reformation by Protestants who insisted on ‘justification by faith alone’ as opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification by faith plus merit gained through the ‘means of grace’ administered by means of the Roman Catholic sacraments such as penance and the Mass.) Paul concludes decisively: by works of the law no one will be justified (cf. 3:10–14; Acts 13:39; Heb. 10:1–14). On justification, see also notes on Rom. 4:25; Phil. 3:9; James 2:21.”[7]

“What he means is this: he had tried the way of law; he had tried with all the terrible intensity of his burning conviction to put himself right with God by a life that sought to obey every single item of that law. He had found that such an attempt produced nothing but a deeper and deeper sense that all he could do could never put him right with God. All the law had done was to show him his own helplessness. Whereupon he had quite suddenly abandoned that way and had cast himself, sinner as he was, on the mercy of God. It was the law which had driven him to God. To go back to the law would simply have entangled him all over again in the sense of estrangement from God.”^[8]

v.20 “I have been crucified with Christ. Paul’s former ‘self,’ the person Paul was before he trusted Christ, with all of his sinful goals and proud, self-exalting desires, came to a decisive end—he ‘died.’ It is no longer I who live does not mean that Paul has no personality of his own (all his writings show that he does) but that his own personal interests and goals no longer direct his life; rather, Christ who lives in me now directs and empowers all that he does. How then does he, as a ‘crucified man,’ gain any strength to go on living? the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. Paul seems to be saying that, as he trusts Christ moment by moment, Christ then works in and through Paul to give spiritual effectiveness to all that he does. who loved me and gave himself for me. The fact that on the cross Jesus bore believers’ sins as their personal, individual substitute (‘he . . . for me’) shows that the crucifixion was not an impersonal, mechanical transaction, but a personal expression of Christ’s love for people as individuals.”[9]

v.21 “Paul returns to the hypothetical situation raised in v. 18 of imagining that the law was back in force again as a means by which he was trying to earn justification. In that case, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ’s death would have been pointless, for people could earn their own justification by their obedience. But in fact, this is something they can never do. This highlights the depth of the human problem: it cannot be remedied by the God-given law. Sin is so serious that only the substitutionary, atoning death of God’s Son can deal with the problem. God’s grace in the gospel must therefore be humbly and thankfully accepted as the only way of salvation.”[10]

---

[1] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2246.

[2] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2247.

[3] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2247.

[4].ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2247.

[5] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 232-33.

[6] Richard B. Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 234.

[7] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2248.

[8] William Barclay, “The Letter to the Galatians and Ephesians,” The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002) 26-27.

[9] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2249.

[10] ESV Study Bible, Notes for Galatians (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008) 2249.

Related posts:

1. Galatians 4 – Devotional & Commentary
2. Galatians 1 – Devotional & Commentary
3. Galatians 3 – Devotional & Commentary
4. Galatians 5 – Devotional & Commentary
5. Galatians 6 – Devotional & Commentary