Paul's Letter to the Galatians

GALATIANS

Galatians (like Romans) keeps calling me back for a fresh reading.  Many times I’ve read, thinking to have understood Paul correctly.  This is more true for the broad sweep of the message; less so for the troubling bits along the way.  However, I occasionally have had experiences in which some new discovery, some new connection of meaning within the text, tell me that my previous confidence at interpretation was actually misplaced.  For example, long ago I was taken by a very "Lutheran" understanding of faith vs. works.  That understanding has now been replaced. 

And so, I read again.

And with fresh insights, my wounded confidence returns, healed and filled with renewed optimism and fresh vigor.  I love Galatians because, as a message created in the heat of strife and conflict, it stirs up what truly must have been center-most and upper-most in the mind of Paul.  And what a mind!  God chose His penman with exquisite skill, and Paul’s writings are well worthy to be designated as “Scripture.”  When Paul speaks, we hear God and what is center-most and upper-most.

I haven’t blogged here for some time.  Mainly I’ve been busy publishing a book, which will soon come out on Amazon.com, which is titled, Filling The Temple:  Finding a Place For The Holy Spirit.  And I’ve been enriched by reading books, like N. T. Wrights Justification and The Faith of Jesus Christ by Richard B. Hayes.  The latter title carries the subtitle, The Narrative Substructure of Galatians 3:1—4:11, which obviously “hits the spot” in a search for what Paul truly said in Galatians.  And with justification and righteousness occupying such a key domain in both Galatians and Romans, Wright has also been very helpful.

Above all, I appreciate Galatians for the way it is able both to “center” me and to “raise” me, by calling out what in Scripture is center-most and upper-most.  Although conflict is the catalyst that has bubbled these crucial topics and issues to the surface, I am also grateful for the insights Paul brings in Galatians to the proper conduct of Christians in conflict situations.  Here, on the one hand, is the apostle who sets for the beatific “fruits of the Spirit” and urges us to restore trespassers in a spirit (Spirit?) of gentleness and to bear one another’s burdens.  And on the other hand, the same apostle calls down a curse on preachers who oppose his own gospel, calls his readers “foolish” and “bewitched”, and urges those compelling circumcision to castrate themselves!  As with the other enigmas presented by Galatians, I would suggest that we have not understood Paul when we embrace either of the seemingly oxymoronic approaches that he takes to conflict.  We understand Paul only when we can work both into a meaningful philosophy of conflict and adapt conflict-styles that embrace the whole in ways that are appropriate.

Most of all, I appreciate the way Galatians delivers meaningful insight into God’s two greatest gifts:  His Son and His Spirit.  And I love the way Galatians sews up so nicely to make a fabric with not only Paul’s other writings (including those that some actually think that were not written by Paul, like Timothy, Titus, and Ephesians), but also makes a fabric with the whole of Scripture.  What follows is my latest and truest commentary on Galatians.