In Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia, he encourages them to return to the ORIGINAL gospel - the true gospel that is of Jesus Christ. This gospel is from Jesus Christ & God the Father - not man. Don't adjust it, don't change it. It begs the question: How often do we "water down" Jesus to make him seem more approachable to non-believers or the doubtful? Or even to ourselves.
Paul ends his letter expressing his confidence in the cross. Yesterday we spoke about edification verses judging, and how to evangelize through the advise of Pope Francis. We can look back at the book of Galatians and see that Paul has been edifying & evangelizing them the entire time! He has continued to “boast” of Christ’s love for him and used that as fuel to try to bring the Galatians back to their faith. He loves the Galatians people so much that he called them out when they started to go astray. Do we love our family that much? Do we love our friends that much? How about the mailman or the girl across the coffee counter?
“With freedom comes great responsibility.” We’ve all heard this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt before, but have we ever applied it to our faith? We know of our freedom that we have in Christ. We also know how we can make healthy faith-filled habits (water, sun, roots) in order to bear good fruit. Did we talk about what to do with that fruit?
We are challenged to BE MORE in our lives. Our freedom does not give us the liberty to act as we please. This is something very important. Though Christ has redeemed us, this redemption is in constant fluctuation. Christ’s Passion & resurrection has redeemed us by simply giving us the opportunity for heaven, when we didn’t have that before. He has opened the door. Now that the door is open, we spend our lives walking toward it or away from it.
Today we embark upon liberty in our freedom!! For true freedom has three parts: to remain in it, to love, and responsibility.
Do we trust in the promises of God? Do we? Do we trust in His plans? Are we sure? What if the promises aren’t fulfilled by the time we think they should be? What if God takes too long?
Today we embark upon Paul’s practical argument & his sentimental argument for justification. With all this talk about justification – do we know what Paul means by it? “Paul very often expresses his doctrine regarding grace and salvation in terms of “justification by faith” and not by “works” or “works of the law”.
Ooohhhhh harsh Paul! Geesh! …
Hmm… maybe we can relate to Paul. Have you ever wanted to take someone by the shoulders and shake some sense into them? Through his words, Paul is trying to do the same with these Galatians. It wasn’t that they were senseless but that they were in danger of the loss of their salvation. He was in fear for them.
It takes a strong conviction to stand up to someone of power and point out his or her faults; maybe a touch of courage too.
In these beginning verses of chapter 2, Paul is continuing to defend his role as an apostle. He describes a meeting in Jerusalem years after the one with Peter, as mentioned in chapter one. Barnabas & Titus went with Paul to meet “those who were of reputation”.
HOMWF Sisters, welcome to our first study on an entire book of the Bible: Galatians! Paul, an apostle, wrote this letter to the people of Galatia, about 3 years after he had visited them & evangelized to them. As with any letter, it opens with
At the end of every study, Heart of Mary Women's Fellowship will recommend additional resources. There may have been a particular topic or idea that we want to learn more about & we'll list the links, books, or resources that our HOMWF team have personally read & recommend!*