Turning

At Eastside, we believe the Bible is God’s story ... more specifically, a series of stories that ultimately tell the Story of God. Included with the story, we also have letters that were sent by leaders to specific groups of believers. This week, we are going to begin looking at some of those letters. No one is certain about the chronological order of these letters; but we are going read through them following the most commonly accepted order. You will notice that they follow along with the order of Paul’s missionary journeys. The first letter we are going to look at was written by Paul and sent to believers living in the Roman province of Galatia; specifically, the communities Paul had just visited on his first missionary journey. If you would like to review that journey, check out Acts 13-14.


Galatians 1
1 This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. 2 All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia. 3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. 4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 All glory to God forever and ever! Amen. 6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. 10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.


Turning. Most Bible scholars believe Paul wrote this letter just months after he had returned from his trip to the province of Galatia. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that someone could turn away from the message of Jesus so quickly ... Jesus himself warned us about it (check out Matthew 13:1-23). The sad truth is some people will turn away from the message of Jesus because they don’t understand something or they experience problems or they are distracted by the worries of this life (again, check out Matthew 13:1-23). The good news is this message of Jesus will take root in some people and revolutionize their life so much that even though they face issues they don’t understand and face problems that bring heartache and face worries that cause distractions ... they keep turning back to God. And in doing so, God keeps using them to turn others back to him (seriously, check out Matthew 13:1-23). Everyday, in the choices we make, we can be turning away from God or turning toward God.