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Prepare Your Heart
To the best of your ability, get rid of all distractions. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and quiet yourself in the Lord’s presence. Then, ask the Lord to speak to you in this time. Let Him know that you will listen and make whatever adjustments He will reveal to you.
Read God’s Word
A Verse for Today
Slowly and reflectively read the following verse(s) and listen to what God will say to you through His written Word. Consider writing down any insights He reveals to you.
Galatians 1:10 (CSB): “For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Reflecting on God’s Word
Imagine going to a football game only to realize that the refs weren’t interested in making accurate calls. Instead, they were interested in making calls that pleased the players and fans. That would be a game that I would saturate with my absence. I don’t want the person in charge making calls based on feelings; I want them to make calls based on facts, regardless of how it may affect people’s feelings.
Imagine that you have developed some abdominal pain, and it’s been getting worse, much worse. Would you rather have a doctor who wanted to please you with everything he/she said, or would you want a doctor who cares more about what is true? Personally, I would want a doctor who cared about me but cared much more about telling me the truth, even if what he/she said hurt my feelings.
If this is true of refs and doctors, how much more true must it be for Christians who realize that an eternity in Heaven or Hell awaits every single person!
Paul opened up the letter to the churches in Galatia (modern-day Turkey) in a very formal way. It doesn’t have the warmth of his other letters. He seems to merely go through the formalities.
Then, almost as if to cause his readers whiplash, he immediately goes to the concern that grieved him, even angered him. The Galatian churches had tampered with the Gospel!
Galatians 1:6 (CSB): “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—”
Essentially, legalists had infiltrated them, claiming that faith was insufficient. The people in Galatia were being told that they needed to be circumcised. They also needed to obey the Law.
So, the Gospel of “grace through faith in Jesus” had been mixed with human effort. And that diluted “gospel” cannot save.
In August 2001, Missouri pharmacist Dr. Robert Courtney was arrested. In December 2002, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. What had he done? He diluted cancer medications. He did it to pad his pockets with around $19 million. Because of his evil actions, many people died whose lives may have been saved by using a fully potent medication. (“Missouri Pharmacist Confesses To Diluting Cancer Medication Of 4,000 Patients”)
Friends, a faulty Gospel is even worse! The biblical Gospel that can convert a lost soul can become so diluted that it loses its saving power. When people are given this diluted, flawed “gospel,” believing that they are made right in God’s eyes and have secured a place in Heaven, they are still headed to Hell. And now they are inoculated to the true Gospel; they are offended if anyone ever questions their “salvation.”
That’s why Paul got so angry as he wrote the letter to the Galatian church!
What did he say should happen to the people who had tampered with and diluted the biblical Gospel?
Galatians 1:8-9 (CSB): “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!” (emphasis mine)
The word that Paul used when he wrote, “a curse be on him,” is the word “anathema.” It was a word that spoke of someone who is cursed by God and damned to an eternal existence in Hell.
So, Paul was saying that anyone who tampered with and diluted the biblical Gospel should go to Hell.
Friends, there are many “preachers” who are tampering with the Gospel these days. There are also many Christians who are tampering with the Gospel. Sometimes, the biblical Gospel is diluted by adding to it, and sometimes it is diluted by taking away from it. The end result is that the “gospel” that has been modified can probably no longer save a lost soul.
Don’t be like the Galatians. Don’t be like the people who modify the powerful, biblical Gospel.
Study your Bible! Cultivate a greater, more accurate understanding of what the biblical Gospel is! Then share it with others!
Don’t worry about how people will respond to you. Your focus should not be to say only those things that would endear people to you. Instead, you are to care much more about what Jesus thinks of you. Be loving as you speak to others, but love them enough to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Be honest and biblical as you share the greatest news and the greatest story that has ever been told.
Galatians 1:10 (CSB): “For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Spend Time in Prayer
- Ask God to help you cultivate a more accurate understanding of the biblical Gospel by studying your Bible.
- Ask God to help you accurately share the biblical Gospel with others who desperately need to hear it.
- Ask God to help you be much more concerned with pleasing Him than with pleasing people.
Going Deeper
If you want to dig a little deeper into Galatians 1:6, consider reading the following GotQuestions article:
“What does ‘turning to a different gospel’ mean in Galatians 1:6?”
Sharing
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Matt Ellis is the pastor of White Hall Baptist Church in Richmond, Kentucky (whitehallbaptistchurch.org)
Matt’s Musings 