June 12 – Galatians 1 – “The Passionate Preacher” – General Electric Power Company. That is the memory prompt I use for our next 4 books – Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. First come the Gospels, then the history immediately thereafter (Acts), then Paul’s Gospel (Romans), then 1&2 Corinthians – after that comes the GEPC. Galatia is a region in the center of today’s Turkey - it was the Greek name for the Gauls. The region was formed when Gallic tribes from Europe (from today’s France & Germany and areas further east) invaded Turkey around 275BC. By 235BC the boundaries of their region were fixed; it became a Roman province around 25BC, along with a fair amount of surrounding territory. The letter was Paul’s first, written around 50AD, and in many ways it is an early version of his letter to the Romans – a passionate declaration of Christian liberty. His greeting is classic Paul: Grace (Greek charis) and Peace (Hebrew shalom) – words for Jew and gentile alike. And he opens by declaring Jesus’ great Gift – “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (v4). This is quickly followed by the very thing we’ve been talking about – people leaving the truth for heresy (v6-10). When I come across coincidences like this in study, I tend to sit up and take notice – God is saying something to me (and now He’s saying it to you, since you’re along for the ride!). The chapter ends as it started - with Paul giving his credentials. The persecutor of the Church was predestined for God’s graceful redemption (v15) (as were you, gentle reader!) and “is now preaching the faith [ I ] once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me.” (v23b-24) - S
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:42:42 +0000
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