Daily Bible thoughts 707: Thursday 18th September 2014: Galatians 2:1-10

‘’…those men added nothing to my message.’’ (6)

Paul continues to make the important point that the leaders of the Jerusalem church did not give him a message to preach. Rather, they endorsed the message he had been preaching for some time. Jesus revealed it to him; the church, we might say, rubber-stamped it (1, 2). The gospel Paul preached was not faith plus circumcision (3-5). It was not believe and anything at all. It was a message of grace through faith. Paul states clearly that the leaders of the Jerusalem church recognised his ministry as it stood. They did not demand that he should change his message in any way.  They did not tinker with it; not even in small details. They did not say that he ought to preach circumcision.  They were happy to shake his hand and welcome him as a genuine member of the same church (9), carrying a God-given commission. The insistence on circumcision, as essential to salvation, came from ‘’false brothers’’ who had ‘’inflitrated’’ the ‘’ranks’’ of the church (4). Paul saw this as an attack on ‘’the truth of the gospel’’ and withstood it (5). In asking Paul to ‘’remember the poor’’ (10), the leaders of the Jerusalem were not adding to Paul’s gospel. They were simply underlining the importance of a good work that accompanies the gospel. This is something that saved people do; but it does not save them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem recognised that Paul had a specific calling to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter was sent to the Jews. They saw that God was ‘’at work’’ in his ministry (7, 8; see also 1 Corinthians 3:5ff.). In the Christian church, under the gospel umbrella, there are many different preachers with a variety of callings and styles and spheres of operation. It is vital that we can affirm other genuine ministries, even though they may be vastly different from our own.  May God give us eyes that can always see where He is at work and who He is working through. Sadly, it seems to me that in our day there are good Christian men and women who are dismissed because the way they operate is so different to the norm. So long as there is orthodoxy of belief there should be room for flexibility of approach. Let’s be careful that in criticising others we are not wounding God and grieving His Holy Spirit.

Prayer: How amazing Lord that you should work through any of us! I am astounded, and grateful, that you use me!!