Galatians Copy

On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson opened with rapper 50 Cent's 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin', a title that understands how a vow works: this happens, or it kills me. He then took us to Jerusalem in AD 57, where Paul was nearly beaten to death and more than forty men swore before God not to eat or drink until Paul was dead. The chief priests agreed to help, and the plot fell apart only because Paul's teenage nephew overheard it. The Greek word those men used to curse themselves is the same word Paul uses in Galatians 1:8-9 for anyone who preaches a different gospel. Teachers had come into Galatia distorting what Paul preached, and within a year or two the Galatians were deserting it. Paul says he is amazed, and Pastor Russell said the word carries horror rather than surprise, the same picture as Israel turning to a golden calf so soon after the Exodus. Paul reminds them they were called into grace, meaning grace is where the Christian life continues, not merely where it began. Then he shifts from the gospel he preached to the gospel they received, a word for something handed off. They are no longer the audience. They are the guardians.

Look up Acts 15:1-11, Acts 17:11, 1 Timothy 4:16, and 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Acts 15 is the meeting where the church settled that Gentiles did not have to keep the Law of Moses to be saved, which is the ruling the teachers in Galatia were working around; the Bereans in Acts 17 checked the Scriptures daily to see whether even Paul was telling them the truth; Paul tells Timothy to watch his life and his teaching closely; and he warns that people will gather teachers who tell them what their ears want to hear, which is the drift Pastor Russell said every teacher faces.

How do these passages together shape what it means for ordinary believers to guard the gospel, and what would it look like this week to check something you have been taught against Scripture yourself?

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