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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Galatians
Introduction
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Much of Galatians may strike the reader as combative in tone. There is a reason for this, why much of it, “indignant and reproachful” (Vine 1), sounds like what could be a script from the television program, Firing Line. We discover that the apostle Paul has found himself the victim of a smear campaign, of the most grievous sort, as it originates not from unbelievers but from within the church itself! Paul is forced to defend himself, not simply for his own honor but also to protect the dignity of his non-Jewish followers.
One senses Paul’s anger to be almost palpable. His other letters begin with cordial greetings to the church - not so here! He gets right to the point. It is easy to imagine the apostle pacing the floor, dictating his thoughts to a scribe, punching his words. He intends to answer his critics and their lies about him. His mind floods with too many things to say causing his words, at times, to ramble. This letter to his wayward flock, the Galatian church, will not be systematically laid out with a lawyer’s degree of precision that is seen in the book of Romans – no time for that now. Paul’s heart is burning; he must set the record straight about the nature of the gospel, and, even from his opening words, he will waste no opportunity to do so.
The second chapter of Galatians spotlights a crucial moment of history. The college of apostles, including Paul of Tarsus, had met in Jerusalem to discuss ecclesiastical issues, the outcome of which would determine whether Christianity would remain a parochial sect of Judaism or become a truly worldwide movement. James, the brother of Jesus, ruled for Paul’s camp on that momentous day. However, like a man who later cries that he didn’t understand the contract he had signed, James would become one of Paul’s harshest critics claiming that Paul was undermining the essence of Christianity and the words of Jesus. Paul, not often accused of quiet humility, in his letter to the Galatians blasts his opponents with punch-and-jab arguments that only the lawyer-philosopher from Tarsus could mount.
Compelling reading, even on this level, Galatians is much more. This writing, what many scholars feel to be the earliest of all New Testament documents, explores existential issues relating to one’s sense of purpose in life; self-acceptance and guilt; the nature of freedom and spiritual self-actualization. James and his followers asserted that such questions could be resolved only within the context of Mosaic Law. Paul would have none of it and offended almost everyone in the Jerusalem church with his adamant insistence that one did not need first to become a disciple of Moses in order to follow Jesus.
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