1Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers with me,
So first he says - 'hey, by the way, I am an apostle, so you'd better listen up' (and he goes on later in chapter 1 to re-empasize his credentials) - and then he also mentions 'the brothers' in v. 2. So this letter is not just his opinion, it is also the opinion of the brothers (whatever group of brothers that was).
It is interesting that after the salutations that he just let's them have it. I would call this a rebuke. There is no buttering up as in the letters to the Revelations churches. He just lets them have it. We live in a culture that is very politically correct, and especially in the South, very 'nice' at all costs, no matter what they feel about you. I have lived in Boston and in the South and the only difference between the two is that at least in Boston you know exactly where you stood. In the South, you can live under the guise of everyone being so nice and loving - but you never know really where you stand. Reply to this
January 25, 2009 11:49 PM
Johnbob wrote:
Anyone have any thoughts on the verse that says "If anyone preaches a gospel other than the one preached you, let him be eternally condemned."? He then repeats it. It is a scary verse, if you think about it, because it says that there is only one 'gospel'. Anyone know what this word is really referring to? It is definitely a 'church' word.
I think his message will become clearer as the letter goes along, but I take the gospel to mean the teachings about Jesus and how to be right with God. The 'non-gospel' things that the Jewish Christians were involved with were things related to legalism and the law (amazing how that keeps coming up - remember the Hebrews study?).
Whatever the final exact meaning, the message is clear - you salvation depends on preaching the 'right' gospel. Reply to this
January 25, 2009 9:27 AM
Sam wrote:
Galatians. (Advertisement: beginning this Thursday evening at 7 PM in the home of a friend of mine, I am going to be teaching about the book of Galatians. I expect it to be a 3 or 4 part 'series'...all are welcome to join us. Address provided upon request.) (I would say "Go to www.someadress.com">www.someadress.com, www.someadress.com">www.someadress.com, that's www.someadress.com">www.someadress.com." or "Dial 1-800-555-1234, 1-800-555-1234, that's 1-800-555-1234,", but I won't.) End of advertisement.
Before we even read this powerful book, which, BTW you can read in it's entirety in about 12-15 minutes, let's talk a little bit about letters. Not the aphabetically symbols we use, but the method in which Paul used to convey his thoughts to various churches and people. When is the last time you wrote a letter? I mean a regular letter you mailed to someone, or even surprised your wife with. Writing letters, expecially if you use a computer to compile and print it, is a fantastic luxury, with advantages over even face to face communications (although the latter is, of course, extremely beneficial as well). When composing a letter, you can pause to thank about what you are going to write. You can even 'erase' what you wrote, and rewrite it, in order to better get your meaning and feelings across to the potential reader. And, once you have written it, you can choose to not send it (one that might have been written in anger or haste, for example), an option you don't have if you are talking with someone...once you say it, it's heard, even though you didn't really take the time to think about what you were saying and it came out 'wrong'. I am sure THAT has never happened to YOU, now, has it?????
Anyway, the LETTER written by 'the apostle' Paul, known as 'Galatians' contains a lot of thoughts which went through his head as he was writing it. Some people even claim that 'The Holy Spirit' was with him as he wrote it...not so sure, but probably was. What did Peter mean when he wrote in HIS letter, "men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."? (That's another whole set of studies we will not get into here, but I threw it in to indicate that Paul was probably influenced by the Holy Spirit as he sat down to write this letter, as Paul did have the Holy Spirit within him just like we do today.) So, Paul, guided by HS, decided one day (the actual date of writing of this letter is still, today, argued about among Biblical scholars) to pen a letter (I use the word 'pen', but it might have been a quill, or some other instrument used in his time of which I am not familiar) "To the churches in Galatia".
He starts off this masterpiece in our history with his own name (well, the name given to him by God----OOPS! (Here is an example of something I could delete if writing a letter, but if I was talking to someone when I said it, I could be confronted and asked 'where did you find THAT information?", and I would be stumped. Nowhere in the Bible could I find..TBC Reply to this
January 25, 2009 9:52 AM
Sam wrote:
any reference to Saul getting his 'new name', Paul, from God. It seems that Luke (the writer of Acts) called him that because it was a Roman Greek (Greco-Roman) name, and that is the name Saul (Paul) decided to use, I guess, when he started his preaching to the Gentiles). So you see, if I wanted to, I could have erased my erroneous statement about God giving Saul a new name. But, back to what I was saying....he started off with his name. His name, if you recall, as Saul anyway, was associated with killing of Jews. I can see now why Luke made it a point to tell us about his name change, and why Paul (I assume) decided to change it. If one started off a letter today with "Hitler, a leader of a nation", we would immediately get a negative image in our minds. So, I conjecture that Paul decided to his this nomer because of that connotation (connatation?)...nope, connotation (another example of why written letters are good, especially using the computer to do spell checks (Note...Rik..there is a Check Spelling button at the bottom of this page! )...I confess, though, I don't use it very much, as may be evident in many errors I make.
So, "Paul, an apostle". (I see JB posted while I was writing my first posting, and was going to say something similar.) What a way to start off this letter, "Paul, an apostle", vice "Saul, a murderer of Jews". Yes, Paul wanted his readers/listeners to understand his 'rating in God's society'. He was an apostle, and not one made up by man. Paul is not sent from mankind (anthropos in Greek, the racial term), his apostleship is not of human origin, but divine. Nor is it even through the agency of a man, in other words, God did not use any human channel to confer that apostleship on Paul. No man was sent out as a representative of any council or group to 'ordain' Paul. This is important because Paul is claiming to be in a special class—he is not a general apostle (one who is sent) from somewhere or someone; he is in a small, special group of apostles that include the original twelve (less Judas and plus Matthias, Acts 1:26). And, to finish verse 1 (I know, a lot of talk/words just to finish one verse!), Paul says (as does J that he is writing this letter not only from his viewpoint, but also those of the 'brothers with me'. The letter does not indicate these brothers by name, so it is assumed that these 'churches' (which I talk about more in my lesson) probably knew of his company, and probably respected them as leaders of God's church somewhere in the world. I will conclude my blog to say that Paul was a very good 'name dropper'. Note how he said that he was 'an apostle sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead'. What a powerful image he must have wanted to present to his readers/listeners. He wanted them to know that 'God was speaking' through him, and they had better listen. How many times have you told people YOU are sent from God? We are, in a way, you know.BYE Reply to this
Paul sets this letter in an interesting way:
1Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers with me,
So first he says - 'hey, by the way, I am an apostle, so you'd better listen up' (and he goes on later in chapter 1 to re-empasize his credentials) - and then he also mentions 'the brothers' in v. 2. So this letter is not just his opinion, it is also the opinion of the brothers (whatever group of brothers that was).
It is interesting that after the salutations that he just let's them have it. I would call this a rebuke. There is no buttering up as in the letters to the Revelations churches. He just lets them have it. We live in a culture that is very politically correct, and especially in the South, very 'nice' at all costs, no matter what they feel about you. I have lived in Boston and in the South and the only difference between the two is that at least in Boston you know exactly where you stood. In the South, you can live under the guise of everyone being so nice and loving - but you never know really where you stand.
Reply to this
Anyone have any thoughts on the verse that says "If anyone preaches a gospel other than the one preached you, let him be eternally condemned."? He then repeats it. It is a scary verse, if you think about it, because it says that there is only one 'gospel'. Anyone know what this word is really referring to? It is definitely a 'church' word.
I think his message will become clearer as the letter goes along, but I take the gospel to mean the teachings about Jesus and how to be right with God. The 'non-gospel' things that the Jewish Christians were involved with were things related to legalism and the law (amazing how that keeps coming up - remember the Hebrews study?).
Whatever the final exact meaning, the message is clear - you salvation depends on preaching the 'right' gospel.
Reply to this
Galatians.
(Advertisement: beginning this Thursday evening at 7 PM in the home of a friend of mine, I am going to be teaching about the book of Galatians. I expect it to be a 3 or 4 part 'series'...all are welcome to join us. Address provided upon request.) (I would say "Go to www.someadress.com">www.someadress.com, www.someadress.com">www.someadress.com, that's www.someadress.com">www.someadress.com." or "Dial 1-800-555-1234, 1-800-555-1234, that's 1-800-555-1234,", but I won't.)
End of advertisement.
Before we even read this powerful book, which, BTW you can read in it's entirety in about 12-15 minutes, let's talk a little bit about letters. Not the aphabetically symbols we use, but the method in which Paul used to convey his thoughts to various churches and people. When is the last time you wrote a letter? I mean a regular letter you mailed to someone, or even surprised your wife with. Writing letters, expecially if you use a computer to compile and print it, is a fantastic luxury, with advantages over even face to face communications (although the latter is, of course, extremely beneficial as well). When composing a letter, you can pause to thank about what you are going to write. You can even 'erase' what you wrote, and rewrite it, in order to better get your meaning and feelings across to the potential reader. And, once you have written it, you can choose to not send it (one that might have been written in anger or haste, for example), an option you don't have if you are talking with someone...once you say it, it's heard, even though you didn't really take the time to think about what you were saying and it came out 'wrong'. I am sure THAT has never happened to YOU, now, has it?????
Anyway, the LETTER written by 'the apostle' Paul, known as 'Galatians' contains a lot of thoughts which went through his head as he was writing it. Some people even claim that 'The Holy Spirit' was with him as he wrote it...not so sure, but probably was. What did Peter mean when he wrote in HIS letter, "men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."? (That's another whole set of studies we will not get into here, but I threw it in to indicate that Paul was probably influenced by the Holy Spirit as he sat down to write this letter, as Paul did have the Holy Spirit within him just like we do today.)
So, Paul, guided by HS, decided one day (the actual date of writing of this letter is still, today, argued about among Biblical scholars) to pen a letter (I use the word 'pen', but it might have been a quill, or some other instrument used in his time of which I am not familiar) "To the churches in Galatia".
He starts off this masterpiece in our history with his own name (well, the name given to him by God----OOPS! (Here is an example of something I could delete if writing a letter, but if I was talking to someone when I said it, I could be confronted and asked 'where did you find THAT information?", and I would be stumped. Nowhere in the Bible could I find..TBC
Reply to this
any reference to Saul getting his 'new name', Paul, from God. It seems that Luke (the writer of Acts) called him that because it was a Roman Greek (Greco-Roman) name, and that is the name Saul (Paul) decided to use, I guess, when he started his preaching to the Gentiles). So you see, if I wanted to, I could have erased my erroneous statement about God giving Saul a new name.
But, back to what I was saying....he started off with his name. His name, if you recall, as Saul anyway, was associated with killing of Jews. I can see now why Luke made it a point to tell us about his name change, and why Paul (I assume) decided to change it. If one started off a letter today with "Hitler, a leader of a nation", we would immediately get a negative image in our minds. So, I conjecture that Paul decided to his this nomer because of that connotation (connatation?)...nope, connotation (another example of why written letters are good, especially using the computer to do spell checks (Note...Rik..there is a Check Spelling button at the bottom of this page!
So, "Paul, an apostle". (I see JB posted while I was writing my first posting, and was going to say something similar.) What a way to start off this letter, "Paul, an apostle", vice "Saul, a murderer of Jews". Yes, Paul wanted his readers/listeners to understand his 'rating in God's society'. He was an apostle, and not one made up by man. Paul is not sent from mankind (anthropos in Greek, the racial term), his apostleship is not of human origin, but divine. Nor is it even through the agency of a man, in other words, God did not use any human channel to confer that apostleship on Paul. No man was sent out as a representative of any council or group to 'ordain' Paul. This is important because Paul is claiming to be in a special class—he is not a general apostle (one who is sent) from somewhere or someone; he is in a small, special group of apostles that include the original twelve (less Judas and plus Matthias, Acts 1:26).
And, to finish verse 1 (I know, a lot of talk/words just to finish one verse!), Paul says (as does J
I will conclude my blog to say that Paul was a very good 'name dropper'. Note how he said that he was 'an apostle sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead'. What a powerful image he must have wanted to present to his readers/listeners. He wanted them to know that 'God was speaking' through him, and they had better listen. How many times have you told people YOU are sent from God? We are, in a way, you know.BYE
Reply to this