Galatians 1:1-10 Distortions
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 24, 2020 Galatians 1:1-10
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Paul starts out with his credentials and carries the same theme through to the end of this opening part. He is an apostle of Jesus and the Father, not of men. He is contrasting the gospel of Jesus with the gospel of men. I think it interesting that Paul does not just claim to be an apostle of Jesus, but also of the Father. Paul makes the point that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. The God-Man did not raise Himself. He trusted the Father not to leave Him in the grave. He trusted the Father so much that He let go of every part of living and became nothing. He was not just sleeping, He suffered the second death. He trusted that the Father knew Him so well that when Jesus was resurrected, He would be Himself.
(Understanding the Text) Paul sends greetings from the believers who are with him. He is sending this to multiple churches in Galatia, not just one. This is not like the letters to the Corinthians, which were sent to a specific city. Galatia was a region that included various cities. These believers accepted Jesus as their Savior during Paul’s first missionary journey, so they were like his firstborn. He expected a certain amount of maturity from them. Galatia included the cities of Derbe, Iconium, Lystra, and Psidion Antioch according to the map.
(Revelation of God) “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever.” Paul again includes both the Father and the Son. The Son sacrificed Himself to stop the evil of this world and deliver us out of its control. The Father wanted us delivered. We need to honor both always for eternity. In other words, we need to never forget the price that was paid for our deliverance and that God wanted us to be delivered.
(Understanding the Text) Paul says that he is shocked that the Galatians are deserting him and turning to others who are proclaiming a different salvation than the one that Paul had taught them. I used to think of this as Paul saying that he was shocked that they were deserting Jesus, but this particular sentence is such that Paul is making an emotional appeal that the Galatians are deserting Paul himself. The reason for my misapprehension is that in the next verse, Paul equates deserting himself with deserting the pure gospel of Jesus since that is what Paul preached. Paul says that the Galatians are beginning to believe a distorted gospel. He says that the gospel that they received first is the correct one and that they should not listen to anyone trying to change it, even if it were to be Paul himself. However, Paul reassures them that he is still serving the same Jesus that he had when he first came to them. Paul is subtly reminding them also of his own testimony–how he rejected the way of the Pharisees to become the servant of Jesus. He is implying that you cannot blend the two together. This distorts the gospel.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) “distort the gospel of Christ” The devil started trying to corrupt the truths of Jesus’ death and resurrection from the very beginning. It’s still happening today. Christians keep distorting who God is and what He has done over and over. Rather than learn of Him and about Him, they are content to have an incomplete picture and to fill in the blanks with their own image that they have obtained from other sources (not the Bible). Paul rejects any distortion of Jesus and the Father. He makes it a point that they have done a specific work to deliver humans from the bondage of sin, and to distort what they have done is a terrible action to take. Paul says that people who distort God’s actions, especially as relating to the cross, are accursed. Paul uses the strongest language to condemn people who distort the gospel of Christ, the good news of the Messiah’s mission to deliver humans from sin.
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” When I first read this, I wondered what Paul’s point was (besides the fact that he lives to serve Jesus). However, now I think that he was trying to show that the Galatians were trying to please men by letting the Judiazers influence their thinking and behavior. Paul is saying that in his own life if he had done what the Galatians are doing, he would never have become Jesus’ servant. However, because he wants God’s approval, he has to take a stand against anything that would corrupt the message that God has given him to carry. In the same way, if the Galatians distort the gospel they received at first in order to win the approval of the Jewish Christians who were advocating for them to follow the Jewish laws including circumcision, then the Galatians would be turning away from being servants of Jesus to servants of men.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to be careful to always paint as complete and accurate a picture of You as possible, both in my own life and to others. I need to be careful not to distort who You are and what You have done. I pray that I will always present Your mission and motives with clarity and truth. However, I am flawed in every way and continuously present You in a broken distorted light. I pray that You will shine through even though I fail continuously. Forgive me.