Galatians 2:15-21 Problems at the Church
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: June 1, 2020 Galatians 2:15-21
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.
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
(Understanding the Text) Paul has just accused Peter of living like a Gentile even though he is a Jew. Paul told Peter and the other Jews in the meeting that they were all Jews by birth. They were not born into sinful Gentile households. They were born into households that swore allegiance to the one true God. As Jews they believed that allegiance to God meant following the law. As long as they kept the law, they knew that they were right with God, but they also knew that they continued sinning, so they had to make sacrifices for those sins. However, when Paul and other Jewish Christians had seen that Jesus had sacrificed Himself for their sins, they believed that His sacrifice took all of their sins away. They knew that they could not keep the law perfectly and the only way to God was through sacrifice. They accepted Jesus’ sacrifice to save them from our sins.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) I get that part so far, but I’m not sure what Paul means in his next statement. “But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” How can we endeavor to be justified in Christ? I guess after reading other translations that Paul means that in the process of living with Jesus as our Savior, we will discover that we are still sinning. What does Paul mean by his question about Christ being a servant of sin? I think Paul means that our sins are not because of Jesus. He is not the agent of our downfall. What is it that I tore down? I tore down my condemnation of being a sinner who breaks God’s law by accepting Jesus’ death on the cross in my place. If I keep breaking the law, it is not because Jesus was the instrument of that breakage. It is because I myself chose to break the law.
“For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” By identifying with Jesus’ death as a sinner, I am no longer the person I was before. The law killed me. The law killed my dependence upon myself. It is only by throwing myself totally into connection with Christ that I live. My self must die so that I can live through Jesus. Jesus lives in me now. I am not the same person as before. I cannot keep the law, but Jesus can. I cannot live by the law, but I can live through Jesus who could and does live by the law. The law made it clear to me that I could never keep it, so I gave up and stopped trying to keep it and instead started living for God. I focused on Jesus rather than law keeping. I focused on living for God rather than following rules. I allow Jesus to fill me and live in me. That is how I please God.
” I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” Here is Paul’s main point. Jesus died because the law was being broken. We could not keep the law, so Jesus did it for us. We accept His sacrifice and allow Him to live in us to transform us into His image. After this, we do not say to Jesus, “Okay, I can do it myself now,” because we cannot. If we could keep the law ourselves and if obeying certain rules were enough to save us, then Jesus would not have needed to die. However, we are helpless, so even after we accept Jesus’ strength, we are not strong enough to stand on our own. We cannot please God by doing everything ourselves. We please God by staying in connection with Him and letting Him live in us. Forms and outward obedience will not save us or please God. Relationship with Him will save us and please Him.
Peter was allowing misguided Christians to push him into doing actions that hurt others. I guess the issue was not about following his culture’s traditions. It was the act of maintaining traditions that hurt others that was the problem. If Peter compromised with the more narrow minded Jewish Christians in order to make them feel comfortable, it would have been fine as long as it did not hurt others, but he needed to draw the line where Paul had and show that he valued both the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians equally. That sounds easy, but sometimes it is a very difficult line to walk on. We need God’s wisdom to balance our actions so that no one is hurt by us.
(Application) My application for myself is that I have to watch out about following forms and traditions that might hurt others. I guess an example of this would be clothing. I wear nice clothing to church so that others will not feel offended, but I also need to balance that with always making sure that people who do not wear nice clothes are not hurt either by me or anyone else wearing nice clothes. Another situation I can think of is being considerate of others who are excluded by their limitations from the worship. For example, now during Covid, the forced use of technology for worship excludes some people either by their choice or by their lack of skill or by their lack of appropriate technology. I need to remember to find ways around these issues and not just be satisfied that one group is happy. I need to focus on my relationship to God and let Him guide me rather than worrying about failing Him by missing some responsibility.
( Prayer) I cannot please everyone, so I rely on You to show me what You want me to do. If I think that the only way to please You is to try to please everyone, I am missing the point. The way to please You is to let You live through me and listen to You. You do not want me to be a Martha trying to take care of everything for everyone. Instead, I need to listen to You and obey what You tell me to do. You will take care of the others.