Today's Meditation - Thursday, June 4, 2020

Today's Meditation

Read Galatians 3:1-14

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! ²The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? ³Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? ⁴Did you experience so much for nothing? —if it really was for nothing. ⁵Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

⁶Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” ⁷so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. ⁸And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” ⁹For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed. ¹⁰For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” ¹¹Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” ¹²But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” ¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— ¹⁴in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

    There are four verses to choose from for each day in the lectionary readings; one from the Psalms, one from the rest of the Old Testament, one from the Gospels and one from the rest of the New Testament.  For each day, I read all of them and choose one to use as the meditation.  I have purposely avoided the readings this last week from Galatians, because to be honest, it is my least favorite book in all of scripture.  The letter to the church in Galatia was written by Paul.  Although he often corrects and rebukes the recipients of his other letters, he spends most of them in thanking them for their faithfulness, uplifting their spirits in blessings, and teaching them something of substance.  I find the letter he wrote to the Galatian church to be mostly full of self-righteousness, anger, and downright haughtiness.   "So Walt, tell us how you really feel!"

     Sorry, but it is not an easy letter to read and requires a lot of contextual understanding.  However, that doesn't mean (regardless of how I feel about the letter) that there isn't something of substance in it.   I'll concentrate on verse 2 for today's meditation, "The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?"

      Having just come through the day of Pentecost on Sunday, and the belief that we have received the Holy Spirit, I think this is a good question to ask.  Do we receive the Holy Spirit because we obey the law - not necessarily the civil law, but God's law - or is it the other way around?

      Let's think for a moment about the differences between the civil law and God's law.  In the U.S., we often think that these two are synonymous - they are not!  Although the civil law sometimes looks like it may have been fashioned by Christian standards, there are and have been quite a number of discrepancies.

      God's law is always about mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, and grace.  But God's law also includes the one gift given to us in Galatians (5:22, 23) - the fruits of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  The civil law often falls far short of these ideals.

     It is nearly impossible for us to simply obey this kind of law, perhaps out of the goodness of our heart or a belief that it is the "right" thing to do, without the power of the Holy Spirit that holds us accountable for such behavior.  God's law is difficult to follow.  But, with the Holy Spirit's assistance, we can work anew each day to do a little bit better.

Fruits of the Spirit - And now for something completely silly for this day and this difficult lesson.