Daily Devotion, March 1, 2021

 

Devotion:

Read Galatians 1:6-12.

This letter is unique for its tone and the sense of immediacy in its opening paragraphs. In his letters to other churches, Paul almost always began with words of praise for the believers’ faith, commitment, or perseverance in trials. But after only a very brief greeting in this letter, Paul expresses his astonishment that the believers in the churches in Galatia are deserting their new faith in Christ. The churches in this area of Asia Minor were some of Paul’s first churches, and it is critically important that these new believers not be led astray by false teachings. If we read ahead in this letter, we learn that Jewish persons were trying to convince these new Galatian Christians that they must obey all the laws having to do with circumcision, clean and unclean food, and so on. This was in direct opposition to Paul’s most basic teaching that we are saved by our faith, not by works of the law. 

Paul would express in another of his letters that he “became all things to all people, that he might win them to Christ.” In other words, he met people where they were in order to share his faith with them. But Paul would not sit quietly by and allow false teachings to take root in the church. In our culture today, we must know when to be tolerant and silent and when to stand up for our basic Christian beliefs.

Personal Worship Option:

Give thanks today for early Christians like Paul who faced opposition, ridicule, prison, and even death rather than have the Good News perverted by false teachings. Pray for discernment to know when to speak up and the courage to do so when we hear teachings that are not consistent with the truth of the Good News.