Remembering The Gift

Although Galatians 2 consists a lot of Paul's journey and him sharing his own personal experiences, there are several minor things that stood out to me while I was reading the text. There's an overall theme of faith, and being justified.

Paul previously talked about the false prophets and teachers that were there to try to lead others astray, and from a outward perspective, these teachers look the same as anyone else. There is no way you can differentiate between the real from the false, by simply appearance. But God knows. God doesnt judge based on external appearance but what is truly in your heart (v.6). Are we living with God in our hearts and in our lives, constantly transforming us and breathing life into us?

Keeping the poor in mind (v.10). Its interesting to see that in the midst of all this, that Paul was told to remember to keep the poor in mind. I think this doesnt necessarily just mean the physical poor, but those poor in spirit as well. As followers of God, who are called to take care of all creation and to serve and love God, we should be constantly looking out for the poor.

¹⁴ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? - Galatians 2:14

When I read this, I immediately thought of something else. If you replace Jew for believer and Gentile for unbeliever, it has a strong application to our lives, again related to how we live. "You are a believer, yet you live like an unbeliever and not like a believer. How is it then that you force unbelievers to follow believer customs?" If we ourselves are not living as true Christians, how do we expect to share with others our faith. If people cannot even tell you a part from non-believers from your actions and your words, how will they see the change God has done in your life?

I love reading through the books of the bible and stumbling upon one of the well-known verses. Galatians 2:19-21 talks about being crucified with Christ, living for God and having God live in us. It is written beautifully and simply. We live for Christ because he loves us and gave himself up for us. It is the true grace of God. He has given us the gift of eternal life, completely as a gift. There is nothing we did to earn or deserve this gift, and even though we were bounded for hell, and constantly screw up, he granted us the best gift we could ever receive.

verse of the day: Galatians 2:19-21

¹⁹ “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”