Galatians 1:1-5
Paul, and apostle - sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raise him from the dead.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Galatia was a huge Roman province extending almost from coast to coast through the mountain and plain of central Turkey. How much of it Paul evangelized we do not know. But Acts 13 and 14 record how he founded churches in the southern cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe o his first missionary journey.
Why?
Why did Paul write to them?
Paul wrote to address some serious problems inn the churches. No long after his first visit, other Jewish-Christian teachers arrived in Galatia, Paul had taught that repentance and faith were all that was needed in order to receive God's forgiveness and live the new life God had given them.
These teachers insisted that non-Jewish converts must also be circumcised and observe the Jewish lat-virtually become Jews. When Paul heard this he was distraught. He saw that it struck at the roots of the Christian message, Salvation - new life - is God's gift to all who believe. This teaching 'made obedience to the law just as essential to salvation as trust in the crucified Messiah'. Having begun on the basis of faith, to return to the law as the basis of Christian living undoes all. Christians are freed and free people, subject only to Christ's law. This situation led to the most strongly worded of all Paul's letters.
Paul's urgency is clear from the start. The abrupt assertion of authority and lack of any word of praise are most unlike him.
Bright point: Jesus gave himself to rescue us from the present evil age.
Meditation : Send from Jesus Christ and by God, not from men or by man. So we serve to the Lord or serve in Church, not for men or by man, but for the Lord himself.
How?
Serve the Lord for his love, his salvation and his glory.
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