Fourteen years after that first visit, Barnabas and I went up to Jerusalem and took Titus with us. I went to clarify with them what had been revealed to me. At that time I placed before them exactly what I was preaching to the non-Jews. I did this in private with the leaders, those held in esteem by the church, so that our concern would not become a controversial public issue, marred by ethnic tensions, exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry. Significantly, Titus, non-Jewish though he was, was not required to be circumcised. While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. We didn’t give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the message for you.
As for those who were considered important in the church, their reputation doesn’t concern me. God isn’t impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I. And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching. It was soon evident that God had entrusted me with the same message to the non-Jews as Peter had been preaching to the Jews. Recognizing that my calling had been given by God, James, Peter, and John —- the pillars of the church —- shook hands with me and Barnabas, assigning us to a ministry to the non-Jews, while they continued to be responsible for reaching out to the Jews. The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that.
Galatians 2:1-10
Are We Boring?
Oh, my journeying sisters, are we boring? From all I’ve seen on this Journey, this Christian life is anything but. So many people in this world, those we meet headed down as we are headed up, think we are nuts! They chide, “Why are you trading the good life for “Christian” rules and regulations, stiff colorless, and unbending?” Ha! We have a fantastic secret, don’t we?
I call this journey anything but boring! If we listen to the world around us, we could make the “boring” point. However, if we seek God’s word, we find great adventure waiting. Never a dull moment, that’s for certain!
How does this contrasting picture get painted and stuck in the imaginations of so many? We find Paul asking the same questions. You would think those who no longer live under the tyranny of emotion, public opinion, or bad memories would be aware of those who wanted to “squelch it.” In the community of faith, the place we are most likely to experience our free life is also the place where we are most in danger of losing it.
In the community of faith, the place we are most likely to experience our free life is also the place where we are most in danger of losing it.
Wait, what? Is the church a threat to our freedom? Freedom was and is the biggest threat to traditions: “we’ve always done it this way.” Jesus was a radical; He walked in love and inclusion. That did not fit the Jewish mold. It does not serve our changing twenty-first-century society either. What if we broke free from the chains of “religion?” What if we lived wholly immersed in the present?
Freedom talk is dangerous—-choices are allowed. If we made the wrong choice, anarchy could rule. So those worried about Paul had reason to be fearful. What if folks broke laws? Their whole religion turned into a mockery? Paul does address those dangers later. He understood.
First, the gospel (the good news of Jesus Christ) sets freedom at the center of its existence. The law-abiders called Paul onto the carpet for this. However, he was free to resist! Paul didn’t find it necessary to go along with the forceful currents of the traditionalists or moralists
We are free to discover who Christ is for ourselves and form an intimate relationship with him, just as we are.
And that’s where we are on our journey—-free to resist. We are free to discover who Christ is for ourselves and form an intimate relationship with him, just as we are. Sisters, we do not have to conform to the pattern of this world. We do not have to fit the mold of everyone else around us. Jesus loved us while. He loved us before. He loves us during. Jesus loves us just as we are. He didn’t say He would only love us if we put our hair like this, worshiped like that, and wore these clothes. He just loves us. In that, there is the freedom to be exactly who we are! (Remember, creator God, creating us.) We are not boring! We are on the most incredible adventure—-most extraordinary lives—- together!