I can’t believe how you waver—how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing an alternative message! It is not a minor variation, you know; it’s completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God. Those who are provoking this agitation among you are turning the Message of Christ on its head. Let me be blunt: if one of us—even if an angel from heaven!—were to preach something other than what we preached originally, let him be cursed. I said it once; I’ll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you received originally, let him be cursed.
Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or court favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave. Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. I didn’t receive it through the traditions, and I wasn’t taught in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:6-12
Oh my heck, sweet sisters, Paul is cursing people! So many lies tainted our downhill journey. Getting caught up in the beauty of the path (if you are anything like me), we bought each of them. We picked up those lies like a sweet bouquet of roses, took them home, and made them our centerpiece—-without question, nonetheless. According to Paul, we should be disgusted.
In this section of Galatians, Paul calls for double curses on persons who pervert the life of gospel freedom. Paul is pretty angry, ok, outraged. He is so angry he even forgets his usual thanksgiving introduction! Someone was lying about God. It set a standard; we now know it as “heresy” from the Greek word “choose.” So, the heretic is a person who chooses a single item out of the entire body of truth, ignoring or denying the rest of it. Then makes that the preferred truth and teaches others to do the same. Hopefully, your mind is spinning with the words “pick and choose.”
What were we taught? Is it accurate? Like that verse in Malachi about God hating divorce? Have we become so biblically illiterate that we accept any (mostly) trusted source with a smile and nod? We are accustomed to this smooth song of the sweet-talking used car salesman of the faith. When someone comes along to give us Truth (with a capital T), we run them out of town. How dare they speak words that might interfere with my life or challenge my so-called belief system? Maybe we should be a little like Paul here, intolerant of God-lies.
As believers, what we believe about God creates the pattern of our lives. A failure to get God right in our minds creates a failure to get Him right in our lives.
Lies about God do significant damage. We know this. Even now, the guilt stings as we recall words carelessly plucked out of the scriptures and thrown in our faces. These lies cripple us with anxiety or fear. As believers, what we believe about God creates the pattern of our lives. A failure to get God right in our minds creates a failure to get Him right in our lives. It translates to fear, cowardice, sickly emotions, and so on (hurts, habits, and hang-ups). One of the most wicked things we can do in this life is to present God as other or less than he truly is. (I can see why Paul was so hot on this topic, I’m right there with him now!)
Our beliefs about God shape our lives. We will live in fear if we see Him as angry or mean. Or what if we see him as the grandfather? Then we have no use for His old-fashioned authority. If we see Him as a tyrant, we will not understand His personability, that He is for us, not against us. What we believe about God matters much. It affects our everyday lives, how we live, how we treat others, and how we live in relationships.
Paul believed many lies about God. The lie that said, “you must live exactly this way.” He took it to the obsession level. And then, one day, Jesus set the record straight. Suddenly, there were no longer secondhand rumors but firsthand faith when he met a personal God in a very unique way.
Paul learned the same things we are learning. God is for us, not against us. He loves us and desires to have a very personal relationship with us. God is not angry or out to get us. For this reason, dear sisters, we must discover who God is for ourselves and not take everyone’s word for it. For far too long, we have done that, giving us a skewed version of reality. It’s time to say no more! Those boulders we see on our way back up the path are giant lies we must overcome. (They are not there for us to sit and rest upon). We must learn the truth. As we climb back up, we discover God at our own pace. We grasp new and exciting revelations that we eagerly share by offering a hand reaching down to help one another over the next boulder.