No Other Gospel

Galatians 1: 6-9

So many interesting points in this section.

We must be firm in what we believe, and although we should not be narrow-minded and unwilling to learn new things, neither can we be so open-minded that we are ready to believe anything we hear or read.

I like this statement.  Sometimes I think I am narrow-minded, but I also can be very open-minded about a few things.  I am not ready to believe everything I hear or read though.   One thing I like about the Christian Church and Jim's preaching is that it is all Bible-based.  If Jim inserts his opinion on something, then he always states that it is his and only his opinion.

The pure unadulterated message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true gospel, and anything that teaches that we need Jesus plus something else will lead us in the wrong direction.

We are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  Ephesians 2: 8-9 

Gobsmacked - shocked with open mouth and putting hand over it

I have heard it said that the church's greatest troublemakers (both now and then) are not those outside the church who criticize, oppose, ridicule, and persecute it, but those inside who try to change or pervert the gospel--people who take sound theology and twist or distort it.

Faith is a matter of the heart, not the head.

Faith believes what it does not see in the natural realm.

Several take-aways from the reading in this section:

Joyce mentions groups that dictate how a woman should dress and style her hair, wear jewelry and make-up, and restricts activities.  A few things came to mind.  The Apostolic Christians dictate how women must wear their clothes and their hair.  They don't wear make-up or jewelry except watches.  The children, if they are members, are not allowed to participate in school sports.  The youth are not allowed to date.  Marriages are somewhat arranged.  I have never understood why. 

Another thing that stood out to me was this.  When my great-grandmother was sick and close to death, my parents took Greta and me to a movie one afternoon.  My grandmother said not to tell Great-Grandma where we had gone because going to movies was strictly forbidded by the Quakers.  I think we went to see a Walt Disney movie, but even so, it was still a movie.  I didn't understand that either.

As Joyce explained, the rules expressed by Paul in these chapters applied to men and women of those times, dictated by those customs.   Customs have changed for today, and where we live is quite different as well.  However, I do agree that sometimes the customs are loosened too much and some things which shouldn't be acceptable now are.

It boils down to this:

God may ask us to do or not do certain things that are personal to us, and we should keep them between the Lord and ourselves and simply be obedient to Him without imposing those personal convictions on others.

So there!

Because human nature is flawed and wants to earn or deserve what we get, convincing people that they need to do one thing or another to be saved and acceptable to God is easy, and the devil takes advantage of that weakness if we let him.

God's favor--His love, grace, and mercy toward us---is not a gift if it has a price tag!

Pride that drives us to try to earn God's love and forgiveness is dangerous because it can keep us from experiencing true freedom in Christ to become everything we are created to be. 

And finally...

I have found that a simple check on my motives as to why I am doing certain things helps me stay on the right track.  Am I doing what I do to get something from God or to give something to Him?

This last part hit home.  Last year Gary and I took the list of needed items for the food pantry to Meijer.  We picked up a couple hundred dollars worth of items to donate.  Gary dropped them off at church one day when he had a haircut appointment.  Tina helped him carry them in.  I remember looking for a note in the church newsletter thanking us for our donation, and I was disappointed in not finding one.  No mention of our donation was ever made by anyone.  Not in the newsletter.  Not by Jim.  Not by E. Anne.  Not by Tina.  Not by Tiffany who was in charge of stocking the food pantry.  Then I realized that I was not being very Christian-like in my thinking and that hit me hard.  Why did we donate?  Because it was something we could do because we had access to Meijer and everything on the list could be found there.  Because we could afford to do that.   Because we had not been able to attend church services on Sunday mornings and place money in the offering, so this was something we could do to contribute.  Because this would help families who were needing food---and some of them were probably my former students.  NOT because I wanted or needed recognition.  The devil tried to sneak in there, didn't he?

I like this study!  It's a good one, so far.    On to Chapter three in the book :  Paul's Conversion.