From Bumper Cars to Carnival Swings

Paul Taylor preaches a seven week series from September 7 through October 26 on the book of Galatians.

Being born again as a follower of Christ means becoming part of the new family that He has created. But learning to love people in a family can be really difficult. One thing that complicates matters is how different each person is. It's hard to love someone who is really different from you. That's what the young churches of Galatia were experiencing shortly after becoming Christians. In particular, it was challenging for the Jewish believers to get along with the Gentile believers. To make this easier, some people suggested that Gentiles had to be circumcised. That way, they would be just like the Jews and everybody could get along much better. But Paul wrote a letter to these churches trying to convince them not to fall for this. He was clear: the gospel message is about the formation of a new family whose members are different from each other in remarkable ways, and yet are still able to love each other deeply because of their relationship with God through Christ. We have a lot to learn today from Galatians about how to love each other as a family, even when people seem so different and hard to love.

This Week

Are You My Father?

Galatians 1:1-10

Paul writes this letter to the churches of Galatia to settle a basic misunderstanding of the gospel. What is at stake for these new churches is what exactly the gospel is and they have missed it. Instead of understanding how the gospel brings together Jews and Gentiles under their restored relationship with God the Father, the people in these churches were seeing themselves only in light of each other, rather than in light of God. This book is about correcting the gospel and the implications that it has on a community. The gospel results in a community that loves each other, and the communities of Galatia were inhibited in this. The whole thrust of this letter is to correct their understanding of the gospel so that they can be free to love each other.