Today’s passage: Galatians 6:11-18

Helpful thoughts:

• Paul confirms that those who are teaching legalism and requiring circumcision are “sowing to the flesh”.
• People can take credit for convincing someone to be religious.  Only God can be honored for a new creation.
• Paul specifically blesses those who have believed in Jesus Christ by faith.

Questions to consider:

1. From the content of this letter, who is “The Israel of God”? (See Galatians 3:7-9)
2. Would people be prone to see Paul’s scars suffered through persecution as marks of faithfulness and fullness of life, or would they likely see them as unwanted and a curse?  How did he see them?
3. What compels you to follow Jesus?  Do not answer this from experience!  What does this passage say?  Are we following Jesus because God did a miracle or because we want something this world has to offer that is wrapped up and labeled as “Christianity”?

Today’s passage: Galatians 6:6-10

Helpful thoughts:

• The one who learns and the one who teaches are in this walk together.
• God can not be mocked, but we can be deceived.
• Sowing to the flesh (Living and teaching in a manner such as the legalistic Judaizers) will end in corruption.
• Sowing to the Spirit (Living and teaching in a manner such as Paul and those who proclaim the Gospel) will end in eternal life.
  • Sowing in the realm of the flesh may result in immediate impact, but the impact will prove to be corrupted.
  • Sowing in the realm of the Spirit will produce an eternal reward, which we may not see in this life.
• The time for sowing is now, the time for reaping is later.

Questions to consider:

1. If we had to answer the question, “Can God be mocked?” We would certainly answer, “No.”  In what way can our actions and our words say that we might believe otherwise in any given moment?  Who has deceived us in those moments?
2. If our eternal reward will be reaped in eternity, what sort of reaping might we expect to see more often in this life?  If we see fleshly reaping in our own lives, what can we learn from that?  How could our humble evaluation lead us toward repentance?
3. Is anyone excluded from our acts of kindness in verse 10?  Who is emphasized?

Today’s passage: Galatians 6:1-5

Helpful thoughts:

• It is spiritual to seek to restore and to do so in a spirit of gentleness.
  • “Caught” in this passage does not mean being caught in the act.  It is referring to one who is caught up in sin.
  • People who are caught up in sin need help getting back on their feet.
• Regularly finding fault in others without your own prayers of repentance can be a sign of immaturity and weakness.
• The law of Christ we obey when we bear one another’s burdens was already written for us in 5:14.  It is a law of love.  “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
• When we stand before Christ, we will be rewarded based on our own load. We will not be rewarded as if in a contest, being compared other people.  The Christian life is not a contest.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it easy to think of our sin, righteousness, acts of kindness, etc. in comparison/contrast to other people?  How can it be tempting to measure our spirituality in this way?  What are some potential dangers in that system of measurement?
2. Why is it hard for us to allow others to help us?  What do we have to admit before we allow others to help us?
3. What kind of walk and perspective enables you to help others most?  (Think first of your relationship with God.  Second, think of the one who could use your help.  What do they need to know about you before they will welcome your help?)

Today’s passage: Galatians 5:25-26

Helpful thoughts:

• Since the Spirit raised us from the dead to life in Christ, we walk in step with the Spirit.  Our flesh has been crucified, we now live in Christ by the Spirit.
• Bad motives can generate bad actions and actions that look great:
  • Conceit = Excessive pride
  • Provoking = Causing irritation
  • Envy = Resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions

Questions to consider:

1. How does your new life in Christ give you the freedom to walk in the Spirit and no longer be bound by sin?
2. Can you think of any examples from the gospels of people who did many good things out of bad motives?
3. Is it possible that a person could “pray the prayer” as a result of conceit, envy or provoking?  Are there people you are trying to encourage to obey God who may not actually be His children?  How might you need to change your approach?
4. How could conceit and/or envy cause us to provoke our children (or anyone else) to a form of godliness?

Today’s passage: Galatians 5:16-24

Helpful thoughts:

• Inaction will never result in godliness.  Avoiding sin/Pursuing righteousness is accomplished by walking with the Spirit of God.
• It would not be loving for us to convince a person whose life is characterized by sins such as those listed in verses 19-21 that they already are saved because they “prayed that one time”.
• If the Spirit of God is in you, there will be progressive (At times, rapid) change from the works of the flesh to the fruits of the Spirit.  The flesh will be crucified.

Questions to consider:

1. How do you know that you are keeping in step with the Spirit of God?  What has God given us to guide us in this walk?
2. How does walking with the Spirit (or keeping in step with the Spirit) affect our passions and desires?  How does our thinking change our desires and then our actions?

Today’s passage: Galatians 5:7-15

Helpful thoughts:

• Because Paul saw fruit (It looked like everything was going well), he was confident that the people in the church would reject the false teaching.  And, his confidence was in the Lord, because God was the one who calls.
  • Again, just like yesterday we need to look at Romans 8:29-30.
  • If the people there had truly accepted God’s grace through faith in Christ, they would assuredly persevere in the faith because whom God calls, He justifies, and whom He justifies, He glorifies.
• There is a penalty to be paid for false teaching.  God doesn’t mess around with the misuse of Scripture and He doesn’t turn a blind eye to those who seek to lead His sheep astray.
• The pagan worship the Gentile Galatians were familiar with included castration for the priests.  Paul is now equating circumcision for salvation with a pagan practice.  Both the idea of castration and the comparison with paganism would have been direct rebukes to the Judaizers…Paul wasn’t messing around either.
• We have been freed to love.  Freedom from our condemnation under the law does not give us a license to sin.  It allows us to love and serve freely, not under obligation.

Questions to consider:

1. How does this passage help us to think about the idea of being saved because we prayed a prayer but then not loving and living for Christ?  Can a person say they are a Christian, never act like one, and be sure of Heaven?
2. If a person says they “Got saved” but doesn’t follow Christ, is it more loving to simply hope they go to Heaven or to present them with the Gospel and plead with them to repent like Paul is doing in this letter?
3. What would it look like to be lovingly assertive (Ephesians 4:15)?  How can passivity be selfish and hateful (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)?  Which method will bless the hearer if they listen?  Which method will hurt them?

Today’s passage: Galatians 5:1-6

Helpful thoughts:

• Christ death on the cross set us free.  To go back under the law would return us to our bondage and condemnation, the very things from which we were set free.
• If you believe obedience to the law is required for your salvation, you are not trusting in Christ.  You are not saved.  Law and grace cannot mix.
• To be severed from Christ and to have fallen from grace does not mean that a person lost their salvation.  It simply means that when a person seeking justification hears both the messages of law and grace, if that person chooses law, they have rejected grace.
  • Once a person is justified by His grace, God has committed to their glorification. (Romans 8:30)
• Christ fulfilled the law.  So if we are in Christ, it doesn’t matter how much of it we fulfilled.  Remember, we all fall short anyway!

Questions to consider:

1. If we try to follow one part of the law to get justification, what have we committed ourselves to?  What could be the only result of our effort to fulfill the law?
2. If we believe we now have to obey a law, what we forgotten about ourselves prior to the start of our attempt?  Is it right to say that Jesus died for all of our past sins and gave us a fresh start for a new attempt?  Did He merely unlock the door or did He guarantee our complete entry and acceptance?
3. Do you know someone who has been trying to get to God through their efforts?  How could you tell them about God’s grace?  How could you tell them about Jesus Christ and the Gospel?

Today’s passage: Galatians 4:21-31

Helpful thoughts:

• The way people have abused Scripture through allegory makes verse 24 hard to translate…but what Paul was doing was not allegory as it is understood today as much as he was using the OT narrative as an illustration.
• Paul makes this correlation:
  • Abraham’s attempt to make his own son of promise pertains to those who try to keep the law to earn their own salvation
    • Ishmael was not the son of the promise.  Those who try to fulfill the law on their own are not children of promise.  They are not saved.
  • God’s fulfilled promise of Isaac through Sarah pertains to those who receive salvation by grace through faith
    • Isaac was the son of promise.  Those who receive God’s gift by faith are children of promise.  They are saved.

Questions to consider:

1. Who is the author and the finisher of your salvation (Hebrews 12:2)?  Why should that give us more confidence in our salvation even if others might try to persuade us otherwise?
2. Why could it sometimes seem attractive to follow a sort of law instead of purely believing by faith?
3. How can your heart of thanksgiving toward God as a child of promise impact your day today?

Today’s passage: Galatians 4:12-20

Helpful thoughts:

• In this passage, Paul shifts from doctrinal instruction to personal pleading.
• “Become as I am” refers to Paul’s freedom in Christ.
• “I have become as you are” refers to Paul’s efforts to reach many different people for Christ.  See 1 Corinthians 9:20-22.
• It seems from this passage that Paul’s sickness (which was likely affecting his vision) brought him to Galatia.  The people would have been acting normally in that time to have prevented Paul from being in their presence.
  • Their selflessness and kindness to him was in stark contrast to the selfish manipulation that was taking place in the midst of these false teachers.  This bewildered Paul.
• The false teachers used flattery to pump up the people for their own personal gain.
• When Paul writes, “I am again in the anguish of childbirth” he is saying, it’s as if you have to be born again…again.  No one needs to be born again twice, this is why Paul is perplexed.

Questions to consider:

1. What can this passage teach us about the value and the priority of pageantry in ministry?  What makes a ministry biblical and honoring to God?
2. Why could flattery so easily take us off guard and affect our thinking?  When we are tempted to sin by flattery, what is revealed in our hearts?
3. How is Paul’s love for this church evidenced in this passage?  Thank God for the people who love you in Christ!  How can you show this kind of love to other brothers and sisters in Christ?