Reflection on the Epistle to the Galatians

REFLECTIONS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS

 
INTRODUCTION

 
Autobiographically, the letter gives us Paul’s own accounts of how he came to faith (Gal 1:15–24), the agreement in “the truth of the gospel” (Gal 2:5, 14) that he shared with the Jewish Christian leaders in Jerusalem, James, Cephas, and John (Gal 2:1–10), and the rebuke he had to deliver to Cephas in Antioch for inconsistency, contrary to the gospel, on the issue of table fellowship in the racially mixed church of Jewish and Gentile Christians in Antioch (Gal 2:11–14; cf. Gal 2:15–21). At the conclusion of the letter (Gal 6:11–18), Paul wrote in his own hand (cf. 2 Thes 3:17–18) a vivid summary of the message to the Galatians.

In his vigorous emphasis on the absolute preeminence of Christ and his cross as God’s way to salvation and holiness, Paul stresses Christian freedom and the ineffectiveness of the Mosaic law for gaining divine favor and blessings (Gal 3:19–29). The pious Jew saw in the law a way established by God to win divine approval by a life of meticulous observance of ritual, social, and moral regulations. But Paul’s profound insight into the higher designs of God in Christ led him to understand and welcome the priority of promise and faith (shown in the experience of Abraham, Gal 3:6–18) and the supernatural gifts of the Spirit (Gal 3:2–5; 5:16–6:10). His enthusiasm for this new vision of the life of grace in Christ and of the uniquely salvific role of Christ’s redemptive death on the cross shines through this whole letter. - National Conference of Catholic Bishops 

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REFLECTIONS

 
Brothers, even if a person is caught in some transgression, you who are spiritual should correct that one in a gentle spirit, looking to yourself, so that you also may not be tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he is deluding himself.  Each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast with regard to himself alone, and not with regard to someone else;  for each will bear his own load.

One who is being instructed in the word should share all good things with his instructor.  Make no mistake: God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.  Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up.  So then, while we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, but especially to those who belong to the family of the faith. - Galatians 6:1-10

This reading from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, gives instructions on how to live as a member of the Church.  How we are to behave and treat one another when belonging to the Body of Christ, the Church.  

We should be gentle in correcting those who have transgressed, and bear each others burdens.  We must examine our own lives and our own consciences, for we will reap what we sow.  While we can we should do good for all, with special recognition for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  

 
This reminds us that Christianity is lived in community; in the parish, the prayer group, the religious house, the monastic cloister, the parish counsel, the bible study group, etc., we are called to bear all things together for the sake of one another in the name of Christ, who teaches us how to love, how to be brothers and sisters.  Even those who feel called to the hermitage, seek to be not alone but to be everywhere at once, praying for all, interceding for all, offering the sacrifice of their lives for those who do not know how to offer their own lives to God.

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Brothers, in human terms I say that no one can annul or amend even a human will once ratified.  Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant. It does not say, “And to descendants,” as referring to many, but as referring to one, “And to your descendant,” who is Christ.  This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.  For if the inheritance comes from the law, it is no longer from a promise; but God bestowed it on Abraham through a promise.

 
Why, then, the law? It was added for transgressions, until the descendant came to whom the promise had been made; it was promulgated by angels at the hand of a mediator.  Now there is no mediator when only one party is involved, and God is one. Is the law then opposed to the promises [of God]? Of course not! For if a law had been given that could bring life, then righteousness would in reality come from the law.  But scripture confined all things under the power of sin, that through faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe. - Galatians 3:15-22

 
Saint Paul is proclaiming to the Church in Galatia that the promises of God are not revoked.  The promise to Abraham was not revoked by the Law of Moses.  The promise to Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  

 
The Church today must remember that it is the living witness of faith in Christ, that it must proclaim to the world. It is not The Law that saves, but faith in Christ.  The Law taught us that we cannot save ourselves from sin, but our salvation is from the one born of Mary, who offered the one perfect sacrifice on the altar of the Cross.

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Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman.  The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise.  Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. Hagar represents Sinai, a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children.  But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother.  For it is written:

“Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children;
break forth and shout, you who were not in labor;
for more numerous are the children of the deserted one
than of her who has a husband.”

    Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. But just as then the child of the flesh persecuted the child of the spirit, it is the same now. But what does the scripture say?

“Drive out the slave woman and her son!
For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance with the son”of the freeborn. Therefore, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman.
For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. - Galatians 4:21-5:1

We can draw from this passage of Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians that the freedom given to us in Christ is necessary for truly following God.  This freedom is freedom from on the one hand from the performance of following the thousands of laws that constituted the Law of Moses, and on the other hand it is freedom from licentiousness, that is, equating freedom with doing whatever I want to do, without regard for how it effects my relationship with God and with other human beings. 

 
The freedom Paul speaks of is a mature freedom, a freedom rooted in Christ like love of God and neighbor.  The freedom given to the sons and daughters of God, who seek to do God’s will in their lives.  

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Before faith came, we were held in custody under law, confined for the faith that was to be revealed.  Consequently, the law was our disciplinarian for Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a disciplinarian.  For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promise. - Galatians 3:23-39

 
In the original Greek of this reading, Saint Paul is explaining to the Galatians and to us that as believers in Christ; moving from the Law to Faith.  We are like the child who needs a disciplinarian (and here he uses a word in Greek that suggests the child who needs a slave to walk him to school), to becoming sons and daughters of God in Jesus Christ.  

 
Under the Law of Moses the Hebrew people were disciplined, if you will, for their ministry of preparing the world for the Messiah. Now that the Messiah has come, it is Faith in Christ, that erases the distinction between Jew and Greek, slave or free, male and female, as pertains to knowing God, and being children of God, for now all are One in Christ.  

 
Through faith in Christ we are all descendants of Abraham, the Father of Faith, and therefore we are all “heirs according to the promise.”  The promise of salvation, the promise of God’s eternal transforming love, the promise of the Kingdom of Heaven.  As Saint Isaac of Nineveh, the Syrian wrote:

 
“The entire purpose of our Lord’s death was not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reason, but solely in order that the world might become aware of the love which God has for creation” (Sebastion P. Brock, The Wisdom of Saint Isaac the Syrian).  

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Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin.  For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

 
For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my race, since I was even more a zealot for my ancestral traditions.  But when [God], who from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; rather, I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. - Galatians 1:11-17

 
The person of Saint Paul stands large in the history of the Church. Indeed, Peter and Paul are often called the Princes of the Apostles.  Saint Paul was a committed orthodox pharisaical Jew, who even persecuted the members of The Way (one of the earliest name for Christians), having been present himself at the martyrdom of Saint Stephen the First-Martyr.  

 
Saint Paul seemingly studied under the rabbinical scholar Gamaliel and therefore was immersed in the study of Jewish Scripture and the Mosaic Law.  He was a Roman citizen and was born in the Greek speaking and predominantly Gentile town of Tarsus. This of course will be beneficial and influential in his later become the Apostle to the Gentiles.  

 
In this Epistle/Letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians Saint Paul interestingly does not say he had a conversion but a revelation (?ποκαλ?ψεως/apocalypse) of Jesus Christ.  This suggests that Saint Paul sees this revelation of Jesus as the fulfillment of his faith in the God of Abraham.  With this fullness of faith through his revelation of Jesus Christ, he discerns after a time in Arabia that God; “from my mother’s womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles.” 

Each member of the Church has received the grace of truth, bestowed on them through their faith in Jesus Christ.  Through discernment, possibly in a quiet empty place as did Saint Paul, each can discover their mission to the world, or to those whose faith has become lukewarm.

- Rev. David A. Fisher