Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson X)

We learn from Jewish philosopher Philo (20 BC-50 AD) from Alexandria, Egypt, who adopted the Greek culture in place of his Jewish customs, that circumcision was already a hot topic in the Roman and Greek world. His discussions on circumcision, as the Jews clearly perceived it within their religion as a critical identity factor, may serve both to illustrate the tensions that existed in the early Church. This, no doubt, forced the debate that took place in Jerusalem with Paul there to defend his position that Gentiles converted to Christianity should not be forced to come in through the door after being circumcised.¹ After all, Jesus said that He was the door but never mentioned the requirement of circumcision to enter. In one of his writings, Philo acknowledges that the ordinance of circumcision is ridiculed among many people, although  it is an act which is practiced to a smaller degree among other nations, and most especially by the Egyptians, who appeared to him to be the most populous of all nations, and experts in all kinds of wisdom.

But Philo is puzzled that such an ancient custom continued in the spirit of advancement in wisdom and knowledge by Jews and other nations who practice this ritual. After all, this required that myriads of men must be circumcised in every generation, mutilating their bodies in a manner which is accompanied by severe discomfort. However, there are many reasons which might encourage men to persevere and continue a custom which was introduced by previous generations, and it would be most fitting for scholars to discard childish ridicule and investigate the real causes of this ordinance with more discretion and dignity so they might find the reasons why this custom still prevails. Furthermore, that they not be in a hurry in coming to a conclusion without a thorough examination of the facts and be laughed at for the results they present to the world. They must be persuaded to give such a study great weight and importance.

Philo then offers some suggestions that he thinks should be considered: First of all, it is a procedure which can control painful diseases which are difficult to cure. In Philo’s day one such disease was called a “carbuncle.”² The Greek word is anthrax, which also signifies a hot coal because when it becomes inflamed it burns. And this disease is very apt to be generated among those who have not undergone the rite of circumcision. It is highly possible that some would confuse a carbuncle with syphilis. Philo goes on to say that circumcision can secure the cleanliness of the whole body in a way that is suited to the people consecrated to God; with which the Egyptian priests, being extravagant in their case, shave the whole of their bodies believing that some of these evils which ought to be gotten rid of colonate in and lodge under the hair and the foreskin.³ This should give us some insight into why the Jews held the ordinance of circumcision in such high esteem, in addition to it identifying them as descendants of Abraham and children of the Covenant between him and God.

While no Christian church demands that its male members be circumcised before they can join, the rite of water baptism has surely replaced this Jewish ritual with a Christian ordinance or sacrament. And the same disregard and belittlement have been directed toward such baptism, especially the Protestant form of adult baptism. It is a symbol full of spiritual meaning, and one that Jesus our Christ made clear was to go along with preaching the Gospel to the whole world.⁴ But to demand it before accepting a person as a real Christian would take away the importance of willingness in the message of the angel Jesus sent in John’s revelation.⁵

1:4-5 I want to remind you, that in order for Jesus our Christ to set us free from the imprisonment of this wicked world He freely offered Himself to die for our sins. So I say that all glory and honor belongs to God the Father both now and throughout eternity. Amen.

Paul makes a striking statement that would have more effect on the Jewish converts than the Gentile believers in Galatia. These Judaizers were trying to add the value of all the Jewish “trying to be good” laws, ceremonies, feasts, customs and ideology to the work of Jesus our Christ. They felt it made our Christ’s work more worthwhile and effective. But Paul declares in no uncertain terms, that Jesus “chose to die on our behalf.” In the Jewish religion, all the lambs, sheep, goats, cattle, and birds that were force ably sacrificed, not voluntarily, when they were placed on the altar against their will.

When Paul wrote the Ephesians he put it this way, “Live with love as our Christ loved you. He gave Himself for us as a gift on the altar to God which was as a sweet aroma to God.”⁶ In writing to Timothy, Paul made it clear that our Christ gave Himself in exchange for those held by the chains of sin so they could go free.⁷ Then our Christ conquered sin so it could no longer have unbridled and unchallenged power over those whom our Christ set free. To Bishop Titus, Paul wrote: “He gave Himself for us. He did this by buying us with His blood and making us free from all sin. He gave Himself so His people could be clean and want to do good.”⁸

The writer of Hebrews emphasizes the same theme. He wrote that by paying the required price with His blood, our Christ’s sacrifice frees us from the worry of having to obey the old rules and makes us want to serve the living God out of love.⁹ And the Apostle Peter describes this exchange graphically by noting that our Christ took our sins and transferred them to His own body, and then went to the cross to suffer the penalty for our sin, which is death.¹⁰ By so doing, we then benefited from the wounds that He received for the spiritual healing of our own infected souls to make them whole and clean again. And the Apostle John takes it a step further by saying that the price our Christ paid to ransom us from sin’s bondage was not just for a few individuals but for the whole world.¹¹

When we compare what the Apostle John wrote in his Gospel in 3:16, and compare it to what he wrote in his first Epistle 3:16, we see a comparison. In John 3:16 the Apostle told us that our Christ gave His life for us and in 1 John 3:16 he tells us that we should be ready to give our lives for our spiritual brothers and sisters. What exactly does that mean? In my mind, it is another way of saying that any believer should be willing to defend their brothers and sisters even if it means their death. This has been done over the centuries in Rome’s Colosseum, Hitler’s concentration camps, Soviet Russia’s internment camps in Siberia, China’s prison camps, and in numerous other places. I wonder if it ever came to that in the USA, how many of us would gladly step forward?

When Paul talks about our being saved from this present wicked world, he was not talking just about our present salvation from the chains of wickedness that holds the world in bondage, but also according to His promise through Isaiah: “I will make new heavens and a new earth. The past things will not be remembered or come to mind.”¹² When it comes to living free in our present world Paul also explained it this way to the Romans,¹³ and defined it for the believers in Corinth,¹⁴ as well as the Ephesians.¹⁵ So this is not just something Paul thought up because he was upset with the Galatians for becoming so lukewarm in such a short period of time.

Other Bible writers were just as adamant about keeping ourselves from the impurities of the world. In fact, James accused those who did not guard themselves against the contamination of this world as being “a friend to the world and an enemy of God.”¹⁶ And the Apostle John went so far as to say that once a person falls in love with this world they fall out of love with God and His world.¹⁷ John says that all of this is unnecessary since the power of faith within us is greater than all the power of sin in the world.¹⁸

As far as our future salvation from this world in order to be with our Redeemer is concerned, the writer of Hebrews points out that God did not select angels to be leaders in the world-to-come, but that the reason our Christ came into the world was to lower Himself below the status of angels so that in the end He might elevate us to a level above the angels so that in heaven we could share in His shining brightness.¹⁹ The author goes on to say that anyone who disowns this and turns their back on such a great gift is nailing the Son of God to the cross again and again.²⁰ And the Apostle John let his readers know that we have been given the understanding to know that what we have now through our Christ is not only for this world but for the life that will last forever.²¹

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson IX)

1:3 We ask God our Father and Jesus the Messiah our Lord to grant you grace and peace.

It’s interesting to note that Paul greets the recipients of this letter by combining a Gentile greeting and a Jewish greeting. He uses chairo (grace) in Greek, which was the way Greeks said hello and goodbye, and shalom (peace) in Hebrew which the Jews used for the same purposes. Although it is not listed here, I’m quite sure that those Jews in the congregation knew of the traditional greeting that King David taught his young men to say once they reached the house of Nabal: “Say, ‘Long life and shalom to you, shalom to your household, and shalom to everything that is yours!’”¹ Nevertheless, this seems to be Paul’s greeting throughout his epistles.²

In one English version of Galatians where the translator attempts to contextualize the thought behind the words from a Jewish perspective, he renders the verse this way: “May Yahweh God our Father always keep you under the constant shower of His free, healing and unconditional forgiveness, infusing you always with the power to live according to His will, making you grow in holiness, keeping you standing in an approved condition before Him at all times, because of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.”³ St. Augustine offers this insight: “It is by God’s grace that our sins are forgiven so that we may be reconciled to God; it is by peace, however, that we are reconciled to God.”⁴

According to South African Jewish Professor William A. Liebenberg, the noun “grace,” as used in the Final Covenant was better known in the First Covenant as “favor.”⁵ Alvah O’Conor (1820-1903), professor and then President of Newton Theological Institution in Newton, Massachusetts also derives the same understanding by stating that “Favor is reconciliation with God effected by the Messiah, and Peace is the spiritual rest that accompanies it. One is the sunshine, the other is the calm.”⁶

But Paul adds a special note to his greeting. He wants the readers to know that he does not speak on his own behalf, but for the One who called him, commissioned him, and anointed him to preach the Gospel. Let’s look at it this way: if you received a letter in the mail signed by someone named, “I. M. Nasty,” you might laugh. But if at the top of the page you see the letterhead: Internal Revenue Service, I’m sure you’d suddenly take agent I. M. Nasty a little more seriously. That’s what the Apostle Paul attempted to do here. He made sure they understood that even though he signed the document, the divine letterhead read “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Early church scholar Ambrosiaster, whom we quoted earlier, give us his input on what Paul says here. For Ambrosiaster, Paul is pointing out that the human race has been blessed by both the Father and the Son. This is important because the Son is not inferior to the Father when Paul calls Him our Lord, and that the Father is not greater than the Son when Paul refers to Him as our God, because the Father will not truly be the Father unless He is also Lord, and the Son will not truly be Lord unless He is also God.⁷

Early church scholar Haimo of Auxerre pointed out that it is not a house, or a nation or an era in itself cannot be called evil, only if its inhabitants are evil. This is why Paul is praying for their grace and peace because in the next verse he sees them living in a wicked world. He also is puzzled why Paul does not make mention of bishops, priests, or deacons in the churches in Galatia as there were in other churches to whom he wrote epistles. So Haimo concludes that this is the very reason why they were so easily led astray; there was no authority there to guide them and confront these Judaizers.⁸

Bruno the Carthusian believes that part of Paul’s prayer for grace extended to those in Galatia who fell so easily for the false doctrine delivered to them by these Judaizers, and peace to those who persevered and remained faithful to the Gospel. The fact that both grace and peace were being requested from both God the Father and the Messiah the Son is because they were the only ones who could grant such love and mercy.⁹

Martin Luther finds the greeting of the Apostle refreshing. Grace settles sin rage in the mind, and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but the Messiah has overcome these monsters now and forever. Only Christians possess this victorious knowledge given them from above. These two terms, grace and peace, constitute Christianity. Grace involves the remission of sins, peace, and a happy conscience. Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live up to all the requirements of Law. The Law reveals guilt, fills the conscience with terror, and drives men to despair. And even less can sin be taken away by man-invented undertakings. The fact is, the more a person seeks credit for themselves by their own efforts, the deeper they go into debt. Nothing can take away sin except the grace of God. In actual living, however, it is not so easy to persuade oneself that it is by grace alone that we obtain the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God.¹⁰

I like the way that Matthew Poole presents his picture of what Paul is saying about Jesus the Messiah sacrificing Himself for sin on our behalf. Even though Jesus was put to death by Pilate at the request of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, yet He was not compelled to do so, He did it freely. He laid down His life without anyone taking it from Him by force. In doing so, it is said that He died for our sins,¹¹ or that He gave Himself up for us.¹² It was like a sequence of gifts: He was given as a gift to the world by His Father, then He gave Himself to the world as a gift to pay the price for their sins¹³. So is it any wonder that Jesus would ask His followers to be willing to give themselves up for Him to the glory of God the Father¹⁴?¹⁵

John Bunyan ties what Paul is saying here into his thoughts on the work of the Messiah as our advocate with the Father. There is no reason why Paul could not have heard the Apostle John say that if a believer sins they have Jesus the Messiah as their advocate to plead their case before God.¹⁶ This was one of the offices of the Messiah as our High Priest before the throne of God the Father. And who better than the one who offered Himself on the cross on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins. Bunyan says that even those convicted of a crime may be properly represented before a judge to plead their case so as to prove them innocent of the charges. So how much better are we represented by the one who forgave us in the first place?

So the ultimate question is this: Is the Lamb of God the one from whom, or through whom, the grace of God comes to us? Bunyan sees it like this, God’s grace proceeds from His throne and down through the Lamb, who now becomes the donor. So when Paul says here in verse three to the Galatians: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah,” it certainly paints a vivid picture for us to contemplate whenever we are tempted to stray from His abiding presence into the presence of sin.¹⁷

James Haldane points out that grace is important when God deals with mankind because it not only allows God to communicate with mankind but mankind with God. Furthermore, such communication goes both ways through the Messiah. God speaks to us through His Son and we speak to God through the Messiah. That’s why God spoke to Abraham, but the Messiah spoke to Paul. It was the death and resurrection of the Messiah that made all the difference. Therefore, says Haldane, grace reigns through the work of Jesus the Messiah on the cross resulting in our being given eternal life. Haldane indicates that all of the gifts were done by the giver’s free will as a spontaneous act.¹⁸

American theologian, Grant Osborne, Professor of New Testament Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School implies that the true agents behind Paul’s apostolic authority were God the Son and God the Father. Paul is always Trinitarian in his theology, picturing the Godhead as acting in harmony at all times. Notice that the Messiah and the Father are found twice in this greeting – as joint agents of Paul’s apostolic commission, and as the true greeters of the Galatians. Everything Paul will say in this letter stems from the Three-in-One concept. To the Greek way of thinking, any superior could send an Apostle but Paul makes it absolutely clear that it was God and the Messiah who sent him, and they alone. His apostleship is not of human origin but is derived entirely from their divine commission.

Osborne goes on to say that Paul’s authority is attributed to the God “who raised the Messiah from the dead.” The center of Paul’s theology is not the Mosaic law or circumcision, as is the case with his opponents, but the Risen One. Behind his Gospel is the power of the resurrection. The power in the true Gospel is exclusively centered on the Lord Jesus who was raised as the firstfruits for God’s people and inaugurated the new age of the Spirit and the church.¹⁹ When the Galatians surrendered to the false teachings of the Judaizers and returned to the law, they were rejecting this new age and the law’s fulfillment in the Messiah for the unenforceable promises of the Mosaic commandments.²⁰

Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for children’s rights. She has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She is president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. She made this statement: “Service is what life is all about.” I wonder how many people wake up every morning with the thought: What can I do to help someone today? It is more likely to be: What can I do to make me happy today!”

David Friedlander, of the United Kingdom who is involved in “The Collective,” which offers Whole System Design Living, wrote that earlier in the last century – and up until today, in some places people pumped water from central wells, ground their wheat at central mills, baked their bread at central ovens and even bathed at centralized bathhouses. Primitive manufacturing technology was limited private ownership for many common things to the very rich. The things people needed most were accessed, not owned. However, as manufacturing technology and the ability to exploit the earth’s resources advanced, nearly everyone got his or her own water, oven, and bath.

As a boy living in Germany after World War II, I remember the village where I lived there was a village bakery oven where the women came to bake their bread. In other words, at one time people relied on a central source for many of their needs. We see this today in many villages in Africa and South America. The point here is that these venues were meant to be places of service to everyone, regardless of their name or position in society. As the Apostle Peter said that God showed us His grace in many different ways. So be good servants and use whatever gift He has given us in a way that will best serve each other. ”¹

There is no doubt that we are meant to serve others. Not only does God call us to do so, but serving others is good for our emotional well-being. When we help others, we feel more confident in our abilities. We feel like we have something valuable to offer the world. And that naturally makes us happier as individuals.

Attorney and columnist for “Beliefnet,” Meerabelle Dey, wrote that sometimes we serve others in the wrong way. We serve others in a way that isn’t authentic to who we are. Women are particularly susceptible to this issue. Women are expected to naturally be able to cook, take care of a home and rear children. But not all women are suited to that kind of service. Likewise, men are expected to take care of fixing things around the house, keep the car running in good shape, bring home the family paycheck. But asking people to do what does not come naturally to them is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. It doesn’t work.

The key to living an authentic life of service is to use the unique gifts that God gave each of us, not try to copy or emulate the gifts of others. No one has the same exact gifts as you. No one! God gave each of us special talents for a reason – to bless others. So our challenge is to avoid getting caught up in the world’s or the church’s expectations of how we should serve. Instead, we each need to figure out our unique way to make the world a better place.

So what does the Bible say about this? There are many, many verses but here are a few that make the point very well. King Solomon said that the person who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others will end up being helped.² And the prophet Azariah, son of Obed during the time of King Asa in Judah, was moved by the Holy Spirit to go out to meet him. He then gave the King this word from the LORD: You, O King, and the people of Judah and Benjamin be strong! Don’t be weak and don’t give up, because you will get a reward for your good work!³

And Jesus left no doubt in the minds of His followers when He told them that even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.⁴ With this in mind, what would you think – if inanimate objects and animals could speak, if you went in to buy a beautiful candle to light as part of a holiday, and the candle said, “I wasn’t made to burn, just to look pretty?” Or if a lumberjack went to cut down a cedar tree and the tree told him, “Leave me alone! I’m here to soak up nutrients from the ground and rain from the sky so people will take pictures of me!”

After the Apostle Paul met with the elders from the church of Ephesus and headed on to Jerusalem to an uncertain destiny, he wrote his young protégé Timothy who no doubt was worried about him and said: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have served the Lord faithfully. Now, a prize is waiting for me – the crown that will show I am right with God. The Lord, the Judge who judges rightly, will give it to me on that Day. Yes, He will give it to me and to everyone else who is eagerly looking forward to his coming.”⁵

Also, the Apostle Peter clearly understood that he, as well as the others, were called by Jesus to be more than just followers and listeners, but doers. That why he wrote that God showed them His grace in many different ways. So be good servants and use whatever gift He gave you in a way that will best serve each other.⁶ And the Apostle James was not hesitant to tell his readers that just as a person whose soul left their body is dead, so the believer whose faith never moves them to do anything is spiritually dead.⁷ And the Apostle John gave a similar warning when he told his readers that our love should not be only words and talk. No, our love must be real. We must show our love by the way we serve others.⁸

So always keep this in mind every morning when you wake up and as you have prayer before starting your day that God called you, redeemed you, chose you, and empowered you to be a light to this world, to let Him use you as His hands, His feet, His ears, His eyes, His touch, and His voice to help others. Think of every day as another opportunity to make the One who died on your behalf on the cross proud of you as the apple of His eye. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

THE SEVEN WONDERS

Having had the privilege of teaching in Bible Schools and Seminary in Europe, Asia, and the USA, this story really rang a bell. Sometimes when asking students to reply to a question for which both I, as the teacher, and the class itself anticipated that I was looking for a particular answer. So it was always refreshing to hear a student express their response from a whole new perspective.

A group of students was asked to list what they thought were the present “Seven Wonders of the World.” Though there were some disagreements, the following places received the most votes:

1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter’s Basilica
7. China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student had not finished her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” The teacher said, “Well, then, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.”

The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ are”:

1. To See
2. To Hear
3. To Touch
4. To Taste
5. To Feel
6. To Laugh
7. And to Love.

The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous!

A gentle reminder: The most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

After reading over this list, I felt an urge to add what I feel are the Nine Wonders in a Christian believer’s life.

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-Control.¹

These are not your ordinary virtues or ethical properties, but each is a gift from God through His Holy Spirit who transforms our love into different expressions. That means these wonders will never end being a wonder to even the most heartless skeptic. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson VIII)

Christian Jewish writer Avi ben Mordechai notes that the Hebrew word for an Apostle is Shaliach. This is one who is dispatched to carry out the will of the sender. He finds a comparison between the Shaliach and Apostle in Isaiah where it reads: “For just as rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return there, but water the earth, causing it to bud and produce, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so is my word that goes out from my mouth — it will not return to me unfulfilled, but it will accomplish what I intend, and cause to succeed what I sent it to do.”¹

The Apostle Paul, being a Jew, knew much about being a Shaliach. He too insisted that he was sent by Yahweh to teach the truths found in the Torah that was now more fully revealed in the Gospel. Mordechai points to the words of John who said, “For the One whom Elohim has sent speaks the words of Elohim. For Elohim did not give Him the Spirit in a limited amount.”² This means, of course, that the one who Yahweh sent must say what Yahweh wants Him to say. And since Yeshua was the replacement that Moses spoke about, that is, the Messiah,³ when the people saw what Jesus did they said that He must be the one Moses was promised.⁴ And just as Moses said to the people of Israel to pay attention to every word of warning he was giving them,⁵ so Yeshua warned His disciples of what was coming in the last days. So surely, says Mordechai, Paul saw the connection between what Moses taught as God’s Word and what Yeshua taught as God’s Word and that Paul was sent to pass on this same God’s Word to the world – the Gospel.⁶

Philip Ryken says that Paul’s epistle to the Galatians has been called the Magna Carta⁷ of Christian liberty. Its theme verse is a Declaration of Independence: “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus the Anointed One.”⁸ Whenever the Jews understood this Gospel message, it brought life and freedom to recovering Pharisees of Paul’s era. But it has also worked the same down through history, such as in the case of Martin Luther, Charles Wesley, and others that God used to revitalize the Church as a beacon of freedom from sin through faith, not works.⁹

British scholar Ralph Martin (1925-2013 AD) noted that right at the beginning of his letter, Paul strikes the characteristic note. He is, by God’s own appointment, an Apostle, charged with an authority which no one can dispute. This appointment came to him on the Damascus Road as he both encountered and was commissioned by the living the Anointed One.¹⁰ That’s why Paul’s reference to God was the “One who raised Jesus from the dead.” The Gospel which Paul is commissioned to proclaim has a uniqueness which means that it can tolerate no rival,¹¹ even though those spreading a false “gospel” claimed to have a special revelation¹².¹³

Then Ronald Fung, professor of Biblical Studies at China Graduate School of Theology in Hong Kong, sees the emphatic contrast with which Paul describes his apostleship and that of others was intended to underline its divine origin. This was not to diminish the importance of the Apostles in the Jerusalem Church, reflects a controversial situation in which the dignity, indeed the validity, of his apostolic status is being challenged by the false teachers that invaded Galatia. There is also the possibility that the difference between “not from men” and “nor through man” in verse one might be a reference to the Church at Antioch who set him forth,¹⁴ along with Barnabas who came from Damascus to introduce him to the Church Council in Jerusalem¹⁵.¹⁶

Chinese preacher and writer Vincent Cheung points out that when Paul writes about how the Anointed One gave Himself for our sins, we must realize how relevant that is to us. For one thing, as a positive statement about the Gospel, it counteracts any false gospel that suggests we simply found mercy in God’s eyes because we knew what we did was wrong and wanted the guilt taken away. Cheung says emphatically that we have been “rescued” because, and only because, the Anointed One died to save us.¹⁷ That means, even if we could swim a little, that didn’t matter. It’s not like we were just floating in the river of sin, but without possibly being aware of it, we were floating toward a dangerous and fatal waterfall. The current was already beyond our ability to escape, it would have easily overwhelmed us. No! the Anointed One went over that fall and paid with His life on our behalf so that God could rescue us from eternal damnation.

And then Professor Don Garlington of Toronto Baptist Seminary and Tyndale Seminary tells us that because Paul’s opening is crisp and lacking in the usual mild complimentary greetings that are found in his other Epistles, it should have alerted the readers in Galatia of his dissatisfaction with their sudden turn from what he taught them to what others were teaching them to the contrary. That’s why he turns immediately to address the crisis that is causing him such distress and concern.

Dr. Garlington goes on to say that there are three matters are of importance in Paul’s opening. First, his assertion of the divine origin of his apostleship. The fact that he was commissioned directly by God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Anointed One precludes any human intermediaries or authorities who might want to place an imprimatur upon his mission, most notably the original apostles and/or the church in Jerusalem.

Secondly, Paul is committed to stressing the cross from the outset because of the way it was being downplayed by the Judaizers. It must be emphasized as a matter of great importance that the Anointed One’s death took place “according to the will of our God and Father,” not as an afterthought on the part of God, an accident of history or even a tragic mistake on the part of Israel. For Paul, no Cross, no Gospel.

And thirdly, the threefold mention of God the Father. If we read this greeting in the light of the whole epistle, the repeated reference to the Father is intended to pave the way for one of its outstanding themes, namely, the adoptive sonship of believers in the Anointed One. Thus, our Father is none other than the Father of the Lord Jesus himself. He is the Father who lavished grace upon us through His uniquely beloved Son¹⁸.¹⁹

And Duncan Heaster feels that Paul is really pointing out the authority for his spiritual ministry. That’s why he does not point to any human authorization. As such, he links it specifically to the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. That resurrection led to the great commission and the Lord’s empowerment of all witness to Him as risen and exalted. But this empowerment is given not only to Paul. Any ministry that is authorized to perform baptisms, offer communion, and declare that a repentant sinner’s sins are forgiven must have God’s blessing and the Anointed One’s approval. Not everyone was given the great commission, only those who learned the teachings of the Anointed One and are empowered by the Holy Spirit have such authorization.²⁰

The Contextual Bible Version renders these first two verses this way: “This letter is from Paul, an Apostle of Jesus the Anointed One, appointed directly by Yahweh God the Father who raised the Anointed One from the dead, and not by any human or by any body of men; and from all the other brothers with me. To the congregations in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and other cities in the province of Galatia.”²¹ Another Jewish scholar renders these verses as follows: “Sha’ul, an emissary – not from men, nor by a man, but by Yeshua Messiah and Elohim the Father who raised Him from the dead – and all the brothers who are with me, to the assemblies of Galatia.”²²

Aramaic scholar Andrew Roth in translating verse two has: “To all the brothers who are with me in the congregations that are in Galatia.”²³ This may suggest that there were a number of Galatian believers who went with Paul on his way back to Jerusalem. So now its time for Paul to pray his prayer. J. B. Lightfoot seems to agree.²⁴ Irish professor and scholar Alvah Hovey also believes that this does not mean all the members of the church where Paul was or all the Christians that happened to be present with Paul when he dictated this letter, but rather “all the brethren who are at present my companions in travel and preaching.” Thus, when writing to the Thessalonians, he associated himself with Silvanus and Timothy in his salutation to the church. In the present case, he holds back giving out the names of his associates in the ministry, though he must have communicated to them his purpose of writing the letter, and very likely the substance of the letter itself.²⁵

One reason for their not being mentioned may have been not to jeopardize their position with the Galatians should they be given an opportunity to go back with Paul’s blessing to help their fellow believers in Galatia to reconnect with the Gospel Paul brought them. That way, they would not be seen as spies or undercover agents sent to cause chaos in their thinking and commitment to Jesus the Anointed One. In any case, it was Paul’s decision not to publish their names and no doubt for a very good reason.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson VII)

I like the way Bible scholar Walter F. Adeney (1849-1920) defines apostolic authority, especially in the Apostle Paul’s case. For him, apostolic authority must be conferred. It does not originate in the person who possesses it. They are “sent,” a messenger, a missionary, an ambassador. As the prophet is the man who “speaks for” God, a Divine spokesperson, so the Apostle is the one sent by the Lord, the messenger of Jesus the Anointed One. Thus the apostolic authority is very different from that of the philosopher which depends entirely on his own intellectual powers, and that of the religious founder which grows out of the man’s own spiritual ideas, and all purely personal authority. It is derived from the authority of the Anointed One. Natural gifts can no more make a man an apostle than they can give a legionnaire the right to command a national army.¹

A funny story was told to me on one of my visits to churches in Yugoslavia back in the late 1960s. It seems that Bishop Pavlov Milivoj heard of a gentleman who was introducing himself as an Ordained Bishop of the same denomination, but someone Bishop Milivoj never heard of. So he went to visit him. When the man was asked when, where, and by whom was he ordained, the man pointed to a picture of a well-known American healing evangelist on the wall. The man said that after he got the picture, he placed it on his head and prayed a prayer of ordination. I wonder if one might be able to do that with a picture of the President of the United States?

Methodist scholar G. G. Findlay (1849-1919) believes Paul knew about the qualifications for one to be named an Apostle, that they must be a witness to the resurrected Lord.² His coming into the ranks of the Apostles was the most unusual of all the Apostles. It did not involve the voice of a man summoning him out of the ranks of his former enemy, the Church, to become a servant of the Anointed One. It was not an earthly teacher who gave him the message he was to proclaim the Gospel to those despised by the Jews – the Gentiles. Nevertheless, both in Damascus and Jerusalem his calling was acknowledged and gracefully welcomed into their Christian fellowship.

Then again, it wasn’t the church in Jerusalem who sent him out as a missionary, but the church in Antioch, Syria, telling him to go in the power of the Holy Spirit on their behalf to the regions beyond their borders. But this was not his first calling, nor the one to which he looked for validation of being chosen by God to be His elect servant to carry the Gospel to the world. Yet there were those who disputed his claim that he was an Apostle because no hands were laid on him in Jerusalem announcing such an ordination. But to his critics, he gave only one answer: “I am an apostle because I have seen the risen Savior our Lord Jesus the Anointed One!”³

There was no doubting that the signs of a true Apostle were seen in him and his ministry. No other Apostle performed more miracles than he. No other Apostle persuaded more souls to follow the Anointed One than he. Every moral and spiritual quality of a true minister of God were equal to all the others. And for the exercise of his ministry, he was responsible neither to “those of repute” at Jerusalem nor to his censures at Corinth. Only to the Anointed One did he bow in submission as the one he should follow and emulate.⁴ I wonder how many of us were considered as qualified for the ministry using the same criteria as that the Apostle Paul faced?

But why does Paul say that he was sent by God the Father and Jesus the Anointed One whom God raised from the dead? Because it wasn’t the dead Jesus they carried to the grave that he saw, but it was the risen Jesus that appeared to him. It was this revelation that stopped him in his tracks before he reached Damascus, and at the same moment convinced him that Jesus has risen, that he himself was called to be His servant. These two convictions were inseparably linked in Paul’s recollections. As surely as God the Father raised His Son Jesus from the dead and glorified Him in heaven with the position of being at His right hand, so surely did this glorified Jesus revealed Himself to Saul His persecutor to make him His Apostle. He was, not less a true Apostle than Peter or John, as witnesses of His resurrection. Being a witness to the Resurrected Anointed One was the key principle in anyone’s qualification for Apostleship.⁵

Kenneth Wuest (1893-1961), notes something in verse one that was part of the Apostle Paul’s vision that should be a part of our world scope as well. For Wuest, Paul conceived that his apostleship was related to the Church universal, and thought of Christianity as an organic whole, not simply isolated centers of effort.⁶ By looking at it that way, Paul could see how his divine appointment related to it. Wuest also points out that the Greek noun apostolos, is a combination of two words. “apo,” meaning “from” and “stello,” meaning “to send.” This should give us a clear word picture that as ministers, teachers, or laymen, we are sent from God out into the world. As such, this refers to the act of sending someone on a mission to represent the sender. Says Wuest, our English word ambassador would be a good translation. Therefore, the word “apostle” as Paul uses it here does not merely refer to someone who has a message to announce, but to an appointed representative with an official status who is provided with the credentials of their office which is the Holy Spirit.⁷

Robert H. Gundry (1932), American Bible scholar who studied under British professor F. F. Bruce in Manchester, England, and wrote his commentary during my own early ministry years, gives his reason why Paul worded his opening this way. Bruce notes that Paul puts “Jesus the Anointed One” ahead of “God the Father” because he has in mind Jesus the Anointed One’s commissioning him to apostleship in connection with his appearance as Paul was traveling on the road to Damascus.⁸ By saying “Who raised Him, Jesus the Anointed One, from among the dead,” Paul describes God in view of the circumstance that like the twelve Apostles, Paul’s apostolic commissioning occurred after Jesus’ resurrection.

Also, God was pleased to reveal His Son to Paul in order that he could proclaim the Gospel among the Gentiles. Paul includes “God the Father” with “Jesus the Anointed One” as the source of his apostleship and thus doubles his apostolic authority. Because of the placement of God and His Son in 1:15–16, here in 1:1 “God the Father” refers to God as the Father of the just-mentioned “Jesus the Anointed One,” though Paul will shortly widen God’s fatherhood to include Christian believers.⁹ The pairing of Jesus the Anointed One with God the Father, the designation of Him as God’s Son, and the further designation of Him as “our Lord” in verse three imply the deity of Jesus the Anointed One.¹⁰ In other words, Paul wanted to make sure everyone understood that when Jesus called him and sent him out, the Father was in total agreement.

Paul’s affirmation of his divine appointment should encourage us to confirm our own divine calling. We may not all be considered apostles, or evangelists, or even teachers, but we are all given work to do by God’s special assignment. If we view our work as just another position in the church instead of a calling, we will soon be discouraged. But if by faith we see that God gave us work to do for Him, we can overcome even the most difficult obstacles. All work is sacred if it has been given to us by God. That’s why Paul was able to endure through all the hardships and persecutions he faced.

I like what Vincent Cheung writes about the importance of having a divine call to the ministry. For him, there is a lesson here on how Christians should respect their ministers and how ministers should regard themselves. He notes, that although denominational ordinations, seminary degrees, and apprenticeships under approved mentors often have something to do with the spiritual equipping of a minister and could add to their credibility in the eyes of others, credentials from a denomination can never impart the authority and power that comes from a divine calling. If any minister thinks that they are authorized to preach because they have received credentials hanging on the wall of their office, what happens when they face a congregation that belongs to another denomination, and especially one that rejects the authority of his own denomination? Lack of credentials alone do not undermine a person’s ministry, but it is their conscious reliance on credentials that is self-defeating.¹¹

As one Jewish commentator points out, this was intended to show that God’s power and authority surpass those of any human organization and that Yeshua’s power and authority did not cease when He died.¹² Another Jewish commentator notes that Paul’s designation of the recipients in Greek as ekklēsia (which means “assembled brethren”), was done to distinguish them from the synagogai where the non-messianic Jews gathered.¹³ So it clearly shows that by this time, the Gospel was no longer being preached solely in synagogues as before. Jewish theologian W. Adriaan Liebenberg tells us that Paul was sent to Galatia to spread the truth to his Israelite brothers and sisters about the Scriptures by the Messiah and His Father, God Almighty. Galatia literally means “the Exiles of YaH.” The Hebrew root for the Greek word “Diaspora” is Galut. That’s how we get the Hebrew term GalutYaH (Galatia). According to Peter,¹⁴ these were the Chosen People of the Dispersion (Ten-Tribes) scattered through modern Turkey and the former area of Aremea.¹⁵

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson VI)

So it doesn’t matter what the church may say or do, says Arminius, she can do nothing to add any weight to this authority because she owes her existence to His word from which she has been given her own authority. She is not a true church unless she has openly declared her faith in what’s written here by Paul as being divinely inspired and seeks to obey it. Because of this, any effort to suspend the authority of the Scriptures over the church is to deny that God has all authority and supreme power and that this testimony allows her to exist as a true church.¹ So what Arminius is pointing out is that Paul is claiming the same authority for his ministry. And unless it can be proven that anything he is saying is false or out of line with God’s word, then his message must be accepted as having God’s approval. If it was true in Paul’s day, and Arminius’ day, it must surely be true on our day.

British Reformer Matthew Poole (1624-1679) makes clear the need for recognizing Jesus as the Messiah as Paul states here in verse one. After Jesus the Messiah was sent by God to earth to bring the Good News of His plan of salvation, and it was this same Jesus the Messiah that sent Paul out into the world to preach this good news to all nations, not just to the Jews. So he too was bringing the message of the Messiah. While the non-Jews were open to tidings of good news, many of his fellow Jews were incensed that anyone could claim to be walking in the footsteps of the Messiah without their being involved in their selection. And to show that he was not a lone nonconformist who escaped the prison of the Jewish Rabbis interpretation of the Torah, Paul includes the names of his fellow well-known believers in the Messiah who in allowing him to do so were thereby endorsing his message to the churches in Galatia.²

Johann Bengel (1687-1752 AD) sees a notable contrast here in the way Paul asserts his Apostleship and divine calling. First, it did not come from a human agency but a divine encounter. Secondly, most receive instruction from one teacher to many followers. Therefore, Paul’s teaching by the authority of the Anointed One fits that mode, because the Anointed One was his only Teacher.³ Then Evangelist John Wesley (1703-1791 AD) goes a little further by noting that not only was Paul’s calling not due to any “men,” but his instructions were not due to any “man.” Jesus the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God was his teacher.⁴

In his history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (1737-1794 AD), points out that many ancient writers ascribe the destruction of the Roman monuments to the Goths (Galatians) and the Christians. But they neglected to look into what hostile principle they were motivated by and how if they even possessed the time and the means to satisfy such hostility.⁵ In a footnote, we read that it goes without saying that on the subject of Galatia, Sir Charles Fresne of Cange (1610-1688), was a distinguished French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages, his history is accurate and full. He describes the inhabitants of Galatia as being so vain and ignorant, that they deserved what the Apostle Paul said about them in his Epistle to them as being “stupid.”⁶

One of the great Bible scholars of the Wesleyan revival period, Adam Clarke (1760-1832 AD), sees why Paul was so adamant in making sure the Galatians, as well as the false teachers, knew that His calling came directly from the Anointed One. He points out that the believers there in Galatia knew that James was the president of the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem and that Peter was the one to whom the keys to the kingdom of heaven were entrusted. But he wanted them to see that One higher than both James and Peter was the Anointed One who called and sent him to them with the Gospel.⁷ This then set the bar higher than the ecclesiastical authority that existed in Jerusalem or even Antioch in Syria. So if they were having a problem with Paul’s credentials, take it to Jesus and see what He says, not to Jerusalem for their comments.⁸

Some years later Catholic scholar George Haydock (1774-1849 AD) shares what he feels is important about Paul receiving his calling, mission, and Gospel directly from God through the Anointed One. In doing so, Paul was attempting to show the equality of the Son with the Father; also, to destroy another objection of the Arians,⁹ who pretended that the Father, always named first, never the Son, making the Father as rightly God. Furthermore, another of their arguments to prove only the Father was truly God, was that here in verse one He is called “God “the” Father, using the Greek article “tou.” But Jesus was called “the” Son, with the same Greek article. So this cannot be misinterpreted as making the Son a second class member of the Godhead. In addition, they also pretended that the Son was not God, because the Father was said to deliver Him to death. Yet, here in verse three, the Son is said to give and deliver himself.¹⁰ So we can see how important Paul’s letter was to the Galatians, not only for their day and age but up to the present time.

James Haldane (1768-1862), brother to Robert Haldane, notices a parallel between Moses and Jesus and how the teachings they were given existed in part with more to come. Neither Moses nor the Anointed One fully explained the doctrine which they taught, as founders of other religions did. They indicated that the full development of their doctrine would be seen in the future. For Haldane, this is one argument in favor of their teachings having come from God. The prophets certainly were inspired to add more depth to some of what Moses said, just as the Apostles were chosen to do the same for the Gospel. That’s why Paul was so eager to point out that the Anointed One explained His Gospel to him more fully. That’s why he journeyed around to share what the Anointed One gave him.¹¹

John Brown (1800-1874) mentions that it was common among Roman citizens to give their children a nickname in addition to their personal name and family name. The nickname often referred to their appearance or some characteristic, or even a remarkable event in the history of the individual. Brown suggests that it is not unlikely that “Sha’ul” of Tarsus received the Latin name of “Paulus” as a nickname due to his “weak bodily appearance. According to church writer, Terence, Paul was of very small stature.¹² This may also account for some of Paul’s apprehension about his appearance when he went into Galatia. It was easy for his talking tough in his letters, but what about walking tall when he was there in person?

To say that Paul’s calling was unique is an understatement. Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) describes Paul as being so intensely desirous that the Galatians should understand that he was no mere repeater of other men’s doctrines, but that what he taught he received directly from God by supernatural revelation. They knew that he once was one a fanatical opposer of the Gospel. Indeed, he was a man of such great determination that, whatever he did he did with all his might. So, no sooner did God reveal the Anointed One to him, so that he knew Jesus to be the Messiah, than he earnestly sought to learn yet more of the truth, not by going up to the Apostles at Jerusalem to borrow from them, but by getting alone in the arid plains of Arabia. There, by thought and meditation upon the Word and direct communion with God, he learned yet more concerning the divine mysteries God wanted to reveal.¹³

Edward Huxtable (1833-1893) parses what Paul says here in verse one that is important to keep in mind about how Paul received the revelation of the Gospel. He introduces himself as Paul, an apostle – sent not from men nor by a man, but through Jesus the Anointed One and from God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. These prepositions point to the primary fountain of it being delegated by the medium through which it was conveyed to Paul. The necessity for this twofold negation arose from the fact that the word “apostle,” was frequently applied by Christians to messengers deputized by Churches, or, some important representative officer of the Church, whether on a mission for the preaching of the Gospel or for the discharge of matters of church business connected with the Christian Communities far and wide. Paul himself frequently served both these forms of apostleship, as commissioned by the Church in Antioch to carry abroad the message of the Gospel, and also later to go around between Churches on errands of charity. None of which would have happened were it not for his calling by God and commission to preach the Gospel by the Anointed One as delivered to him by the same One who called and the same One who commissioned him.¹⁴

Methodist scholar Joseph A Beet (1840-1924, says that Paul’s apostleship was through the agency of the Anointed One is self-evident. However, it was also through God the Father which requires further explanation. This is given in the words, “who raised Him from the dead.” These words stand boldly in the first verse of the Epistle and reveal the importance in Paul’s thought of this great fact and its essential connection to his mission as an Apostle. It was by the risen Savior that Paul was sent. If the Anointed One did not rise from the dead, Paul would have heard no voice on the way to Damascus. And, if the Apostles were not sent out to preach, the resurrection of the Anointed One would have been without value. Therefore, by raising the Anointed One through His own immediate power and without any human agent, God was Himself personally taking part in the mission of the Apostles. Paul thus begins his letter of rebuke by bringing his readers into the presence of the infinite power of God as manifested on earth through His Son who gave Paul his commission to the Gentiles.¹⁵

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson V)

In another section of the Jewish Mishnah, we find that these individuals sent out by the Sanhedrin were called “messengers of the court.” As such, wherever they went into cities and synagogues they would identify themselves as “messengers of the court.” In other words, they brought a message on behalf of the court which they represented. They would then call out the name of the one whose name was attached to the house where the people met who vowed that they were performing the rites exactly as they were instructed to do. How true this must be of any church that identifies themselves as Christians. No assembly of believers wants to be known as true followers of the Anointed One whose name they use to identify themselves and not be doing exactly as He instructed them to do.

This also applied to the High Priest in the Temple when he placed the incense on the fire only after entering the Holy of Holies and did not change anything that Moses prescribed.¹ Obviously, Paul did not want to be seen as the puppet of some higher ecclesiastical power within the church, but as a divinely called and commissioned voice of the Gospel to Gentiles and Jews alike. In keeping with that definition of “apostle,” today’s missionaries come closest to fulfilling that ministry. Furthermore, what makes Paul’s claim of being an apostle so potent is that he not only heard the risen Savior speak but repeated what he heard without changing a thing. That’s why his Gospel message to everyone was the same in every place.

This allowed Paul to say that he came with God-given authority and an Anointed One-centered message.² Here he makes the distinction between his calling and his credentials. No matter what organization or denomination or church you practice your ministry with, they do not define you. Your calling from God defines you as one of His apostles. I’ve actually met pastors who were not in complete harmony with their denomination’s teachings but were afraid to make it known for fear of losing their ministerial license and endorsement. In addition, just in case the Judaizers weren’t sure about accepting Jesus as the Anointed One, he wanted them to know that the God they did believe in actually raised this Jesus from the dead. In other words, say what you will about me not being an apostle, says Paul, or what you think about Jesus not being the Messiah, but how will you explain that to your God who claims us both.

Another early commentary on Galatians, Haimo of Auxerre (840-870 AD), a member of the Benedictine Abbey in the Roman Catholic Church of Saint-Germain d’Auxere in Paris.³ adds to this understanding. He notes that there are four types of Apostles. First, there are the ones who are called and not sent neither by human authority but by God alone. Among this sort were Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and a great many other prophets, but not all were prophets. This type included even Apostles sent by the Anointed One, the man who, while a human being, was still true God. The second is certainly from God but through a human being, such as Joshua, who, by God’s will was sent through Moses.⁴ There are many others who, again in keeping with God’s will, were chosen through a popular vote on account of their meritorious life. In these instances, therefore, the will of God and the will of the people coincided. The third sort is by human beings alone and not by God, as when some are chosen based upon the favor they won with people rather than their spiritual calling. Fourth, there are those who pay to take another’s place in the priestly ranks, of whom Saint Ambrose said, “O Bishop, you surely would not be a bishop today if you did not pay a hundred gold coins!”⁵

Another thing of importance is that Paul was quick to include the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. In another Medieval commentary by Bruno the Carthusian (1030-1101 AD), a German monk who founded the Carthusian order. Pope Urban II was one of his pupils. Bruno was renown for his learning and his holy living. We read in his commentary about what was so important that Paul mentioned God the Father as the One who raised Jesus from the dead. He believes that if there were some way God the Father could have justified human beings through the Law, then He would not have wanted His Anointed One to die in vain. Yet, because God saw that the Law was powerless, He excluded the Law as a means for salvation so that it could be accomplished only through the work of the Anointed One.⁶

Then, medieval English scholar Robert of Melun (1100-1167 AD), gives us a little background on what was known about this teaching in his day. He discovered that the Apostle Paul addresses this Epistle to those who crossed into Greece from Gaul and were first called Gallogræcia by the Greeks themselves. Thereafter, they were called Galatians on account of their white bodies, while their province was known as Galatia. Furthermore, because these people were not well educated, the Greeks always labeled them as ignorant. Nevertheless, the Apostle went to convert them to having faith in the Anointed One for salvation. But unfortunately, they seemed to be falling back into spiritual ignorance again.

They were now allowing themselves to be led into error by false apostles and so believed that they needed to keep the Law as well as the Gospel on the grounds that apart from the Law the Gospel was insufficient for salvation. In fact, he said the same to the Romans, though not so subtly, because the Galatians were not as competent in understanding. Even as the subject matter of this Epistle clearly pertains to the particular situation of the Galatian church, it is still a situation common to every church. The Apostle’s intention, therefore, is to rectify their error by showing them that the Gospel is all they need. As such, he gets their attention by announcing his message and the power of that message, as well as his own authority as an Apostle. He prayed that this would persuade the Galatians to come back to the Gospel they first received from him.⁷

Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) makes an interesting comment at this point and says something I’m sure the Apostle Paul would agree with wholeheartedly. It gives us some insight into how the medieval church viewed the relationship between the teachings of Jesus in the Final Covenant and what is found in the First Covenant. Aquinas believes that Paul wrote the Galatians this epistle to emphasize that the coming of free grace through the Final Covenant made the legality of the First Covenant no longer necessary as their gospel. The truth of the Gospel replaced the symbolism of the Law. And when grace and truth were combined, a person can then go on to everlasting life and glory. But this can only be accomplished when observance of salvation through the Law is abandoned, and the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law were replaced by a fervent reverence for the Gospel of Jesus the Anointed One.⁸

As Reformist Martin Luther (1483-1546 AD) pointed out, we must also remember that Paul wrote this epistle because he was upset that after he left this area, false teachers moved in who perverted the Gospel that he preached on man’s free justification through grace and faith in the Anointed One Jesus. Luther also makes another point, he felt that the world’s grudge against the Gospel was because the Gospel condemns the religious wisdom of the world. And since the world is jealous over its own religious views, they, in turn, charge the Gospel with being a radical and discriminatory doctrine, a doctrine to be persecuted as the worst plague on earth. As a result, we have this paradoxical situation: The Gospel supplies the world with salvation through Jesus the Anointed One, peace of conscience, and every blessing. Yet the world despises the Gospel for that very reason.⁹

This led fellow Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564 AD) to declare we should always keep this in mind: that through our guide the Holy Spirit the Body of the Anointed One should listen to God alone, and to Jesus the Anointed One whom He appointed to be our teacher through the Holy Spirit.¹⁰ Therefore, anyone who assumes the position of preacher, teacher, or prophet, must speak to us in the name of God or of the Anointed One. But he also made an interesting comment on Paul’s contention that his apostleship was not conferred on him by any man. To some degree, this raised a problem. How could Paul claim that he was not called by men, while Luke records that Paul and Barnabas were called by the church at Antioch? He then explains.¹¹

Some have replied, says Calvin, that he previously discharged the duties of an Apostle, and that, consequently, his apostleship was not founded on his appointment by that church. But here, again, an objection would be proper because the reason he was sent out was to go to the Gentiles, among whom the Galatians were counted. It would be more correct to understand that Paul did not intend here to entirely dismiss the calling of that church, but merely to shew that his apostleship came from a higher source. This is true; for even those who laid their hands on Paul at Antioch did so, not of their own accord, but in obedience to the express will of the Holy Spirit.¹² When it comes to those accepted as preachers, teachers, and apostles in the church, Calvin indicates that while their individual calling may be unique, they all share one thing in common with the Apostle Paul: “One cannot faithfully perform the duties of their office unless they are called by God.”¹³

Dutch theologian Jakob Arminius (1560-1609), who followed in the footsteps of John Calvin and was an important participant in the Reformation Movement in Holland, was discussing the authority of sacred Scripture. For him, the authority of the Word of God lies both in the truthfulness of the whole text, and in all its declarations, whether they be those about things past, things present, or things to come. Also, in the power of the commands of what to do or not to do in order to follow God’s divine word and will. All such of authority can depend on no other than on God Himself, who is the principal author of His Word, both because He is truth without any suspicion of what He said to be false, and because He is of unbeatable power. Because of this, understanding that His word is divine is a must in our belief system and obedience to what He said. It must also be so strongly ingrained in us that this our obedience cannot be increased or decreased by any other authority.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE (Lesson IV)

Now early church scholar Cassiodorus (485-580 AD) tells us that when Paul calls himself an Apostle by a divine calling through the Anointed One, Jesus, it was his way of challenging those who depended solely on human authority for styling themselves as Apostles. The churches in Galatia at that time were being thrown into turmoil by false preachers. But Paul wants them to know through his greeting, along with all the brethren who are with him, that he is a friend, not a foe. That’s why in his greeting he also blesses them. This was to make them feel comfortable in receiving the instructions from the Word of the Lord in order to help them become more established in their faith.¹

A well-known Roman author and naturalist named Pliny the Elder, who lived between 23–79 AD, gives us a description of this area during the same period when Paul traveled throughout this territory. He tells us that inhabitants from France came down to this area and intermarried with the Greeks who lived there, and at first, it was called Gallogræcia, but later became known simply as Galatia. He tells us that the capital city was named Gordium,² and some of the chief towns were Ancyra (today known as Ankara), Tavium (an important trading post and at the crossroads and stopping place on busy caravan routes), and Pessinus (along the banks of the Sakarya River from which the mythological King Midas supposedly came). The churches as we know them from the Bible were in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. It was possible that some unnamed churches were founded in other surrounding cities.³

These city names sound foreign to us today, but back then they were considered important and good places for churches to be started. Also, such travelers as Pliny the Elder, spelled the names of these cities in Latin, which, when translated into Greek, are spelled differently, and then we have the English transliteration to deal with. I learned how confusing this can be when searching for my paternal home in East Prussia. When my grandfather lived there it was called Klein Dankheim in German. But I wasn’t able to find it on any map until I discovered that after WWI this area was divided between Poland and Germany. Now the name of my grandfather’s birthplace is called Przeździęk Mały in Polish.

Early church theologian Jerome (347-420 AD), does not see Paul speaking here out of pride, rather, to remove any uncertainty or doubt concerning his appointment and commission as the Apostle to the Gentiles. He did this to confound any of those who were alleging that since he was not one of the original twelve apostles or ordained by the elders, he was a false prophet. This might also be taken as aimed indirectly at Peter and the others because the Gospel was committed to him not by the Apostles but by the same Jesus the Anointed One who chose those same Apostles.⁴

One of the earliest preachers of the Gospel who commented on Paul’s letter to the Galatians was John Chrysostom (349-407 AD), Bishop of Constantinople. He noted that Paul’s rhetoric was full of an intense and reverent spirit, and not only the rhetoric but also, so to speak, the whole Epistle. One should always address one’s disciples with mildness, even when they need discipline. Speaking sharply would only pertain to troublemakers and impostors. Our Lord also, though He generally spoke gently to His disciples, here and there uses strong language,⁵ and who was heard to pronounce a blessing one day and a rebuke the next. For instance, having said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona,”⁶ and having promised to lay the foundation of the Church upon his confession, shortly afterward He says, “Get yourself behind Me, Satan: you are a stumbling block to Me.”⁷ On another occasion, Jesus asked very sharply of Peter, “Are you still not understanding Me?”⁸

Chrysostom tells us that the fact this Epistle breathes an incensed spirit should be obvious to everyone even on the first reading, but he must explain the cause of Paul’s anger against these believers in Galatia. It could not be something slight and unimportant or he would not have used such sharp words. For to be exasperated by unimportant matters is the weakness of the small-minded, moody, and irritable individual; just as it is a part of the more slow-minded and dull people who quickly lose heart in weighty matters. The Apostle Paul was not like that. So what got him so irritated and upset? It was serious and significant; one which was disorienting them all from the Anointed One. It needed to be confronted face to face.⁹

Chrysostom also believes there may be some to learn when it comes to Paul’s statement that he was called by God and not by men to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Many commentators think Paul was referring to his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. However, Chrysostom points to the occasion in Antioch where Paul was helping to teach, that in one worship service, the Holy Spirit, spoke through one of the prophets and told the church, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.”¹⁰

So in Chrysostom’s mind, this was the apostleship that Paul was referring to. In other words, his calling came from God through his meeting the Anointed One on the road to Damascus, but his Apostleship came from God through the Holy Spirit that the church should ordain and support Paul and Barnabas as apostles to the Gentiles. To think of it, would Paul not have been establishing churches in Galatia were it not for that ordination in Antioch?¹¹

In another of the earliest commentaries on Paul’s letter, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), who was one of Chrysostom’s contemporaries, shares his impression. For him, the reason that the Apostle writes to the Galatians was to help them understand what it was that God’s grace accomplished for them since they are no longer under the Law. For although the grace of the Gospel was preached to them, there were some from the Jewish believers who still did not grasp the real benefit of grace. Despite being called Christians, they still felt comfortable under the burden of full obedience to the Law that the Lord God imposed not only on those serving righteousness but also on those serving sin. That is, He gave a righteous law to unrighteous people to point out their sins, not take them away. It removes sins only by the grace of faith, which works through love.

Augustine continues by observing that if a person is sent out to preach on the authority of another human being, they cannot be fully trusted to explain the whole mystery of salvation. However, if a person is sent out on the authority God charged another human being to give them, then they will be more trustworthy. This happened with Paul and Barnabas at the church in Antioch in Syria. But Paul wanted the Galatians to know that God Himself sent him, therefore, he can be trusted to be honest and truthful.¹²

Another early church scholar, Cassiodorus (485-580 AD), points out that Paul does not call himself an Apostle commissioned by a council of men, but one who was appointed by Jesus the Anointed One Himself. Paul did not do this to refute any criticism or claims against his authority, but to show the difference between his calling and that of those who came behind him into Galatia with their Judaizing message combining works with grace. And by mentioning that there were others with him who felt the same way, he dispelled any assumption that he was only speaking for himself.¹³

So in the opening verse, Paul sets the theme for the whole epistle: If the original Apostles commissioned him or an agent of the Anointed One was used to give him his commission (as the false teachers in Galatia were alleging), then he would be subordinate to them, and, therefore, under their control. As such, the Judaizers would have then been able to convince the Galatians that Paul was only a yes-man preaching what the original twelve disciples told him to say. As such, he was given no individual authority from Jesus Himself, as he claimed.

In his greeting, the Apostle Paul teaches us a lesson on being real: never pretend to be something you’re not. Don’t put on airs as though you should be treated special because of your pedigree or something special you have to offer. Even when you’re among unbelievers don’t become stuck-up in your holiness, salvation or sanctification. In this salutation, Paul embodies several interesting points: Historically, only those disciples who actually saw the risen Savior, qualified to be called Apostles. Yet Paul identifies himself as an Apostle, but with a qualifier. First, He didn’t claim to have the backing of the original twelve disciples, nor was He writing this letter “on their behalf.” Furthermore, he did not keep it a secret that he knew them, so in case the Galatians refused to accept him for who he was, he could proudly invoke the names of Peter, James, or John to show they accepted him as a fellow Apostle and brother in union with the Anointed One.

The original Greek noun apostolos identifies someone who is sent out as a messenger to teach, in contrast to a mathētēs (“disciple” KJV) who is a student that continually learns from an instructor. In the Orient, masters taught their disciples in the hopes that they might develop into being even better masters than themselves. But in Christianity, a disciple is one who never stops learning because it is impossible to become better than their teacher – Jesus the Anointed One. But Paul was also drawing on his Jewish roots in declaring that he was not sent by any church individual or any council, because according to the teachings of the Rabbis, the Sanhedrin sent out members prior to the festivals into all the surrounding areas to coordinate and approve the proper gathering of the correct grains to be offered, and to do so with great pomp and circumstance.¹⁴

Irish playwright George Barnard Shaw (1856-1950) once said: “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” The truth is when we get so attached to doing everything the way we’ve always done it because of our handicaps, or so absorbed in only looking at things from one perspective because of our lack of exploring new ideas, it limits our growth and maturity. That means we’re holding on tight to excuses that keep us from doing new things, remaining in places we’re familiar with, and to things and the people present in our lives as we grew up, not knowing that all of our attachments will only bring us anguish, sorrow, and suffering. Many can’t seem to grasp the notion that you can love anything without becoming attached to everything.

In my university studies, I was introduced to the writings of the ancient Chinese philosopher and poet, Lao Tzu. In his work titled “Tao Te Ching,” he asked: Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course? Can you step back from your own biases in order to understand all things? If you can do that, says Lao Tzu, you give birth to new ideas to nourish them, things you can use without owning them, with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.¹

This is a hard lesson for anyone to learn. But there are some good points about letting up and letting go of things that don’t give us excuses anymore to who we really are, where we need to be, what we should be, and what ought to be trying to do: First, being emotionally attached to your problems leads to cloudy decision making. You’re afraid to try, because it may make matters worse than better. You end up refusing opportunities because you’re afraid the problems you have may get in the way. It’s like a pastor who doesn’t want to offer counseling to couples having difficulty in their marriage because he too is having problems in the same area. He doesn’t realize that the best person to talk to is someone who’s been through, or going through, the same problem.

Secondly, being emotionally attached to your problems leads to unnecessary stress. What would you think of someone who is frustrated because they can’t get the job they want or become involved in some activity because they think that their physical, or mental or emotional status will result in their being turned down? Just think! How many contestants on “Dancing With the Stars” were told that because they were blind, deaf, had an artificial limb, or were overweight that they would not be accepted? Yet they were accepted because they applied. Listen to this. Army veteran J. R. Martinez, who sustained third-degree burns on 37 percent of his body, won the Mirrorball Trophy in Season 13 with his partner Karina Smirnoff. Also, Nyle DiMarco, a deaf model won the Mirrorball Trophy in Season 22 with partner Peta Murgatroyd.

Thirdly, being emotionally attached to your problems causes stunted growth in what you’re trying to do or trying to be. Shark Tank investor Barbra Corcoran also spoke openly about her dyslexia. “It made me more creative, more social and more competitive,” Corcoran said in an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine. “There’s great freedom to being dyslexic… if you can avoid labeling yourself as a loser in a school system that measures people by the As and Bs on their report card.” And double-amputee Paralympic Amy Purdy, who lost her legs to Meningitis at the age of 19, wowed the judges and audience members when partnered with five-time returning champion Derek Hough in Season 18.

Life is a process. We should enjoy the process. Not many people can change the way other people feel. However don’t let your own handicaps or problems get in the way of working together with your spouse, family, workmates, fellow churchgoers, or society in general, it makes life much more enjoyable. So take pride in the battle and grind as you work together to create better experiences for yourself and others. Help your family and friends by becoming more cooperative and make the process fun, for everyone.

The Bible is certainly not silent on this subject. In fact, there is a fabulous story about a young boy who was entrusted by his father to watch their flock of sheep while the older sons conducted other parts of the family business. But then a war broke out when one of their countries arch enemies decided to take over their land. They gathered in a valley between the two countries and it became a standoff because their enemy would parade out their champion warrior who was some nine feet tall and whose helmet, coat of armor, javelin, and shield all together weighed over 200 pounds.

Daily they taunted this boy’s king and army, which included three of his brothers. Their father got worried about them not having enough to eat, so he chose his young son to carry a basket filled with roasted grain, loaves of bread, and cheese to them. Since it was not too far from the village where they lived, this boy would make trips back and forth so he could still watch out for his father’s sheep. On one of these occasions, the boy arrived it looked like a battle was about to begin. So the boy left the basket with the one who kept such supplies and hurried up to the front to see what was happening.

It was at that moment that this champion of the enemy strode out and began to challenge and shame them for being cowards. This is the first time the boy heard such blasphemy against his people. So he turned to some of the soldiers around him and asked, “What would a person get for killing this pagan warrior who is defying the armies of God? Soon word got around about the young boy’s question, and when it reached the ears of his brothers, they got angry. They told him that he had no business being there. “Go back to your sheep,” they told him. We all know how much you brag about defending the sheep against some supposed lion and invisible bear. Get out of here!”

But when word reached the king, he had them bring the boy to him. He looked at the small lad because the king himself was quite tall. He asked the boy sarcastically how he expected to fight this giant when he wasn’t even trained as a soldier? David told him about the lion and the bear and the king felt like there wasn’t much to lose by sending the boy out to battle with the giant. He tried to dress the lad in his own armor, but the boy couldn’t move because the armor was too heavy.

So the boy went back over to where the giant was still ranting and raving. He looked around and found five smooth stones that fit nicely into his sling. Instead of being dissuaded by all the things his brother and others said, and in spite of being untrained and small of stature, he put his shoulders back as everyone on both sides watched as this tiny lad marched toward this huge giant. Their enemies started laughing while his brothers and other soldiers stood watching in horror. But with an accurate shot with his sling and a smooth stone he put it right between the giant’s eyes. This huge monster fell to the ground stunned. The boy quickly ran to the sprawling warrior, with all his might he pulled out the heavy sword, and with one fell swoop cut off the giant’s head. Pandemonium broke out with their enemies turning and fleeing from the scene while the soldiers on the boy’s side started running after them with a great shout.²

The victory was theirs! And all because a little boy refused to let his limitations of being young, untrained, inexperienced in war, whose only weapon was a sling, keep him from doing what he knew in his heart needed to be done. So you must decide whether you are going to be like his brothers and only watch what’s going on because you don’t think you have what it takes to get the job done. You are so hung up on your limitations that you’re afraid to try anything new? Or, do you have the heart of this boy, and in spite of what others think of you, you are still willing to try! – Dr. Robert R Seyda