What is spoken against you is not as established as it may look.
Paul begins a launch of the defence of his apostleship. There are lies spoken against him and the greatest is this:
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1 v 11-12
“I had not learnt it from another except Jesus”. This is important because he was being accused that he had distorted the gospel he had originally been taught from someone else. He had thus become a second-rate ‘apostle’ if that. His gospel could not be trusted. That’s what the preachers were preaching. It was amazing that so soon after the life of Jesus that preachers were spending more time preaching against others than they were of preaching the Name above all names. It still happens.
Ever walked into a familiar room but realise straight away that something isn’t right? It doesn’t feel like the same room and then you realise the picture on the wall has dropped at one end. A small distortion of the truth, a simple stretching of the truth, an exaggeration of what really happened and then passed on in the whispering gossip channels and before long it is out of control and you cannot stop it nor defend your position. What do you do?
None of us will ever find ourselves in the same position that Paul did. In the sense that our defence will most probably not be the same as Paul. True that for many they have had dreams and visions of Christ and received the gospel from Him directly. But for the majority of us we heard it from someone else.
And yet we all know the accusations about our own experience of God. We have either become fanatical or hypocritical. The judges on our walk with God seem to be ever around us commenting behind the scenes on what comes out of our mouth or what we are doing or not doing. That’s before we even think about our minds that judge us.
So what can we do?
From these verses Paul teaches us to:
- Have faith in your calling to Jesus.
- Know the truth of your relationship with Jesus.
- Fully recognise what you have received from Jesus.
- Be confident in the work of Jesus in your life.
- Be courageous to testify and defend what Jesus has and is still doing in your life.
Have faith; Know the truth; Fully recognise; Be confident; Be courageous.
These will combat any lies that come against you that you are not a good enough Christian.
Sent from my iPhone
Missions Paul 