Author: missionspaul

Christ is all and if somehow you find yourself hearing it is Christ plus then Christ is less than all.

In an interview with a long-time friend, U2’s Bono, responded to the sometimes-stained reputation of the church throughout history:

 “Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building. A list of instructions where there was once conviction; dogma where once people just did it; a congregation led by a man where once they were led by the Holy Spirit. Discipline replacing discipleship”.  (Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)

Our enemy is performance. Performance will never lead to true discipleship.  The church has rules. Christians have rules. Things we have learnt over the years that if we do them prove we are good.

 We step into performance the moment we behave as if Christianity brings man to God. Even that sentence may cause some of us to have to read it again as it appears correct! But central to Christianity is the truth that it is the story of God coming to man, every other religion has it the other way round. Sadly the church sometimes follows suit. For we all like a good performance.

“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5 v 2-4)

The teaching that there needs to be circumcision or whatever else in order to be truly saved is actually a teaching that is saying His coming, His death, He himself, Christ, is of no value at all. To fall from grace is not that we become unsaved after being saved because it works the same way in that our actions/works not only cannot gain but they cannot lose salvation. To fall means the person never experienced grace in the first place.

Grace is only experienced when we let go of trying to accomplish our salvation. If Christianity is based on us and how we live then no one will be saved.

Grace exposes the dark side of our lives, it is for Judas and Peter to say “yes I did that” but one of them could not accept that they had done such a thing and made things worse; the other accepted it and found their identity in grace. To live by grace means you are not denying or trying to forget the dark side of your life, but by allowing grace to expose it you find who you really are.

Grace opposes self-pity. Not that we end up depressed and whipping ourselves in a frenzy of guilt and shame over our sinful lives. Self-pity will never motivate you. Self-pity will not move you to grace any more than the victories, visions, successes and miracles will. Self-pity will keep you locked in failure, away from your home. Grace calls you to keep coming back to Jesus, let Jesus bind up the wounds, don’t let your self do it.

Grace is honesty. An honesty that says we keep breaking the rules. An honesty that says “I am cautious to say God told me … Because I could be wrong.” An honesty that displays character and silences the tongue. An honesty that says I may never be the person I want or should be but God loves me now as I am.

Those who look like they are going to drop. Those on the verge of giving up. Those who have no answers. Those who are tired of it all. Those who want to run away. Those who are at their wits end. Those who cannot change their circumstances. Those who are weary and burdened. I have good news! This is the key verse of the Galatians letter. It is the whole thing.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5 v 1)

You are free!

The enemy of your soul has nothing on you. He cannot hold you once Jesus has freed you. He cannot put you out on bail saying he hasn’t finished with you yet. John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
You are free from trying. Free from the lists and rules of man. You are free to approach God as you are not how you should be. Ephesians 3:12 “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
So don’t let the enemy of your soul put conditions on your freedom. He has no authority in your life. He is defeated. There is no bail. You are not out temporarily waiting for further investigation. You are out totally.

So how do we stop ourselves from sliding from our freedom?

• We stand firm.

We stand in the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for us. This is our prayer: “Lord, you are my shield. The enemy doesn’t give warning of the attacks. I don’t see in advance where the next hurt will come from. It may happen today so I lift you up. Christ over me will extinguish whatever fiery attack that comes my way. I don’t need to ask ‘How will I make it through?’ or believe ‘I’m not going to make it.’ I stand with YOU covering me. When anxiety comes it is extinguished because I have lifted Christ over me. When condemnation comes I get my shield up. When doubt rages I will extinguish it and I will keep standing firm. Just as Roman soldiers saturated their shields in water to extinguish the fiery arrows so I also ask that you saturate my life in your presence and in your promise for my life. My faith is held high and covers my life completely. You empower me to stand against every attack on my mind and heart. When I don’t think I will make it, I will make it. When I feel alone, I am not. What you have said about who I am and my situation outweighs anything anyone else says about it. You are my shield and helper and my glorious sword. My enemies will cower before you and you will march all over them. (Deut 33 v 29)”

• We resist the yoke of slavery.

“… do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” A strange sight to see a harness put around the neck of a person then asking that person to pull farm equipment. A picture we do not see and if we saw it we would call it slavery. It is wrong.

Paul uses the picture for the numerous rituals, regulations and observances like circumcision that are placed on new believers which are just incapable to be carried. “Don’t go back to the Torah, to circumcision etc. It is definitely going to make you feel you are not free.”

The yoke of Jesus is easy and light, the yoke of man is difficult and heavy.

What happened to the Galatians has been repeated throughout the generations, by the Church. We created new commandments from this verse and that verse. Biblical principles became Church commandments that if kept brought you in and if lapsed kept you out.

Many have left us because the yoke was too heavy. We don’t insist on circumcision but we insist on other things.  The irony is that not one person in the Church has been able to accomplish its demands.

In the bustle of all this performance we have lost or killed grace, but we have kept the yoke, but the yoke doesn’t bring life.

In contrast, Jesus invites those who are weighed down by the numerous rituals, regulations and observances that the interpretations of the Torah inflicted on people, to come and take his yoke. To be harnessed to Him.

My life with Christ calls me not to focus on being what others want me to be, holy, blameless and a good man in order to be acceptable but to be who He has made and continues to make me.

I have found my life with Christ is about Him and not me. I feel free in that. I am free.

The Key to Living is not found anywhere else but in you aligning yourself up with what God has said and what God has done.

The Key to Living is to return to our calling towards His glory so that people see Christ in us. This is where we must continually be. This the call above all callings. This calling is not to a place, people or platform but to Him and His presence in our lives. To decrease so that He will increase. To let His brightness and majesty be seen in our lives. It is not about me but about others seeing Him in me. It is not about my achievement but His.

“At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” ³¹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” (Galatians 4 v 29-31)

Ishmael will always persecute the Isaac’s. Those who pursue God’s approval through obedience will always oppress those who don’t and accept salvation by grace alone. Paul now answers his rhetorical question of v21. The answer is, ‘we are free so don’t go back to the Torah’. Until Isaac, the son of the promise, was born Sarah could live with Ishmael in the same house. But with the arrival of Isaac, Ishmael had to go. In the same way we must now get rid of all the rule-keeping as the means to approach God and have His approval. That is the Key to Living.

When you allow voices either those from within you or even those from ‘Christians’ to belittle you because you haven’t made the standard you are allowing Ishmael to mock you. When your mistakes and failures are too much for some that you are ostracised from their approval or maybe that person in the mirror does that work for them, then you are allowing Ishmael to mock you.

Get rid of Ishmael. Live with Isaac. That is the Key to Living.

Ishmael drives you to work, strive and do more to please God. The conclusion to those efforts is always failure and disappointment and beating oneself up. But if Ishmael sees Isaac living by faith and not seemingly doing anything to try and earn salvation then it stirs hatred within him.

The Key to Living is to recognise our calling is found in His goodness. He is good and everything He does is good and for good. Within this goodness we find courage to face the battle; self-discipline to resist temptation; generosity of hand; surrendered ego; a desire for truth.

Our prayer is this: May Christ be found in me; may Christ be formed in my living; may my intimate knowledge of Him grow not by works but by His grace alone.

This prayer is the Key to Living. The removal of Ishmael is the Key to Living. To be and not to do: is the Key to Living.

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. Do not be deceived into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life.

“For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 27-28)

But how do you live in such a circumstance? 

I am pausing for a few days to meditate on Isaiah 54 before we continue in Galatians 4 to try and answer that one question. For there are many in exile, whether as a victim or because of their own sin. There are many in situations where they have done nothing wrong to equal their predicament. How do you live? 

• Make the right Choice

How did Sarah move from Genesis 11:30 “Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive” to 21:1-2 “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.”? She got there by making wrong choices. Yes that’s right! It wasn’t by her own achievements. It wasn’t because she was righteous. It was because God was gracious. This has always been the gospel. 

Genesis 16:1-3 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. “

What did she do with the painful reality of her life?

V2 she blamed God; V2 she spoke negatively and influenced Abram; V3 she moved in her own strength to fix her painful reality.

There are choices to make in a place where choice seems limited. Wrong choices and right choices.

Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;

Etty Jillesum, a Dutch Jewish girl in Amsterdam in late 1930s had an ambition to be a writer. She was captured by the Nazis, she could have gained freedom but she stayed with her people to help them. Her journals record a woman who on the outside was nothing but her inner soul was everything that beauty could bring. She gave herself to prayer. She no longer had an ambition for fame, now she was to create beauty in the hell of a concentration camp. She wrote, “nothing can happen to me … Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your heaven, tears run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude.”

The more Etty’s plight became hopeless the more hope shone within her. She wrote, “by excluding death from our life we cannot live a full life, by admitting death into our life, we enlarge and enrich it.”

Her final words were written on a postcard she threw off Wagon Number 12, the train she rode to what she knew would be to her death in Auschwitz. She wrote, “We left camp singing.”

That’s a choice made in a painful reality. That’s a choice we must make.

Let us not be afraid to focus on the contradiction of our lives, let us not bury our head in the sands or even have false faith. When we have changed our perspective and hold on to hope because of it (see yesterday) then we are ready to make the right choices of what to do now in our painful reality. The choice is not try harder. The Apostle uses this story to say that the choice is not for the Galatians to become Jewish to be accepted by God. The choice is to sing. The choice is to be of a generous heart towards life, even towards the hatred you face and the impossibilities of anything changing for you. Sing.

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. Do not be deceived into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life.

“For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 27-28)

But how do you live in such a circumstance? 

I am pausing for a few days to meditate on Isaiah 54 before we continue in Galatians 4 to try and answer that one question. For there are many in exile, whether as a victim or because of their own sin. There are many in situations where they have done nothing wrong to equal their predicament. How do you live? Paul is using this story to say to the Galatians that the gospel is for the barren, the failed, those who have been put down or made to feel like they’re not good enough for God. The gospel is for those who cannot change their situation. Those who have made it, those who are fertile like Hagar, those who are spiritually entrepreneurial are actually those who are the slaves. So back to the question, how do you live?

• We need to find a different perspective so that we can dig out hope in the contradictions of our life.

• Make the right choice

And also …

• Have confidence in the grace of God to see what cannot be seen

“shout for joy, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” Can you see the reality of the invisible?

Hebrews 11: 27 “By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the Kings anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.” The king and Egypt were the seen. But Moses had his hope in the One who is unseen and as a result confidence rose within him.

An intriguing painting was once displayed at the Louvre art museum in France called “Checkmate”, painted by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch. It is now said to be in private hands after being sold at Christie’s in 1999. This painting depicts 2 chess players, one is Satan whom appears arrogantly confident, and the other player is a man who looks forlorn. If Satan wins, he gets the man’s soul. According to legend, a chess champion visited the museum once and after studying the painting, noticed that the arrangement of the chess pieces were incorrect. According to him, the devil who thought he was winning, was in fact not winning. The man, who thought he was losing, was winning, because according to the pieces left on the chessboard, his king had one more move left, which would make him the winner of the game! He called the curator and they determined that the title didn’t fit the scene because the forlorn-looking player actually has the ability to defeat his opponent, though he obviously doesn’t realize it. The painting is a lie. His king can still make another move!

Those who live with confidence in the grace of God know that their king always has one more move.

A 17 year old called Joseph was set on by his own brothers and threw both into a disused well. He was then sold into slavery. Its check mate. But the KING still has one more move.

The widow of a man from the Elisha school of prophets has lost everything and the creditors are not satisfied. They took everything apart from one small bottle ofoil and now want the sons as slaves. Its checkmate. But the KING has one more move.

Thousands of people have walked miles and miles from home just following the Jesus’ team. They are now in danger of suffering through hunger. No one has enough money. There is only 5 loaves and 2 fish. But the KING has one more move.

On some people today checkmate has been declared. The person who wrote that is a thief, liar and a killer. But the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords has one more move.

Those who hope in the Lord will not be disappointed.

There is still a move the King can make. It’s not over.

It is possible to thrive in your painful reality. There will be some things that you just will not be able to fix. You may not be free of that physical pain. That situation just may not change. You may be a Gentile and not be circumcised or follow Jewish practices. But the Apostle uses this story to demonstrate that it is often those who have it all together (or it seems so), it is those who haven’t sinned (or they would like to demonstrate that) and it is those who appear free and pure and everything else that you are not who are actually Hagar people, they are the slaves, they are not free.

You can find a different perspective so that you can dig out hope in the contradictions of your life. You can make the right choice and you can have the confidence in the grace of God to see what cannot be seen. 

 

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. Do not be deceived into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life.

“For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 27-28)

But how do you live in such a circumstance? 

I am pausing for a few days to meditate on Isaiah 54 before we continue in Galatians 4 to try and answer that one question. For there are many in exile, whether as a victim or because of their own sin. There are many in situations where they have done nothing wrong to equal their predicament. How do you live? 

• We need to find a different perspective so that we can dig out hope in the contradictions of our life.

“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”Hebrews 12:3.

The cross is 2 pieces of wood running contrary to each other. The cross is our thoughts crossing God’s thoughts, our will crossing His will and our desired answers crossing God’s given answers. It is this cross we are called to carry, “not my will but yours be done.”

It seems God allows contradictions in our lives. Will we become broken under the hand of God, a surrendered servant, or will we fight against it and become bitter?

Stephen was stoned and died, but Paul was stoned and lived.

Philip was supernaturally transported, but Paul was shipwrecked and snake-bitten.

Peter walked on water, Paul floated on the water for 3 days.

James was beheaded while Peter was released.

How do we explain these things?

Jeremiah 8:15 “We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.” That can be said of us all. We all hope for the best. We all want our situations to be perfect, to be better at least. 

It is true of what we want for each other. We don’t want one another to face painful reality and so we speak ‘faith’ over one another, ‘you will be healed’ ‘you will get this’ ‘you will prosper’ etc. But what if we are wrong? What if God wants us to live in a contradiction for a while?

Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, describes a conversation he had with Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest ranking US military officer in the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War. In his 8 years of imprisonment, he and others were appallingly treated.

He asked the question of Stockdale: “Who didn’t make it out?”

“Oh that’s easy, the optimists,” was the reply.

“The optimists? I don’t understand.”

The optimists were the ones who said, “We’re going to be out by Christmas” and then Christmas would come and go. Then they’d say “We’re going to be out by Easter” then Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale then turned to Collins and said, “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose- with the discipline to confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

It is a similar story told by Viktor Frankl of one of her inmates in Auschwitz who was dying of an illness but because she had been told they would be freed by Christmas was holding on to life. She died on Christmas Day when they were not freed. 

Paul says in Philippians 2: 12 “continue to work out your salvation.”

Dig out hope from a reality that we cannot be blind to, that needs sorting out.

So the contradiction that you find yourself in is a painful reality that you cannot ignore nor simply complain about. But you need to dig deep because inside that contradiction is a hope and a realisation that you can find a way even though it looks impossible. In order to find that hope then we must find a different perspective from the viewpoint of ourselves. How do others see my situation? How does God see my situation? What are the benefits right now? Are there opportunities because of this situation?

I recently saw a short video on social media of a lady with severe disabilities. She was being supported to stand by a friend behind her. From one perspective she was helpless, weak and didn’t have anything to offer. Until she began to sing! She has the most beautiful of voices and it brought tears to everyone who was listening including myself.

You can sing even though you are barren and have nothing to sing about. There is hope in the contradiction of your life. Change your perspective. 

The false teachers are deceiving the Galatians into thinking they are not good enough for this salvation. The Apostle is in the middle of the story of Sarah and Abraham. He is demonstrating that when Abraham abandoned the promise and ‘made it happen’ by taking Hagar, the slave, then it pointed to all the generations to come who would try the same. Trying to make it happen for themselves and being acceptable to God through works is the Hagar route. But of course there is another path and which Paul is urging them to see. Sarah demonstrates the grace from God for salvation that is free for us but which God paid the price for. She is the real Jerusalem, our kingdom, our home, heaven.

“But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written: “Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” ²⁸ Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4 v 26-28)

Importantly the story of Sarah shows that we will never be good enough, it is always because of God. She wasn’t good enough (neither was Abraham) and Paul now shows that this truth is not only from Genesis 16 but throughout the Israel history as he quotes Isaiah 54.

Why is Paul quoting Isaiah? Why has he chosen to hover over something that happened 1200 years after Abraham and Sarah and 600 years before his own lifetime? First let’s see the context.

The Babylonians have flattened Jerusalem and taken its people back to exile. In Babylon the exiles suffer and find it difficult to practice their faith. So God tells them He will rescue them and bring them back. Isaiah preaches prophetically 150 years ahead to a people he does not know in a nation he has not been to about a Suffering Servant, a Messiah to come and above all about their return home.

Isaiah 54: 1 “Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labour; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.

Isaiah paints the picture of a woman who has no children, no husband and no home. This is the picture of the people of God and in particular the scene of the ruined city of Jerusalem.

Though this is not the case thankfully in our culture and time but Jerusalem and the people of God looked like a woman who had been robbed of the 3 essentials of life. They are not coming home by their own efforts. Now that they’re in exile and they can do absolutely nothing about it then God says He has got them where He wants them because He can now demonstrate the importance and power of grace. This is why Paul quotes Isaiah 54.

For you today, whether in a painful reality that doesn’t look like changing or maybe you have failed God and others, Sarah is your hope. This is the Bible story throughout. This is the gospel. So do not be deceived any longer into thinking by your own efforts you can change a thing. It is all of Him and all because of Him and His promises for your life. The way out is the Sarah path, the pathway of the promise which Abraham had to come back to in the end. The Apostle says you are Isaac’s, children of the promise, so live in this way. Resist the path of Hagar where Abraham tried to make things happen by his own strength. Allowing people (the false teachers) to convince you that there is more for you to do than just believe and receive from God is deception.

Over the next few days we will ponder some more about this important promise from Isaiah. I think it will help us to do so.

Over the last week I have seen a few times on social media statements something to the effect of what my title is saying this morning. The sad thing is there are many who truly believe this to be the case. I think on their lives and how difficult it must be. To rely on what I do or don’t do to be sure of my salvation is a weight Jesus never asked me to carry. This example serves to help us understand this next important section of Paul’s letter to the Galatian Christians who were being led astray by false teachers.

^“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³ His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise. ²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵ Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.” (Galatians 4 v 21-25)

Paul starts with a rhetorical question but will answer it later on. Though he believes in the historical story of Hagar and Sarah (in Genesis 12, 16 and 21) he is taking the story he says figuratively. He is using Hagar’s story to compare it with Sarah’s to attack the false belief disrupting the gospel message that the work of Christ is enough for salvation and approval by God.

The Jews held to being the children of Abraham through the birth of Isaac; they were heirs of the promises of God; they were under the Law received on Mount Sinai; and their focus was the Temple in Jerusalem. They also held to the belief that the Gentiles needed to be like them.

However Paul takes the 2 stories and uses them to show that though they think they are living out the line of Sarah in fact because of their desire to work and perform they are actually living out the lifestyle of the people they hate, the Hagar descendants.

Ishmael was born because Abraham could not wait for the promise of Isaac through Sarah and took her slave, Hagar.

He worked it out himself. He still believed in the promise but he believed in himself to fix the problem, not God. The result was that everyone was impacted by that terrible decision.

Paul was saying to those who were getting circumcised and becoming ‘Jewish’ to satisfy others that they were indeed properly converted should heed the truth that he is giving.

In theory the Jews are children of Abraham, by Sarah, they are Isaac’s people. However, in practice they are children of the slave Hagar, they are Ishmael’s people.

Why? They are relying on their own ability to get the approval of God, the move of God, the miracles and promises of God.

Culturally they are Sarah’s but by their lifestyle they belong to Hagar, the people they actually hate. That’s the result of wanting to be under the law and wanting to be seen to be righteous, when in effect they already are because of Christ.

When Paul was begging them to be like him it was because ultimately he wanted them to be like Christ. He was not manipulating them.
“Is this making me more like Christ?” That’s the question we have for our whole lives. If it’s not then run from it.
““Those people may be paying you a lot of attention, but it isn’t for your good. They only want to keep you away from me, so you will pay them a lot of attention. It is always good to give your attention to something worthwhile, even when I am not with you. My children, I am in terrible pain until Christ may be seen living in you. I wish I were with you now. Then I would not have to talk this way. You really have me puzzled.”
Galatians 4:17-20

In recent years we have new terms for psychological abuses that seem to abound in this cruel world and one of those is ‘Gaslighting’.

“The term “gaslighting” comes from a 1938 play titled Gas Light, which was adapted into the 1940 film Gas Light, followed by the better-known 1944 film Gaslight, starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. In each work, a male protagonist convinces his wife she’s imagining things that are actually happening—including the dimming of the house’s gas lights—with the result of making her believe she’s gone insane.” (https://www.forbes.com)

The Christians in Galatia had loved the Apostle but now they are doubting their experiences they have had, the things he has said, who he is and his intentions, they have become victims of gaslighting from the usual place which is a person of influence either romantic or in a leadership position. In their situation it is the false teachers who are telling them that Paul’s gospel is no gospel really because they must become Jewish to be acceptable. Their encounters of God are not quite right.

In any confrontation within the Church we do well to listen for the message and the inclusion of Jesus Christ. Is this ultimately about His glory? Is this about Him being seen? Or are we being encouraged to put our attention on other things? The rules? In this case the false teachers and their need for them to have supporters. They need followers. They will do all they can to get them. If that means to speak against other leaders, like the Apostle, then they will. A leadership question as old as this story is ‘why are people following you?’ Is it because they are paid to do so? Is it because they are afraid not to? Or is it because they see Christ in you and they believe that if they keep following you then it will lead them to follow Christ and to become like Him? People speak about a DNA of a church but then continue to talk about ‘how they do things around here.’ The DNA of a church is Jesus Christ never forget it and do not let anyone manipulate you to be in the ‘inner circle’ is to jump through some hoops ie get circumcised and become Jewish. It is better to be out than in if that is the case.

Recently I was involved in what I view as one of the saddest of things regarding friendships. People who once were friends are now no longer because they heard divisive comments from another which brought their beautiful friendship into dispute. It is over now. I cannot see them ever being friends again. But that’s the attitude of the world. It happens every day. The celebrity websites are full of stories of friends who now are enemies. I wonder if that is your experience. It’s not a nice thought thinking you have become an enemy to anyone. Probably if anything it will be that you have grown distant with people who you once journeyed with. It happens. It’s life. Not everyone journeys with us for the whole way. 

But for the Apostle Paul he is feeling quite upset! People he loves and journeyed with are now turning against him. They have listened to those who divide and not those who unite and it’s a lesson for us all.

“… and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. ¹⁵ Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶ Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Galatians 4:14-16

Paul exaggerates only to state his point that there was a time not so long ago when they loved him. 

But now those feelings have gone due to the false teachers who turned them against Paul regarding his teaching of grace. 

How can you go from friend to foe?

The people had become convinced that there were doubts on his originality, his authenticity and that he too cast a dangerous shadow over their status as Christians. 

Watch out for those who divide. 

They can break up the closest of friends by bringing their perspective of truth on who you are. 

They will challenge your story and the truth of who you are. They will misquote you and even tell lies so that you feel threatened by the friend you have known.

Watch out for those who divide. They may try it with you against one of your friends.

Those who speak against others probably speak against you also.

If it has happened to you. If you have lost a friend and they are now your foe because of untruths then these verses show you that the Apostle Paul knew exactly how you feel. Examine yourself, maybe get a trusted person’s perspective in case you have been blinded by the truth. But if in all good conscience you have acted rightfully then hold on to your position of truth. If they have walked because you speak the truth then let them walk. Perhaps someone needs to hear this today. It isn’t a devotional word for everyone but this morning you may be waking with your heart broken because your friend is now a foe.