DAY 604 - Standing Firm against Opposition (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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                               Today's Reading: Galatians 2:1-5

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Please click this link to read Galatians 2:1-5

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians 2&version=ESV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=加 拉 太 書 2&version=CUV

Bible Study

     In this passage, Paul stands very firm to deal with the problem of circumcision. Does a Christians needs circumcision in order to be a family member of God? 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :

      The troublemakers in Galatia, doing their best to cast doubt on Paul's apostleship and the completeness of the gospel he had preached, had told the Galatian Christians that Paul did after all want non-Jewish Christians to get circumcised…After all, they had said, when Paul took Titus to Jerusalem he circumcised him so that Titus could enjoy true fellowship with the Jewish apostles there.
     This accusation compels Paul to explain what had and hadn't happened.
     This passage is then affirming three things about Paul's second visit to Jerusalem after his conversion.
     First, he didn't go there in order to learn the gospel; he already knew it.  He went because God told him to, perhaps through a prophetic 'revelation' (see Acts 11.27-30).
     Second, he explained to the Jerusalem apostles what it was that he was preaching in the Gentile world, not in order to learn something new but in order to maintain his unity with what was still the heartland of Christian faith.
     Third, there had been what he calls some 'false family members'…they smuggled in to see what this part of the movement looked like, to see who these people were who claimed to follow Jesus but who didn't bother about keeping the law of Moses.  Yes, there were some such, says Paul; but I didn't give way to them for a moment.  What was and is at stake is 'the truth of the gospel'.      

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Galatians and Thessalonians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.10-11, 15-16.

     
     If Paul does not stand firm against those opposition, then we as male Christians have to be circumcised. It may not be a big deal, not a lot of pain after all, but the big deal is, that is not what the Gospel says. Can we make sure that we would never be those troublemakers, but truth-builders? How can you tell if you are not one of those troublemakers, but truth-builders? 

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    What I heard from Jesus today is: Standing firm against opposition

    What I got from Jesus today is an invitation for us to do two things:
1.  Standing firm against opposition.
2.  Do not be part of the troublemakers but to be truth-builders.

     The problem is, how can we tell whether we are the troublemakers and not truth-builders. I am very sure that those troublemakers, even those who killed Jesus were very sure that they are truth-builders. 

     I think the conclusion of Bishop Wright on today's passage gives us the answer:
     The Gospel is the announcement that the crucified and risen Jesus is Lord of the world.  And if he is Lord of the whole world, then those who believe in him, who give allegiance to him, must form a single family.  There cannot be divisions based on nationhood or race.  If the church had learnt this from Paul, instead of conveniently forgetting it, many troubles in today's world might have been averted.

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Galatians and Thessalonians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.10-11, 16-17.

     How can we not insisting on what we have learnt, on what we think so that  we cause divisions in our own church? How can we standing firm against opposition when it happens? These are the two main things we need to think deeply today!

Dear Lord Jesus, 

Lead us to be able to stand firm against opposition but not to insist on our own will but your will. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)

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