I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Galatians 1-6.

    There are many lessons in the Letter to the Galatians and I am only going to touch on a few of them. Paul starts off by telling the Galatian believers that there is only one Gospel, there is only one way to be saved, to be reconciled with God. From this we learn that, while there are many paths to God, they all converge to faith in Jesus Christ. Different people come to this faith and realization in different ways. Paul tells us that he came to this understanding through direct revelation from God, but the conclusions he reached from that revelation were the same as those reached by those who had walked with Jesus and witnessed His ministry first hand.

    One of Paul’s central themes throughout this letter is that one of us is not better than another. He repeatedly stressed how he was not impressed by the credentials of the apostles who preceded him, who had spoken with Jesus in this life. He points out how he even had to confront Peter when Peter was in the wrong. Paul does not point out this confrontation to build himself up, nor to tear Peter down. The point of the illustration was that even someone as respected in the Church as Peter could be held to account for his actions. The idea that no one of us is better, or worse, than another is the point Paul is making when he says that in Christ there is no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. He was not saying that those categories stopped existing, rather he was saying that, in Christ, they did not denote greater or lesser value.

    Early in this letter, Paul emphasizes that our works do not save us. We will not be reconciled with God by obeying the Law of Moses (or any other system of regulations). However, towards the end of the letter he writes about living by the power of the Holy Spirit. He compares a life lived controlled by the Holy Spirit to one lived controlled by our sinful nature. He makes two important points here at the end. The first is that none of us are too good, or too important, to help another. The second is that we should focus on doing what God calls us to do and not get distracted by comparing what we do to what others do. What we do does not make us better than others, nor does it make us inferior to them. He reminds us that we will harvest what we plant. If we spend our time seeking to satisfy our sinful desires, we will harvest death and decay. If on the other hand we spend our time see please the Spirit, we will harvest blessings