Crucified

When I read Paul saying, "...the world has been crucified to me and I to the world," (Galatians 6:14), I could not help but remember the Desert Fathers a few centuries later who spoke of going to the desert as a way of escaping a shipwreck of a society.  In both cases the word is separation.  Both realized life in Christ and life in society is not possible.  Of course, this sounds strange because everything we have learned about the Christian life calls us to be the presence of Jesus in the world.   

We remember, too, something Jesus said in the passage known as the High Priestly Prayer.  As we read John 17:14-16 we hear Jesus praying, "I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world.  I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but I ask You to protect them from the evil one.  They do not belong in the world, just as I do not belong in the world." Again we find a word about separation and belonging.  What Paul was declaring is that we cannot allow ourselves to be influenced, directed, and controlled by the values of the world and for Paul the only way to maintain this way of life was to consider himself one to whom the world had been crucified which means it, therefore. no longer has any bearing on how he lives.  

The Apostle Paul calls us in many places to the surrendered life, the abandoned life, the life where all that matters is serving and living for Christ.  The kind of crucifixion of which Paul speaks is one where things like accumulating, looking out for number one, and climbing some ladder which makes us feel more important no longer have any influence over us.  The kind of crucifixion of which Paul speaks is the one where the Holy Spirit has absolute control over our heart.  Only then is our self seeking and self serving ego crucified.

A Call to Pray

Over the forty-three years of my preaching ministry, I have served ten different congregations.  Some were small, some were not so small, and some were larger.  They were all different; however, one thing they all had in common were problems.  As we read the Apostle Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia, we see that Paul had the same kind of churches.  Though he left them for other missions, he still felt responsibility for the spiritual life of the churches into which he had poured himself.  Paul spends a good portion of the first part of the letter defending his apostleship.  

Apparently, there were those who said he was a pretender instead of someone with real authority like Simon Peter.  As we read into the letter, his dismay, disappointment, and anger become obvious.  He is a shepherd who has been accused of not caring for his sheep.  "Some...are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ,"  (Galatians 1:7) he told them.  He was astonished that the people had allowed themselves to be led astray by false teachers who were actually declaring him to be the false teacher.  So real was the danger that Paul wrote, "I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted."  (Galatians 4:11).  

He reminds them of their previous kindness toward him.  They did not scorn or despise him because of his physical infirmity.  The goodwill of the past was gone and now he was seen as the enemy.  Despite the things which are falsely being said and accepted about him, he wrote, "I wish I were present with you and could change my tone, for I am perplexed by you."  (Galatians 4:20).  Some may say that the letter Paul wrote to the Galatians is an angry letter, and indeed it is, but it is also a letter which comes from a broken heart.  He loved the people and cared for them even though they were speaking ill of him.  It is a word which reminds us to pray for our preachers and spiritual leaders instead of talking about them.  

A Transforming Passage

When we read that section in Galatians about the fruit of the Spirit, we must realize that it is not about us, but about the Holy Spirit,   There was a time in my life when I read these characteristics of those who live by the Spirit and decided that those words would speak of my daily goals.  I thought I could do a makeover that would enable me to be such a person.  I would be loving. I would be joyful.  I would be a person of peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self control.  (Galatians 5:22-23). I approached the fruit of the Spirit like we approach New Year's resolution.  Everyone knows how long that works.   

Here is the thing.  We cannot do for ourselves what only the Holy Spirit can do in us.  This passage is not setting forth a list for us to accomplish; instead, it speaks to us about the way the Holy Spirit can reshape the life of one who lives the abandoned life.  The abandoned life is the one in which the will of God takes  precedence over the desires of personal ego.  I may be able to make myself respond over the short haul with kindness and love, but the problem comes in the unplanned and spontaneous moments.  It is in those moments that most of us all fall short.  

This passage is a transforming passage because it speaks of the way the Holy Spirit seeks to take our heart and make it into something that begins to resemble the heart of Jesus.  If our lives are going to truly reflect the life of Jesus, it will not be because of what we do, but because of how we have allowed the Spirit to transform the motivational core of our spirit.  The fruit of the Spirit is seen in us not according to what we plan to do, or strive to do, but according to the way the spontaneous moments give expression to what is happening in our heart because the Spirit abides there and is given complete control.

One or the Other

A reading of Paul's letter to the Galatian Christians reveals that the Apostle put all people into two categories.  It had nothing to do with being Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free.  There were those who chose to "live by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25) and there were those who live to "gratify the desires of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16).  It is clear that it is an "either-or" choice.  The two life choices are not compatible.  Anything less than an absolute surrender to the life in the Spirit means that the choice is to gratify the desires of the flesh.  There is no room for any kind of compromise in the heart.  

While it is true that Jesus was talking about wealth when He said, "No one can serve two masters..." (Matthew 6:24) it is equally as true that we cannot live according to the Holy Spirit and the life of the flesh which the evil one entices us to embrace.  The Scripture characterizes those who live according to the flesh by saying, ""Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fortification, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these."  ((Galatians 5:19-21)  What is described here is the undisciplined, out of control  life of a self seeking ego.   

On the other hand those who live by the Spirit are bearers of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." (Galatians 5:22-23)  These characteristics are called "the fruit of the Spirit" meaning that they are produced from within the heart by the Holy Spirit. Those who choose life in the Spirit submit themselves to the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit so that their hearts begin to resemble the heart of Jesus.  Those who live according to the Spirit live not to satisfy the undisciplined ego, but to live according to the will of God.  Such is our choice.

The Higher Way

In his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul calls them to a higher way.  The higher way as Paul spoke of it did not begin with the Jewish law.  According to the Apostle, the law was of value in that it served God's people as a disciplinarian "until Christ came."  (Galatians 3:24).  The law's value is affirmed as we hear Jesus saying in the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17).  

As important as the law was to the Jewish people, it was meant to be a light which led the people of God forward until the Light came as flesh among us.  The Incarnation changed everything.  No longer would righteousness be defined by doing; instead, it would defined by a faith response to what God did through His son on the cross.  The law was confined within the constraints of a specific time.  Faith in Christ opened up the doors of eternity. The law divided people into two groups.  There were Jews and there were Gentiles.  There were the people of God and there were the heathens.  

With Christ all the divisions were shattered, "for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith....There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."  (Galatians 3:26-28).  When Christ came the exclusivism of the law was replaced by the inclusive faith in Christ that opened the door for everyone regardless of the way old labels had provided for separation.

The Table of the Hypocrites

Simon Peter was Jesus' right hand man.  He is one regarded with super saint status.  Of course, we also know he was a man with one or two flaws.  Like the other disciples, he became more concerned about status instead of serving.  When Jesus needed someone to pray while He went apart to pray, Peter went to sleep.  When Jesus was being tried, Peter was out in the courtyard warming himself in front of a fire and mixing his language with a few expletives to prove he was not one of the disciples of Jesus.   

It might seem to some that Peter had gotten all the kinks worked out on his walk with Jesus on the beach.  On the Day of Pentecost this disciple who had been filled with the blowing wind of the Spirit preached a sermon which converted over three thousand people.  Those who are tempted to think that the baptized in the Spirit Petehad arrived at some super state in his spiritual life only need to read what Paul reported in his letter to the Galatian Christians.  Paul tells a story which tells of a Peter who still struggled with what people thought of him.  "But, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face...for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But, after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction." (Galatians 2:12). 

Peter ate with the Gentiles until a visiting group of Jewish Christians showed up and then he backed away from the table.  His behavior is, of course, a visual definition of hypocrisy.  Peter, like any hypocrite said he believed one thing, but his actions betrayed him.  He wore two faces, one to please the Gentiles and then another as he tried to please the visitors from Jerusalem.  Whenever we preach one thing and practice another, we end up sitting at the table of the hypocrites with Simon Peter.  It is like sitting on a barb wire fence.  It becomes very uncomfortable.

The Angry Apostle

The letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians show us a "get in your face" kind of guy.  One thing he does not do is mince words.  No one in the room wonders what Paul is saying when he sits down.  He comes at you like a freight train!  From the very beginning, those who read the letter have a feeling that there is something different about what is coming.  There is no long section of blessings in the beginning.  In this way this letter is different from Ephesians, or Philippians, or Colossians.   

It is obvious that he is deeply concerned about the voices within the church which are undermining everything he has done and he is equally disturbed by those who hear those words as gospel truth.  Paul begins the letter by asserting that his authority as a prophet is not suspect.  In verse one he declares that he is "sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." Paul is not boasting or waving credentials in the air; instead, he is declaring that his authority is God given. Immediately, we run into Paul's chastising words, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel."  (Galatians 1:6).  

Such verses are ever present through the letter. "I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted," he wrote.  (Galatians 4:11).   "You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?"  (Galatians 5:7) and "You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?" (Galatians 3:1) are two other examples of his anger, but none speaks of his anger as much as Galatians 5:12.  "I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves."  The church of our day could use a few voices like the Apostle Paul.