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.