From the June 2 edition of Starters For Sunday, published on the Church of Scotland website, offering commentary on Galatians 1:1-12.
This is another for the ‘You all think I’m making this up’ file.
What makes this example particularly egregious is, in addition to a hamfistedly bad interpretive application, it also manages to acknowledge the correct interpretation of the text while in the process of summarily dismissing said interpretation as being an example of non-inclusiveness. And produced in a way that provides an escape hatch of possibly being misread.
Galatia was a Roman province in the area that is now near Ankara in today’s Turkey, with a melting pot of a population, including many Jews.
Paul expresses throughout his letter to the Galatians that in his proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, it is a personal revelation from Christ himself and not from any human being. He writes to stamp his authority on these churches, for he has a rival, preaching – according to Paul – his own form of the Gospel, which is proving very popular. Paul calls himself an apostle of Jesus with a divine commission – exactly the same as one of the original twelve appointed by Jesus himself, to establish or remind the converts of his apostolic credentials which his rival does not have.
After the initial verses of greeting, Paul lets rip on his congregation. We can feel him passionately striding up and down, gesticulating as he dictates his letter, carried away with the certainty of his own righteousness and the error of the other. He leaves them in no doubt about his outrage that some are deserting the one true faith and being misled by false teaching. The heart of the argument is that to be a true Christian – to be right with God – one must obey the Law of Moses.
Paul emphatically says that is not necessary. What is necessary is the foundation of faith in Christ, by which all are put right with God.
It does not occur to him that there might be a different approach to the Gospel; a different emphasis, a different way of proclaiming God’s word, a different also divinely revealed message from God, or a way to embrace diversity of faith and belief. There is nothing new under heaven.
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