I do like movies with good twist endings, especially the ones I don’t see coming. When I saw ‘The Sixth Sense” for the first time, I knew there was a big surprise coming but I didn’t know what it was. But before we got to the end, I was able to figure out what was coming. The kid in it, Cole Sear, sees dead people. He sees Malcome Crowe (the Bruce Willis character. Also at the beginning of the beginning of the movie, Dr. Crowe is shot by an ex-patient. It didn’t seem that difficult to ultimately figure out.
Now “The Usual Suspects”…that one got me and I did not see it coming. I won’t give it away, but once you get to the end and realize what has been going on the entire time, you will go back and watch it again and again to pick up on all the clues to the eventual ending. I have probably seen it fifteen times and I always pick a new clue or hint somewhere.
For Paul in the first chapter of Galatians, he delivers the surprise right at the beginning. No waiting until the credits almost role. He gets his twist right out there at the very beginning. And here it is. In every one of Paul’s letters (except obviously this one), he ALWAYS begins, once the introduction is out of the way, with some form of thanksgiving for whom he is writing to. Every single one of them.
Except Gaiatians. There is no sense of thanksgiving at all. No praise at all. You just can’t find it. It isn’t there. He goes right into his subject matter
Now why is this? You would think there must be something somewhere that he could point out to the Galatians that he was thankful for. Even the Corinthian church, as bad off as they were because of their behavioral problems, still gets some commendation. But there is just zilch here for the churches in Galatia.
And here is the reason. Most every church or individual that Paul wrote to (Philippians might be the exception) had issues that Paul needed to correct. And the issue for all of them (except again, the Galatians) was behavioral. They were just not acting the way they should have been in light of gospel. So most of what Paul had to say to these churches was something along the lines of “Do this but don’t do that”
Galatia was different. They had it wrong from the beginning. Their issue was not behavioral but doctrinal, and for Paul doctrinal error was worse than application error. This is why Paul did not slow down to give any thanks for the Galatians church because they had entered into serious theological error which needed to be dealt with about all else.
Here is the passage in Galatians 1:6-10
6″ I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert[a] the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be [b]accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”
Paul’s concern is that the Galatians are turning away from the true gospel to something new. The Judaizers who had followed Paul to Galatia had brought with them a shiny new theological toy that the Galatians were only too happy to sit in their sandbox and play with. And the old one? Bah, we have something we like better.
Remember that the word ‘gospel means ‘good news’. This is important in this present context as the Galatians think they have found a better good news. The gospel which they heard from Paul may indeed have been good news, but now they have good news that is equipped with warp drive and a fully loaded phaser bank. Who would not look for that instead?
What they don’t understand is that their shiny new toy has a defective warp core and will go critical in no time. Okay, enough with the Star Trek analogy.
They found something in the false teachers that they think they like better, and because of this they are removing themselves from the true gospel. That is what the phrase ‘turning away’ means. Other analogies for walking away from the true gospel could be the idea of deserting an army or altering a treaty…these are other ways in which this phrase was used in Greek.
And so we have the problem. This is what Paul will be dealing with through his letter to Galatia as he tries to get them to see that this new good news is in fact very bad news.
As we go on we will see why this fake good news is evil and why the original good news that Paul spoke to them is the ONLY good news. There is no other good news to be found.
Leave a Reply