Bible Passages I have never heard Preached
A New Commentary on Galatians 6:11
“It is not gold, precious stones, status, that adorns a soldier, but a torn buckler, a cracked helmet, a blunt sword, a scarred face.” -Pericles1
My college-aged son asked me to help him justify “what we believe.” This wasn’t the first time. In a new city, and looking for community support in his faith journey, he keeps running into groups who push conformity to their institutional requirements. Rather than being encouraged in Christ, he finds himself defending the work God has been doing in his life. Paul was addressing the same issue in his letter to the Galatians.
This “passage I have never heard preached” makes it clear that his struggle between conformity and following the work of Jesus in our lives is a “make or break” issue of highest priority. Up to this point, a scribe has been writing his words. Now, at the end of the letter, Paul begins writing for himself.
“See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!” -Galatians 6:11
I remember Ricky eagerly joining our college Christian group. In his zeal, he focused on external change: wearing Christian t-shirts and putting a yellow yield sign on the back window of his car which said, instead of “baby on board,” “Christian on board”. If tattoos had been as trendy as they are today, he probably would have had “John 3:16” on his forearm. But his inward transformation was far behind his outward commitment. Fast forward to when Ricky was a junior; he and the younger sister of a leader of our Christian community eloped in the dead of night. Everyone was shocked. Ricky and the young woman later divorced.
Why do so many Christian groups push external conformity to their tradition instead of supporting the work that the Holy Spirit in the journey with Jesus? It is certainly easier. Outward, institutional conformity can be seen more quickly and measured more easily than inward transformation. Lasting character change requires people to confront painful truths, break inbred habits, and adapt to a new way of living and being. This takes time and is no way certain in its results. Thus, Christian leaders are constantly tempted to measure ministry success by external quantity rather than internal quality. But the simpler results distort Christianity.
In Paul’s day, the churches in Jerusalem and Judea were under threat. Zealous people were upset that some of those included in their fellowship were not following the law of Moses. They saw a way to solve the problem and promote their leadership status. If they could get all Jesus-followers circumcised as a right of passage into the church, they could avoid persecution. Paul recognized this institutional requirement as both hypocritical and a betrayal of the fresh work of Christ.
“Those who want to impress people by the means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.” -Galatians 6:12-13
Hypocrisy is nothing new to religion. But this “simple” solution distorts the work of Christ in two new ways.
Institutional conformity to escape persecution prevents followers of Jesus from going deeper in their relationship with him. Christians don’t look for trouble. But we grow into our new life in Christ through difficulties and persecutions. As Paul writes at the end of the letter: “From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”2
An institution that requires conformity to its laws and traditions supplants the work of God in the spiritual seeker’s life. Paul formed Christian communities to support the inward transformation of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives. Outward institutional forms are justified in Christianity when they support the inward transformation of lives, relationships, and local communities.
Since Paul’s letter was written, the tensions around circumcision have morphed into many barriers of hostility.3 For generations, there has been tension between Catholics and Protestants and the Orthodox. The list of Mainline Protestant denominations is now book-long, divided by minutiae in doctrine and dogma. Many Western Charismatics and Pentecostals push their conviction of being the real bearers of the Holy Spirit to non-Western counterparts. Yet again and again, the work of Christ transcends these walls, resisting the temptation to focus on outward conformity and encouraging the inward transformation.
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything; what counts is the new creation. -Galatians 6:14-15
Paul’s writing this section in his own hand not only emphasizes the importance of these verses, but also models an essential part of following Jesus. All of us who seek to be like Christ, including my college-aged son, should write out our faith “with our own hand.” It isn’t enough to find a church where we feel most comfortable, best “fed,” or intellectually in agreement, or most energized and then surrender our faith journey to its leaders. Instead of reducing our faith journey to institutional conformity, we must take responsibility for following Christ faithfully in the events and relationships of our everyday lives. We need to become familiar with Scripture. We must regularly confess our faults and take steps to break down bad habits. We must commit time and energy to building new habits that embody the new creations we are becoming in Christ.
“Conversion is not about adopting someone else’s pattern of life and thought, however ancient and however excellent, that is not conversion but proselytization…conversion involves the turning towards Christ of everything that is there already, so that Christ comes into places, thoughts, relationships, and world-views in which he has never lived before.”4
Our conformity to institutions won’t matter at the end of the day. What counts is the progress we have made in conforming our hearts and minds into the image of Christ.
Galatians 6:17.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. -Ephesians 2:14-18
Dr. Andrew Walls in correspondence with Ghanaian theologian Kwame Bediako.