Galatians 3:1-5 —Tough Love

READ THIS: Galatians 3:1-5

1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
 
WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

Man... Paul is an honest dude, huh? The truth here is that Paul gives us a great example here of what love looks like sometimes! Love isn't always going to look like being supportive of someone and their actions. Love, the kind of love that Christ teaches, means pushing each other toward Jesus, even if it looks like harsh truth! But what truth is Paul trying to get across to the Galatians?

Paul wanted to make one thing clear: The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to us through one way and one way ONLY: believing and having faith in Jesus! My favorite verse here is verse 3 because I feel like it is something we can all relate to: many of us give our lives to Jesus and recognize the amazing grace He offers us, but the more we "run the race" with Jesus, the more we start to think we are running this race alone. We can think heaven is something we can reach by being a good enough Christian, person, sibling, parent, and more. But, we have to remember that we started our race with Jesus through faith, so we need to finish it the same way!

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. Do you have someone in your life that you can trust to call you out (in a loving way) when you stumble? If not, this could be an awesome chance to reach out to a friend, a volunteer, or someone else you know to start holding you accountable!

2. Do you ever feel like you have to be a perfect Christian to make it into heaven? What can help you remember that our walk with Christ is run through faith, not works?
 
TRY THIS:

Take some time today to pray to Jesus and thank Him for the grace He offers, and thank Him for making it so that we can depend on Him, not our works, to save us from our sin!

Comments

  1. YoooonahFebruary 28, 2023 at 4:50 AM

    I think some people who hold me accountable and call me out in things are my parents for sure, but also Piper. I appreciate when these people do this so thanks.

    I do sometimes think that I have to be the “perfect Christian” but then I think of all the people who did some great things, and some not so great things *cough* david and Bathsheba. *cough*. We are not called to be perfect we are called to be God’s messengers and to spread his word, Saul started off prosecuting Christians but he turned into one of the most famous people in the Bible, there are several chapters simply made up of the letters that he wrote, Christian does not equal perfect, but it does equal being the best we can in gods name.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2023 at 7:18 AM

    I agree, we are all sinners who make mistakes, BUT when we believe and have Faith in Jesus, He will get us to heaven. He will hold us accountable and lead us there as we submit to Him!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians 2:1-5 — Marathon Training

R EAD THIS:  Galatians 2:1-5 1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.   WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Yesterday, we learned about how Paul went to Jerusalem and shared the incredible things Jesus did, but today, we are hearing about Paul's second time visiting Jerusalem... 14 years later. Paul talks about a bunch of things that happened ...
Read more

Luke 8:19-21 — Jesus's Fam!

R EAD THIS:  Luke 8:19-21 19 Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” 21 He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY? Ummmm, hold up, is Jesus dissing on His family here? I mean, I know He is God's Son and all, but at first glance, this passage makes it seem like He is kind of hating on His family! However, if we really look into this passage, it's actually a lot more about us than it is about the family of Jesus.  In case you forgot, the last few passages have features Jesus telling and explaining different parables to a large crowd as well as His disciples. Clearly, the crowd has gotten so large that Mary and Jesus's brothers (yes... Jesus had brothers!) couldn't even reach Him. When someone told Jesus "hey dude, your fam is here an...
Read more

WELCOME BACK! Hebrews Introduction

WELCOME BACK TO DEEPLY ROOTED!!! Greetings fellow Bible readers and Jesus journey-ers! We're stoked to get back in the swing of things with y'all. For any new readers, this section would usually be where our handful of Bible verses will be. The section below would break down what in the world the verses mean. Then, there are some debrief questions for you to dive deeper and an application point. A new addition this year is the Song of the Week! We'll share a song that ties into the theme of the next few verses...if you gaze ahead and have song suggestions, comment below or text! HEBREWS INTRODUCTION: As with any book of the Bible, different Biblical scholars say different things about this letter, but we'll tell you the most probable take. So here it is: Hebrews is a letter written to a group of Jews who were being persecuted for deciding to follow Jesus. It is a letter to encourage them and to show that Jesus truly is the best person to follow despite how hard it was g...
Read more