Chuck Larsen

The greatest gift of all is not about the pretty paper or the pretty ribbon. It’s really all about what’s on the inside. Jesus once confronted the religious leaders by condemning them for cleaning up the outside and ignoring what mattered most. They dressed in flashy clothes. They performed many religious rituals. The offered many sacrifices, but they didn’t address their own sinful hearts. Jesus called them white-washed tombs. The outsides were all painted neat and clean, yet corruption and death lived on the inside. Paul stressed this same idea in Galatians 6:15. He writes, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

Paul says some similar things in Romans 14 about eating and not eating, drinking and not drinking. Neither of them are really important in the overall scheme of themes. Each one should be free to follow his or her own conscience. But it’s very simply, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John Chapter 3, you must be born again. It is all about a “new creation” that God makes of us through faith in Jesus. The UBS handbook says, “…this verse may be translated as ‘but being a new creature is important,’ ‘but being a new kind of person is what matters,’ or ‘… does make a difference.’ In some instances a new creature may be rendered as ‘being created new by God,’ or ‘being made over again by God.’”

I was 11 years old when Caril Fugate was fourteen. She joined Charles Starkweather on a murder spree across the state of Nebraska leaving 10 people dead. She and Charles were apprehended and Starkweather was executed 17 months later. Caril however went to prison. According to Leroy Lawson, “When she became eligible for parole at thirty-two, Caril had spent more than half her life in prison. It was not lost time. There she gave her life to Christ, affiliating with the Nazarene Church. She worked in the church nursery on Sunday mornings, taught Vacation Bible School, and even preached some sermons to the congregation. She underwent training as a geriatric aid and became involved in the work-release program in a nursing home on Sundays. She calls herself a new creation. She couldn’t have done this herself, but in the depths of her disgrace in prison, she was recreated by Jesus. It’s all about the “new creation” Richison sums this up, “Religious rites do not impress God. Church membership or baptism does not impress God. The central factor that impresses God is the cross and the new standing that it affords the person who trusts the cross for salvation. The Law is powerless to bring about this new transformation. This is the fundamental error of legalism.”

The narrator of Herman Melville’s book, “Moby Dick” begins his story with the words, “call me Ishmael.” When this narrator tells us to call him Ishmael he’s telling us about himself. He is an outcast. He’s rejected by his father and a pariah to his people. He is the son of a slave and destined to remain such his entire life. Although protected by God, his half-brother would inherit all that his father leaves. He is rebellious and jealous and bitter and in many ways senses that he’s been passed over for all the good things in life. He’s a man set on vengeance like the Ahab of Moby Dick. He will stop at nothing to get even or to hurt the “chosen” and take for himself the best of everything. He’s the one who will do what it takes to get what he wants.

Ishmael, the child of Hagar, is used by Paul to contrast the situation of the believer in Christ with the non-believer. The non-believer is trapped, enslaved to making his way in life on his own. He must put his confidence in his own abilities rather than trust in the loving relationship with his father. He is an illegitimate child. This child is a slave, while the other child, the son of the free woman, Sarah, is an heir. Through faith in Christ, the Messiah, we are heirs to the promise. Children of promise do not live with their parents under an arrangement of law. Their connection is not based on what they “do” but on who they “are.” They live together on the basis of love. In Galatians 4:25-26, Paul writes, “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Paul sees the earthly Jerusalem as the center of the religion of bondage. God was shut up in a Temple from the people and accessed only through strict religious rituals and sacrifices and mediators called priests. Paul’s argument is that those who hold to such religion, as Maxie Dunnam writes, “…whether they in fact trace their ancestry to Ishmael or not, are sons of Hagar. That line continues prolifically until today, for it includes all those who seek salvation apart from the freely given grace of God through Jesus Christ.” Dunnam goes on to say that on the other hand “Those who acknowledge Christ as Lord, who by faith receive His grace, claim the Jerusalem above. Like Isaac, the believing recipients of grace are the children of promise, whether any trace of Isaac’s blood flows through them are not. It is grace, all grace!”

When Jesus and the Apostles refer to the “law” they are often referring specifically to the first five books of the Old Testament. There is normally a threefold division of the Old Testament in Jewish thinking; the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets. The Law is the Pentateuch consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Writings refer to Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. The Prophets refer to everything else. Paul asks the Galatians in Chapter 4:21, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” The Law consists of more than the issues handed down to Moses on Sinai. It also encompasses the historical information as well. So Paul goes back to early passages in Genesis and connects his argument with the story of Abraham and Sarah. He writes in Galatians 4:22-24, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.”

We have already talked about Abraham as the Father of the faithful, now Paul addresses another aspect of Abraham’s life. He not only had Isaac, but he had another son named Ishmael. Ishmael was born because Sarah and Abraham took matters into their own hands. It could have been as many as 18 years since God had originally given Abraham the promise of a son that he and Sarah decided to help God out. Our self-effort associated with the “flesh” in our passage results in children of Hagar or children of the flesh. I think I’ve given birth to several Ishmael’s in my life.

Jon Courson in his commentary on Galatians observed, “You see, to this day, blood is shed daily in the ongoing struggle between the children of Ishmael and the children of Israel. So, too, in my own life, whenever Ishmael is born as a result of my own fleshly efforts, strife, anxiety, and tension are also birthed in my life.” Although considered the father of the “faith” filled, Abraham had a problem with impatience and God recorded that for our instruction. When I got impatient waiting for God’s promises to come true, I tend to want to take matters into my own hands and help God out. It always results in an “Ishmael.” It always results in trouble! God always fulfills His promises, in His time because He’s always faithful. Yet, I have a lot of Ishmael’s clinging to my legs and have to deal with them. Like with Abraham, Ishmael became a problem for the child of promise.

In Galatians 4:19-20, Paul sings a “song sung blue” which he sings “with a cry in his voice.” The emotions get the best of him. He writes, “…my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.” The Wycliffe commentary says, “Paul’s pain and concern were like those of a mother in travail. Yet what he agonizingly sought for was not the new birth of his friends (they were his children already in the Lord), but the full forming of the new life in them (Ephesians 4:13; cf. Philippians 3:10). Another visit, he felt, would be highly desirable. It would accomplish more than the pen. Then he could speak softly to them, as a mother to an erring but still beloved child, and thus change his voice, which now necessarily seemed harsh.”

Paul was a religious fanatic. His Zeal, as he called it, drove him to try to destroy the church of God. He participated in murder; he arrested and enslaved both men and women, and participated in some of the worst crimes against humanity imaginable. He did all this in the name of religious zeal! This was the same religious zeal of the Judaizers, Paul was still zealous. But now with Christ he has a true zeal for the welfare of the Galatians. He has the right kind of zeal that moved him to want the best for others. God expressed that kind of zeal for each of us as well. John 3:16 tells us all about it; “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” We see Paul teaching us about the right kind of zeal again in Romans 5:8; “But God demonstrates His own (zeal?) love for us in this; while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

The Corinthian Church had many zealous people. In the first few chapters Paul identifies them as being “zealous for gifts.” Then before he expounds on the superior value of “love” he says, in 1 Corinthians 12:31, right before the famous chapter on love, “But be zealous for the better gifts. And I shew unto you yet a more excellent way.” After going through the definition and identification of true biblical love (agape), he then tells the Corinthians, plagued by dispute and disorganization and strife and struggle, “to pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1). We can be zealous for our own ideas. We can be zealous for being right. We can be zealous for a particular interpretation. We can be zealous for our interpretation of reality. We can be zealous for our particular Spiritual gift, as well as our abilities and talents. We can be zealous for all the right things even. But there’s something far greater than being right! It’s love! Nothing will ever trump love. Be zealous for love! In his sermon on zeal, John Wesley wrote, “But of all holy tempers, and above all others, see that you be most zealous for love. Count all things loss in comparison of this,—the love of God and all mankind. It is most sure, that if you give all your goods to feed the poor, yea, and your body to be burned, and have not humble, gentle, patient love, it profiteth you nothing. O let this be deep engraved upon your heart: All is nothing without love!”

In verses 16 and 17 of Galatians chapter 4, we read about the zeal of the Judaizers that was leading the Galatians away from the cross and back to the law. The Judaizers were quite persuasive because of their zeal for the law. Religious zeal often leads to unspeakable behavior. Division, disputes, rivalries and the like are most often the results of such zeal. Paul himself had a “mad or radical zeal” for the law and persecuted Christians and was guilty of murder. John Calvin wrote, “Paul knew what great danger Christians faced from these groups of people.” Jesus was the victim of religious zeal. Paul was the victim of religious zeal throughout Europe and Asia Minor. The Jews often sought to kill him because of his message of grace. Religious zeal disrespects the rights of others. When Luke describes Paul’s radical religious zeal, he uses a phrase in Acts 8:3 about how Paul went about destroying the church of Jesus. The same phrase is used to “describe the devastation caused by an army or a wild beast tearing its meat.”

But zeal in and of itself isn’t bad! Galatians 4:18 is subject to various interpretations but I prefer the focus that comes from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. It gives us this verse like this, “Now it is always good to be enthusiastic about good—and not just when I am with you.” The Bible teaches us that we should be zealous for “the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 23:17). It says, “Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.” Paul told Titus (Titus 2:14) that Jesus saved us “…to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” The “good” kind of zeal always works to bring unity as the Spirit works His fruit into our lives. We find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. These are the “good” things that the Spirit produces in our lives. We should be zealous for these things. These are the things that Peter is talking about when he asks his readers to consider, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” (1 Peter 3:13).

But Paul makes it clear in this passage as well as in Romans 10:2-3 where he says, “For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth.” The truth of the Gospel is that it produces in us the fruits of the Spirit. Most of the things we want to pound the table over are things that bring hate instead of love. They bring sorrow instead of joy to any discussion. They inspire strife and confusion rather than peace. Over zealousness for my own perspective makes me impatient with opposing ideas. Kindness goes out the window in overzealous debates. There is rarely “goodness” of any kind present at such times. Gentleness is supplanted by aggression and other hurtful approaches. The faithfulness necessary to maintain healthy and happy relationships dissipates in zealous expressions of “my truth.” Finally, self-control is gone! Misplaced zeal never produces the fruits of the Spirit. It always results in harm for those involved.

I think it was one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s hobbits who was speaking about the trolls. They agreed to help the hobbits in their quest. Trolls usually eat hobbits so it was very suspicious and I think it was Bilbo Baggins who said of them, “they will hug us now, only so they can squeeze us later.” This is the point that Paul made concerning the Judaizers in Galatians 4:16-17. It reads, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them.” It’s probably not the most politically correct thing to do. Paul confronts the Galatians that they have been sucked in by the smooth promises of the Judaizers. No one likes to be told that they’ve been tricked. It is a common malady of man to blame the person who turns the light on for their being rats in the basement. We make the messenger our enemy. This problem is as old as Solomon. He wrote in Proverbs 27:6, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” But we too often prefer the kisses than the wounds!

If we accept the teachings of a performance based system, it doesn’t matter which one, we are again consigned to obedience to that system. The Judaizers knew full well that if they won on the general issue of a works based religious systems the Galatians would be theirs. If circumcision, for example, was an essential practice to be acceptable to God, you became one with the authority that convinced you. They become a new master, a new task master, to whom you must look to for each behavior of your life. In other words you are slaves again. If you submit yourselves to one requirement, you submit yourselves to them all. If you submit yourselves to one aspect of the law, you submit yourselves to them all.

In verses 17 & 18 zeal is mentioned three times. It’s not unusual for people to fall prey to something simply because of the zeal with which it is presented. Zeal can give permission to many unthinkable practices as the world learned from Nazi Germany. Cult leaders rely heavily on zeal for their message to persuade others to follow. Zeal appeals to us. Jon Courson says that the cults attract us by appealing to our pride. He writes, “Come join us,” they say. “We’re really radical. We pay the price. We bear the Cross. We deal with stuff that only a few can deal with.” And we are prone to say, “I want to be one of the few, one of the chosen, one of the elite group that God will use in these last days. So I’ll submit to stipulations and regulations in order that I can be among the few, the chosen—the spiritual marines!” What’s the price? It’s the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control!

Jews would have spit upon encountering Paul’s diseased person. The Greeks would have rejected him and his message because of his lack of an imposing appearance. But the Galatians had received Paul just as Christ had received them. Everyone in God’s eyes is a sinner. We all are unattractive. We all have the infirmity that disgusts God. Yet in His great love for us, while we were still disgusting, God demonstrated His own love for us by sending the only perfect person, His only begotten Son, to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sins (read disgustingness!). God’s love for all people, He so “loved the world” was such that there was nothing He would have held back to win us back from sin. He made that clear on Calvary. That’s the way of love.

Like God and Jesus, the Galatians had received the small, unimpressive Paul with all his diseases and weaknesses. Even though he was very unimpressive in physical appearance and strength there was an appeal to his message that was undeniable. In the 2nd Century document entitled, “The Acts of Paul and Thecla,” we read of his movement during his Galatians travels enroute to Iconium. In that text we read that Titus had given Onesiphorus a description of Paul so he would recognize him as he came from Lystra to Iconium. The writer then describes Paul as a very unimpressive figure yet he appeared to be “full of Grace” and sometimes “had the countenance of an angel.” This description is interesting because in Galatians 4:14, Paul said that the Galatians had initially received him as “angel of God.” Paul was full of grace, the Judaizers were full of law.

In Galatians 4:15, Paul confronted the Galatians and asked them, “What then has become of your blessedness?” He wants to know what has changed. Their gracious acceptance of him in all his imperfections has now turned into seeing him as a despicable sinner who is not worthy of their fellowship. The legalists had turned their hearts from love to law. Paul wanted them to see that the law rejects and condemns, love accepts and embraces sinners in spite of their despicable nature. Love sacrifices itself for others. That’s what God did. Love motivated God’s sacrifice and love motivated the Galatians sacrifice for Paul in all his infirmities as well. He finishes verse 15 with, “For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.” That was when you experienced God’s grace! Now under law, there is only condemnation and rejection. Which do you want; Law or Grace? I’ll take grace every time! Do you want the way of law or the way of love? I’ll take love every time!

Paul did not preach his message of Grace from a position of strength. Those who preach the necessity of keeping the law always do so from a position of perceived strength. When I first became a believer at age 31 in 1978, we immediately fell under the influence of legalists. They seemed so much more spiritual than the average person and it was compelling to want to live up to their standards. We threw out of TV, Kathy stopped using make-up, I dressed the part, and we adopted the religious language of our group. We denounced other “professing believers” as deceived and diluted because they did not practice the same standards that we did. This gave me strength. I preached from a “better than you” position for several years. Legalists always present their message from a platform of strength.

Paul reminds the Galatians that he preached his message of grace from the bed of sickness, weakness. In Galatians 4:13-14 he writes, “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” We don’t know what the sickness was but there is no lack of suggestions by the commentators; bruises and broken bones from his beatings, malaria, some kind of blindness, epileptic seizures, and many others. Most people in the world, Jews included, looked on sicknesses as God’s punishment for sin. Those under the law were outcasts and “unclean” with respect to the religious system, but as Christ ignored the “uncleanness” created by the law in sick people, so too did the Galatians ignore Paul’s sickness and just as Christ received the infirm, they had received him.

The Greek term for “scorn” that Paul uses here literally means “to spit out.” It was customary for religious leaders to spit when affronted by unclean, sick people. It was a way of warding off any contagion as well as an expression of contempt for the sinner who was receiving just punishment from God. Paul also says that they didn’t despise him. I expect that much like today leaders are expected to have an impressive appearance. The tall, handsome ones always get a better hearing than the less attractive ones. According to the Acts of Paul and Thecla, (a text from the 2nd century), Paul is described as, “…small, short, bow-legged, with eyebrows knit together and an upturned nose.” To the Greek way of thinking his appearance would have been repulsive. To the Jew his infirmity made him unclean. To the Gentile his appearance should have cause them to reject him. Jesus accepted the sick; lepers, blind, lame, etc. Jesus loved the deformed (Zacchaeus). Grace receives the weak! Law spits and ridicules. Paul and Jesus love the despicable; even me!