From Bumper Cars to Carnival Swings

Paul Taylor preaches a seven week series from September 7 through October 26 on the book of Galatians.

Being born again as a follower of Christ means becoming part of the new family that He has created. But learning to love people in a family can be really difficult. One thing that complicates matters is how different each person is. It's hard to love someone who is really different from you. That's what the young churches of Galatia were experiencing shortly after becoming Christians. In particular, it was challenging for the Jewish believers to get along with the Gentile believers. To make this easier, some people suggested that Gentiles had to be circumcised. That way, they would be just like the Jews and everybody could get along much better. But Paul wrote a letter to these churches trying to convince them not to fall for this. He was clear: the gospel message is about the formation of a new family whose members are different from each other in remarkable ways, and yet are still able to love each other deeply because of their relationship with God through Christ. We have a lot to learn today from Galatians about how to love each other as a family, even when people seem so different and hard to love.

This Week

Love Freedom, Love Freely

Galatians 5:1-26

Having explained the dynamics of being a new family with God as the Father, Paul begins to get practical about what it means to love each other. His main point is that this new family has been given the freedom to love each other. Apart from Christ, there are so many things that hinder us from loving each other, but the gospel has taken those things away and given this new community the freedom to love. He warns them that this freedom can be lost or squandered. And he explains that walking in relationship with God is played out in relationship with other people. Whereas the sinful nature uses people for its own purposes, living by the Spirit frees us up to love people and serve their benefit. This new community of God is one that should be by love.