Grace to YOU and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, ·who gave himself for our sins so that he might extricate us out of this present evil age—according to the will of our God and Father. ·To him be glory into the ages of ages, amen! ·I marvel that YOU are so soon being turned from the One who called YOU, in the grace of Christ, towards a different "gospel". ·Not that there is another one! But...some… troubling YOU…wish to pervert the Good News of the Messiah! ·…These compel YOU[i] to be circumcised so that they may not be persecuted for the Messiah's cross… ·They show zeal for YOU but not for good; they want…that YOUR zeal might be for them... ·If only those troubling YOU would castrate themselves! …·I am dead to the Law…; ·I am crucified with Christ yet I live, though no longer I but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live 'in the flesh' I live in the faith of the Son of God… ·I do not set aside the grace of God. (Galatians 1:2b-7; 6:12; 4:17; 5:12; 2:19-21 PH)

We who are Jews…, ·when we were under-age-children, ...were enslaved under the elemental powers [Gr. stoikheia] of this world. ·But when…the time came, God sent out his Son—…, growing up under the Law ·to redeem the ones under the Law—that we might receive the placement of sons... ·The heir… as …a minor, even though…lord of the whole (estate), ·…is under guardians…until the planned-in-advance-placing by the Father… ·The Law became our childhood tutor towards Christ…; ·but…we are no longer under a childhood tutor… ·Christ…has redeemed us…so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations in Christ Jesus, and that we (all) might receive… the Spirit...: ·the inheritance...from…the promise…God gave to Abraham. ·Thus, ...the Scripture proclaimed the Good News in advance to Abraham, saying, ‘In you all the nations will be blessed’. (Gal.2:15; 4;3-5,1-2; 3:24-25,13-14,18,8 PH)

Since YOU are sons, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father’. ·Therefore, you are...a son… ·But during the time when YOU did not know God, YOU were enslaved to those which are not by nature gods. ·So after YOU have come to know God, or rather are known by God, why are YOU turning again to those weak and destitute elemental powers [stoikheia]?—…to be enslaved again from above! ·YOU now observe (Jewish) days, months, seasonal events and years! ·I fear for YOU lest my hard work on YOUR behalf be in vain… ·Stand fast in the freedom into which Christ has set us free! Do not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. ·…If YOU become circumcised …, ·Christ has become useless to YOU! YOU have fallen from grace!” ·In the Spirit…, ·in Christ Jesus, neither “Circumcised” nor “Foreskin”[ii] has any force! Only faith that is expressed through love! (Gal.4:6,8-11; 5:1-2a,4b-6 PH)

YOU are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus— ·for all of YOU…have been baptized into Christ... ·...There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female. ·For if YOU belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise…·... Through love, each of YOU serve the other… ·If YOU are led by the Spirit YOU are not under the Law... ·Now the works of the flesh are: …hostility, …rivalry… divisiveness, factionalism…; ·but the fruit of the Spirit is love…, peace, patience…,goodness…, ·meekness and self-control. … ·If we live in the Spirit, let us also line up under [Gr. stoikhomen] the Spirit—·not becoming conceited (by) badgering one another, (or) acting out of envy towards one another. ·Brothers and sisters, if a man or woman is overtaken in a fault, YOU…should restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, conscious of your own vulnerability to temptation. ·Bear one another's burdens… ·If someone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ·But let each one test his own work, and then he will have (something) of his own—not of ‘the other’—to rejoice over... ·Neither “Circumcised” nor “Foreskin” is anything compared to a new creation... ·The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with YOUR spirit. (Gal.3:26-29; 5:13,18-20,22-23,25-26; 6:1-4,15,18 PH)

In the opening verses of his letter to the Galatian churches, Paul refers to the Father four times: as the source of his missionary call (together with Jesus); as the One behind both Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection; as the One who calls us; as the One who is the source of grace and peace in our lives; and the One who deserves ‘glory into the ages of ages’. Why this heavy opening emphasis on God as ‘our Father’? Because it is from him, their Father, that the Galatians are turning away by their behavior! Having become his adult sons and daughters, through faith in Christ, baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit, they could lose this new family relationship, if they choose to ‘set aside’ their Father's grace. What is going on? What is this perverted version of the Gospel, that is no longer good news, to which they are turning?

Like the Antioch church, the Galatian churches are multi-ethnic (Med.#28). And they are facing a similar problem. Jewish teachers are trying to ‘compel’ male believers from other ethnic groups there to become circumcised, in order to be truly holy to God. As a result all non-Jewish believers are feeling that they need to embrace other Jewish customs as well (the Jewish calendar and full observance of the Law) in order to be fully accepted by the dominant (Jewish) culture.

Many commentators focus on this perversion of the Gospel as primarily a theological issue: of justification by works instead of by faith, or Law versus grace. But Paul seems to be addressing another problem that is largely overlooked: how people with social power (men, free citizens, members of a dominant ethnic group) tend to reestablish hierarchical relationships in the church, after the Gospel has done away with these. Yet when this happens in the Father’s family, the working of his grace in the lives of men and women from all social and ethnic groups—including Jews—is undermined. The promised ‘blessing’, first spoken of to Abraham, involved an ‘inheritance’ for all who believe—a ‘placement as sons’ by the Spirit (Med.#4) for women as well as men, for slaves as well as free citizens, for non-Jews as well as Jews. And, as Paul says in his letter to the Romans: for uneducated ‘barbarian’ immigrants as well as for educated ‘Greeks’ (Rom.1:14).

Paul contrasts this new empowering and ‘freedom’ with the ‘slavery’ that people of every ethnic group (‘we’ Jews and ‘YOU’ of the nations) experienced prior to faith in Christ. While Jews were subject to the Law as a ‘childhood tutor’, people of other ethnic groups are ‘enslaved’ to ‘those’ who acted like ‘gods’. Paul uses the Greek word, stoikheia, to refer to the elemental aligning power of social rules and traditions in both Jewish and non-Jewish cultures—and for the rulers and authorities who administer these (Med.#31).[iii]

To deal with this return of social power distinctions in the Church, Paul doesn’t address the people causing the problem (the Jewish teachers). Instead, he speaks to all believers as fellow adult ‘brothers and sisters’, especially the non-Jewish ones (‘If YOU become circumcised…’)—telling them not capitulate to the social power of these Jewish teachers. If you embrace Jewish customs and rules, he tells them, you are in fact ‘turning back’ to the ‘weak and destitute’ stoikheia that used to rule your lives. The kingdom of God is not just about reforming fallen human societies. Rather it is about a ‘new creation’, one that men and women from all nations ‘inherit’ as 'fellow-heirs' of the Father, in Christ and by the Spirit (Med.#6). The new social power in this family kingdom is the Holy Spirit—who is the rich, bountiful expression of our Father's favor towards us in Christ. And we all must choose to ‘line up under’ [stoikhomen] his Spirit—exercising our authority as his adult sons and daughters to ‘test the spirits’ (1 Jn.4:1) of any who claim to teach ‘biblical’ principles. Otherwise, we are ‘setting aside’, ‘turning’ and ‘falling away from’ our Father's gift of grace.

A key test of whether we are acting like this new family kingdom, or like a traditional human society is: how do we respond to fellow believers who fall into sin? Do we try to restore them ‘gently’ to the family, in an attitude of faith, self-giving love and service—conscious of our own vulnerability to temptation and sin? Or do we subtly connect their failings to a social or ethnic background that is less ‘biblical’ than ours? Do we rely on rules and rituals to preserve church purity and order, or on the Father’s grace and the leading of the Holy Spirit? Another test is: how are women, immigrants, and people with a darker skin color treated in your church? Are they treated as fellow adults who also can hear the Holy Spirit, or as spiritually less capable?