Galatians 4-5:1
Day 1 – Remembering We Are Children of God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Galatians 4:1-7
The key thing we need to remind ourselves of, the thing that we often fail to hold on to when we look at ourselves and each other is that we are God’s children. And we need to remember this because it is the defining feature of who we are. We are his children. He calls us his own. He has adopted us into his family and made us co-heirs with Christ. This is our identity, our primary identity now. All else falls into line behind this new reality that we can so easily forget and lose sight of. The world wants to tell us that we are not God’s children, that we are primarily tribal or national or cultural or sexual or whatever we choose. These things are true to an extent; we cannot deny that there are many categories of being that we rightly find ourselves in – and we should not deny them.
But the foundation of our being is that we are born of God. We are his. He made us, he loved us, he redeemed us and now calls us children. Everything else we might be follows after this, is built on top of this fundamental reality. When we look at each other, we see fellow children of God, other members of the family, our brothers and sisters. When we look at ourselves, we see, as Henri Nouwen would say, one of God’s Beloved, a child of God redeemed and called by a loving Father, who calls us to do what we can to expand the family and welcome others in.
Question to Consider
What does being a child of God mean to you? What does it mean to be a member of this family? How does it affect how you view and treat yourself and how you view and treat others, both in the family and out?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you for giving me a place in your family and calling me your child. Remind me who I am when I forget; teach me to love others as my brothers and sisters the same way that you love me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Knowing and Being Known by God
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Galatians 4:8-11
It may have been obvious to many followers of Jesus, but Jews and Gentiles had come to the same place via two different routes. The Gentile Christians (the Galatian believers) had moved from being pagans to become Christians. The Jews had moved from young children under the Law into fully grown Christian faith. There was no need to return to the rules and regulations of the Law or force others to abide by those rules – the Law had been fulfilled and surpassed by Jesus; how could going back be better than the freedom and grace and reconciliation he offered? Likewise, there was no need to return to pagan gods and heathen rituals; why do this when the living God and Creator of all things had fully revealed himself in Jesus? Two different routes but arriving at the same destination: followers of Jesus who know themselves as beloved children of God. We have been set free from the rule of other gods, other systems, other beliefs, other ways of being. We are his.
True freedom comes from knowing and being known by God. He made us and knows us better than we know ourselves. Our true identity – for everyone – comes first and foremost from him. And because whatever else we are stems from the truth of our status as children of God, wherever else we may be tempted to look - or to force others to look - we will find only counterfeits, idols, promises with nothing to back them up. The old ways do not work. As Paul is at pains to point out to the Galatians: How can you turn your back on God and everything he has done for you?
Question to Consider
What makes us want to return to the ‘old ways’ and why do we often want to force others to do so too? How should/does grace help us avoid this?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you that you know me better than I know myself and long for me to know you and what it truly means to be your child. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – A Heartfelt Appeal
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Galatians 4:12-20
For the last couple of chapters, Paul has been steadily piecing together a profound argument for the power of the gospel of Jesus, the importance of the unity of the believers, and the need for grace with each other that can only come from God. But here, suddenly he stops. These verses are different. They don’t carry the argument on in the same way as before, they seem to be more heartfelt, more personal, but also more pained. He’s getting personal with them, stopping to look them right in the eye and plead with them, the equivalent of an emotional appeal to come back to the true gospel. Paul goes back to his state at the time he arrived in Galatia when, for whatever reason, he was in a bad way. They didn’t mind his physical condition then, they welcomed him and responded to the gospel. Why should the physical state of circumcision be a problem now?
The division has been caused by ‘others’ who have come in and tried to set up a two-tier fellowship of believers, an inner circle (Jewish Christians, circumcised and obeying the Law) and an outer circle (Gentile Christians, uncircumcised and outside the Law). First class and second class. But within the grace of God there can be no second-class citizens and Paul is so incensed that the Galatians have forgotten this that he breaks off his argument and appeals to his relationship with them and their history together. They showed him grace when he shared the grace of God with them. They need to remember this grace and show it to each other.
Question to Consider
What are the divisions that our society likes to perpetuate? Why? How can we share grace in a way that breaks down these barriers?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, may I never bring division. May I bring peace and reconciliation to others, the same way you brought reconciliation to us and opened the way for us to return to God’s embrace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – The Family of the Promise
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Galatians 4:21-31
The agitators in Galatia had tried to claim that they had the Jewish Law on their side and were the true children of Abraham. To be proper children of Abraham they claimed people must follow the law, including its strictures on circumcision, the food laws, and so on. Well in that case, what better way for Paul to refute their argument than go back to the Book of the Law itself, back to Genesis chapters 16 and 21 and pull out the story of God’s promise to Abraham to show what’s happening now. Abraham had two sons, one (Ishmael) who came from a human effort to have a son, and one (Isaac) who was the answer to God’s promise of a son, and from that son, a family, a nation. The Jewish Christians saw themselves as the true children, the free children, through Isaac, and the Gentile Christians as the children of Ishmael, the outsiders, the add-ons, the slave children, the most definitely lesser branch of the family.
So with both claiming descent from Abraham, which is the true family of God’s children? The family begun through Isaac, through the promise made by God to Abraham. Why? Because it is founded not upon human endeavour but upon God’s promises. It has been said a lot by Paul (and also in these readings!) but it bears repeating: the key marker of membership in the community of God’s people is trusting in the promise of God, not in our own human efforts or identity, a promise embodied and fulfilled in Jesus Christ as Lord and Messiah. Faith in Christ is the key.
Question to Consider
How does the promise of God set us free? How do we live as children of the family of Isaac and not Ishmael?
Prayer
Gracious God, you are the God of promise, the one who brings us into your family and sets us free to be your people in the world, for the world, so that all may find their place in your family. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – For Freedom We Have Been Set Free
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Galatians 5:1
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”. Jesus set us free. All of us. Bringing freedom to people – to all people, from all manner of things, from chains both internal and external, that we have wrapped around ourselves or that others have clamped on us – is something that Jesus specifically came to do. The freedom Jesus offers isn’t just freedom from slavery to sin. It transforms every part of life, and makes all things possible. The gospels are full of examples of Jesus setting people free from physical and spiritual problems, releasing them into new life.
We have been set free. We were in chains – of sin, corruption, evil and death – and Jesus rescued us. He has freed us from so many different types of bondage and imprisonment, so that we can become the people we were always meant to be in God. Why would anyone want to return to bondage? Why return to the rules and regulations of the Law – as the Galatian agitators were claiming was necessary – when Jesus had set us free? Why go back, when we are now free to be the people God intends us to be? This is a major part of the restoring work that Jesus has done and a key part of the message we have to share with the world. It is for freedom that we have been set free and people need to know that freedom is possible, and the best way we have of letting them know this is by telling people our freedom stories: how we have been set free, how Jesus rescued us, stories of our new life in him.
Question to Consider
How has your life changed since Jesus rescued you? What stories of freedom do you have? How are you sharing these stories with others?
Prayer
Almighty God, thank you for the new stories of freedom you have written in my life. Guide me as I share these stories and the freedom you provide with those still trapped in bondage. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)