Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Galatians 6:1-10.  Let’s go!

Galatians 6:1-10 (NIV)
1  Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
2  Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
3  If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
4  Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,
5  for each one should carry his own load.

On verses 1-10:   Sometimes we can take our church family, like our own immediate family, for granted.  Here Paul reminds us that, for as long as we live, we should do good to all people, but especially our spiritual family (v10).  That includes:

– if someone sins and is genuinely repentant, restoring that person gently by showing them the grace, mercy and forgiveness that God showed you and me (v1)

– carrying each other’s burdens (v2)

– looking at yourself with humility and sober judgment (v3)

– not playing the comparison game, always measuring how you match up with others (v4)

– taking responsibility for one’s own life rather than burdening others unnecessarily (v5)

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Galatians 5:1-12.  Let’s go!

Galatians 5:1-2 (NIV)
1  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2  Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
 
On verses 1-2:  Throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul has been making this point to the Galatian Christians: you used to be slaves to the idea that you need to work for your righteousness, but now Jesus has set you free from that slavery, giving you a righteousness that is not earned by your works but received by faith in God’s promise.  Here in verse 1 Paul reminds the Christians in Galatia why Christ set them free in the first place: so that they could stay free (v1).  What is the point of Christ setting us free if we choose to go back to being enslaved again?  Yet by trying to add circumcision as a pre-condition to being fully accepted by God, the believers in Galatia were going back to a “works by righteousness” slavery and in so doing, treating Christ as if he is “of no value to you at all” (v2). 
 

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Galatians 4:21-31.  Let’s go!

Galatians 4:21-31 (NIV)
21  Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
22  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23  His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

On verses 21-31:  What is Paul talking about in Galatians 4:21-31?  Remember that Paul is writing to people who think that in order to be justified (that is, in order for God to see you as blameless and worthy to have a relationship with Him), it’s not enough to believe in Jesus; it also depends on how well you obey the Jewish law.  So the goal of Paul’s entire letter to the Galatians is to show that we are not justified by our efforts to obey God’s law; rather we are justified by faith in Christ’s power to save us and to forgive our sins.  We need to seek justification by faith, not justification by our works.