Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Doing Good to All 6  Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit  should restore  that person gently. But watch yourselves, 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 they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.   4  Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone,  without comparing themselves to someone else,   5  for each one should carry their own load. In closing his letter to the Galatians, Paul instructs what the church today when someone is "caught in a sin".  The term "caught" has the same type of meaning as "falling into sin".  Or, caught in sin's trap.  This is not so much a doctrinal error as an unwitting wandering into the weakness of the flesh.   The word restore means to "put back in order", "to restore to its original condition."

Life by the Spirit 13  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh;  rather, serve one another  humbly in love.   14  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”   15  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  16  So I say, walk by the Spirit,  and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.   17  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.   18  But if you are led by the Spirit,  you are not under the law. Paul sums up his whole message to the Galatians in verse 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. " But then in the passage above he warns them of the flipside of the equation.

17  Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.   18  It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.   19  My dear children,  for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,   20  how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Paul's letter to the Galatians did not mince words.  They were hard words but needed to be said.  What was at stake was the gospel. The first time the Galatians had welcomed him heartily in spite of a illness. I.e. " You treated me like an angel "  Now he asks, " How have I become your enemy by telling you the truth ?"  Paul recognizes the zeal of the false teachers who have wormed their way into the church. But he also realizes it is the reason the Galatians have soured on him.  However Paul points out that the

God’s Marvelous Plan for the Gentiles 3  For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner  of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2  Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me  for you,   3  that is, the mystery  made known to me by revelation,  as I have already written briefly.   4  In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight  into the mystery of Christ,   5  which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.   6  This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs  together with Israel, members together of one body,  and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Everyone loves a good mystery novel.  What makes it interesting is that one is held in tension until the mystery is revealed at the end. As Paul explains how God has called him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, he refers to it as the mystery which has be

Made Alive in Christ 2  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,   2  in which you used to live  when you followed the ways of this world  and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,  the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.   3  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh [ a ]  and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.   4  But because of his great love for us,  God, who is rich in mercy,   5  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. Paul continues to teach the Gentiles how they have been included in God's plan of salvation for the world.  He reviews the basic problem we have as humans, our sinful nature.  Paul summarizes this nature as, " gratifying the cravings of the flesh and following its desires ."  Paul also associates it with, " following the ways of the world and th

Ephesians 1:11-14 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined  according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,   12  in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.   13  And you also were included in Christ  when you heard the message of truth,  the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal,  the promised Holy Spirit,   14  who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance  until the redemption  of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. Today, we start Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  The church at Ephesus was located on the Western coast of modern day Turkey, across the Mediterranean Sea from Greece.  See map below: The letter to the Ephesians was a general pastoral letter many thought Paul wrote from prison in Rome, around A.D. 62.  Ephesus was primarily written to new Gentile Christians, hence Paul teaches

6  Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit  should restore  that person gently. But watch yourselves, 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 they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.   4  Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone,  without comparing themselves to someone else,   5  for each one should carry their own load.   6  Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Paul closed the last chapter talking about the battle between between the flesh and the Spirit.  The sinful nature seeks to please itself at the expense of others.  The spiritual nature seeks to please God and love others.    In chapter 6, Paul addresses how the church should deal with someone who has been caught in sin. This is s omeone who has allowed

Galatians 5:13-18 Life by the Spirit 13  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh [ a ] ;  rather, serve one another  humbly in love.   14  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” [ b ]   15  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. 16  So I say, walk by the Spirit,  and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.   17  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever [ c ]  you want.   18  But if you are led by the Spirit,  you are not under the law. After a thorough treatment of the futility of trying to earn one's righteousness through the Law, Paul offers a better way.  Paul describes the "Life by the Spirit".  The Spirit is "means" or "agency" by which we

Galatians 4:17-20 17  Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.   18  It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.   19  My dear children,  for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,   20  how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! Paul continues to admonish the Galatians for having started with grace and freedom they are now returning to the bondange of the law.  Because the Galatians had treated him so well during an apparent sickness he had, he pleads with them to remember the gospel he first preached to them. Apparently false teachers had slipped in trying to the win the Galatians back over to the law.  One commentator says,  "The false teachers among the Galatians demanded the observance of  days and months and seasons and years  and o

The Law and the Promise 15  Brothers and sisters,  let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.   16  The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.   17  What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years  later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.   18  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise;  but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. In chapter 3, Paul compares and contrasts the promise given to Abraham with the law which was given to Moses.  The promise was first given to Abraham as a covenant God made with him in Genesis 12.  God made Abraham a promise that he would be the father of many nations, and he would be blessed to

Paul Opposes Cephas 11  When Cephas  came to Antioch,  I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.   12  For before certain men came from James,  he used to eat with the Gentiles.  But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.   13  The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas  was led astray. We have all heard of the concept of "peer pressure".  The idea is that someone will do something they wouldn't normally do if they are pressured by those around them.  People succumb to peer pressure when their desire to be liked or to conform to those around them trumps their true core values. Today Paul tells the story of how Peter gave into peer pressure.  Paul says "Cephas", which is Peter's Jewish name, used to eat with Gentiles, but when "certain men" came from James he separated himself.