Galatians 1:24
24 And [kai] they glorified [doxazo] God [theos] in [en] me. [emoi] KJV-Interlinear
24 And they were glorifying God
because of me. NASB
And in order to make sure that no one is of the
opinion that Paul is taking credit for all of these things, he completes this
chapter with the credit going to God.
Paul did not provide salvation to himself.
Paul did not go into Arabia to teach himself or to
enlighten himself, by himself.
Paul did not avoid the apostles in order to advance
himself, or to invent an even newer gospel.
And people in general, when they heard the news of
the phenomenal conversion of one so enthusiastic in destroying Christianity,
but was in fact converted to Christianity, that this could only have been
accomplished by God and God alone.
Paul did not take credit to himself. Paul did not attempt to self-promote. Paul did not go on tour to market himself.
Paul did what every believer should do once they
have been saved, and that is to learn doctrine.
You cannot use what you do not know. And when you attempt to use something that
you do not know, then you can only botch it all up and pervert it with
delusional ideas.
Paul had already had an extensive education. Paul already knew the scriptures, but he did
not understand them correctly. Paul had
to be re-trained. He had to
re-learn.
Paul had to be taught, and in his case, Jesus
Christ taught him personally, so that he could fulfill Gods intent for his
life.
You and I do not have that option. We have the completed scriptures and there is
no further communication from God with respect to teaching or writing doctrine.
All of our learning occurs by means of the process
God has put into place to help each one of us learn and understand and use
doctrine.
And that process is to confess our sins in order to
enter into Gods spiritual environment. And
then to be taught, to listen, to learn and to understand, so that we can grow
up in our spiritual lives. And that
really requires a life-long commitment in order to get it right and complete.
