Thursday, April 4, 2013

Galatians 2:5


Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Galatians 2:5

5 To whom [hos] we gave place [eiko] by subjection, [hupotage] no, not [oude] for [pros] an hour; [hora] that [hina] the truth [aletheia] of the gospel [euaggelion] might continue [diameno] with [pros] you. [humas]KJV-Interlinear

5 But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you. NASB


Here is Pauls emphatic rejection and objection to the false concepts that were being attempted by those people who were trying to infiltrate their false ideas into the common thinking of everyone else.

The true doctrine of salvation, is salvation by faith.  That is, one is saved by merely believing in Jesus Christ.

The false doctrine of salvation, is that works are required in order earn and receive, and even keep salvation.  And in this case, circumcision was being promoted as the required work, lest you were going to be like every other pagan, so to speak.

Symbolically speaking the term pagan is used to refer to someone who lacks truth or wisdom.  Civilized countries would refer to uncivilized regions as being inhabited by pagan peoples, because they lack the knowledge and understanding of modern civilization.

But in truth anyone who lacks knowledge and understanding of God, of doctrine, of truth is a pagan by definition. This can apply to extremely intelligent people in the most advanced countries, and most certainly can apply to most people in every country regardless of their culture or environment.  Being a pagan is not limited to a person who runs around barefoot and wearing only a flap of clothing, if any, around their waist.

Only people who lack doctrinal understanding, will categorize people in various classes.  This is a tendency of liberals or self-righteous people regardless of where they sit on the political or social spectrum.

Doctrine is not political.  Doctrine is not philosophical.  Doctrine does not polarize people.  People do all of that themselves.

And people who lack truth, certainly come up with their own ideas that create rules, for everyone, that justifies their beliefs. When you have beliefs that run contrary to truth, then you have to have a set of standards or rules that justify your beliefs.  And you inevitably create boundaries that allow some but not all, into your belief structure.  This leads to bias and prejudice, and abuse, because it is sin that the false beliefs are founded on, not truth.

And when sin is the foundation, then the whole false system of beliefs will crumble and fail sooner or later.

Paul did not give their ideas an inch or even an hours consideration, but rejected them totally and completely.  Today we might say, that we would not give them a moment of our time.