Friday, June 7, 2013

Galatians 3:3

Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Galatians 3:3

3 Are ye [este] so [houto] foolish [anoetos]? having begun [enarchomai] in the Spirit, [pneuma] are ye [epiteleo] now [nun] made perfect [epiteleo] by the flesh [sarx]? KJV-Interlinear

3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? NASB

Foolish, ‘anoetos,’ means unintelligent, unwise, without wisdom, sensual as in emotional fool.

Paul finds it incredible, that these people, had heard the gospel, ‘Believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.’ And together with hearing of the life of Jesus, who He was, the cross and the purpose of the cross, and so forth.  They were thoroughly familiar with who and what and why Jesus was, and they thus believed in Him.

Jesus had promised to send the Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the unseen power of God, and the person through whom divine power is conveyed.  And as such, He reveals the plan of God and is the agent for executing the Christian life.  It is this power which becomes available to the believer when in fellowship, and by this power that the spiritual life functions.

The Holy Spirit restrains sin, thus preventing the destruction of the world, 2 Thes. 2:6-7.

The Holy Spirit makes all things discernible and comprehensible, 2 Cor. 2:14.

The Holy Spirit is the divine author and communicator of the scriptures and is called the mind of Christ, 1 Cor. 2:16; Heb. 3:7.

The Holy Spirit teaches the believer, Jn. 14:26; 15:26.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit places every believer into union with Christ, 1 Cor. 12:13; 1 Pet. 2:9.

The Spirit seals, the believer, guaranteeing eternal life, Eph. 1:13; 4:30.

Every believer lives by means of the filing of the Spirit which is accomplished by means of confession, Eph. 5:18; 1 Jn. 1:9.

Confession is the process wherein the believer lists his sins, in private and personal prayer, to God the Father, via prayer.  The believer confesses to no one except God the Father.

And this list can go on and on.  Needless to say all of these things come as a result of faith or believing in the gospel when it is heard. They never come by means of mans works.

And so Paul is shocked that when everyone heard the gospel, and believed in Christ and simultaneously received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6:16; Col. 1:27-29, and thus began their spiritual life as a saved believer, and then for some reason they abandoned that idea so as to move on to some other better spiritual system, works, and so Paul calls them foolish, without wisdom, turning to emotion rather than the intellect of scriptural knowledge.

And as you can see from the above list, these are just a few references to the scriptural information that was available to all believers back in Pauls day.  Even though this information was not in writing back then as it is today, the information was still available and was taught.

Prior to this letter being written to the Galatians, they had heard all of these things from Paul and even others. 

They have certainly heard teaching from the apostles.  That is why this reprimand is coming from Paul.  And, they have heard false teachings from others.  Another reason for this letter from Paul.

But, you can see that even though you may have heard truth at some point in your life, it is still possible to drift away from truth and adopt false ideas.  Especially if you do not stick with your studies and have a tendency to listen to things that appeal to your emotions.  Thus the emotional aspect of the term, foolish.

The only way to avoid spiritual failure, is to stick with doctrine and the truthful and accurate teaching of the word.  To float about from teacher to teacher, from translation to translation, from church to church, and so forth, only points to a dysfunctional spiritual habit, and opens the door for false teaching.