From Bumper Cars to Carnival Swings

Paul Taylor preaches a seven week series from September 7 through October 26 on the book of Galatians.

Being born again as a follower of Christ means becoming part of the new family that He has created. But learning to love people in a family can be really difficult. One thing that complicates matters is how different each person is. It's hard to love someone who is really different from you. That's what the young churches of Galatia were experiencing shortly after becoming Christians. In particular, it was challenging for the Jewish believers to get along with the Gentile believers. To make this easier, some people suggested that Gentiles had to be circumcised. That way, they would be just like the Jews and everybody could get along much better. But Paul wrote a letter to these churches trying to convince them not to fall for this. He was clear: the gospel message is about the formation of a new family whose members are different from each other in remarkable ways, and yet are still able to love each other deeply because of their relationship with God through Christ. We have a lot to learn today from Galatians about how to love each other as a family, even when people seem so different and hard to love.

This Week

What Lies Beyond the Fence?

Galatians 3:1-4:31

If the law is a fence that protected us from displeasing God and defined the people of God by what they shouldn't do, then Christ is a gate to the path of living in relationship to God the Father. Walking along this path doesn't involve fear of transgressing boundaries, it involves the freedom to love God and love other people. Christ gives us that freedom by fulfilling the promise of a relationship with God as our Father that is imbedded deep within our hearts. As we become sons and daughters of the Father, we are freed up to love Him. And when we get a new Father, we get new brothers and sisters as well and our freedom to love spills over into those relationships.