Narrator: Lois
Primary Scriptures: Galatians 3-6
Story Summary: Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia
Location: Roman Empire; Galatia
Time:
AD 30 Jesus crucified and resurrected; Pentecost; Holy Spirit arrives
AD 48 Paul’s “famine visit” to Jerusalem; First Missionary Journey starts
AD 50 Council at Jerusalem; Start of Second Missionary Journey; approximate time of the writing of Galatians.
Suggested Memory Scriptures: Galatians 3:3, 11, 26-28; 4:6-8; 5:1, 8, 14, 16, 22-25; 6:2-3, 7, 10
On their First Missionary Journey, Paul and Barnabas established churches in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, towns located in the Roman province of Galatia, in central Asia Minor. Paul probably had these churches in mind when he wrote Galatians.
Timothy, Eunice, and Lois were from Lystra. It is not absolutely clear if Paul and Barnabas met them on the First Missionary Journey, but this is likely. It is possibly from them that Paul learned Judaizers were negatively influencing those early churches.
Assuming Galatians is the first of Paul’s letters, then Galatians 3 becomes his first written foray into a topic that will become a major theme for him: the righteous live by faith, not by following the Laws of Moses. Moving forward, he concludes that those who believe in Christ are adopted children of God. He also makes a statement that will resound through the centuries: among those who believe in Christ, there is to be no distinction due to ethnicity, gender, or any other human-based distinction. Christians are to be completely unified.
In Galatians 4, Paul lays out his case that those who follow Christ have freedom, and those who don’t are enslaved. In this passage, Paul uses a word that may sound strange to modern ears, “zealous.” In modern use, it tends to means enthusiastic and diligent, but Paul intended it to mean entirely devoted and very passionate. The first use of the word in the Bible is when Phinehas was so devoted to God that he drove a spear through a Jewish man and into a Midianite woman who were committing adultery.1 As a zealous person himself, Paul notes the importance of being zealous…for the right things.
Chapters 5 and 6 contain some of the most important teachings about the Holy Spirit that are in the New Testament, as well as some of the most important teachings about living as a Christian. In one of the most recognized phrases of his teachings, Paul describes actions and consequences in a few simple words: “You reap what you sow.”
*1 Numbers 24:11
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