There's an interesting phrase I came across in Galatians. Paul was opposing Peter when the Judaizers showed up and Peter started withdrawing. "But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, 'If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?'" (Gal 2:14). See that? They were "not in step with the truth of the gospel."
What can we see here? First, there is truth. Not "truth to me." Absolute truth. Some truth is relative. My blog is called "Winging It." That's true. But not all blogs are called that. But there is Truth. Jesus said, "I am ... the truth" (John 14:6). Our culture denies Objective Truth while operating on the basis that there is. Want to see? "There is no objective truth" is a claim to an objective truth. But beyond this, I'm fascinated by "their conduct was not in step with the truth ..." This particular truth is the gospel, but what we see clearly is that truth demands a correlated behavior. In this case, the gospel -- saved by faith, not by works -- demands that you live "saved by faith, not by works." He says it again in chapter 3. "The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Although you began with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?" (Gal 3:2-3). If we are saved by faith, we are not saved by works ... not saved by doing it ourselves. The gospel demands that we not be subject to laws as our master (Gal 5:1). That's Christ's job now. Truth demands a corresponding action.
Paul's particular concern in his epistle to the Galatians was the truth of the gospel. I'm looking beyond the gospel. Every truth demands a corresponding action. We need to behave according to the truth. Orthodoxy -- right thinking -- precedes orthopraxy -- right practice. The truth dictates behavior. So it is no surprise that our current society that denies the very existence of truth has no reasonable guidelines for behavior. That's our society. We believers know the truth, and the truth will set us free.
7 comments:
We do Galatians 3 so often because it is so hard for us to distinguish our works. Our works are the evidence of our faith or lack of faith, but focusing so much on the works can blind us to the faith. Trying to strike that balance is another aspect of God's grace.
I may have said this before, but the conversations around Truth are some of the most vital in our current culture.
This passage is good in two senses. It forces us to look at ourselves and what gospel we are living by, while simultaneously allowing us to observe others and the gospel they preach as opposed to the one they live.
If the gospel that someone preaches is based on "sell all you have and give to the poor" or on offering material succor to the poor/freeing people from oppression, then they'd better be living that gospel, hadn't they?
Yes, David. Like the tension of Eph 2:8-9 ... saved by grace through faith apart from works ... followed immediately by Eph 2:10 ... "saved for good works." Because of our propensity as humans to run down rabbit trails and not thoroughly think things through, Paul's "justified by faith apart from works" seems to be in direct contradition to James's "justified by works and not by faith alone." They actually agree, but too many aren't willing to see it.
Yes, Craig, I keep coming back to the absolutely fundamental question of truth that is constantly, explicitly avoided in our society as if we can function without it, thank you very much.
I am enjoying the posts in recent weeks drawn from Galatians, as it’s my favorite epistle behind Romans; its exhortations to embrace the liberty found in the gospel of grace--and to eschew the bondage of the law and the flesh--is as pertinent a reminder to me as it was to the early Christians. (If you are familiar with the “BE Books” from Warren W. Wiersbe, his title for Galatians tells it all: Be Free: Exchange Legalism for True Spirituality.)
I especially appreciated your statement that “orthodoxy -- right thinking -- precedes orthopraxy -- right practice.” To me, this gives proper meaning to the (slightly awkward) term “practicing Christian”--i.e. not a person who is striving in the flesh to achieve a works-based righteousness but someone who, through the Holy Spirit, is living out an active and authentic faith based on absolute Bible truth. I wish to always be “walking in step with the truth”--allowing the reality of “saved by faith, not by works” to rule my life and not be just a clichéd mantra of sorts; therefore, I continuously strive to guard my heart from self-righteousness, root out extraneous observances and practices that might pose as works of the flesh, and seek the Word’s influence rather than the world’s. As you said in closing, and Wiersbe says as well, the gospel truth sets us free.
I'm adding a new angle to "practicing Christian" in tomorrow's entry, but I am in full agreement here.
I will look forward to that! It’s funny--I’ve really only ever heard of a “practicing Catholic,” but your mention of “orthopraxy -- right practice,” which is inspired by right doctrine, prompted me to look up “practicing Christian.” I must say that the slightly different definitions that AI Overview gave those two similar-sounding terms was quite interesting to me.
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