Galatia

The seven years of Paul's world mission have usually been divided into three missionary "journeys." This, however, is misleading. It leads us to think of Paul as wandering from place to place, stopping a few days or weeks, preaching a few sermons, then passing on, and at the end of each tour coming back to Antioch. Such was not his method. Paul's plan was, rather, to take the great Roman provinces one at a time, and to stay long enough in each to firmly establish the work, leaving it then in charge of others though retaining a general supervision. It is true his stay was often cut short by opposition. But he spent a year and a half in Achaia with his headquarters at Corinth, and twice that time in Ephesus. He probably spent some months in Macedonia, mainly at Philippi. Antioch practically ceased to be his headquarters during this period. It is a better plan of study to take up the provinces one at a time, studying in turn Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia.

We need not suppose that Paul mapped out from the very first his whole plan of campaign. It is to Cyprus, the old home of Barnabas, that they turn first, and their attendant is John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. John Mark, the traditional author of our second Gospel, may also have come originally from Cyprus. But it has been noted that his home was in Jerusalem, where his mother's house was a meeting place for the disciples. Barnabas had for years been a leader. He was a man of broad and unselfish spirit. That is shown by the sale of his field, the money for which he gave to the Jerusalem church, and by the way in which he yielded later to the leadership of his companion in this journey.

The little band of three was sent forth by the Antioch church with prayer and benediction. From Seleucia, the port of Antioch, to Salamis of Cyprus, where they landed, was about one hundred and twenty-five miles. There were a good many Jews in the island and here at Salamis they preached in the synagogues. They traversed the island from east to west, probably something over a hundred miles of journey. Luke has but one incident of their whole stay, the story of the magician, Bar-Jesus, a Jew who was in the company of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. He makes no note of conversions, and we learn nothing more of Cyprus beyond the fact that Barnabas and Mark made a return visit some time later (Acts 13:1-12).

"Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem" (Acts 13:13). In these words Luke marks the change that now comes; Paul is taking the leadership and is moving on to wholly new fields. Barnabas goes with him. John Mark, perhaps dissatisfied that Paul should take his cousin's place, possibly unwilling to face the hardships of this new field, turns back again. From this time on there is no question of leadership. Paul's company changes; he has many helpers through this period, but there is only one directing spirit.

Paul had now reached the mainland with his face toward that West which he was to win for Christ. For the present, however, it is not so large a circuit that they make. They do not stop in Perga, where they land, but press on to Antioch of Pisidia, lying straight to the north, about a hundred miles inland. Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, to which they go next, lie to the east and south and rather close together. Through these four cities they then retrace their steps, stopping, however, this time at Perga. They set sail not from Perga but from Attalia near by, and so return to Antioch.

We must not, however, measure the length of their stay in Galatia by Luke's brief record. The apostles must have spent some months at least in this visit. We read of their work in Antioch, that "the word of the Lord was spread abroad throughout all the region" (Acts 13:49). Luke reports that they stayed a long time at Iconium, and that they preached not only in Lystra and Derbe but in the country round about (Acts 14:3, 6). In the main centers Paul turned first to the synagogue, as usual, for here in Galatia also there were Jews to be found in the larger cities; in Antioch and Iconium the synagogues are specially mentioned. But his main interest was in the Gentiles, and when he went into the "region round about," it was Gentile mission work.

One incident of this contact with paganism Luke gives us. At Lystra Paul healed a lame man. When the people saw what Paul had done, they began shouting, "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men." The old myths abounded in tales of gods appearing among men, and it was in such remote places that the old faiths were strongest. Here at Lystra they cultivated especially the worship of Jupiter. As the people used their native tongue, the disciples could not understand their cries, and before they knew what was happening the priest of Jupiter was present with his garlands and his oxen ready to make a sacrifice. To such people Paul had to bring his message. The words that Luke reports in this connection may well have been his common mode of approach in speaking to pagan hearers. They show his skill and tact, and the broad sympathy that enabled him to come into contact with men upon whom the Jew, proud of his faith, would commonly have looked with utter scorn. "We bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is: who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways. And yet he left not himself without witness, in that be did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:15-17).

Traveling through such a country involved great hardship, heightened by Paul's efforts to support himself. Here, as later, Paul met the opposition of the Jews. Once his life was endangered. After the brief enthusiasm at Lystra, the Jews from Antioch and Iconium stirred up the people against him and he was stoned and left for dead. It was enough for Paul, however, that in all these places he was able to gather his groups of converts. His devotion to them is seen in the fact that when he reaches Derbe in the East, he does not push on to Tarsus and home. Despite hardship and the treatment he has received, he retraces his course, that he may comfort and build up these little companies. They in turn were devotedly attached to him. How they had received him is indicated by Gal 4:12-20. He intimates there that he had had plans which would have taken him farther, and was detained in Galatia because of health. Perhaps it was a trouble with his eyes. In any case, he calls to their mind how they received him "as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus," and that so far from despising him because of his illness, they were ready to pluck out their eyes and give them to him. As for him, he counts them his little children, whom he has brought forth in toil and pain.

It seems quite certain that it was to these churches that the epistle to the Galatians was written. We have already studied the first two chapters of this letter in connection with the Jerusalem conference. We do not know when it was written, probably not long after the founding of the churches, for Paul reproaches them with removing so quickly from his gospel (Gal 1:6). The thought of the letter is not always easy to follow. We are not concerned today about Jewish laws and rules and their relation to Christianity, and the letter at first does not seem of interest. But it is different when we appreciate the importance of the fight that Paul is waging here. It was not the question of a few churches in Asia Minor, but whether Christianity was to be a universal and spiritual religion or a Jewish sect. And our interest increases as we catch the earnestness and passion of the man, which make these words live for us despite nineteen centuries that lie between. The gospel that he preached and the churches that he had founded with toil and danger of life he now saw imperiled by men who disregarded the Jerusalem agreement and invaded his territory. He throws every resource into this fight. Logic, Scripture, sarcasm, bitter denunciation, tender appeal—he uses them all in this effort.

His enemies were not Jews but Judaizing Christians, bitterly opposed to Paul because he did not ask his converts to keep the law. Their argument seems to have been this: This man Paul is not a genuine apostle. The real pillar apostles are at Jerusalem, and they keep the law. Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, foretold in the Jewish Scriptures. You Gentiles may believe on him, but if you want the full gospel, if you want to be real sons of Abraham, you must keep the sacred law; and, first of all, you must be circumcised. To this Paul makes reply in his letter, pouring forth a stream of passionate declaration and entreaty, with no concern for order or phrase. It falls, however, into three main parts.

1. Paul's assertion of his independent apostleship: "My gospel did not come from men but from God, and there is no other gospel. I never took instruction or authority from the other apostles at Jerusalem. But they have recognized my apostleship to the Gentiles and have given me the hand of fellowship" (Chs. 1 and 2).

2. "The Christian is saved by faith, not by the law: When you were converted you received the Spirit. It was the sign of your new life; but you received it because you trusted, not because you had kept the law. Why not continue the same way? The men of faith are the real sons of Abraham, not the men of the law. The law by itself means simply a curse, for it condemns every man unless he keeps every letter of it; and that no man can do. There is only one thing to do, to trust in the love of God as he comes in Jesus Christ. The Christian is not a servant keeping a law; he is a son living with his Father. You are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. Do not let anyone make a slave of you again. The Christian life is not circumcision or uncircumcision; it is faith working through love" (3:1 to 5:12).

3. The last part of Paul's letters is always given to practical advice. It is so here. He has said that Christianity was not a sum of laws but a life of freedom and a new spirit, the spirit of sonship. That freedom, he declares, does not mean license. It is simply an inner life that we live, instead of a set of rules imposed from without. But we must live out that inner life, we must walk by the Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control" (5:13 to 6:18).

Characteristic of this letter is its close. So possessed is Paul with the great question at issue that he comes back to it again. The last words, from 6:11 on, were added by his own hand. The rest of the letter had been dictated, as was his custom. If the sickness to which he refers in this letter was a trouble with his eyes, it would explain his using an amanuensis, and making large letters when he himself wrote (6:11).

Directions for Reading and Study

Read Acts 13 and 14.

Follow carefully upon the map the line of journey. Using the scale of miles make an estimate of the total distance traveled.

Nape in order the Galatian cities visited, and one or two incidents in connection with each.

Give a brief outline of Paul's life as he reports it in Gal 1 and 2.

Give the outline of Paul's argument in the second section, Gal 3:1 to 5:12, by means of five or ten key verses selected from this passage.

In the last section, 5:13 to 6:18, select five or six individual verses which seem to you best to sum up Paul's idea of the Christian life.