Daily Devotional for Thursday 7th March
Faith that works through love
For over a thousand years, the people of God had established their fellowship with Him through the law. This was always going to be a time of waiting; however, Paul’s opponents were struggling to abandon their old way thinking. Paul’s teaching in our reading today is focussed on Christ, who has made a new way to God.
For Paul, the choice is absolute, if you get circumcised, you are committing yourself to keeping the whole law, the entire Jewish Torah. This isn’t just a minor ritual requirement, which can then go comfortably alongside commitment to Christ. The only point of getting circumcised is if you are then intending to submit in every other way as well, to the full discipline of the synagogue. If you want to follow Christ, you cannot cling to the law. If you cling to it, you are declaring that you don’t want to belong to the Messiah’s people.
The alternative is stated in two great sentences, which sum up what Christianity is all about. First, in verse 5, we are waiting eagerly, through the Spirit, for the hope of righteousness. Second, in verse 6, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value for those in Christ Jesus, because the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Paul speaks of the time when God will declare publicly and completely that all those in Christ really are His people. This is ‘the hope of righteousness’, the longing for the time when God’s vindication and justification of all His faithful people will be made manifest, the time of the new creation (Galatians 6:15). And, he says, we await this great event, the conferring of this public status, ‘through the Spirit’–in other words, not by the ‘flesh’, the marks of circumcision made in the human body.
The physical marks of membership in Abraham’s family, or the absence of such marks, are not the point. What matters (as Paul has said all along) is faith. But it is not a bare faith, simply giving credence to a set of beliefs. It is a faith that works – but not with ‘the works of the law’. It is faith that works through love. Love is open to all, no matter of what ethnic origin; but, even more, love is precisely the motivating force through which God Himself welcomes all believers into His family. That same motivating force is what ought to make all family members welcome one another as well.
Time to reflect…
‘The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love’ (Galatians 5:6b)
How can we express our faith through love today?
Pause to pray…
Dear God, thank you that your love is open to all, no matter of what ethnic origin; but, even more, we thank you that your love is the motivating force through which you welcome all believers into your family. Please motivate us as members of your family to share your love and welcome one another as well. Amen
