Title: Unchanging Faith/Galatians 4:12-20
Content Unchanging Faith (Galatians 4:12-20) - Lecture 10
Human relationships are essential for a person to live in the world. Human relationships are very important for both success and success. Because man cannot live apart from man. Some people use it, and some people use it. In the meantime, he stays away from those who harm him, and draws closer to those who help him. Even if they were friends today, if they are a harm to me tomorrow, I will stay away from them. We live by being hurt and hurting because of people.
If that person is a person who helps me a lot, and I think that I can succeed in the world without that person, I try to maintain a good relationship while bending my self-esteem. It's not that the person is good, it's that the strength that person has is better. On the other hand, if you are not helping yourself in life, even if you maintain a relationship, you can easily change your mind and cause quarrels. This is how human relationships exist in the world.
Such relationships exist in the church as well. But the church is not just a human relationship. It is a relationship that is gathered together as members of the head, Christ. Even though it is the true church that understands and gathers this human relationship of the church, many people see the church as just a group of people. That is why worldly human relationships are rampant in the church, and envy and strife do not disappear and continue.
The church is not a relationship that uses one another. A person who comes to church with the thought that if he helps him, things will go well, he is by no means a believer. Of course, there must be something to help someone when they are in trouble. However, finding a church for the purpose of receiving help from the world on my side is not an aspect of a believer.
We can't help but be surprised at the fact that the sinful image of man, which has been seen since the creation of the universe, remains unchanged even today. But when we see that it is descended into our nature through the blood of man who sinned before God, we can see that no one can deny the sin of Adam.
The appearance of the apostle Paul when he first preached the gospel to the Galatia church was shabby and shabby. Verse 14 says that the reason was to test the church in Galatia. In other words, in order to test whether the Galatians judge themselves based on their outward appearance or based on the gospel that he preaches, the Apostle Paul sought the Galatia church with his physical weakness, that is, his appearance. However, the Galatian church did not judge Paul by his appearance. Regardless of his appearance, they welcomed and welcomed Paul. That's what verses 14 and 15 say.
The Galatia church wanted the gospel of Paul. They knew that only the gospel could save them, and they wanted the gospel. But their minds have changed. Verse 16 says, “Am I then an enemy because I speak the truth to you?” At first, they wanted only the gospel and accepted the gospel, but later they turned away from it. The reason why the Galatian church turned away from the gospel is as in verse 17, "It is not good for them to be zealous for you, but to separate you, so that you may become zealous for them." Because they accepted the words of those who insisted and maintained the law better. It is referred to as elementary school education earlier. In other words, before knowing God, it is natural to be a slave to those who are not God, but after knowing God, he returned to his weak and lowly elementary studies.
At first, the gospel was good and I wanted only the Lord with a pure heart, but as you continue your Christian life, you may feel that the gospel alone is not enough. At that time, the faith that looked only at the cross of the Lord will see the world. The Lord does not change, either at the beginning or afterward. We simply go back to the way we were before we knew God.
Today, you should look back on whether your heart is the same as when you first believed in the Lord. You have to see if that love exists first. Believers live only to form the image of Christ in themselves, both in the beginning and in the end. I hope that you will become all of us who reject the gospel that is not the gospel that leads us into the world and live only by looking at the Lord with unchanging faith while keeping in mind only the gospel that leads to the cross.