Don't brag about your spirituality
Galatians (7) Do not boast of your spirituality (Galatians 2:1-5)
"Church Attitude"
If you look at the ministry of the Apostle Paul, there were almost co-workers next to him. In verse 1, Barnabas and Titus are mentioned. Luke, Priscilla and Aquila, Timothy, Silas, and countless other co-workers helped the apostle Paul in his ministry. So people often think. “Apostle Paul has many blessings.” But does the seal just happen? In general, when you have a ecclesiastical attitude, you will be blessed.
If it has been 14 years since the apostle Paul started his missionary work after his conversion, he was also a very veteran missionary, but why would he share the gospel he preached with the apostles in Jerusalem? It was so that his toil and running would not be in vain (verse 2). How wise and upright are you?
These days, there are people who are misunderstood as a ‘heretic’ even though they are not clearly ‘pseudo’. They protest, “Why are we heretics?” People may make mistakes due to lack of knowledge, and listening to them is also unfair. However, there is one lack of posture that they have in common. That is the ecclesiastical attitude. They do not consider <Jerusalemites> in a spiritual sense at all.
Of course, there will be special experiences and realizations given to them. However, no matter how wonderful the experiences and realizations are, as if only you were a special being, “the existing church has fallen asleep. It's all rotten." It's wrong. In particular, it is a problem to narrow oneself to the word “everything!” in such an argument. In the end, there is also the aspect of acting so that others are misunderstood as a cult, rather than making them a cult.
No matter how amazing a realization and experience you have, if you shed the blood of martyrdom and bury your predecessors who kept the truth in the graves and present yourself in a special way, you will inevitably become a target of misunderstanding. If they are misunderstood, they call it a 'cross', but in fact it is absurd. The cross is sacrificing oneself for the sake of righteousness, and the difficulties faced by failure to act with consideration are not necessarily called the cross.
Some say they are jealous of their rapid growth and drive them into heresy. Of course, if other people grow up rapidly, they can become objects of envy and jealousy, but they do not unconditionally drive the objects of envy and jealousy as heresy. You are being misunderstood as a heretic because you act in such a way that you are misunderstood as being heresy. In that sense, a ecclesial attitude that considers the whole community and an attitude that respects the truth kept by the blood of our predecessors are essential.
< Do not boast of your spirituality >
Apostle Paul was able to become a great person because he had a strong personality, but he also had a good ecclesiastical attitude. Such a ecclesial attitude should be applied not only when doing God's work, but also in all of our lives. The ecclesial attitude that puts the community first cannot be overemphasized. Although the apostle Paul had such an attitude, he kept the core principles of the gospel unwavering and firm (verses 3-5).
Always live in awareness of the absoluteness of the Gospel. A strong belief in the absoluteness of the gospel is important for salvation, but there is another reason it is important. This is because if we withdraw from the absoluteness of the gospel, we may develop a proud image of comparing people with legal faith and actions and rating people.
It is forbidden to boast of your piety and spirituality like the Pharisees in your religious life. But what is more dangerous than that is to say, “That tax collector has 20 points of faith! That person has 40 points of faith! That person has 60 faith!” In the beginning, when your faith grows hot and you lead a zealous life of faith, you will develop such a heart without your knowledge and you will be able to judge others. It is difficult to become a person like that, and even more difficult to become a mature saint. In other words, when one advantage arises, a new disadvantage may be exposed because of that advantage.
When the spirituality becomes hot, ‘spirituality’ improves, and at the same time ‘reason’ also improves wisely, it is true spirituality. Sometimes, when the spirituality becomes hot, some people despise reason or even lose reason. Such people would want to get rid of the Bible like Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and James. However, the 66 books of the Bible must be 66 books. The Bible must have wisdom books, and there must also be epistles emphasizing works like the book of James.
Consider the background of why James, the brother of Jesus, who was bishop of the church in Jerusalem, wrote the book of James, an “episte emphasizing works.” While he was the bishop of the Jerusalem church, which began with the Holy Spirit event on the day of Pentecost, he realized that wise actions were also necessary, so he followed the guidance of the Holy Spirit to write the book of James. It is a lifelong process for a person to mature like that. So, never lose your humility. Above all, we must never forget the fact that we are saved by grace.