How lovely to be back with Paul. We last caught up with him in April/May 2013 when we read the book of Acts, which we now know is part 2 of the gospel of Luke. There we learned about Paul from another writer. Here in Galatians, we are hearing from Paul himself as he writes an impassioned letter of greeting, of instruction, and of warning, to the church members in Galatia.
I've started my reading of Galatians this time with The Message. It's so interesting to know a little about Eugene Petersen's reasons for giving the world this new reading of the Bible. In "A User's Guide to the Remix" at the beginning of my copy of The Message is this:
The Message was paraphrased over a period of ten years, straight from the Bible's original languages (Greek and Hebrew). The idea of The Message isn't to water down the Bible, making it easier to digest. The idea is to make it readable -- to put those ancient words that their users spoke and wrote every day into words that YOU speak and write every day.
So, turning to Petersen's Introduction to Galatians we read:
When men and women get their hands on religion, one of the first things they often do is turn it into an instrument for controlling others... Paul of Tarsus was dong his diligent best to add yet another chapter to this dreary history...
But this colossal character Paul one day suddenly saw a different path forward. It changed his life and it changed the world. Not that it was easy. Traditions (disguised as law) can bind people in outmoded beliefs and practices. But the spirit of GRACE and FREEDOM Paul discovered as a newly minted disciple of Jesus (he was a contemporary of Jesus but never met him in the flesh) was so profound, that nothing would stop him in his mission to preach this good news to as wide a field as he could outside the Jewish world.
And so we begin in the Roman province of Galatia.
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