Galatians 6:13

The Avoidance of persecution, Part Two

The Denial

30^th July 2011

Having explained that it makes no sense for a Gentile Christian to be circumcised, and having made it clear that the only reason some people were trying to persuade them to do so was the fear of persecution, Paul says :

Galatians 6v13
Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.

Those who wanted the Galatian Christians to be circumcised wanted to be able to claim that they had persuaded them to conform to Old Testament Jewish practice. This would reduce the risk of persecution, and provide an opportunity to gain good standing with those Jews who refused the gospel.

These circumstances are very different from the challenges facing the church today. But the desire to avoid persecution (at however mild a level) and to retain good standing in society is just as real for us. Some Christians in Britain today, in many different denominations and in independent churches, seek to reduce the differences between those inside and outside the church. They want Christians to conform to the spirit of our age, buying into the acceptance of sin and the adoption of what has been called "political correctness", which is the new Phariseeism, an ever-expanding set of rules that we must accept if we are to be indistinguishable from the influential non-biblical moralists of our day (of which the BBC is probably the most effective).

However, the church is supposed to be distinct:

2 Corinthians 6v14-7v1
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
"I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

James 4v4
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

But, then and now, even those who make up rules for the rest of us to follow don't keep those rules themselves. As we read in the first part of this week's verse:

Galatians 6v13
Not even those who are circumcised obey the law

Their own way of life was one of hypocrisy, embracing the outward forms of Judaism while continuing to break the Jewish law. We see something similar in those who regularly attend church but do not live their live according to New Testament teaching.

We see the same thing outside the church, in rich socialists, or judgmental liberals, or the BBC complaining that other organisations have too large a share in the media market, or one political party complaining that another is occasionally dishonest, or one newspaper accusing another of invading the privacy of others...)

Preaching against what we do ourselves. Making a show of the outward forms while our attitudes and lives remain unchanged. May God save us from such hypocrisy.