lighthouse2014

Gentiles and Jews alike were both enslaved to sin, we today are slaves and need a redeemer. Everyone on earth are enslaved to sin because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The word "redeem" in verse 5 means to buy, to buy back as in slavery to deliver someone by paying or buying their freedom. God sent his only son to suffer and die for us so that we may have deliverance from sin. The implications of adoption regarding legal and spiritual rights is that once we come to the knowledge of what Christ has done for us and believe he is the Son of God, then we become heirs with him in all God the father gives him. We are spiritually adopted into son ship with him, Christ release us from the slavery of sin and now he adopts us as a brother or sister and simultaneously we become co-heirs with him.

It took a long time for the Father to send His Son because everything had to be just right, the leaders of the Sanhedrin and it's ordinances, the Roman empire with its infrastructure of roads, commercialism and political environment was right. As above, the first century was in place for the Messiah. Christ disciples could take the gospel throughout the known world and empire. The Greek language was their cultural verbal exchange everywhere. Most everyone knew Greek and the laws of the empire, it's judicial punishment was crucification for all non Roman citizens that were criminals.

The Jews considered Gentiles as second class citizens because the Jews where chosen by God to have been given the Mosaic law by Moses, thus they were forbidden to inter-marry Gentiles. Plus they had the custom of circumcise handed down from Abraham, Gentiles were considered uncircumcised second class. The bases of our unity in Christ is that after coming to faith in Jesus, we are baptized into his death and resurrection. We now enjoy a new life in Christ. This baptism into Christ death and resurrection places us and the Jews on the same existence with Christ. The old law is done away with and a new covenant is established through Christ blood. There is no distinction barrier between Jews and Gentiles, slave or free, male or female, we are all one in him. Unfortunately there are still groups in our everyday congregations that are still considered second class citizens which is usually identified by race or their status in culture. Because of this second class type identification we should be humbled and remember why Christ died for all, rich or poor, Jews or Gentiles. He abolished all barriers, we should pray that the Holy Spirit fill us with Christ love and recognize all people as one in Christ.

The promises in verses 5:10-11 which is the most important, is that God called us to his eternal glory in Christ. This is most important to me because God who loved a sinner like me sent his only son to suffer and die for me, that I might share the glory of Christ.

The instructions Peter gives us for spiritual warfare are to be self controlled, alert, resist the devil and stand firm in the faith. These instructions by Peter are perhaps similar to Paul's letter in Ephesians 6:10-17. In resisting the devil Paul says to put the shield of faith as in 1 Peter, stand says stand firm in the faith. Peter says be self controlled, Paul says put on the armor of faith to stand against the devil. Peter says be alert, Paul says in Ephesians 6;18, be alert and keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Paul says stand firm with belt of truth buckled around our waist with the breast plate of righteousness, feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel, take up the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of the devil and the helmet of salvation with the sword of the spirit. In Isaiah 11:5, he says when the Lord returns he will have righteousness for his belt and a sash cord of faith around his waist.

It is important to be aware of Satan's existence because first he is mentioned many times in the Old and in the New Testaments. He tempted Jesus in the desert and wanted to test Peter before Christ death. This verse teaches us that the devil is our adversary, he is powerful and he is our accuser before the Lord. These teachings are important to us because we should know that if Satan accused Christ and put him on the cross, he will do his best to make us fall. We should pray that the Lord will keep us safe from the Devil's schemes.

Verse 5:7 of 1 Peter tells us to cast all our anxiety (fear) on Jesus because he cares. The reason we should cast our fears on Jesus is because he has a real concern for us. The way we cast all our anxiety and fear on Jesus is by first seeking his kingdom and righteousness then all things will be given to us, for he will sustain us and will never let the righteous people fail. By applying this verse to our life we trust and pray the Lord will relieve us of our anxieties and fears, if we trust him he will sustain us in our lives.

The purpose of the Mosaic law was given as a restraint as well as a revelation of our sinfulness. We were held prisoner by the law, it was given so we could recognize sin as sin. The law was never given to justify a person, for the law could not justify, but only help us to recognize sin against God and our neighbors. The law restrained sin because for one it taught us what sin was and those who lived by the law tried not to sin. The law exposed sin because it was given by God and mediated by Moses to the people. Until the law came no one knew what sin was, it taught people how to respect God, parents and neighbors.

Paul's argument for salvation basted on the concept of the "curse of the law" is that if they are to obey the law, they must live by the law. For if anyone living under the law is cursed, it is impossible for the law to redeem them. Christ died by hanging on a tree, he became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse, thus he has purchased or freed us from the curse of the law. The Gentiles received the promise of the spirit on the bases that if they believe in Christ in faith and what he has done to redeem them from their sins, then they receive the Holy Spirit as promised by the Lord.

The acts of humility that are appropriate for a church leader would be first, trust worthy, humble meek, modest and have a gift to lead. They must also know that they remember who God is and who they really are. To discern a person's humility before putting them in a place of leadership in the church, the person must be willing to serve, be humble, submissive to the elders and of course a God fearing person. If we fail to put a person in a leadership position without first checking to see if he or she is qualified for the job, they could lead the congregation astray. They could be money hungry for gain and exploit their authority over others. Worst of all the congregation could dwindle down to only a few people.

To keep an elder or pastor from being a power-monger we should choose a person who is qualified for the job, a man of God and most of all a humble person, willing to serve the people. A pastor's authority should be limited by the counsel of church elders who oversee the church. The danger here is that if a pastor is allowed to do as he wishes he may become greedy for money and become self centered. A person should be tested before given authority, he should be humble and willing to serve or Sheppard the church. His past history would be a good indicator of his character. This testing could be difficult if the elders of the church are not diligent in their jobs and not knowing how to test a person. To deal with a person who has become self centered, eager for gain and over ruling his authority should be brought before the elders for correcting. If the person in the leadership position is resistant or non compliance is the result, the person should be removed from his leadership position.

Paul's argument for salvation by faith based on Abraham is that by faith he believed God and that was accredited to him as righteousness. It is through Abraham that we are his spiritual children because, just as he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, so we too who believe in Christ and what he has done for us, it is accredited to us as righteousness.

The argument for salvation by faith Paul gives from the presence of the Holy Spirit is that because of faith in the gospel they had received the Spirit and experienced miracles attributed by the Holy Spirit. This tells us that the environment of the Galatian churches was being greatly influenced by the Judaziers, that had infiltrated into the churches and teaching that for salvation they had to also keep the Mosaic law and the custom of circumcision. To regain our dynamic influence in our churches today we should let the Holy Spirit to do his work among us by the manifestation of miracles and filling true believers with his spirit.

In most churches today, twisting a person's arm to serve as a church leader is that this person may really not want to serve because they are not fully qualified or not willing to put their best into the job. The damage this can cause the church is that they may lead the people into the wrong direction and not getting the full meaning of the word of God. These people who are forced or arm twisted to fill a job could cause these people to become greedy and trying to overlord the people with their ideas or rules.

We learn about the responsibilities of elders by the definitions Peter gives in 1 Peter 5:1-2 that they are advanced in age, usually the leaders of the congregation; a pastor leads the people and tend to them, also considered the Shepard of the flock; an overseer is usually referred to as a bishop who oversees the congregations in his care and most times is an elder. The thing that stood out the most about the three responsibilities above is that they are to be humble, willing to serve, not to be greedy or over lords of the people. Not forcing some to serve against their best wishes.

In the sense are "crucified with Christ", because now we live by faith in the Son of God. The above means we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer for ourselves, but Christ lives in us. Because Christ now lives in me, I no longer live, Christ lives his life through me. Christ life now motivates us by the power of the Holy Spirit. This relates to Paul's closing comments that we are a new creation, Christ lives in us and our ald sinful life is done away with. Christ over came sin and the law through faith, we are a new creation. Gal. 2:20 teaches us that while we were still in our sinful nature, Christ loved us and gave himself for us. No greater love then this, to lay down one's life for his friends.

If circumcision is deemed necessary to salvation, then Christ has died for nothing. The Mosaic law was for us to recognize we were sinners and needed a redeemer. Along with the law and the custom of circumcision the Judaizers were slipping back into the justification of the law. This issue of the Judaizers slipping back into the law and circumcision was a very important issue in Paul's day. Had he allowed the Judaizers to continue disrupting the Gentiles with this requirement it could have disrupted the spreading of the gospel. To Luther and the reformers this issue of circumcision was being imposed upon the Gentile believers for redemption. In their day the church of Rome was imposing their requirements upon the nations, such as their idea's and requirements made Christ death of no effect. We were freed from sin by faith in Christ, not law and regulations set by men in the church high archie. In our day there are many congregations with their own tenets of belief and rules to follow. This should not be so, we are all followers of Christ, not a verity of congregations who they have it right. Most all congregations claim to follow Christ and his teachings, but most demand we worship Christ their way and their way of interpreting Gods word and what is and what is not necessary in our day and culture. God's word does not change or deviate to suit our time, culture and idea's of how it ought to be.

It may be hard to take the gospel to different people because we try to insert our cultural beliefs and customs into their culture practices. It would be hard for them to give up some of their ways of life just to convert to Christianity, because we think they need to. In church history when missionaries came to America they tried to conform the Native American's into an European way of life, to become farmers instead of hunters and change their native language to English, French or Spanish. The dangers of doing this is that they may refuse to change their life customs to become Christians. What kind of god would want them to change their language and maintaining their ways of life? Should they entirely change their customs? To change these cultural clashes, it would be better not to force our culture on those in other countries. Should we encourage them to cut their hair, learn our language? We should be adapted to their culture before we go evangelizing other nations.

Paul had confronted Peter publicly rather than privately because he wanted to show Peter as well as the group from Jerusalem that they were wrong in trying to get the Gentiles to conform to jewish customs. Paul told them that Christians were not justified by the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. I do not think Paul tried to confront Peter privately about imposing the Jewish custom of circumcision on the Gentiles. Plus Peter appeared to be afraid of the jewish cohort from Jerusalem. He had become unstable in his character, wishing not to be demeaned by group which was from James. A public discussion of this benefit of living freely under the faith in Christ was important to the Jewish Christians, who were no longer under the law. This discussion before the elders in Jerusalem was important to the Gentiles because the custom of circumcision would have discouraged them from coming to Christ if they needed to comply with Jewish customs, Gentiles were not under this custom to begin with. This put a lot of pressure on Paul by the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem because he was not of the original 12 Apostles, but was later chosen by the Lord to be an Apostle to the gentiles.

Peter had embraced the Gentile believers in Antioch when he went to visit Paul and Barnabas, they ate what ever the house of Cornelius had for them. A delegation of Christian Jews came from Jerusalem to see if the Gentiles were conforming to their beliefs. Peter with drew from the Gentiles and ate with Jews. He was afraid of the delegates that they would convict him of eating unclean food and the Gentiles were uncircumcised, which the group from Jerusalem believed they should have been. Peter's character had at times been somewhat unstable, stating one thing then withdrawing when conviction came. he should have known better because the :ord had already given him permission to eat all food. Barnabas who was a Greek speaking Jew, was even drawn over to the Christian Jews from Jerusalem who were of the circumcision group. Their persuasion and afluence must have great to move everyone over to their side. The political clout of the delegation from Jerusalem must have been tremendous and impressive, being from the leaders of James. After coming to Christ, and to the best of my knowledge in remembrance, I have not been a hypocrite. If I had and come to realize what I had done, I would be very repentant and ask the Lord's forgiveness.

Being a Christian and willing to die for our faith in Christ is important because it shows we are willing to suffer as he did and it shows our trust and perseverance in the faith in Christ. When we are afraid to die for Christ it shows our fear and selfish attitude for ourselves. We must trust Christ and continue in doing his will. By following Christ and our Heavenly Father the creator of all things, shows our faithfulness in him and his faithfulness to and for us. We must continue doing his will and take up our cross and follow him if we are true believers.

If we are never persecuted for Christ sake, it maybe for several reasons, we are not living our life for Christ and we can not be identified with him. Perhaps we are living a sheltered life and never go out with fellow believers. But, would we be identified as a follower if we never share our belief or have fellowship with other Christians? If we are persecuted for being Christians then we should rejoice, because we know the Spirit of Christ lives within us and others can identify us as one of his followers.

When mediating on the idea of partaking of our being a sharer in Christ suffering the perspective of that persecution brings about the awareness that I could lose my life for his shake. We must remember that persecution can arise anywhere, anytime and anyplace. There are people and religious groups that hate Christ and all who follow him.

By trying to avoid persecution and suffering for Christ our faith will not be strengthened, our hearts will remain hard instead of developing our love for him. Christ will help strengthen our faith and perseverance if we allow him to. I have never suffered persecution from being a follower of Christ, but I have suffered the fiery darts that Satan brings by having family and friends trying to convince me that following Christ was a waste of time. I have observed these trails of other followers of Christ who are demeaned for being a Christian, ridiculed and chased off.

Paul distanced himself from the leaders of the Jerusalem church because he knows he has been chosen by Jesus to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Peter and the other apostles were to take the gospel to the Jews only. Paul probably felt he did not need their approval, but to keep peace and harmony he went to the leaders at Jerusalem. To show his respect of the leaders in Jerusalem he mentions their approval of his ministry and to show the Judizers that he was correct in his teaching of the gospel. As mentioned above, their approval of Paul's teachings of the gospel and their not placing the Gentiles under the Mosaic law which had been done away with by Christ and the covenant.