Dearest
Christians in Central Turkey. Let me continue to remind you of the Gospel which
I preached to you.
Truly you are
Abraham’s children, heirs, who now are receiving the promised inheritance
through Jesus Christ. No longer must you hold onto the guard rails of any identity
marker to make this promise plain—you are in Christ, and that’s it! You are part
of God’s people!
Yet I should
not be shocked that you want to go back… after all when God brought the
Israelites out of Freedom under Moses and they traveled through the wilderness
to the promised land… along the way they wailed and whined and wanted to go
back to Slavery, back to the fleshpots of Egypt.
And so too, these
people who came preaching to you all after me are luring you back to the
fleshpots. It might be more comfortable to rely on your identity as male, free,
or Jewish (or I might add…Elite, rich, young, straight, citizen, or white)—or
at least, those preaching a false gospel would make you feel more welcome, once
you conformed to all those identities—but you all are free of that, you all are
a member of the Messiah’s family. You, yes you in particular who are
hearing these words, you are Free!
I know it’s
hard—after all look at Abraham, he wasn’t able to trust God’s promises, he was promised
land & children, and the first thing he went out and did was try to force
the issue… he continually leaves the land and does everything he can to mess up
the lives of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren—always
with a sense that he was going to make the promise happen… it already
happened!
So too with
these preachers of a false gospel—they want you to force the promise God made
to us through his son Jesus by adopting identities that aren’t the identity Child
of God! They want you to circumcise yourself, or accept second class
citizenship in the Kingdom of God.
But I Paul,
tell you this much, if you do what they say, the Messiah means nothing to you! Once
you give in on that one little thing, everything else changes… the dividing
walls come back up, exclusionary identities will become normal to you again—know
this, neither cutting the flesh nor not cutting the flesh is of any avail, but
rather faithfulness made actual through love avails much!
You all were
running the race perfectly when I left you, but now you’ve run smack into a
concrete wall. I am confident you will find your way around it and back to the
scandalous cross of our Lord Jesus!
I guess what I’m
saying is, it was to bring us into the realm of freedom that Christ set us
free. So stand you all’s ground, and don’t get locked up again!
You all were
called to freedom! But don’t let that freedom be turned into a place the Flesh
will ambush you all from!
Instead, be
captured by love of one another. After all, the whole of the Law was spoken in
the sentence: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself!”
You know the
other option don’t you? Acting like two rabid dogs, snapping at one another,
threatening to devour one another—It seems like you all are going that
route—good luck with that—you’ll swallow one another whole.
Look, here’s
how I’d teach you if I was there in person: Lead you all’s daily lives guided
by the Spirit—in that way, y’all won’t end up acting all impulsive and be
tricked by the Flesh into doing It’s desire.
Because the
Flesh is actively inclined against the Spirit, and the Spirit again the Flesh.
Check it out,
these two Powers, the Flesh and the Spirit—are opposites sides, at war with one
another—and in the confusion of that war you all don’t actually do what you
wish to do!
But if, in the
daily life of your community, you all are being consistently led by the Spirit,
then you all don’t need the Law to fight your battle against the Flesh.
When the Flesh
claims you as an occupied territory it’s really obvious.
The effects
are sexual—for example: fornication, vicious immorality, and uncontrolled
debauchery.
They are
spiritual—for example: the worship of idols and belief in magic.
They are
publicly embarrassing: bouts of drunkenness, nights of carousing, and the like.
Most worrying
they are destructive to community: instances of irreconcilable hatred, strife,
resentment, outbursts of rage, mercenary ambition, dissensions, separation into
divisive cliques, and grudging envy of the neighbor’s success.
In this
regard, I warn you all now, just as I warned y’all before: those who practice
the like will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
By contrast,
when you are rightfully claimed by the realm of the Spirit it’s obvious
too—because you bear the fruits of the Spirit. They are love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faith, gentleness, self-control. The Law, the
other option in this fight against the Flesh—even the Law which oppresses you
all as much as the Flesh, doesn’t forbid these kinds of things! And remember,
those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the Flesh, together with its
passions and desires.
If we live in
the Spirit—and we do!—let us carry out our daily lives under the guidance of
the Spirit.
For example, if
someone falls, restore them with gentleness, you too could just as easily be
tempted as they were. Bear one another’s burdens—that’s how you do that love
thing that fulfills the Law of Christ! Live that out by giving your neighbor
the benefit of the doubt, while taking responsibility for your own actions. Imagine
if we all did that!
Those fruits
of the Spirit and Works of the Flesh you are planting, they will come to full
bloom—that’s a warning and a promise friends. So, in this planting season let’s
work for the good of all, especially those who are members of the family of
God.
And on that
note, I write one final time, in big ol’ letters, about that issue. You are members of the family of God
whether you’ve been marked in the flesh by circumcision or not. Do not boast in the flesh, boast only
in the Cross of Jesus. Because of the Blessed One being crucified on the cursed
cross, all the divisions of this world are scattered, including the distinction
between Jew and Gentile, because a new creation, a new world, is here! That
alone matters!
If you trust
that to be true, I bless you with God’s peace and mercy! The Grace of our Lord
Jesus the Anointed be with your spirit, siblings. Amen!
