The example of the Galatian congregation proves that Christians can be tremendous hypocrites and sinners. It’s nothing new and will always be with us, because Christianity is a very difficult path.
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Galatians 3:1-3 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? [2] Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? [3] Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?”
Galatians 4:9b “. . . how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more?”
Galatians 5:4 “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”
Galatians 5:7 “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
The Apostle Paul on the Galatians as Fellow Christians
Galatians 1:2 “To the churches of Galatia”
Galatians 1:11 “For I would have you know, brethren, . . .”
Galatians 3:25-27 “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; [26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” [7] So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.”
Galatians 4:9a “but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, . . .”
Galatians 4:12 “Brethren, I beseech you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong”
Galatians 4:19 “My little children, . . .”
Galatians 4:28 “Now we, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.”
Galatians 4:31 “So, brethren, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.”
Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, . . .”
Galatians 6:18 “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.”
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There are similar dynamics with the Corinthian church as well. Our Lord Jesus also calls all seven assemblies of Revelation “churches” (2:1; 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14; along with the repetition of “what the Spirit says to the churches” in 2:7 and similar passages), yet excoriates several of them in no uncertain terms (2:4-5; 2:14-16; 2:20-22; 3:1-3; 3:15-18).
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Related Reading:
Sins and Sinners in the Catholic Church [1998]
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(originally 12-20-11)
Photo credit: 1903 German map of the Galatian region (in present-day Turkey) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]
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