Day Three: Gal. 1:1-7 “Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus
Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead—and all the brothers who
are with me:
To the churches of Galatia. Grace
to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the
will of our God and Father. To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
I am amazed that you are so
quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ and are
turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are
some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah.”
I
recently purchased a home gym. It’s one of those large machines that
allow you to do over 30 different exercises in a variety of positions.
I ordered the machine on the internet, and was shocked when it arrived at my house.
The entire contraption was stuffed into a box that's less than 8 inches tall!
As I opened the box up, I started to see how it was in fact possible.
Before starting the construction process, I sought out the owner’s manual.
In
the brief manual, I was provided detailed instructions for putting the machine
together, a helpful guide for the various exercises that could be performed on
the machine, and a few training tips.
This was a very helpful guide. But it was only helpful because I had
that particular machine.
If
I were to approach you and give you this manual, you’d have absolutely no use
for tithe entire manual is written for the
purpose of showing someone how to set up and use the equipment.
If they do not have the equipment, the manual would do no good.
Just
as the instruction manual had a very specific purpose, much of the Bible does
as well. If we do not understand the purpose of
a specific text of Scripture, we may miss its ultimate point
For
example, look at this passage from Galatians.
Verse 2 clearly states that this letter was written to the churches of Galatia.
Why did Paul choose to write this particular letter to those churches? We see
that answer a bit further in verses 6 and 7.He
explicitly says that there are some in the church of Galatia that wanted “to
change the gospel of Christ.” The purpose of this letter, then, is
to help the churches of Galatia understand the true gospel and protect them
from false doctrines. If we didn’t have this first section
to help us see the purpose of the letter, we’d miss out on much of its rich
teaching.
PAUSE
AND REFLECT
▷▷Why
is it important to understand the writer’s purpose of a particular passage of
Scripture?
▷▷How
does knowing a passage’s purpose help us understand the ultimate meaning of a
passage?
▷▷How
can we figure out a passage’s purpose?
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