# 4. 2018 Dev. Gal.5:6 Love as faith! Read verses 1-12. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Gal. 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
What Paul is concerned about in this section is making clear why Jesus came to earth in the first place. He came to offer us salvation leading to freedom, righteousness, love, and faith.
Jesus tells us why he came in Mt. 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
“Good news”: the gospel: The poor, those who are spiritually poor, those who do not know how to live a good quality life because they do not know Jesus nor do they know themselves, sometimes bringing on physically poverty but always spiritually poverty. Good news encompasses what is discussed below.
“freedom for the prisoner”: Without Jesus we are prisoners of sin and there is no release. Guilt remains, disruption of our lives remain, the cause of sin often leads to physical incarceration. Jesus forgives sin yet sin remains for now but forgiveness heals and makes us righteous in Christ.
“recover the sight of the blind”: Without Jesus we do not see. This blindness is worse than physical blindness; we have eyes but we do not see. Only in the power of the Spirit of Jesus (God) do we have the eyes to see His salvation offered freely. Seeing and believing!
“to set the oppressed free”: Based on the three issues discussed before this one we have no idea that it is Satan who is oppressing us, indeed denying the existence of Satan and his angels. He does exist but is chained, he only has power if you get close to him in how you live your life.
This is what Paul is teaching the Galatian Christians and what he is teaching us: only faith in Jesus and his love for us described in Jesus’ explanation in Mt. 4: 18-19 is of any value. That is the bottom line, faith is love for Christ and His love for us!
But it raises one question; why is there such a difference among Christians on issues in life; abortion, sexual orientation, Sunday observance and differing life styles and world views? I don’t know how you would answer this question. I feel that sometimes we do not see or refuse to see and/or we are looking through a worldly filter skewing our view. May we all look by the Spirit through the lens of God in his Word and the living Word Jesus Christ! Amen!
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