Galatians 1:13,14 – Considering What We're About

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this passage:

¹³For you heard [about] my former lifestyle in Judaism, that I was excessively persecuting the church of God and destroying it, ¹⁴and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many ones of the same age in my race, being exceedingly a zealot of my ancestral traditions.

Obviously, Paul’s point is to emphasize that he is not in any way unfamiliar with Jewish traditions. His repudiation of them in the Gospel is no way rooted in ignorance of them. As Luther observed Paul saying: “I have,” he says, “at one time defended the traditions of the Pharisees more fiercely than any of your false apostles. Now, if the righteousness of the Law had been worth anything I would never have forsaken it”.

Looking at this verse actually reminds me of three things:

1. Zeal is a delicate thing. Notice it says of Paul that he was “excessively” persecuting the church” and he was “advancing in Judaism beyond many” and he was “exceedingly” a zealot for his ancestral traditions. Paul was a zealous person. But, as it says in Prov 19:2, “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” Paul observes of the Jews (like himself) in   Rom 10:2: “For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge”. Zeal is, of course, in itself a good thing. God made us to work and to work hard. It is good to “throw oneself” at a task. “Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart …” Col 3:23. The problem in a sinful world is that we have the freedom to be zealous for anything, good, bad, or indifferent. We should be zealous but we need to be careful what we’re zealous of. That is one way I think parents can help their children, by helping them think through what they’re throwing their energy at. They can, of course, be so easily enamored by things that are wrong, or simply unimportant, but they’ll be far better off to pursue things of value. I suppose it’s even incumbent on all of us who are “older” to try to guide the “younger” to channel their energies into things that will really matter, whether at work, at church, in our extended families, in chance encounters, whatever, we should sincerely try to help young people channel their zeal in valuable directions. Zeal is a very good thing but it is also a delicate thing. “It takes a steady hand to carry a full cup.”

2. Our strengths are also our weaknesses. Interesting, Paul says, “You heard about my lifestyle …” My lifestyle. Paul wasn’t just occasionally zealous about something. It was his lifestyle. It was one of the strengths of his character that whatever he did, he did it with uncommon energy. Occasionally we all know someone like that, someone seeming to have an endless reserve of energy. Whatever they do, they go at it passionately, whether a job assignment, a competitive game, a new hobby, whatever. It is a strength that some people possess. Unfortunately, that same strength becomes their weakness when it gets channeled in a bad direction or used in selfish or inconsiderate ways. Martin Luther was another person like that. He said of himself: “I too may say that before I was enlightened by the Gospel, I was as zealous for the papistical laws and traditions of the fathers as ever a man was. I tried hard to live up to every law as best I could. I punished myself with fasting, watching, praying, and other exercises more than all those who today hate and persecute me. I was so much in earnest that I imposed upon my body more than it could stand. I honored the pope as a matter of conscience. Whatever I did, I did with a single heart to the glory of God.” Before he met the Lord, he was a zealous person, but that zeal was misdirected into a cruel asceticism. But when that same zeal got aimed toward the Lord, Luther became the “morning star of the Protestant Reformation.” It was true of Paul, it was true of Luther, and it is true of us: our strengths are our weaknesses; and our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. Realizing this, it is very important that we consciously sanctify our strengths.

3. Legalism makes people persecutors. It’s interesting that, before meeting Christ, Paul was “being exceedingly a zealot of my ancestral traditions.” He says in Phil 3:5 he was “…a Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the Law a Pharisee.” In today’s language we would say he was a howling legalist. A keeper of the rules. And what did it make him? Did it make him gracious and kind? No. It made him a vicious persecutor. The same was obviously true of the rest of the Pharisees of his day. They were a pompous, immoral, self-righteous, critical, hateful, cruel bunch of people who persecuted anyone who deviated from their rules. They even murdered the Messiah Himself because He didn’t keep their rules. (He had a little talk with them one day in Matthew 23. Everyone should read it some time.) I hope anyone reading this can see exactly where I’m going. It is my definite conclusion that still today legalism makes people persecutors. Paul will go on later in this same book to tell us that a real relationship with God, a real knowledge of Grace, will make us gracious – the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, … As far as I can see it has always been and always will be a pitfall of the church to fall into legalism. Obviously it was happening in Galatia. And obviously it is excessively common today. And how does it affect people? It turns them into vicious Pharisees. I believe that is a major reason why the face of Christianity is clearly not love but rather cruel, judgmental, rule keeping and the forcing of those rules on everyone else. Legalists are incapable of communicating grace because there’s none of it in their own hearts. I could go on and on about the subject but I’ll conclude by saying what I see is that even supposedly born-again people who allow legalism in their hearts become persecutors. To whatever extent they allow legalism, to that extent they become cruel rule-keepers. If they are a little legalistic, they’ll be a little a mean Pharisee. If they are very legalistic, they become monsters who may impress themselves and each other, but, like Paul, a tool not of God but the devil. It is incumbent on everyone who names the name of Christ to resist every possible intrusion of legalism and instead to cultivate a genuine grace relationship with Christ. That and that alone will make us gracious people. That and that alone will make us like Jesus.

I seriously could write on for hours on the three points above. When it comes to “what we’re about,” each one is monumentally important, I feel. God help me to be zealous for good things and encourage others (especially young people) the same. God help me to realize how much my strengths must be sanctified, lest they express themselves as weaknesses. And God help me fill my heart with the grace of knowing Him. May my heart truly be so filled with grace that it simply has no room for legalism and all its cruelty. In my tiny corner of the world, may the face of my faith be really truly Jesus.