divine revelation

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Today we continue with Paul's letter to the Galatians. This passage may seem a bit confusing at first. Galatians makes the most sense if you just sit down and read it all at once, and it's short enough to do that without too much trouble. As we read earlier, Paul begins the letter by emphasizing that he is an apostle sent by Jesus Christ, not by people. This passage supports that statement because Paul makes it clear that his teaching comes straight from God. While he has met with leaders of the church in Jerusalem, it wasn't the first thing he did when he found Jesus. The leaders he met with agreed that he was teaching the right thing, but they didn't add anything to his teaching.

Paul's story is amazing in many ways, but this part of it is easy to skip over so let's think about it for a minute. Paul finds Christ in a stunning moment on the road to Damascus to persecute the church. He's blinded by a bright light and hears the voice of Jesus call him to ministry as an apostle. Paul's revelations from Jesus continue through dreams and visions and Bible study. He teaches that faith to many others as he plants new churches wherever he goes. 14 years later Paul meets with other Christian apostles to compare notes; sure enough, they are both teaching the same thing despite the fact that the other apostles travelled with Jesus in the flesh and Paul got his message from the risen Christ. May God strengthen us today by the power of the gospel of Jesus.

Blessings,
Sam


Galatians 2:1-10
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. 3But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.4But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us— 5we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.

6And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) —those leaders contributed nothing to me. 7On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised 8(for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), 9and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.