no gospel at all

The Galatian Christians had a problem, one I read about this morning in the first part of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The problem is summarized in Galatians 1:6-7: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

It seems after Paul planted his churches there, some others came behind him and contradicted him. They didn’t believe in grace, and encouraged the people to try to earn their salvation. As Paul said, that’s not the gospel.

Here’s the uncomfortable part, though: the ones who came preaching a false message were God-followers too. They were Judaizers, a sect of the new church that tried to reconcile the Gospel with all their previous rules, like circumcision. To them, those rules were what made Jews Jewish. They saw this time in Galatia as a mission trip.

That makes me uncomfortable because I wonder how often the leaders of my denomination do that. Do we ever try to make people do things that aren’t part of the Gospel in order to meet our preferences or perceptions? Do I do that?

I’m reminded to be very careful when I express my opinion about church matters. When I want to require more of my church than Jesus does, I create barriers between people and him. That’s the last thing I want, or Jesus would approve of.