Galatians 5:1-15 (Read Here)
Galatians 5:16-26 (Read Here)
Galatians 6 (Read Here)
How often have you read a morning devotional and completely forgotten what it was about by the end of the day? Or perhaps you’re tuning out even as you are reading. I know I cannot be the only one.
Here’s the good news: the Bible’s primary instruction regarding Scripture is not merely reading it, but meditating on it, understanding it, and doing it! We have a tendency to try to make Scripture-reading a checklist item and a “Law” by which we are justified with God (we will see today that Paul has a lot to say about this kind of thinking), when in fact, God is much more interested that we understand and obey his word than he is in the number of verses we read in the morning. For this reason, today’s format looks a little different. Rather than commentary, you’ll only have questions to help you understand and apply the passage. Galatians is a deep book, especially for those not raised as 1st-century Jews (hint: that’s all of us), but its message is also profoundly simple: only Christ saves. As you work through the questions below, I pray that you’ll come to understand that truth more fully. A lot of the questions are intended to build off of each other and give you a better understanding of the passage as a whole, but you may also choose to just focus on a few questions for a particular area of understanding. May God bless you as you study his word, and may you be truly free as he has intended you to be.
Read Galatians 5. What do you think Paul means in Galatians 5:1? Write this verse in your own words. (If needed, come back to this question after further reading of the passage!)
Read Luke 11:37-54. How do the Pharisees illustrate Galatians 5:2-4? In what ways do we in the modern Church attempt to be “justified by the Law”? How does Galatians 5:3 assure us of the futility of being justified by the law?How do verses 5 and 6 contrast verses 3 and 4?
In one or two sentences, summarize Paul’s main argument in Galatians 5:1-12.
According to verse 13, what are we to use our freedom for? What use of freedom are we warned against? How do we ensure that we are living in the freedom that God has set us free for? (See verses 16-17). According to verses 19-23, what does “faith working through love”(v. 6) look like? What does it not look like?
Read Galatians 6. Why do you think Paul tells us to do good, especially to those in the household of faith? (Galatians 6:10). According to Galatians 6:12-13, what is the real reason that the circumcision party is insistent on the Gentile Galatian Christians becoming circumcised?
*It could be tempting to take Paul’s admonitions about the marks of a Spirit-filled life in 5:16- 6:10 as new “Law” which we must perform to be saved. Take a look at two “bookends” of this passage: Galatians 5:5-6 and Galatians 6:15. What is Paul’s overall teaching about salvation?
How is living the spirit-filled life an act of freedom rather than Law?