Galatians 3.19-29 Clothed with Christ in baptism

Truth is honesty but it is not opinion. Truth is not found floating on the surface but must often be dug out with a shovel or a backhoe. Truth applies to all while opinion applies only to the one who speaks it.

For example, the Galatians said that circumcision was essential to being a true Christian. Paul wrote to them because they were trying to push their opinion onto new believers in Christ. While being circumcised was meaningful to them, it was not required of Christians. The Galatians weren’t lying about circumcision they just didn’t realize it was their opinion not truth.

In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul talks about the Jewish people as having been imprisoned and guarded under the law. When we think of being imprisoned, we think of punishment, which is somewhat the case here, but not entirely. The Jews were imprisoned under the law to be separated from society and to learn to live in the ways of the Lord. They were subjected to rules that governed every aspect of their daily lives. How they farmed, how they married, how they treated others, how they ate and drank, there were laws for everything. The purpose of those Laws was to teach them how to walk in the ways of the Lord. The purpose of the Law was to teach them how to love God and one another.

But, as humans have a tendency to do, the Spirit of the law was lost to the letter of the law. What started as Ten Commandments for living devolved into a ten-volume reference set attempting to address every loophole and exception the people tried to find. Thou shall not kill, but what about if I’m attacked? Is self-defense okay? I think it’s okay if I’m attacked.

Thou shall not commit adultery. But what about if my spouse cheats on me? What about if they can’t bear children? What about if they never learn to put their socks in the laundry hamper and leave toothpaste on the bathroom counter? I think it’s okay then.

Truth is honesty but not opinion. There is a difference that we often struggle to see. Truth is neither bad nor good it is simply factual. Opinions on the other hand have a tendency to try and sway another’s opinion in one direction or another attempting to produce a desired outcomes. Truth, although subject to interpretation, does no such thing it just is.

The issue here with all these loopholes that the Jewish people of ancient Israel created is that they missed the Spirit of the Law and decided to only adhere to the Letter of the Law. The spirit of the law you see was… don’t attack people. If no one attacks anyone else, if there is no war because no one attacks anyone else, there is no reason to ever need to defend yourself, is there?

The spirit of the law is that if everyone truly loves one another, especially your spouses, there is no reason to ever get a divorce. If you respect one another, forgive one another, and treat each other with kindness and patience and BOTH of you do these things each and every day, is there a reason to separate?

If everyone in a society is living by loving God and one another, none of those exceptions to the rule exist. The Jews were separated from society to create a bubble of safety. The Law created a prison of behavior that locked them in, and the danger out. There was to be no question of distrust amongst the Israelites as they were all to abide by the law. The problem was some didn’t… and then others used those people as an excuse to break the law themselves, which resulted in more and more and more law breaking.

All of the reasons we come up with to break the commandments are because one or both parties involved are not following the commandment. The Commandments were for everyone, no exceptions; they were the very definition of God’s Utopian Society in the Garden of Eden, Heaven on earth, the perfect civilization. There is no reason to covet what anyone else has because all have what they need, no one is left behind and all give what they can, no one is lazy or self-serving but they use that which God has given them to the fullest so that it is multiplied and divided and serves the betterment of all peoples. All people receive equal wages for their work no matter what they do for a living or how long they do it. All gifts and talents are fully utilized, respected and honored.

There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free; there is no longer male or female, for all are one in Christ. All are equal and supported and thrive together doing what they can do.

Now, you must understand all are equal. 1+1=2. But 5-3 also equals 2. 12 divided by 6 equals 2.

1+1 =5-3 = 12/6 = 15+33-24 divided by 12.

All equal but all are NOT the same. We are not the same but we are all equal. Your opinion matters exactly as much as the person next to you’s opinion does and you should be equally concerned about what is best for them as to what you believe is best for you.

Through Baptism into Jesus Christ we are all equal. For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. It is the great equalizer. The Law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we may be reckoned as righteous by faith. Let me say this again, through Christ there is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free; there is no longer male nor female, for all are one in Christ. All are equal and supported and thrive together, doing what they can do. AND all must participate in the body with that which they have been blessed with.

But, despite Christ, we still want to create loopholes don’t we? But, what if they’re not circumcised? What if they’re divorced? What if they’ve got tattoos, piercings or their hair is dyed in some unnatural looking color? What if… nope. Still equal.

What on earth was the point of Jesus Christ if you continue to try to hold and judge people to the Letter of the Law that is not the Spirit of the Law as declared by Jesus Christ himself? Jesus already knew that 10 commandments was too many, apparently people can’t follow that many rules, so he broke it down to a 2 in1 commandment: Love God and one another.

Anything you do to the least of these you do to me. Anyone you do not show love to means you do not show love to me. Truth is honesty not opinion. If it isn’t acceptance, if it isn’t welcoming, if it isn’t creating an opportunity, if it isn’t inclusive, it is not love, it is not honest, it is not truth, it’s opinion. If there is a but, what if they’re… it isn’t love, it’s judgment. You wanna follow rules and regulations on daily living, you are in the wrong faith because that is not what Christianity was meant to be according to Jesus Christ.

We are to all follow the commandment and we are instructed to live as if everyone else will follow it to because the moment we start making excuses like what if they betray me, what if they hurt me, what if they steal from me, what if they lie to me, we have failed to live within the commandments ourselves and everything we have just judged someone else on how broken we are. The moment we throw that but in there we are judging and we are not loving, we failed, not them. Our job is to create a community that lives by these rules so it is a safe space for others to live by them too. One hour, one day a week, remember?

We cannot love God and neighbor as ourselves if we spend all our days worrying about what they “might” do to us or what they might be doing.

The Jewish people at the time of Jesus had good reason to be this way just as I’m sure you have good reasons for your opinions too but if it doesn’t start somewhere how is it ever going to get anywhere? We have letters that show every church Paul planted fell short of God’s utopian vision of Christian community where all are equal. They fell short  because they got worried about what someone else was or wasn’t doing and failed to love them. Every church forgot that all people are equal in the eyes of God and decided to take it upon themselves to try and “Improve” them.

We are to live as equals, whether we are the 1 +1 or the 15+33-24/12 our job is to try to keep anyone in the community from falling out, their job is to contribute back to the community what they can. I’m not talking money, I’m talking skills, talents, time, we all have resources, we all have broken parts to contribute to the construction project and share with one another just as we all have strengths that others can lean on and share. But it starts with us. Not them.

It starts with us adhering to the spirit of the law not the letter. Living by the standards that Jesus Christ set forth after coming to fulfill the Law. Faith has been revealed and yet still we cling to the old and fail to embrace the new. The law was supposed to be the disciplinarian until Christ came, well my friends, Christ came was crucified, died, and was buried, and rose again from the dead so why are we still clinging to something that doesn’t exist anymore? That will not save us. Why are we acting as if we are birds in a cage when the door has been opened and we’re the one’s refusing to walk through it because there is a big scary world out there that doesn’t live by our Law?

Why would we rather believe lies and opinions instead of truth?

There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free; there is no longer male or female, for all are one in Christ. All are equal and supported and can thrive together doing what they can do. All deserve to live in Christ without judgment, without harassment, without discrimination, without oppression, all deserve to be loved in Christ Jesus. All deserve to be treated as if they are equal in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of the Law, the Lord of all. All who are baptized in Christ are equal in Christ.