“Do Not Be Like The Galatians!”

Text: Galatians 3:1-5.
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?[a] Have you experienced[b] so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”
Theme: Do Not Be Like The Galatians!”
By the grace of God his Spirit has enabled me in my ministry to be a student of African Traditional Religions and Philosophy and African Theology. We study African Traditional Religions in the same way that we study Islam so as to be able to know the Religions common in the environment where we operate and how to interact with them.
On another level, we do comparative religions to be conversant with other faiths. Such learnings enable us to look for points of convergence because there may be many religions, but there is just One God by many names!
The danger of such knowledge is the possibility of becoming confused and abandoning what the Holy Spirit first led us to believe – knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection. When that happens, there is all justification for us to be called foolish; in the same way that Paul addressed the Galatian Christians.
Through the Holy Spirit, the Galatians had received the message of Christ and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. But they failed to use their power of perception. They allowed legalistic Judaizers to confuse them with teachings that imposed circumcision and other abrogated mosaic laws on them.
Through what we heard and believed, we are empowered with the Holy Spirit to be able to do extraordinary things for the Lord and in the Lord. We should not allow ourselves to be bewitched by some strange doctrines that elevate elemental spirits and worldviews above Christ!
The Holy Spirit enables us to hold firm to what we have received from the Holy Book so that we should not be carried away by any wind of change!
We began our journey in faith by the Holy Spirit, and let us not want to end it by human effort. Pray for discernment always so that you can always distinguish between the wheat and the weed.
Weekend prayer: Holy Spirit, keep the fire of faith aflame in my heart. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
14/06/2025.