“Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:” (Galatians 1:1-2)

Letters are rarely used in today’s world of email, Twitter, Skype and Facebook. Even words and phrases have been shortened to abbrevia-tions. Messages moved to the trash and deleted are gone forever. Fortunately our Lord chose to use Paul to write letters to the churches during a time when words had meaning and letters were so special that they were saved. This letter to the church at Galatia begins simply with the name of the writer. In the name of Paul, he identifies himself as a man changed by our Lord. It is not the name of the scholar, the fanatic, the accuser, or the bystander of mur-der. Paul is the name of the man with a new pur-pose. Paul’s change is not the change from one avatar to another. It is not a new game moniker. He is an “apostle” sent by Jesus Christ. Surely for the Galatians this would bring to mind Paul’s miraculous conversion. He is no longer a man sent with letters of accusation and arrest from the Jewish leaders; now he is an apostle sending a letter to the church, reminding them of the truth of the gospel and warning about false teachers. This letter of warning and good news is not from Paul alone. It is a letter from the brothers and sisters with Paul to the church in Galatia. The truths he will share are not from men but from God. They will not be the false promises of today’s emails of Nigerian inheritances, but rather the promises of our eternal inheritance from our God who raised Jesus from the dead.

By Rev. Andy Guagenti

Father, we thank You that in Christ Jesus we have be-come sons of God, through faith, and heirs according to the true promises of God the Father who raised Jesus.