Category: Epistles – Is his letter to our church?

Epistles ἐπιστολή or Letters

I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians

FEATURED SERIES

JUNE 2024 – 2025 —

1 CORINTHIANS

First letter after ACTS of the Apostles:

Epistle of Paul to the Romans Church

Letters – Is he writing to me?
The short answer: YES.

In their epistles or 1st century church letters the Apostles and other men sent out by Jesus build up the saints [small – ‘s’] or members of local first century churches.

A Disciple or other witness of JESUS would write it. Messengers then delivered these church letters to many isolated worshipers.

Followers of Jesus Christ receive these letters as a major encouragement to their personal faith. Then leaders read them to worshipers of their church.

Although the Epistles 0r Letters to the Church were originally written to churches of the first century,

Romans through Jude will seem like letters to your 21st century church.

What do Peter, Paul, John and others tell us we must do?
Is he talking about an issue in your 21st c. church as well?
How does the writer’s advice, warning, or encouragement to the 1st c. believers apply to you as well
Is the writer of this letter talking about something you need to address in your 21st century ‘christian’ life?

Contemporary Application of the Letters (Epistles)

Most New Testament writers take on specific issues confronting faithful followers of Jesus Christ. These same issues continue to confront believers until the Lord’s coming again in these last days.

Certainly Christ our Lord will come again to those God has chosen for eternal life.

Believers currently suffer more than most of you who know Christ in your local church can imagine.

In other lands Christians continue to suffer by the hand of the ungodly.
Go into all the world

A 21st century Common Era church can see and hear nearly any atrocity of man or artificial imagination of sinful man’s mind, yet ‘christians‘ dare not speak of any absolute truth of the Lord God or talk of JESUS CHRIST.

Will YOU comment on Scripture and share the Gospel?

I invite you to read the inspired word of Scripture written in these LETTTERS TO THE CHURCH.

YES, He IS writing to YOU.

Beloved brother or sister in Christ Jesus,

Will you read this ‘CHURCH LETTER’ and talk of JSUS through your comment, sharing and email to me about this ‘Letter to you?”

Roger@talkofJesus.com

Not ME – the deception of SIN
“Not me,” we boastfully sang out as children.

We gleefully sang each verse of the children’s song so familiar we knew the continuous scratches in our 45 rpm record. Who’s afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF? — a story also told on our little black and white television and eventually in living color by Walt’s colorful characters. (We knew the story and song by heart.)

“Who’s afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF?” Not me.
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Who's afraid of the big bad wolf,
the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf,
"Who's afraid of the BIG BAD WOLF?"  
[then 5 familiar notes of melody during which we sang out: 
NOT MEEEE!]
```
I’m not even certain ANY version of the song from “The Three Pigs” even included our unanimous care-free response of each little pig; but my sister, brother and I all knew where the story was headed.

A Father’s Letter to his Gentile Children

Now you’re probably wondering what a children’s song has to do with the Apostle Paul.

(I’ll make the connection before the last verse of his letter (so to speak) as we suddenly discover a HOT TOPIC for the church.)

In the year of our Lord 49 to A.D. 51

As the Apostle Paul nears completion of a Second Missionary Journey he sends a letter to a church back in Macedonia from where the Apostle to the gentiles had been forced to flee. Paul’s heart for these new believers looks back to Christ’s love in them.

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
First letter from Paul, Silas and Timothy to the Thessalonian church 2:7

Thessalonica

The First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians
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What do you do when travelling away from home and separated from loved ones? We do our best to communicate at a distance, (before hand-held phones) traditionally by letter.

Again, from Corinth, the year ~ A.D. 51 
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These new believers in Christ Jesus in Macedonia receive communication from Paul, a father to them in the faith. Silvanus we know familiarly as Silas and their young protoge Timothy has been their trusted courier and also a pastor to believers in distant towns.

[READ 1 Thessalonians 3 for details that complete the ACTS journey to Athens.]

Like any good father the Apostle encourages and also exhorts these young believers to maintain their new-found righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

.. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.
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Is this not what every child wants to hear from its father? 

'Well done, good and faithful young follower of Christ' 

Even in other parts of Macedonia and HERE IN CORINTH ACHAIA the Thessalonian faith has become an example to others.

The Apostle then recounts their struggles in other cities.
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2: ²But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. ³For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive…
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Remember this, and remember the big bad wolf who will knock at our door later.
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5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness.

Three Weeks in Thessalonica- Acts 17

Opposition to the Gospel in Philippi and then Thessalonica

We are proud of you

11 For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
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CHILD of God, Christ is at work in YOU.
Good job, son! Well done, daughter.
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14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind..

but Satan hindered us
- DO YOU BELIEVE IN SATAN?
  - “Not me,” will be the response of many 21st century claimants of Christ.
- Yet the Lord Jesus AND Paul both include along with the Gospel warnings about the fallen angel Satan who huffs and puffs at the door of faith of every Christ follower.
.. we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.
1 Thessalonians 2:18 διότι ἠθελήσαμεν ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ μὲν Παῦλος καὶ ἅπαξ καὶ δίς καὶ ἐνέκοψεν ἡμᾶς ὁ Σατανᾶς ESV

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

Furthermore then we beseech you..
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Many long-time servants of the Lord Jesus may detect a certain fatherly embrace of Paul opening his arms to his Thessalonian children of the faith. 

The more formal quaintness of the King James Version perhaps captures the Apostle's love for these saints best.
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Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians 4:1 KJV

(Some may even recall familiar and more formal prayers of your own childhood in Christ simply at hearing the plea,

WE BESEECH YOU.
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A General Thanksgiving (from the A.D. 1928 Anglican Prayer Book)

ALMIGHTY God, Father of all mercies, we, thine unworthy servants, do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us, and to all men; We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

 And, we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may he unfeignedly thankful: and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
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NEXT: from Thessalonians 4-5 – WARNINGS

to the children of the Lord facing that Big Bad Wolf, who disguises himself as light while he huffs and puffs at the saints approaching the narrow door of eternal life.
July 13, 2023
My HOT reaction to a 1st. c. Hot Topic
As I read my own contemporary REACTION to Paul’s epistle (letter) to the ‘foolish Galatians’ I realized that the Apostle had provoked PREACHING in my own commentary.

Which HOT Topic that matters to YOU will push your button of REACTION?

WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO PERVERSION?

OR YOUR REACTION TO HYPOCRISY?

HOW DO YOU REACT TO SIN?
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IF you even hold that SIN is identifiable in a man or woman.
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IS YOUR REACTION TO OPPONENTS OF GOD SIMILAR TO PAUL’S?
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IF YOU YOURSELF are not opposed to the ONE GOD and JESUS CHRIST?
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REACTION to Galatians
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Think of this an extended personal COMMENT and reaction to my own post 
AND then ADD your reaction to Paul's letter with YOUR comment.

Please forgive any overlap of content from Scripture. It is my hope that these exhortations may also convict 21st century christians in addition to the Galatians.
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HOT topics from Galatians – Perversion of the Gospel

Galatians 1:7b LSB – .. there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Apostasy appears throughout the Holy Bible when God’s people become unholy.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Paul’s epistle to the churches in Galatia 3:1 ESV

Foolish Reactions of milk-fed christians

(My REACTION to those led to ‘some other gospel,’ as Paul puts it.)

For the turning away^H4878 of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

See Paul’s reference to foolishness according to Proverbs

God’s reaction to worshipers turning from HIM!

Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine:

the soul who sins shall die.
the word of the LORD through His Prophet Ezekiel 18:4

It is NOT ONLY the flesh which will wither and die; but, SAYS THE LORD, ‘the soul who sins shall die.’

Galatians 4:

SON OF A SLAVE! (What’s your reaction to that?)

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

DOES THIS NOT CONTINUE TO BE THE CONDITION OF EVERY CHRISTIAN BEFORE WE TURN TO JESUS CHRIST?

So why then, O foolish 21st century sinner, do you speak of reparations for slavery when you continue to refuse release from the CHAINS of CULTURE?

We are ENSLAVED by CULTURE! – the PERVERSE cultures of media leavening every moment of our day; the PERVERSE claims of political leaders PAID FOR secretly by those evil ones of Satan to whom their parties are chained.

The list is endless in these last days of this 21st century since the ascension of the risen Christ until HE returns to judge the living and the dead.

What’s your REACTION to HELL?
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Now there's a HOT Topic to avoid for those who pervert justice and oppose the Gospel of Christ's return. Again Paul's concern for the Galatians ought to mirror our own concern for 21st century church.
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9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
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OR, foolish claimant of Christ, is your own perversion of the Gospel leading your own soul into inevitable darkness, death, Judgment and right punishment for preaching culture and not Christ?
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15 What then has become of your blessedness? .. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?
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DO YOU CHOOSE THE TRUE GOSPEL or have you foolishly followed the descending flow of their cultural gospel (which is false) into the very pit of perdition?
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17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.
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The Apostle Paul exhorts so-called christians of the churches of Galatia to return to the GOSPEL OF CHRIST. 

I, too, have cultural HOT buttons of REACTION.
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false – for it is intolerant of Christ and Scripture

Syncretism

You can’t be Orthodox AND Roman..

You’re no longer Catholic..

You can’t be righteous to Allah if you claim Christ..

Moroni and Smith hid in a secretive and false church of Jesus Christ in these latter days..

Our preaching is NOT Universal and CANNOT accept all religions..

GOD calls SELF-worship ‘SIN.’

Buddha can help you find your true SELF..

Our gods of the earth and nature bring you to the karma of this life..

We are ALL good..

The Bible is just another book.. )

DO YOU SEE THE DANGERS?

Evidence of Christ or Signs of Apostasy?

No Bible translation I know is so brash as to use this HEADING for Paul’s closing argument in his case against some members of the churches we call Galatians;

yet I’ll risk closing this HOT topic with such a summation for a jury of my Christian peers.

4 You are severed [cut away] from Christ, you who would be justified by the law;

you have fallen away from grace.

The GOSPEL of Christ’s grace IS good news not only to the redeemed but in its evidence to others.

17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,

and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,

for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

CAN THE PERVERSITY OF HYPOCRISY BE ANY MORE OBVIOUS IN ITS WITNESS THOUGH THOSE WHO CLAIM CHRIST?

Perversion of the FLESH? vs. Fruit of the SPIRIT?

WHICH do YOU choose AND what evidence does every juror see, you who have been given the Gospel?

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident:

sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies,

and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
Paul’s epistle [instructive letter to the churches] to the Galatians 5:22-23a ESV

against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

ARE YOU a christian wearing the Cross of Christ while living in the flesh just as Paul calls out to the Galatians to return to the GOSPEL of CHRIST?
- Does REACTION to your christian claim lead to further apostasy from God?
Does Paul’s HOT Topic #2 for the saints of the churches in Galatia CONVICT YOU?

WHAT FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT do you lack?

OR

Is your witness as a christian saint somewhat steeped in the unholiness of the fruit of the flesh?

COMMENTS? or Questions?
June 20, 2023
Hot Topics from Galatians #2 – Apostasy
Apostasy appears throughout the Holy Bible when God’s people become unholy.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

HOT topic #2 – apostasy

Although Paul does not specifically name apostasy for the Galatians he will when writing to the Thessalonians.
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[Circumcision may be a HOT Topic of the flesh of 2023 CE,
but this physical SIGN from a broken covenant was just one sign of apostasy,

SINCE MANY OPPOSE and deny Almighty God 
and the Lamb of the NEW COVENANT Christ Jesus!
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Galatians HOT topic #1: Perversion of the Gospel

In our first look at Paul’s letter to the Galatians (possibly sent from ACHAIA) we quickly discovered that the Apostle’s #1 HOT topic and concern for these new churches is perversion of the gospel of Christ.

WE easily get pulled off-topic. CIRCUMCISION is NOT the issue.

Even for the Jews circumcision is NOT the issue, but an excuse to JUDEIZE Greek and Roman converts by forcing a sign of a broken covenant on the flesh of men.

So apostasy is an unnamed HOT topic in his letter to the Galatian churches. Apostasy is a HOT topic result of false teaching by others which the Apostle to the Gentiles addresses.

What is it?

To oversimplify, apostasy is akin to adultery against God.

And as we see the cultural custom of wedding bands, so too the Jews viewed circumcision of a man as a visual sign of their covenant with God.

Apostasy defined:

מְשׁוּבָה

The KJV translates Strong’s H4878 in the following manner: backsliding (11x), turning away (1x).

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Jeremiah 2:19 KJV 2:19 תְּיַסְּרֵךְ רָעָתֵךְ וּמְשֻֽׁבוֹתַיִךְ תּוֹכִחֻךְ וּדְעִי וּרְאִי כִּי־ רַע וָמָר עָזְבֵךְ אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהָיִךְ וְלֹא פַחְדָּתִי אֵלַיִךְ נְאֻם־אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה צְבָאֽוֹת׃

When the Jews broke their covenant with the LORD,

a NEW Covenant was needed

– NOT a cultural covenant ONLY for the Jews, but a lasting covenant

— a NEW testament of God’s love for men and women made in His Image — mortals from every culture of the world HE created.

we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law
Epistle from Paul to the Galatians 2:15 excerpt ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Galatians 3:

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Paul’s epistle to the churches in Galatia 3:1 ESV

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
- all who rely on works of the law are under a curse 10a
- “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” – 10b
  - Deuteronomy 27:26 אָרוּר אֲשֶׁר לֹא־ יָקִים אֶת־דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָֽה־הַזֹּאת לַעֲשׂוֹת אוֹתָם וְאָמַר כָּל־הָעָם אָמֵֽן׃ פ
IT’S A BIG DEAL TO THE JEWS who knew AND tried to practice ALL THE LAWS OF SCRIPTURE.

19 Why then the law?

It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.
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The ONLY sinless offspring (son of man) IS Christ: descendent AND predecessor of Abraham (to whom the covenant was given with its sign) AND of Moses (to whom was given the LAW of perfection by which ALL are transgressors (sinners) come under its curse.
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24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
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Certainly this was Paul's GOSPEL PREACHED to the GALATIANS at first.
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Galatians 4:

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

15 What then has become of your blessedness? .. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

Galatians 5:

4 You are severed [cut away] from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
- Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
- This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
- 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
- do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh,
- but through love serve one another.
The GOSPEL of Christ’s grace IS good news not only to the redeemed but by its evidence to others.

17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,

and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,

for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Perversion of the FLESH? vs. Fruit of the SPIRIT?

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident:

sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies,

and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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THE PERVERSITY OF HYPOCRISY BECOMES OBVIOUS IN ITS WITNESS THROUGH THOSE WHO CLAIM CHRIST?
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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;
Paul’s epistle [instructive letter to the churches] to the Galatians 5:22-23a ESV

against such things there is no law.

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Let’s just leave it there.

a side note on Circumcision

Technically the HOT topic of Apostasy is circumcision which Paul mentions seven [7] times in his epistle to the men of the churches of Galatia and frequently in his other epistles to the churches.

WHY?
- Jewish men apostate from the LORD could make false claim to this covenant long-ago broken between the Hebrews and God
  - (much like a christian wearing the Cross of Christ while living in the flesh as Paul calls out to the Galatians).
- Such claims certainly lead to further apostasy from God by the witness of such hypocrisy justifying further sin forbidden by the LAW and perversion of the flesh!
Does Paul’s HOT Topic #2 for the saints of the churches in Galatia CONVICT YOU?

WHAT FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT do you lack?

OR

Is your witness as a christian saint somewhat steeped in the unholiness of the fruit of the flesh?

COMMENTS? or Questions?
June 19, 2023