March 19 - Galatians 4:17-20

March 19 - Galatians 4:17-20

Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

Proverbs 19:2 says, “Zeal without knowledge is not good; a person who moves too quickly may go the wrong way.”

It is said that there is nothing worse than a student in the middle of an education.  They think they know everything there is to know.  While this is probably true about nearly every program, it is especially true of those who are in seminary.  The problem is a little bit of knowledge, a whole lot of passion and very little life experience and wisdom.

Now, at the same time those attributes are exciting because young people tend to move forward without a lot of fear.  Great things can happen when that all comes together in the right way.  It’s exciting for me to watch young minds explore theology in my classes.  They are just opening up to the challenges of how to verbalize their faith and seminary is giving them tools with which to do that.  At the same time, there are a few that should have their mouths sewn shut until they finish their education.  It’s painful to watch.

When Paul’s teachings came into the lives of the Galatians, they jumped up and grabbed hold of his new teaching.  But, they hadn’t grounded themselves in the knowledge that went with that faith and before long, were being corrupted by everything else that surrounded them.

Billy Graham’s ministry learned that lesson in the 70s.  He was leading huge numbers of people to Christ in vast stadiums and since there was no follow up or training to help these people develop as Christians, there was no depth to their faith and soon they were back as they had been before … nothing had changed.  They now partner with churches throughout the region to provide opportunities for growth and continued transformation.

Paul knows that he is going to have to start over with the Galatians.  The best part of the story is that God always offers multitudes of chances for His people to come into relationship with Him.  No matter how perplexed it made Paul, God made sure Paul was able to minister to the Galatians and draw them back.