Enemies of truth gal 4 8 11

Christ Conversation, Sunday April 3, 2016 Galatians 4:8-20, The Enemy of Truth The Apostle Paul is in agony over the Believers in Galatia. They are moving from being free children of God back into slavery.

This involves a transaction: trading truth for a lie (see Romans 1:18-23). The real enemy of truth is us.

Embracing the Father (4:9a) The core of our relationship with God is Paul’s amazing statement that we know and are known by God. The essence of the father-child relationship that they now enjoy is reciprocal knowledge: the Father knows his child; the child knows the Father. Paul’s real emphasis here is God knowing us – and because of His knowing us, we can know Him. See Psalm 139:1Isaiah 44:2; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 7:21-23; 1 Corinthians 8:3; 1 John 3:6 Embracing the False (4:8, 9b-11) Before knowing and being known by God, we worshiped things that by nature were not God. We made them gods.

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Yet our propensity to be enslaved returns (“turn back again,” v.

9b) us to practices that replace Christ with the Law and pagan worship as the basis of relating to God. This denies our relationship to God as His children (4:1-11) while maintaining the façade of being in a growing and right relationship to God.

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Embracing the Gospel (4:12-15) Embracing the Gospel often starts with embracing the one speaking the gospel into our lives. This is where Paul starts: “Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.”

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The Galatians had received Paul as an angel, as Christ Jesus.

Even though Paul’s physical condition could have been a cause for rejection or scorn, they received him and the gospel.

Through his detractors, Paul has admitted he was not a man that inspired attraction in appearance or his speaking ability (see 2 Corinthians 10:7-10). Perhaps the possibility of offense at his physical appearance would have caused them offense and would willingly pluck their eyes out for Paul – in keeping with Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 5:29 – though this would be a strange application).

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He also seems to have poor vision (see Galatians 6:11). Perhaps it was his poor vision that would have inspired the Galatians “if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.” They had seen with spiritual eyes a deeper truth than their physical eyes could see and would willingly surrender them to Paul.

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Embracing the Enemy (4:16-20) “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?”

Paul does not live in a world of relativistic ‘truth’ or statistical ethics. There is truth and there is the lie. The gospel is the truth and God is God by nature.

To the Galatians came teachers who made much of themselves and puffed up the Galatians in order to cause them to abandon Paul – to shut him and his message out. They seek to isolate the Galatians from truth and have them adhere to them.

Paul admits it is not wrong to win the affection of others (v.18) as long as there is an authentic love and beneficence toward those you are zealous over. This is not the case with the false teachers.

Yet Paul seeks to embrace the Galatians, even they now stand as enemies to Paul. He calls them his “little children.” He is in anguish of childbirth – delivering them into the fullness of Christ being formed in them. He longs to be with them.

But he is perplexed.

Evaluating truth claims: 1. Opinions a. Can’t internally be wrong because it is in the person’s mind b. “I think bugs are disgusting.” c. Opinions can be externally wrong when they are applied to other forms of truth claims: “I think the sun orbits the earth,” is an empirical claim.

2. Empirical claims a. Makes a statement about reality, the world b. Scientific knowledge can contradict the statement through evidence. c. “The earth is a flat disc tethered to Jupiter.”

3. Analytical claims a. Makes a statement about the meaning of words or symbols b. Necessary knowledge about the words and symbols are essential. Dictionaries, encyclopedias and common usage is needed for evaluation. c. “We are guaranteed freedom of religion and speech in the American Constitution” 4. Valuative claims a. Makes a statement about what is good or bad, right or wrong. b. Appeals to the standard of value. i. “It is better to get married than to live together.” ii. Studies have shown that the divorce rate among people who have lived together before marrying are twice as high as those that start out married.

iii. If the broader culture devalues marriage—or conversely normalizes divorce—then the valuative claim changes.

5. Metaphysical claims a. Makes claims on the nature of things or people; things above or beyond physical material; God. b. Appeal to revelation, statements of faith. c. Contradicting metaphysical claims must appeal to a common revelation for resolve. d. Where there is no agreement to a common revelation, there is little hope for resolve unless the Holy Spirit intervenes. e. For Christians, the appeal to Scripture, the witness of the Spirit, and orthodox (ortho, straight or right; doxa, opinion; beliefs or practices conforming to what is generally or traditionally accepted as right or true; established and approved. Creeds, confessions). _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________