Galatians 5: 1-26

Galatians 5:5 Paul in emphasizing the importance of faith vs. law in this passage uses the word "wait", which I find interesting. What are we to wait on? According to this we are waiting for our righteousness. I thought we as christians already were righteous. Well, we are in God's eyes, however I believe the receiving of our righteousness happens only when Christ comes back for His own, as explained in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, called the rapture or snatching away. What this ultimately means is that no one is in heaven now except Christ Himself, seated at the right hand of His Father. As Thessalonians points out those christians who have passed on are sleeping, awaiting the resurrection.

Verse 9 "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." We've all heard our grandparents tell us this before and it's true. I love my grandma's question, "If you drag a white glove through the mud, does the mud get glovey, or does the glove get muddy?" You are who you hang out with. I'm not condoning seperation from the world, how else will people hear about Jesus, but I am cautious in how much time I do spend there.

Verse 16 Here is the solution to all our problems, actually the solution is in verse 14, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself". But to address a christians biggest problem, our biggest battle, SIN. The answer is simple, "walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh". But how do we do that? I believe the answer, or at least one answer in given in verse 26. "Let us not become conceited,..." When we become large in our own eyes, big headed, and proud, we set ourselves up for the fall. We take our eyes off Christ and put them on ourselves or the world around us, and who can blame us, we don't need Christ if we think we're doing that good, right? The old saying from Proverbs, "Pride cometh before the fall" (Proverbs 16:18) is so true isn't it?

Grace, MB