Paul's method of Influencing people

Galatians 3:1-9

Have you ever read the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People”?  The apostle Paul never read that book, and if he did, then in the first verse of chapter three, he was either trying to make the Galatians mad or he was hoping to get their attention, and it is clear he was hoping to awaken them to a spiritual problem that was taking place in the church.  As I’ve stated in my earlier writing on Galatians, false teachers had slipped into the churches of Galatia and were teaching a Christ plus gospel. 

So Paul begins his address to them in this manner, “O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?”  I know of no one who enjoys being told they are foolish or have been taken in by someone, if fact most of us will not receive a message like that from anyone but a friend, and sometime not even a friend.  It make you wonder, if the guy who was to read this to the churches of Galatia was thinking, this might be the day to let my young assistant read.   I also wonder, why, the Holy Spirit, who put this into the heart of the apostle Paul, is not having preachers all over the globe, stand and proclaim ,“O foolish Americans and all other nations!  Who has bewitched you?”  It may be that too many of our pastors and teachers have read the book on “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and that message is just too harsh?

But the message God gave to Paul is still the message, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?  Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?  (Galatians 3:2-3)  Our flesh is not going down without a fight, it does not like any authority over it, and Galatians 5:16-17 makes this very clear; “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  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.”  If you are not sure at this point about what “flesh” is, open your Bible to Galatians 5:19-21 and we see what also takes place when a person walks by the Spirit in verses 22-24.

Oh foolish Church!  Have we been taken captive by the false teaching of this world?  I personally believe I have often been taken captive by the foolish concept of this world.  I also believe our churches are full of people who are full of self and have bought into the churches false gospel of Christ Plus!  It is a wise person who listens, and takes action on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “’This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”  (Mark 7:6)  And the apostle Paul had this to say on the subject in Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.  They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”  One thing is for sure, Paul never tries to impress man, and he did not read or apply Dale Carnegie’s book, but he was a faithful proclaimer of the Truth.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice my blog; http://fromourbackporch.blogspot.com/