Lesson 7: Standing on the Right Beliefs
Read Galatians 2:1-21 - www.bible.com/bible/59/gal.2
1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.
3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.
4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—
5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.
7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised
8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles),
9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.


We find a key truth for our lives in these verses – Satan will use even religious practices, which may at some points be completely true, for evil. In this case, Satan was trying to get enough people upset at Paul so they would be able to stop Paul from spreading the Gospel to the people of the world.

Traditions with which we have grown up can be very hard for us to break, especially if those traditions hold the desirability and allure of making us into better people so we think we can be more acceptable to God.

God’s Law had been given to Israel as a way to set them apart from the rest of the world – holiness. Keeping the Law could never save anyone, for God wanted the people to trust Him rather than to work to be acceptable to Him (1 Samuel 15:22, Hosea 6:6, Matthew 9:13). Jesus had come to fulfill the Law and set us free from its bondage as we learned to love Him, trust Him, follow Him, obey Him.

There is nothing – let us emphasize this – NOTHING we can ever do which will either make God love us more or love us less than He does right now (Jeremiah 31:3). When we each have become His child He gives us eternal life (and life would not be eternal if anything could take it away – see Jesus’ parable in Matthew 20:1-16). The only thing our sin as a believer does is rob us of His intimate conversation with us, separate us from the blessings He wants to pour out on us, and destroy rewards He wants to give us in Heaven.

*Ask God to show you if there is anything you are doing (or not doing) to try to make Him love you more. Thank Him for His unconditional love for you!