PAUL'S IDENTITY PRODUCED FREEDOM
GALATIANS 1:1, 10
GALATIANS 1:1, 10 NKJ
1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
Paul starts his letter to the churches of Galatia by a bold identifying statement. He was an apostle, which means sent one. But no man-made him an apostle; it was through Jesus Christ and God the Father.
And then Paul launches into his letter, which is corrective in nature. He had preached the good news of Christ to these Gentiles, and they received his message. But others would soon come in and actually distort the gospel of Christ. They preached a message of works and Jewish laws, and it just ticked Paul off.
Paul then shares another aspect of his identity. He was a bondservant of Christ. Paul identifies very strongly with his mission in life as an apostle. And he recognizes that it was Jesus who called and equipped him, so it was Jesus he was serving. One of the results of Paul's identity was he was not about pleasing men. His close identity with the Lord Jesus and God the Father freed him from trying to please people. And that is a great freedom.
APPLICATION
How do you identify? What comes up first? There are so many ways we can form an identity today. Some are good, some not so good, and some downright destructive. Skipping the negative, I'll go right to the good, who we are in relation to God. Because of our faith in Christ, we can identify as God's chosen children, His masterpiece called to show His goodness in a dark world. We are followers of Christ, the only eternal King and the strong Son of God. I can keep going, but you get the gist of this. The stronger our identity in God becomes, the stronger we become spiritually. And this produces freedom from living to please people and being controlled by what others think.
That's my goal. To live as a servant of Christ, pleasing Him and not living to please people or worried about what they think of me. Now that's freedom. But it starts with identity,
PRAYER
Thank You Lord, for what You have done for me and in me. Help me to see more clearly and learn to live to please You first, not people.