Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 69 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; spirituality is productive; Gal 5.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 69 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; spirituality is productive; Gal 5.

 

Announcementsopening prayer:  

 

 

Principle: Spirituality is productive. Spirituality is not the avoidance of sin so much as it is the outworking of the life that is Christ.

 

GAL 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject [entangled as in a net] again to a yoke of slavery [under the law].

 

GAL 5:2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you [spiritually].

 

GAL 5:3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

 

GAL 5:4 You have been severed from Christ [reduced to inactivity; unaffected by Christ in life], you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace [as a saved person you have lost your grip on grace].

 

We are to hold fast to that which is good, i.e. grace.

No matter what may come: people, circumstances, false doctrines, we never relax our grip on the grace of God, which is all that is good. By doing so, the believer has a constant hope in his soul.

 

GAL 5:5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

 

Spiritual growth, more faith, more walking in a manner worthy of our election, deliverance from trials and adversities, and deliverance out of this world into heaven with our Lord forever, these are all in view.

 

GAL 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

 

GAL 5:7 You were running well; who hindered you [Greek: who cut in?] from obeying the truth?

 

When God commands you to run the race there is no option for an excuse as to why it was impossible for you to do so. The Galatians allowed the Judaizers to knock them out of the race into something that they actually thought was the race but wasn’t. Hence in the next sentence:

 

GAL 5:8 This persuasion [an influence that has won you over] did not come from Him who calls you.

 

GAL 5:9 A little leaven [evil] leavens the whole lump of dough.

"A little leaven" does not imply anything like reaching sinless perfection. It refers to a believer being in cognizant agreement with anything that is evil.

 

It also refers to a group of believers in a local assembly who do the same.

 

GAL 5:10 I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

 

Despite a gloomy outlook, the spiritual leader maintains optimism and he encourages his people, even the backslidden.

 

1CO 13:7

[love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

It is so easy to despair in a situation that looks hopeless. But the great spiritual leader maintains hope until the end. If he doesn’t then all will despair with him. Think of the heroes of the OT who held on until the end. Think of Christ who continued to trust His father until all was finished.

 

God has shown a pattern throughout history of waiting until the last minute to deliver a situation and testing or revealing the true source of faith in the leader who didn’t quit.

 

It is also shown here that God will deal with those who disturb the faith of others. None are excluded. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

 

GAL 5:11 But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.

 

Paul was greatly persecuted by the Jews. If he taught circumcision and legalism he would not be.

 

But because Paul taught grace, he was persecuted since the cross is the greatest stumbling block the world has ever seen.

 

To the Jew who came to believe that he could be saved by keeping the law, the cross was an offense. Over the four centuries before Christ came, much of Israel came to believe that they would obtain favor and salvation from God by means of their birth as Jews along with their circumcision, tithing, rituals, added Sabbath rules, etc. The Law clearly did not teach this, but the arrogance of man added it. Salvation by grace through the work of the Savior alone knocks this house of cards over.

 

GAL 5:12 Would that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.

 

The word for cut off, apokopto, refers to bodily mutilation. The spiritual leader is not to deal lightly with those who are attempting to destroy the truth.

 

The Christian is not called to be a pacifist. Turn the other cheek refers to not meeting evil aggression with evil aggression. Turn the other cheek is always to be done in the spirit of love and therefore for the betterment or the benefit of the other and not helping or abetting his evil. If you find yourself standing in front of a lunatic who wants to murder the innocent man behind you, you are not to stand aside and say, "go in peace." You would be right to consider laying down your life for another. If an evil power desires to destroy a nation of freedom the Christian called by his nation to go to war and kill, he must do so. A group of people are attempting to destroy a church built on grace and the Spirit of God. Paul, rightly, will not stand aside silently and witness it. Yet he does not meet evil with evil. All the arguments of the pacifist fall apart when looked at objectively.

 

Paul's reference to self-mutilation is not just said to be vulgar and to shock. It has a real connection to the people living in this particular area.

 

pic: Cybele

 

‎The town of Pessinus in Galatia was the home of the worship of Cybele in honor of whom bodily mutilation was practiced. The priests of Cybele castrated themselves. This was a recognized form of heathen self-devotion to the god and would not be shunned in ordinary conversation.

 

This verse shows that the spiritual leader should not deal lightly with those who are seeking to destroy the church. The flock has to be protected from the wolves and it is the under shepherd's job to do all that he can to do so, including prayer to the Father in the name of the Over Shepherd. The Judaizers were destroying lives and so it would be fitting if they mutilated their own bodies in castration.

 

If justification and spirituality came through circumcision and the priests of Cybele castrated themselves, wouldn't they logically be more justified and spiritual?