No New Sources (Galatians 1:11-12)

“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Gal 1:11-12

Observations

As I have mentioned before, Paul received the gospel in a miraculous way.  He is trying to help remind the communities in Galatia to stay focused on the message he preached to them because of the source.  Paul wants them to return to the message sent from God, rather than the message of God that has been complicated by others.  We do not have Paul walking in our midst, but we do have God’s words as our scripture.  The scriptures are not the works of humans, but rather the message of God sent to us through human writers.  

The denomination I am part of was partially birthed when believing communities recognized that the church had taken on a lot of extras in the form of a state church.  Believers began to meet together for the purpose of going back to the origins, the scripture, to build their beliefs.  Among many evangelicals there is now a growing experience of deconstruction. I believe two important exercises can help.  First, we need to read scripture in large chunks at a time, looking for the big picture.  Second, I think we need to expand the community with whom we reflect on scripture.  My children are part of the generation known as the global generation.  They have a lot to teach me about thinking outside the spaces I have lived in.

Questions for Curiosity

•  What happens if we see this deconstruction as a way of shedding that which has been added to the faith, or in some cases what has been hidden under layers of customs, trends, and other additives?  
• Sometimes we can’t remove ourselves from the voices that have shaped us.  How do we discern if we have wandered from the path?  
• What do we do to approach scripture with a humility that acknowledges the divine?

Further Reflections

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.”

1 Corinthians 15:1-11