[Robinson proposes a date of ‘later 56’ for Galatians.] Paul’s first missionary journey probably took place during the years 47-48; Paul and Barnabas had started a series of small house-churches in Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 14:8-21), three towns in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia. He visited these three communities again on his second missionary journey (Acts 16:1-2), probably in the year 49.

So about 7 years after this second visit, he wrote “to the churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2). That means that this would be a circulating letter, with copies made so that it could be read to the congregations of each town during their weekly worship. We can hear Paul’s heartache in his words: “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 3:1). It is a cry of exasperation; they had started in the Spirit, but had switched over to the flesh (3:3). You might expect that meant they had fallen into licentious sin, but actually they had become persuaded that being Christian meant they had to live in obedience to the Old Testament law.

This was a major point of debate in the early church: did Gentile outsiders need to become Jewish, following all the levitical laws, in order to become followers of Jesus? At the council in Jerusalem Peter had argued that the apostles should not put on the Gentile converts a yoke which neither earlier generations nor the apostles themselves had been able to bear (Acts 15:10). Yet Peter himself had a hard time with that principle, when he came to Antioch (Galatians 2:11-13).

Paul urged the church to remember that they had encountered the power of God when he had been there, preaching about the crucifixion of Jesus (3:1); when they had responded in faith to that message, they had received the Spirit (3:2) and had seen miracles happening among them (3:5). But just a little while later (1:6) they were ready to give away this dynamic experience of God’s presence, because other evangelists had come along and told them that The Real Gospel was about our lives being justified before God because we learn to follow all the rules in the law (2:21).

The story of the churches in Galatia forms a parable for the church in our day. We are often quite strong on insisting that salvation depends on following particular biblical rules. It is fairly rare that we simply set our hearts on loving and following Jesus as we experience the miracle-working power of the Spirit in our midst.

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Can we dare to believe that you really will do miraculous signs and wonders in our lives and in our communities, O Lord? Will you really transform us, just because we believe in you? We present ourselves before you, heart and soul and mind and strength, to be your people evermore.

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