SOAK Galatians 2:6-10

There are a lot of interesting things in the this passage. One of the things you should be able to read in it is Paul's confidence that he is in fact doing what God has clearly told him to do, and that the gospel he preaches is true and from God.

In verse 2:1-5 (yesterday's reading) we learned that Paul waited 14 years to go and check with those "who seemed to be leaders." That is a pretty long wait and suggests that there was much question in Paul's mind on the issue. He only went because of the problems that came up.

The thing that really struck my mind in 6-10 actually comes from verse 10, where Paul says the only thing that he was asked to do was to continue to remember the poor, which he was eager to do anyway.

It is important to note that Paul and the Jerusalem-centric leaders who continued to focus on reachign out to Jews and still lived very much like Jews in comparison to Paul all agreed. Christians should care for the poor.

Just a simple glance makes it clear that throughout the history of the church, that has often been remarkably true (Salvation Army, Mark Buntain, Mother Therasa and others being obvious modern days examples) and other times and other places the church has neglected the poor.

The history of evangelization of the world might be much different if the church had always remembered to care for the poor.

It is worth asking ourselves what we do in our churches and private lives to remember the needs of the poor.

On a slightly cynical note, it is interesting to remember that the Roman province of Palestine was in economic depression during this time, and when the leaders asked Paul to remember the poor, they were the poor... Was this a subtile request for a few more love offerings to be sent to Jerusalem?

Let's ask when we get to heaven.

The SOAK reading for August 7, 2008 is Galatians 2:11-16.

Would you like to join the people of the International English Service in Jakarta in SOAKing in Galatians for a few days.....