I was reading in Galatians 6 the other day, and something that Paul wrote to the church of Galatia just JUMPED off the page to me. He said;
“…WHAT COUNTS is a new creation”
Have you ever been at the place where the outward demonstration of your Christianity became more important than the inward manifestation of it? If you’re anything like the rest of us, than you’ve probably already nodded yes to that one, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.
It frustrates me to no end sometimes, how we can end up “counting” the things that don’t really count… how we place significant value on some of the ‘outward’ demonstrations of our faith that aren’t of much consequence in the light of eternity.
How we dress for church. What songs we sing and instruments we use to accompany them. The nice brass communion plates that adorn the ‘in remembrance of Him’ heavy oak table starring in churches across the land. Hymnals in the pews. ‘Christianese’ language that we don’t use anywhere else in the world. Attending church every week, but not necessarily participating in a deeper way. Boycotting such ‘worldly’ events like Halloween and crawling into a shell when they come around every year (I even had someone try to convince me that Christmas and Easter were of pagan origin and it was an offense to God for us to celebrate them in our church)… GOOD NIGHT!!
We’re getting caught up in all the wrong things. We’re trained to believe that if we fall in line with the status quo of the “program” of church, we’ll be just fine. Meanwhile, some of the most important ‘inward’ manifestations of spiritual maturity go ignored for years in our lives.
This is EXACTLY what Paul was dealing with in Galatians 6. He knew that the people of that church were losing focus off of the things that truly counted. Instead, they were worried about making sure people were obeying the laws of circumcision.
In other words, they were teaching that their spirituality was directly connected to this OUTWARD act. AND – if you had followed the crowds by coming into line with that requirement, you were then qualified to make a good impression on others, and even BOAST about your spirituality.
Doesn’t this sound a little familiar?
Rightfully so, Paul brought some much needed correction to their error. He simply told them (in verse 15) that NEITHER circumcision, or uncircumcision MEANS ANYTHING… what COUNTS is a new creation. What counts is having an authentic spirituality BEHIND the demonstration. What counts is the evidence of an inward manifestation of that spirituality that is far more significant that the outward expression of it.
Let’s remember what counts, and do everything we can to lay hold of that.
JJ
