By Alex Florez
I care so much about what people think of me. Of all my foibles and flaws, this one rears its head most often. It gets especially bad when I upset somebody. Even if I’m right, my stomach hurts whenever I make someone uncomfortable, sad, or, heaven forbid, angry.
If you share this tendency with me—or if you’ve ever interacted with someone who seems allergic to disappointing others—then you might know one of the most popular, albeit failure-bound, remedies we employ: we’re likely to overcorrect by being cloyingly apologetic, resorting to empty flattery or backpedaling in an awkward attempt to walk back whatever we’ve said or done to upset the other person.
Paul took a different track as he closed his remarks against the wayward churches in Galatia.
After lambasting them for losing sight of the true gospel, we might expect Paul to finish on a conciliatory note designed to get the readers “back on his side.” And if Paul were interested in winning back the favor of the fickle Galatians for the sake of his own posterity or his own legacy moving forward, we might very well expect him to throw in some flattery or humor or even some apologies before singing off.
But not Paul. He was not concerned with un-ruffling feathers and being everyone’s favorite preacher. He had said his peace about circumcision; he had demonstrated how faith in Jesus ensures adoption into the family of God; he had compared the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit; he had encouraged the family of faith to bear each other’s burdens and lift each other up. The letter as a whole is a beautiful reiteration of the gospel, and Paul understood that if Christ had been truthfully and clearly proclaimed, his work was complete. Explicitly and implicitly, he proclaimed the imperative of anchoring our lives in Christ.
Paul wanted his audience to be absolutely clear on who he was, where he stood, and what he was all about: “But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). What mattered to Paul was not what others thought of him; he cared only that everything he said, everything he did, and everything that he was reflected the beauty and majesty of God as displayed in Christ crucified.
With nothing to prove and no one to impress, Paul ended his letter with what may sound like a generic sign-off. I think, however, that it’s an elegant summary of what he had already said: the only thing that matters is that our lives bear the imprint of Jesus, who, in Himself, is the perfect expression of God’s free and fathomless love.
Paul’s closing words beautifully articulate the heart of the entire epistle: “Brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Galatians 6:18). Grace, that mysterious and ineffable embodiment of God’s love, is everything. Nothing else matters.
Post Comments (0)