READING: 2 Corinthians 13, Galatians 1-5
Here’s a story I hear far too often: a young believer falls back into patterns of yesterday or succumbs to the lies of today. Because that new believer—particularly, an undiscipled one—often finds himself fighting real battles alone, he surrenders to the enemy’s arrows. Satan and his forces who want to quickly extinguish the light of that new believer gain at least a temporary victory.
I think of these kinds of situations when I read of Paul’s anguish and frustration that the Galatians would so quickly turn from what Paul had taught them. Indeed, he was amazed by their willingness to listen to others teaching a false gospel. What most strikes me, though, are the efforts Paul made to call the Galatians back. One writer described them this way: “Paul responded to the situation there not merely in anger and irritation but with a love and concern that went deep enough to confront. He prayed for them, wrote to them, and later revisited them because he took with utmost seriousness the work of ‘evangelistic follow-through.’ . . . Although Paul clearly was frustrated and angry at his ‘dear idiots’ (Gal 3:1, Phillips) in Galatia, he did not give up on them. Indeed, he wrote his letter with the hope of winning them back from the verge of spiritual collapse and ruin.”*
He did not give up on them. That’s important for us to remember. We cannot give up when young believers wander into untruths. Instead, we pursue them. We confront. We pray. We trust God to bring them back.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Is there someone in your life who has been listening to the wrong voices?
PRAYER: “God, help me to hear only You, and use me to draw back wandering ones.”
MONDAY’S READING: Galatians 6, Ephesians 1-5
* George, T. (1994). Galatians (Vol. 30, p. 90). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
