It’s about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul has been crisscrossing Asia Minor for nearly 20 years sharing the news that a new dawn has come in the way humans are invited to relate to their Creator. Though he had once been a “Pharisee of Pharisees”, devoted to the highest level of obedience to the Jewish law, he was converted to a new message. A new set of good news. A new gospel.

A wrinkled, balding old man, he sits down with a scribe to send a letter of correction and instruction to the church he started a couple years earlier in the province of Galatia. There is a lot on his mind, because after he preached to them the good news of freedom through Jesus, others came to these new believers and told them they could follow Jesus just as long as they kept the Jewish traditions and religious laws. In particular, one crucial tradition was at stake. Circumcision. 

For centuries the way to tell if a man was a faithful follower of God, a part of the community of God’s chosen people, was this non-reversible altering of their physical body..

But the Galatian church had many non-Jewish men in it, converts from other religions who put their trust in the risen Savior, Jesus. For these adult men, the issue of circumcision was a (literally) sensitive one. Those who had come after Paul to the Galatian believers told them circumcision was necessary. And you can understand why. They had always been taught the practice of circumcision was handed down by God to Moses and had been followed ever since. It was in their Bible. And if God says to do something, it needs to be done. From generation to generation.

But Paul has something very clear to say about this in his letter to them.

In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6-7)

He tells them the command was temporary after all. Making a physical change was of no value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

How heretical could he get?

But he was convinced and he would not back down.

He would not allow the followers of Jesus to be bogged down with religious laws and practices that put their focus on things that were non-essential or possibly even harmful to them. He said, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

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Fast forward 2000 years. Unlike the believers in Galatia, followers of Jesus today have easy access to a collection of writings about Jesus and the communities of faith that sprang up in the decades following His death and resurrection. And it is oh-so-easy to get stuck studying the words written 2000 years ago and turning them into laws to govern our behavior and religious practice. 

It is oh-so-easy to get distracted by definitions of theological words found in the ancient writings.

It is oh-so-easy to make correct doctrinal beliefs the highest priority.

It is oh-so-easy to create to-do and don’t-do lists based on the ancient writings.

It is oh-so-easy to focus on creating and maintaining religious structures and systems, at great financial cost and human energy cost.

It is oh-so-easy to police the beliefs and behavior of those within and without the community of Jesus-followers.

But what did Paul say again?

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

I want my life to count, don’t you? Well here’s what seems to be a good way to make that happen. Spend your life putting love in action, whatever that means in your very personal and unique life story. Don’t let yourself get distracted. The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.

Isn’t this a more beautiful story?

(Thank you Brian McLaren for this reminder in “Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What To Do About It”. Book groups are starting in person in Oak Harbor, WA and through Zoom on Oct 4 and 5, 2023. MORE INFO)