ガラテヤの信徒への手紙1:21-24 Galatians 1:21-24
キリストに結ばれているユダヤの諸教会の人々とは、顔見知りではありませんでした。 （ガラテヤ1:22）
パウロがこのようなコメントを書き加えたのは、次のような事情があったからだと考えられます。すなわち、後にパウロは、第一回目の伝道旅行でガラテヤ地方にキリストを宣べ伝え、ガラテヤ地方にキリストを信じる信徒たちの教会ができました。そして、パウロがガラテヤの諸教会を去った後で、エルサレムの教会から伝道者たちがガラテヤの諸教会にやって来ました。この伝道者たちは、パウロの権威を軽く見て、パウロとは違ったことを教えました。すなわち、パウロは、人はキリストを信じることによって救われると教えていたのですが、後から来た伝道者たちは、キリストを信じるだけでなく旧約聖書の律法で定められた割礼の儀式を受けなければ完全な救いは得られない、と教えたのです。そして、その伝道者たちは、「パウロという人はキリストが地上で生きておられたときにはキリストの弟子でなかったし、キリストの救いについてはペトロなどのエルサレム教会の指導者たちに教えてもらったにすぎない。だから、パウロの教えにはそれほど権威はないのだ」と主張していたようなのです。
そこで、パウロは「わたしは回心した後、エルサレムに行ってペトロやそのほかの使徒たちにキリストの救いについて教えてもらったというようなことはありませんでした」という反論の気持ちを込めて、17節で「エルサレムに上って、わたしより先に使徒として召された人たちのもとに行くこともせず」と書いていました。そして、19節では「ケファ」すなわちペトロと「主の兄弟ヤコブ」以外は、エルサレム教会の使徒たちには会わなかったことを断言しています。さらに、この22節ではいわばダメ押しをするようにして、エルサレムなどのユダヤの諸教会の人々とは、このときは顔見知りではなかったと述べているのです。つまり、パウロの宣べ伝えたキリストの福音は、エルサレムなどのユダヤの教会で教えられていたことのいわゆる二番煎じではなく、パウロと復活のキリストとの出会いの中で、キリストから独自に与えられたものであることを強調しているのです。
（4月30日の説教より）
An encounter with Christ can change a person’s way of life. One college student who loved music and wrote her own lyrics entered a song she had written into an audition. The song then caught the attention of a CBS Sony producer, and this woman made her debut as a singer in October 1979 with the song “Ihoujin,” which means “foreigner” in Japanese. Her name as a singer was KUBOTA Saki. The song was broadcast as a commercial song for colour television and became a popular song for people to listen to. The song “Ihoujin” also became a big hit because the Silk Road was booming in Japanese society at that time. KUBOTA Saki then began appearing on TV programmes and giving concerts in large halls. However, she just couldn’t get used to being in the spotlight and was filled with anxiety and fear. Also, when asked in newspaper and magazine interviews about her musicality and plans for her next piece, she had no idea and was troubled. Recalling that period, KUBOTA Saki says: “I was exhausted and realised that I could no longer truly enjoy music. In the glamorous world of show business, I was a “Ihoujin,” i.e., “foreigner.”
In the midst of such anxiety and fear, when she looked back to “what was the origin of my music,” she thought of the hymns she had heard in church when she was a child. She then started attending church and was baptised a year after her debut as a singer. Then, a musician named KOSAKA chuu whom she met at a prayer meeting where Christian artists gathered, told her as follows.
It’s hard to keep making hit songs. It’s also music that gets consumed more and more. It’s like tissue paper, one after another. …… But praise to God is music that is sung over a longer and wider span of time. The Bible says that praise is sung even in heaven. It would be wonderful if we could do that kind of music together.
Thus, KUBOTA Saki ended her five-years performing career in 1985 at the age of 26. She then married KUME Daisaku, whom she had met through her music career, and became a music evangelist singing for Christian missions under her real name KUME Sayuri.
Some of the stories of people who were not of the Christian faith who changed their way of life significantly after coming to faith in Christ are very dramatic. For example, the writer MIURA Ayako was a primary school teacher before and during the Second World War, trying to raise children to live for their country. Then, with Japan’s defeat in the war, she began to lead a lazy and nihilistic way of life. However, after experiencing a serious illness of spinal caries, she came to believe in Christ. She then became a Christian author who wrote novels about human sin and Christ’s salvation. Many people are impressed by her dramatic life. However, it is so dramatic that it is hard to imagine that each of us would have a similar experience. On the other hand, KUME Sayuri, whom I mentioned earlier, may be far from us being a famous celebrity. However, in that she was changed to live a different way of life, from the way of life that seeks success in this world, her experience may overlap with that of many others. In other words, the encounter with Christ transforms a person who was living for oneself into a person who lives to witness to Christ.
The Apostle Paul, who preached Jesus Christ to many people, was a zealous Jewish teacher who kept the Old Testament Law and taught it to others. From such a standpoint, the Christian teaching of believing in Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour, who died on the cross, was an unforgivable teaching that blasphemed God. Therefore, Paul was in favour of killing Christians. And he was travelling from Jerusalem to Damascus to capture Christians and put them in prison. On his way there, he heard the voice of the resurrected Christ in heaven speaking to him with a strong light, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:3; 22:7).” “Saul” is Paul’s Jewish name. Paul, who fell to the ground, was blinded and unable to eat or drink, and was taken to Damascus. He was baptised in Damascus by a Christian named Ananias, and became a Christian evangelist proclaiming Jesus Christ.
Three years after his conversion, Paul had a meeting with the Apostle Peter, the leader of the Jerusalem church, and “James the Lord’s brother.” This is described in verses 18 and 19 preceding today’s passage as follows.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.
Paul’s purpose in going to Jerusalem was “to visit Cephas.” By “Cephas” he means Peter, one of the twelve apostles. Paul first sought to become acquainted with Peter, probably because he was a leader in the Jerusalem church. Interestingly, Paul even notes the duration of his stay: “and remained with him fifteen days.” What does this mean? Perhaps, by staying with him for fifteen days, Paul is trying to say that his relationship with Peter is that of co-workers working together to proclaim the gospel of Christ. If Paul met Peter the teacher as a student, so to speak, to be taught by Peter about the salvation of Christ, then a fifteen-days stay would be too short. If Paul had been Peter’s student, he would have needed at least a few months, possibly even years, of intensive instruction in what it means to live as a disciple of Christ. The fifteen-days stay was a time of fellowship as co-workers. He also had fellowship with “James the Lord’s brother,” who was the leader of the Jerusalem church with Peter, as co-workers.
What was Paul’s course of action after his interaction with Peter and James the Lord’s brother? In verse 21 of today’s passages we read: “Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.” In Syria was the church of Antioch, which Paul would later lead with Barnabas. Cilicia is also the south-eastern region of what is now Turkey. In Cilicia was the town of Tarsus, Paul’s home town. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul began to preach the salvation of Jesus Christ in Damascus immediately after his conversion. It is thought that he also preached the salvation of Jesus Christ in “Arabia,” i.e., in the Nabatean Kingdom, where he went afterwards. Because he preached the salvation of Jesus Christ in the Nabatean Kingdom, he was watched by the authorities there as a person of note. This can be seen from 2 Corinthians 11:32 and 33, which indicate that Paul, after his sojourn in the Nabatean Kingdom, was still under the watchful eye of King Aretas of the Nabatean Kingdom, even after his return to Damascus, and that his life was in danger. Paul must then have continued to preach the salvation of Jesus Christ even after going to the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. Paul’s evangelistic work in this period may not have been as matured as when he was later sent by the church of Antioch on a mission trip. However, it is imagined that the experiences of this period may have prepared Paul for his later missionary work.
In verse 22, Paul returns to his relationship with the churches in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judea, writing that he was not acquainted with the believers of the churches of Judea who were in Christ. It is likely that Paul added these comments because of the following circumstances. Paul later proclaimed Christ in Galatia on his first missionary journey, and churches were established in Galatia. After Paul left the Galatian churches, evangelists from the church of Jerusalem came to the Galatian churches. These evangelists took Paul’s authority lightly and taught differently from Paul. Paul had taught that a person could be saved by believing in Christ, but the later evangelists taught that full salvation could not be obtained without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as required by the Old Testament Law. The evangelists seemed to argue as follows. “Paul, a man who was not a disciple of Jesus Christ when Jesus was alive on earth, and who was only taught about Christ’s salvation by Peter and other leaders of the Jerusalem church. So Paul’s teaching does not have much authority.” So, in verse 17, Paul wrote, “Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me,” with the objection that “after my conversion, I did not go to Jerusalem to be taught by Peter and the other apostles about Christ’s salvation.” Then, in verse 19, he affirms that he did not meet any of the apostles of the Jerusalem church except “Cephas” i.e., Peter and “James the Lord’s brother.” Furthermore, in this verse 22, he makes doubly sure of it, and says that he was not acquainted at this time with the believers of the churches in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judea. In other words, he emphasises that the gospel of Christ proclaimed by Paul is not a so-called second-hand version of what was taught in the churches in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judea, but was given independently by Christ in Paul’s encounter with the resurrected Christ.
So, did the believers of the churches in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judea know nothing about the person of Paul because they had not interacted with him? They knew the most important thing about Paul! In verses 23 and 24 we read as follows.
They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.
As I mentioned earlier, the evangelists who came into the Galatian churches from Jerusalem said, “Paul, a man who was not a disciple of Jesus Christ when Jesus was alive on earth, and who was only taught about Christ’s salvation by Peter and other leaders of the Jerusalem church. So Paul’s teaching does not have much authority.” But in fact, in the churches in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Judea, the believers were praising God for what had happened to Paul. In other words, they saw God’s great work in the fact that “he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” In other words, they praised God by saying , “God has transformed Paul, who was persecuting Christians and trying to eradicate their faith in Jesus Christ, into a man who proclaims the salvation of Jesus Christ! How great is the work of God!”
This dramatic change that took place in Paul’s person may seem historic and out of step with ordinary people like us. However, in transforming a man who lived in Jewish society, thinking only of his own nation’s salvation, into a man who lives to witness to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, is something we can relate to in the world we live in today. Many people today live their lives thinking first about the happiness of themselves and their families. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. But what if it becomes a matter of seeking happiness only for oneself or one’s own family? It will surely cause conflicts with the people around oneself. Also, in the unstable world situation, many people live their lives thinking first about the happiness of the people in the country to which they belong. Certainly, it is necessary to think about the people of the country to which one belongs. However, the idea that it is enough if only the people of the country to which one belongs are happy, can lead to an extreme self-centredness, as if only one’s own people should survive and prosper, no matter what happens to the world. This may result in the destruction of both world peace and the peace of the country to which they belong. We are called to change the direction of our walk from thinking only of our own happiness, only of the happiness of our own family, and only of the happiness of the people in our own country. In practice, however, it is difficult to change the direction in which we walk. This is because everyone has the sin of egoism, and even if they stop thinking and living in a self-centred way, it may end up encouraging the egoism of others.
The fact that Paul, who lived only for the salvation of the Jews, was changed to a life of witnessing to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the people of the world, shows us how we should change our way of thinking and living. It is a way of life that bears witness to Christ who died on the cross for the people of the world. We live every day making decisions about many things. We live our lives by choosing one way of thinking and acting from a number of options, concerning ourselves, our families, our friends and acquaintances, our social relations and many other things. So, when we choose one way of thinking and acting from several options, why not think which one is a witness to Christ on the cross? And why not pray for God’s guidance? Especially when you make a particularly big decision in your life’s journey, please consider whether this decision will make your life a witness to Christ crucified, and please pray for God’s guidance. When your walk is changed in this way, the people around you who notice your change will encounter “the God who changes a person’s way of life” and will praise God for it.