ガラテヤの信徒への手紙2:3-6
Galatians 2:3-6,
しかし、わたしと同行したテトスでさえ、ギリシア人であったのに、割礼を受けることを強制されませんでした。 （ガラテヤ2:3）
テトスは、ギリシア人で回心してクリスチャンとなった人で、パウロの若い同労者です。テトスは、パウロとコリント教会の関係が困難であったときに、悔い改めを求めるパウロの手紙を持ってコリントへ行き、コリント教会の信徒たちの多くを悔い改めへと導きました。また、迫害のために困窮しているエルサレム教会の信徒たちを支援するために、コリント教会の信徒たちから献金を集めるという難しい務めをまかされていました。これらのことは、テトスがパウロはもとより多くの信徒たちから信頼されていた人であったということを示しています。
やはりパウロと共に働いた若い同労者で信頼されていた人ですが、ある意味でテトスと対照的な、テモテという人がいました。使徒言行録の16章1節から3節によれば、テモテの父親はギリシア人でしたが、母親はユダヤ人のクリスチャンでした。そのため、パウロは、ユダヤ人をつまずかせないために、ユダヤ人クリスチャンであるテモテには割礼の儀式を受けさせました。しかし、ギリシア人のクリスチャンであるテトスは、エルサレムの教会に行ったときに「割礼を受けることを強制されませんでした。」
そのことをなぜパウロがここで書いているかと申しますと、そもそもエルサレム教会の指導者たちは、異邦人のクリスチャンすなわちユダヤ人以外のクリスチャンに、割礼を受けることを強制していなかった、という事実を明らかにするためです。その事実を明らかにすることによって、パウロの後でガラテヤの諸教会に入ってきた伝道者たちが、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、と教えたその教えは間違っている！とパウロは主張しているのです。 （5月14日の説教より）
Christians gather in church on Sundays to listen to the words of God and worship God. After the service and the meeting, how do you spend your time on Sunday? Some work, some do housework, some go shopping, some spend time with their families, some go home to sleep and rest.
Some 40-50 years ago, an American TV drama series called “Little House on the Prairie” was broadcast on NHK TV and became very popular. The drama was based on eight autobiographical novels written by a woman writer called Laura Ingalls Wilder, who described her life from childhood to adulthood. The first of these eight novels, entitled Little House in the Big Woods, was written by Laura reminiscing about her family’s living in a log cabin in a large forest in Wisconsin. One of the chapters is called “Sundays.” There was probably no church near her family’s log cabin. On Sundays, her father and mother would tell her Bible stories and various animal stories, and Laura spent her time listening to them.
In the Puritan tradition within Protestantism, there was a teaching that Sunday was to be observed as a whole day of Sabbath. And that one day, according to the biblical way of counting the days, began at sundown on Saturday. According to this teaching, Sundays were to be quiet and not loud and playful, so one day Laura said, “I hate Sunday!” Laura’s father looked at her sorrowfully for a moment, and then took her on his knee and cuddled her against him. Then he told her a story about his father’s father, Laura’s Grandpa. I would like to introduce that story because it is a good example of the Puritan way of spending a Sunday.
“When your Grandpa was a boy, Laura, Sunday did not begin on Sunday morning, as it does now. It began at sundown on Saturday night. Then everyone stopped every kind of work or play.”
“Supper was solemn. After supper, Grandpa’s father read aloud a chapter of the Bible, while everyone sat straight and still in his chair. Then they all knelt down, and their father said a long prayer. When he said, “Amen,” they got up from their knees and each took a candle and went to bed. They must go straight to bed, with no playing, laughing, or even talking.”
“Sunday morning they ate a cold breakfast, because nothing could be cooked on Sunday. Then they all dressed in their best clothes and walked to church. They walked, because hitching up the horses was work, and no work could be done on Sunday.”
“They must walk slowly and solemnly, looking straight ahead. They must not joke or laugh, or even smile. Grandpa and his two brothers walked ahead, and their father and mother walked behind them.”
“In church, Grandpa and his brothers must sit perfectly still for two long hours and listen to the sermon. They dared not fidget on the hard bench. They dared not swing their feet. They dared not turn their heads to look at the windows or the walls or the ceiling of the church. They must sit perfectly motionless, and never for one instant take their eyes from the preacher.
“When church was over, they walked slowly home. They might talk on the way, but they must not talk loudly and they must never laugh or smile. At home they ate a cold dinner which had been cooked the day before. Then all the long afternoon they must sit in a row on a bench and study their catechism, until at last the sun went down and Sunday was over.”
Laura’s father then told the story of how her grandpa and his brothers were chastised for sledging on Sunday afternoon, and concludes by saying, “You may find it hard to be good, but you should be glad that it isn’t as hard to be good now as it was when Grandpa was a boy.”
What do you think of this story? You may think that “Do not do this or that on the Sabbath” sounds like the Pharisees in the Gospels. When Christ’s disciples picked ears of wheat and ate them on the Sabbath, or when Christ healed a sick person on the Sabbath, the Pharisees accused them of doing things they should not do on the Sabbath. In response, Christ said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27)” or “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? (Mark 3:4)” pointing out that the Pharisees were wrong in their thinking. Today, we observe Sunday as the Sabbath and gather in church to offer repentance and thanksgiving to God, not to follow the do-this or do-not-that doctrine. In other words, we do not believe that we can be saved by observing the Sabbath Law according to the pattern of the Old Testament times.
It was not only the Jewish Pharisees who taught that full salvation could only be attained by keeping the Old Testament Law. 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. Circumcision is a ritual in which the skin surrounding the male penis is cut off as a sign that the Jewish people are God’s people. It was usually performed on the eighth day after birth, according to the Old Testament provisions of Genesis 17:12 and Leviticus 12:3. It was also performed by non-Jews converting to Judaism, even if they were adults. Moreover, 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.”
In contrast, Paul has maintained in previous parts of this letter that he had received revelation directly from the resurrected Christ in heaven and had been converted and had come to preach the gospel of Christ. And in chapter 1, verses 18-20, he states that when he went to Jerusalem three years after his conversion, he had fellowship with Peter, the leader of the Jerusalem church, and James, the Lord’s brother, as fellow workers. Also, in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 2, 14 years after his conversion, Paul mentions that he and Barnabas and Titus went to Jerusalem again to have a dialogue with the leaders of the Jerusalem church. This visit of Paul and the others to Jerusalem is likely to be a reference to the visit described in Acts 11:27-30, where they were to deliver relief items to help the churches in Judea.
In verse 3 of today’s passages that follows, Paul begins by writing as follows. “But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.” Titus was a Greek who had been converted and became a Christian, and was a young companion of Paul. Titus went to Corinth with Paul’s letters calling for repentance at a time when relations between Paul and the Corinthian church were difficult, and led many of the Corinthian believers to repentance. He was also entrusted with the difficult task of collecting donations from the believers of the Corinthian church to support the believers of the Jerusalem church, which was in need due to persecution. All this shows that Titus was a man who was trusted not only by Paul but also by many other believers.
There was another young fellow worker who also worked with Paul and was trusted, but who in a way contrasted with Titus. His name was Timothy. According to Acts 16:1-3, Timothy’s father was a Greek, but his mother was a Jewish Christian. Therefore, Paul had Timothy, a Jewish Christian, circumcised so as not to cause the Jews to stumble. But Titus, a Greek Christian, when he went to the church in Jerusalem, “was not forced to be circumcised.” The reason why Paul writes about this here is to clarify the fact that the leaders of the Jerusalem church did not force Gentile Christians, i.e., non-Jewish Christians, to be circumcised in the first place. By showing this fact, Paul is arguing that the evangelists who came into the Galatian churches after Paul were wrong when they taught that full salvation could not be attained without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament Law.
When Paul, Barnabas and Titus visited the Jerusalem church, there were already Pharisaical Jewish Christians in the Jerusalem church. Paul criticises them in the next verse 4 with the harsh expression “false brothers secretly brought in.” Titus was not forced to be circumcised despite the presence of such Pharisaical Jewish Christians. Paul also writes in the second half of verse 4: “Who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery.” The harsh expression “bring us into slavery” suggests that these Pharisaical Jewish Christians shared the same characteristics as the evangelists who taught the Galatian congregations that they could not attain full salvation unless they not only believed in Christ but also underwent the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament Law. This is because the evangelists who came to the Galatian churches with their false teachings were also trying to deprive the believers of their freedom and make them slaves to the Law. This is evident in chapter 5:1 of this letter, where Paul says with great force: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
This question of whether Titus was circumcised or not was not a matter of either, but a serious question concerning the truth of the gospel of Christ. Therefore, Paul writes in verse 5: “To them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” In the following verse 6, he again notes that Titus was not forced to be circumcised by the leaders of the Jerusalem church: “And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me.” “Those who seemed to be influential” are the leaders of the Jerusalem church. In other words, when Paul, Barnabas and Titus visited the Jerusalem church, the leaders of the Jerusalem church did not force Gentile Christians to be circumcised. There were already “false brothers” in the Jerusalem church who wanted Gentile Christians to be circumcised. However, Paul did not concede to these “false brothers” so that he would defend the truth of the gospel of Christ. And later, evangelists with the same mindset as these “false brothers” came to the churches in Galatia and taught them that they could not attain full salvation without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament Law. The congregations of the churches in Galatia therefore fell for that teaching and almost lost the freedom given to them by the truth of the gospel of Christ. Therefore, Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians, teaching them that they must not lose their freedom and become slaves to the Law.
The question of whether or not to undergo the ritual of circumcision is rarely asked of us living in 21st century Japan. However, the question of how to keep the Sabbath is a major question that is asked every week. For Christians, hearing the words of God and worshipping God on Sunday is an important foundation for a life of faith. Therefore, I repeatedly tell believers, and seekers alike, “Please come to worship!” However, I do not say, “If you do not come to worship, you will not be saved.” If I say that, I am saying the same thing as the Pharisaical evangelists who taught that “you cannot be fully saved unless you undergo the ritual of circumcision.” And I would never say, “You must not do this or that on Sunday.” For to say such a thing could make a person a slave to the Law. Modern society is moving without a break, and if we are immersed in it, we will lose sight of what we are living for. Therefore, we need time to listen to the words of God and commune with God. But the reason we gather in church on Sundays is so that we, who have been saved by Christ, would offer repentance and thanksgiving by worshiping God. It is not for attaining salvation by keeping the Law.