ガラテヤの信徒への手紙4:12-15
わたしもあなたがたのようになったのですから、あなたがたもわたしのようになってください。兄弟たち、お願いします。
（ガラテヤ4:12）
「わたしもあなたがたのようになったのですから」とはどういうことでしょうか？これは、パウロが自分はユダヤ人であるのにユダヤ人ではなく異邦人であるかのようにして、ガラテヤ地方で伝道したということでしょう。ユダヤ人には、割礼の儀式や「日、月、時節、年など」のきまりや食べ物に関する規定など、守るべきおきてがいろいろありました。そして、ユダヤ人から見れば、これらのおきてを守っていない異邦人は汚れた者でした。ですから、ユダヤ人の固定観念からすれば、異邦人はつきあうことすらすべきでなかった人々なのです。その異邦人に対して、パウロがユダヤ人の固定観念をすべて捨てて、自分から近づいて神様の教えであるキリストの福音を宣べ伝えたというのは、ユダヤ人の常識からすれば驚くべきことでした。そのことをパウロは「わたしもあなたがたのようになったのです」と記しているのです。
このようなパウロの伝道の姿勢は、どの地方で伝道するときにももっていた一貫した姿勢でした。コリントの信徒への手紙一の9章21節で、パウロは次のように記しています。「わたしは神の律法を持っていないわけではなく、キリストの律法に従っているのですが、律法を持たない人に対しては、律法を持たない人のようになりました。律法を持たない人を得るためです。」つまり、旧約聖書の律法をもたない異邦人をキリストの福音による救いへと導くために、自分も律法をもたない人のようになって伝道したということです。それに対して、パウロの後から来て、「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」と教えたユダヤ人の伝道者たちの姿勢は、パウロと正反対でした。彼らはすでにキリストを信じて救われた異邦人の信徒たちに、儀式的な律法を守ってユダヤ人と同じようになるようにと教えました。それはキリストの救いへと導くどころか、異邦人をキリストの救いから遠ざけるような教えでした。ですから、パウロはそのような伝道者たちに惑わされないで「あなたがたもわたしのようになってください。兄弟たち、お願いします」と述べています。つまり、パウロがしたのと同じように、割礼や「日、月、時節、年など」のきまりや食べ物に関する規定などの儀式的な律法に縛られずに生活してほしいと願っているのです。 （1月28日の説教より）
On Sundays from late January to early February, the annual general meetings are held at churches and mission stations of our denomination, i.e., the Church of Christ in Japan. At the annual general meeting, financial reports and budget proposals are discussed, and the election of elders and committee members takes place. And in addition to these, the resignation or invitation of a pastor may be on the agenda. According to my research, there are currently 41 churches and mission stations without a full-time pastor/evangelist among the various churches of the Church of Christ in Japan nationwide. The total number of churches and mission stations of the Church of Christ in Japan is 131, which means that more than 30 percent of all churches and mission stations do not have a full-time pastor/evangelist. In terms of mission stations, of the 40 mission stations of the Church of Christ in Japan nationwide, there are 24 mission stations without a full-time pastor or evangelist. This means that more than half of the mission stations do not have a full-time pastor/evangelist, and the preaching person changes from day to day, meaning that they are walking without a long-term evangelistic vision.
In this situation, churches and mission stations that have to vote on the resignation of a pastor at the annual general meeting can suffer greatly. This is fine if a new pastor has already been appointed, or if a new pastor has not yet been officially appointed but is in prospect. However, if there is no prospect, it is difficult to have a vision to evangelise and form a church. This is because it is very difficult to get a full-time pastor when there are so few people who want to become pastors, even if they wait. Therefore, churches and mission stations that have become pastorless due to the resignation of their pastor have to be supported in Sunday services and various other activities by the pastors of neighbouring churches and retired ministers who have retired from the pastoral ministry. Last year, I was talking with a pastor who has been supporting a church without a pastor for several years, and she said, “A church is not formed if a different person comes and preaches every week.” By “a church is not formed,” she means that a solid church as a community of faith is not formed. That is probably right. It takes patience to keep hearing God’s word through one pastor. However, if the pastor is speaking the gospel of Christ rightly, the listeners will receive great blessings. This means that each member of the congregation grows as a Christian and the church or mission station grows as a community of faith.
In New Testament times, there were still few people who rightly understood the gospel of Christ and few who rightly proclaimed it. It was not possible for one evangelist to settle in one church and preach the gospel of Christ for a long period of time. Paul began his first missionary journey in 47AD, when he and Barnabas preached the gospel of Christ on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and in what is now Turkey. This is described in the Acts of the Apostles 13:4 to the end of chapter 14. In particular, the evangelisation of various parts of Turkey is described in detail, with the birth of believers in Christ in Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium and Lystra. However, after Paul and Barnabas left, other evangelists entered these churches. These evangelists taught the believers differently from Paul. They taught that Christians must not only believe in Christ, but also keep the Old Testament law. The evangelists particularly emphasised the need to undergo the ritual of circumcision, which is commanded in the Old Testament law. In other words, they taught that “not only must one believe in Christ, but one must also undergo the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament law to attain full salvation.”
This teaching was very confusing to Gentile believers, i.e., non-Jewish believers who had come to the Christian faith. Gentile believers then came to believe that they too had to undergo the ritual of circumcision. They came to think that they had to keep the Old Testament law, especially the ceremonial law, in order to attain full salvation. Therefore, Paul asks in verse 9, shortly before today’s passage, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” “Turning back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world” might sound like falling back on the stereotypes of worshipping Greek and Roman mythological gods and Roman emperors that dominated Gentile believers before baptism. But it is not. As I mentioned last week, the Old Testament law that governed the Jews is one of “the elementary principles of the world.” In other words, Paul is asking, in reference to the Galatian believers who had come to believe that full salvation could only be attained by keeping the Old Testament law, especially the ceremonial law, “how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”
In the following verses 10 and 11, Paul says: “You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” “Days and months and seasons and years” would be the Sabbath, various festivals, years of rest, etc., as set out in the Old Testament law. In other words, the Galatian believers had been misled by the evangelists who came after Paul into thinking that in order to attain full salvation, they had to undergo the ritual of circumcision and also observe the Sabbath, various festivals, years of rest, etc. Thus, if the Galatian believers thought that they had to keep the Old Testament law in order to attain full salvation, it would even seem that Paul’s efforts to painstakingly teach that “human beings are saved by faith in Christ” may have been in vain. Therefore, Paul writes frankly in verse 11: “I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.”
In verse 12 of today’s passage, Paul writes: “Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.” What does he mean by “I also have become as you are”? This would mean that Paul evangelised in Galatia as if he were a Gentile and not a Jew, even though he was a Jew. The Jews had many rules to observe, such as the ritual of circumcision, rules for “days and months and seasons and years” and food regulations. In the eyes of the Jews, Gentiles who did not observe these rules were unclean. Therefore, according to the Jewish stereotype, Gentiles were people with whom one should not even associate. It was astonishing to the Jews that Paul had cast aside all Jewish stereotypes and approached them and preached the gospel of Christ, which is God’s teaching. This is what Paul wrote: “I also have become as you are.”
This was Paul’s consistent approach to evangelism, no matter which part of the Roman Empire he was evangelising. In 1 Corinthians 9:21, Paul writes: “To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.” In other words, he evangelised Gentiles who did not have the Old Testament law by becoming like one who did not have the law himself, in order to lead them to salvation through the gospel of Christ. In contrast, the attitude of the Jewish evangelists who came after Paul and taught that “not only must one believe in Christ, but one must also undergo the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament law to attain full salvation,” was the opposite of Paul’s. They taught Gentile believers who had already believed in Christ and been saved to be like the Jews by observing the ceremonial law. It was a teaching that would lead the Gentile believers away from Christ’s salvation, rather than lead them to it. Therefore, Paul said to Gentile believers not to be deceived by such evangelists, but to “become as I am.” In other words, he wants them to live their lives without being bound by ceremonial laws such as circumcision, the rules of “days and months and seasons and years” and food regulations, in the same way that Paul did.
The sentence at the end of verse 12, “you did me no wrong,” is a short but complex and nuanced statement. Firstly, this statement implies that Paul’s relationship with those who heard and believed in the gospel of Christ during his first mission in the Galatian region was a very good one. This is evident in the second half of verse 14, which follows, where Paul writes, “you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” And the sharp question in the first half of verse 15, “what then has become of your blessedness?” suggests that that good relationship is now being lost. In other words, the Galatian believers have been misled by the evangelists who came after Paul into thinking that in order to attain full salvation they must also keep the laws of circumcision, the Sabbath, the various festivals, the year of rest, etc., and so have departed from the gospel of Christ as Paul taught it. This short sentence has the nuance of asking: “At first you were faithful to the gospel of Christ as I taught you, but what now?”
But not only that, secondly, the short sentence “you did me no wrong,” also suggests that Paul was not directly accused or attacked by the Galatian believers. If any of the New Testament churches grieved and tormented Paul, it would be the churches of Galatia and Corinth. However, the Galatian churches and the Corinthian church have different ways of relating to Paul. In the case of the Galatian churches, the situation was that they had drifted away from Paul’s teaching of the gospel of Christ. However, in the case of the Corinthian church, there was a believer who overtly rebelled against Paul when he visited them, and there were believers who said of him that “his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account” (2 Corinthians 10:10). In other words, the believers of the Corinthian church “did wrong” by their accusations and attacks against Paul who proclaimed the gospel of Christ. However, Paul sees that the Galatian believers “did me no wrong” in any way. The fact that the Galatian believers had departed from the gospel of Christ as taught by Paul might objectively be described as “wrong.” However, Paul may have dared to say, “you did me no wrong,” making it easier for the Galatian believers to return to the gospel of Christ as Paul taught it. It can be said that this short sentence contains both Paul’s severity and his gentleness.
Verses 13-15 that follow describe how joyfully the people who became believers received Paul when he first evangelised the Galatian region.
You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.
We do not know exactly what it was that Paul preached the gospel to the Galatians “because of a bodily ailment” as recorded here, or that Paul’s physical condition was “a trial to you” for the Galatians. The Acts of the Apostles, which describes Paul’s evangelistic activities, does not contain any correspondence to these statements, and some have speculated that Paul must have been sick in his eyes, since the end of verse 15 says: “You would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.” However, “you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me” is probably not meant literally, but as a metaphor about giving what is most precious to you.
What is written in these verses 13-15 probably means the following. Paul, who preached the gospel of Christ, had been subjected to various persecutions, so that his body was weak and sick in some way. And being weak and sick could only be interpreted as evidence that Paul was not pleasing to God, and was therefore scorned or despised by the people. The Galatian believers in Christ, however, accepted Paul as if he were an angel of God or as if he were Christ Jesus. In other words, when Paul first preached the gospel to the Galatians, the people who believed in Christ had fully enjoyed the blessedness of being given a preacher to preach the gospel to them. But now they had lost that blessedness because they had been misled by the teachings of the Jewish evangelists who came after Paul. So Paul asks, “What then has become of your blessedness?” and calls them to return to the gospel of Christ as taught by Paul.
The relationship between the preacher and the church is solid and unshakable as long as each stands on the foundation of the gospel of Christ. However, it will collapse if each tries to be based on something other than the gospel of Christ, i.e., human experiences, human thoughts and human feelings. This year, the Shiki Kita Mission Station will become the Shiki Kita Presbyterian Church, and I will be invited again as the pastor of the Shiki Kita Presbyterian Church. It is my hope that in this year, the congregation will stand firm on the gospel of Christ as testified in the Bible and come to taste the blessedness that the preacher has been given.