Philemon is a letter directed to a leader in the church from Paul, who is in Rome, regarding Philemon’s runaway slave, Onesimus. Paul appeals to Philemon to put aside the ways of the world and, on the basis of love, accept his former slave as a dear brother. Paul is asking Philemon to extend to Onesimus the same love and grace that God extends all of us. Are we willing to extend this same love and grace to others?

The world is not an easy place. Paul is chained to a prison wall writing to Timothy about the harshness of the world. People will prefer lies to the truth and heap up teachers around them who tell them what they want to hear. The world is making progress in freedom, education, medicine, and hunger, but we still live in a world that rejects truth. As Christians, we need to teach our children the truth and warn them of the reality of the challenges of the world. How can we be good models and teachers for our children?

This week, we wrap up our series "Living Grace Fully" on the message Paul shared with the church in Galatia that we are saved by grace of God alone. We cannot earn our way to heaven. In Chapter 6, Paul uses an agrarian metaphor to talk about the spiritual life – that we will reap what we sow whether the fruit of the spirit (response to grace) or the acts of the flesh (sin). Paul encourages us to continue doing good. How should we respond when we see another trapped in sin?

Paul is writing to the believers in Galatia because they have been struggling with a distortion of Christianity, a legalism that was causing them to believe in both Jesus and the Mosaic law. Paul’s writing addresses the extremes between grace and the law. Strict adherence to the law means we lose our freedom in Christ but the other extreme, permissiveness, means we abuse our spiritual freedom. Our response to God’s law should be to follow the heart of the law, living it to imitate Christ. How can we live God’s way?

Galatians is an important letter because it speaks clearly about the grace and salvation. People have told the believers in Galatia that they need to follow the Mosaic Law in order to be acceptable to God. God has already done the work of salvation and given it to us as a gift. A gospel of grace means that Jesus alone makes us acceptable to God; the religious law has no bearing on whether we are acceptable to God.

It isn’t following the rules that matters, but faith expressed through love. Faith expressed through love isn’t about obligation or earning a way to heaven, rather heartfelt gratitude. It is the work of the Spirit. If freedom is living without the worry of control or coercion, we are truly free because God has already undone all the barriers between God and humanity.

Like the “security monitor” in the ‘Lifelock’ TV commercial, the Law cannot make us righteous. Neither can striving to be a “good person.” Our salvation is through Jesus, the Bridegroom who loves us and was willing to become the curse of sin for us.

Ceremonial laws regarding being clean or unclean were complicated, and who you ate with was a sign of who you accepted. Peter began separating himself from the Gentile Christians and Paul confronts him about it. In the second chapter of Galatians, Paul reminds the new Christians that Christ alone saves. Acceptance isn’t about what we have done but what God has done.

This passage calls us to examine our assumptions and prejudices. What expectations are we holding over others? How are we limiting the Gospel?

We’re beginning a series on Galatians, a letter written by Paul to the early church in Galatia (modern Turkey) about 25 years after the resurrection. The church in Galatia had converted to Christianity under Paul’s teaching and was learning to live out their faith surrounded by pagan culture. Outsiders were pressuring the new believers and saying that in order to be saved they must accept the Gospel and also live under the laws of Moses. Paul says that this is false and that Christ alones saves.

How often do we try to add things to salvation?