Faith Working Through Love: Being Bitten

Sunday we have the distinct privilege of ordaining and installing new officers (five elders and one deacon). The next passage in Galatians gives us important guidance for interacting with our officers. Paul highlights the “marks of Jesus” that he bears in his body. These “marks” refer to the persecution he endured for serving Jesus by declaring the pure gospel. Josephus tells the story of Antipater (Herod’s father) who stripped off his clothes revealing the scars that told the story of his loyalty to Caesar. In our text, Paul says in essence, “if you could see my scars, you would know that I’m loyal to Christ.”

The lesson is that faithful ministers will suffer. Tim Keller reminds us that those who teach “the false, popular, self-salvation gospel” have no scars because the world loves them and their message. But those who will be faithful to the gospel will suffer persecution.

The most painful scars a minister carries are the ones that come from within the church. Paul is not appealing to the false teachers to stop troubling him, but the believers in the churches. He’s urging them to remain faithful and support him in his ministry. This is an important text for us as we put these men into the ministry.