God’s Word for You

Galatians 1:14 Traditions

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 31, 2024

14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many my age among my own people and I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

Paul is describing his life in those days of his youth, all through his twenties, when he was a rising star in Israel. His heart is touched by love and fondness for the people he was with. He is not arrogant about the position he had, but he is honest about it. He wasn’t beyond “most,” but beyond “many,” and the emphasis is on the meaning of the word “many.” There were a large number of them—so very many!—young Jewish men who were caught up in the movement of the Pharisees then, under the teaching of the Rabbi Gamaliel “according to the strict ways of the law of our fathers” (Acts 22:3). We know that the Pharisees were a sect of the Jews, a movement that believed the Old Testament to be the word of God (unlike the Sadducees), and they tried with additional rules and traditions to keep the law of Moses as strictly as possible. They were the conservative side of Israel, while the Sadducees and the Herodians were the liberal side (perhaps we would think of the Zealots as dangerous ultra-conservatives). Ordinary Jews, probably the majority by far, did not subscribe either to the Pharisees or the Sadducees. But we should not think of these people as if they did not have jobs, families, or lives outside their movement. They went to work every day; they were not monks. They did their jobs, whatever those might have been. Paul was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). Other men were carpenters, painters, farriers, jewelers, leatherworkers, string makers, ropers, rugmakers, glass workers, potters, cobblers, and other things. They imported and exported spices, lumber, salt, oil, wine, beer, stone, donkeys, the day’s catch of fish, and the thousand other things that city life needs.

But is Paul talking about the rules or traditions of the Pharisees as a sect, or about Judaism as the religion? His father had been a Pharisee (Acts 23:6). Some commentaries assume that Paul is talking about the traditions of the Jews that went far beyond the law of Moses. Commentator R. Alan Cole quotes the rabbis who said: “The Scriptures are water, the Mishnah, wine; but the Gemara, spiced wine.” This has been the opinion of many, going all the way back to the fourth century and Jerome. And there are many moments in the Gospels when Jesus addresses the traditions of the Pharisees, especially about fasting (Matthew 9:11-17), the Sabbath laws (Luke 6:2), tithing (Luke 11:42), and about his own authority to preach, teach, perform miracles and drive out demons (Matthew 9:34).

But Paul in this and other letters does not mention the traditions that went beyond Moses, but simply defends Christianity as he does here in Galatians as no longer being under the law of Moses at all. I agree with Martin Luther in thinking that Paul means the whole law of Moses, based on what he says in Philippians 3:4-7 and also this: “In order that I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9). Paul sets the whole law of Moses over against Christ: If man could be saved through observing the law, then Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21).

So while Paul was concerned with his everyday life as a tentmaker, and things such as canvas, needle, and thread, he was also consumed with an idea over and above everything else. To be “zealous” for an idea borders on fanaticism. The idea he was zealous about was his faith in God under the law of Moses; to be saved through his deeds, keeping the law perfectly (which misunderstands Moses).

Paul is pointing out how misguided a thing religious zeal can be. It can drive ordinary men who would never think of hurting anyone into becoming murderers without any thought of the effect of murder on family or the will of God. A murderer might commit his crime because he doesn’t want another sin or crime to be discovered (as with David and Uriah the Hittite (2 Samuel 11:15). But a murderer might commit his crime because someone else’s religion is correct and his is not. This was the case with Cain when he attacked and killed his own brother (Genesis 4:8). What was different about Paul’s motive (in his “Saul” days) when he betrayed and killed Christians, including Stephen, and the Muslim zealots who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center? They were misguided about their religion.

Paul, to his eternal joy, was turned from his zeal by Christ on the road to Damascus. And turned from his zeal, he found that he was turned away from all of his works, his passion, his energy, his deeds; none of that mattered before Christ. He was a sinner—that is always the bottom line—and only in Christ is there forgiveness. In the vision Paul saw outside Damascus, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified, and that became the heart of Paul’s faith and all of his teaching (Galatians 3:1). Christ crucified! What else has any meaning at all? “I resolved to know nothing,” he wrote to the Corinthians, “except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The sinner cries out for this message. “Deliver me! Save me because of your unfailing love” (Psalm 6:4). There are no works, no deeds of man there. “I called on the name of the Lord: ‘O Lord, save me!’” (Psalm 116:4). There is no zeal there. “I call out to you; save me and I will keep your testimonies” (Psalm 119:146). Even there, obedience only follows salvation. Man does nothing good in God’s eyes apart from faith.

No faith is true or of any worth to God apart from faith in Christ. No gospel has any merit unless it is the gospel, the good news, about Jesus crucified for our sins. Treasure your faith, so precious, so dear! Through it you have forgiveness, the resurrection from the dead, and life in heaven forevermore.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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