Daily Devotional for Thursday, January 16

The Review

"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" Galatians 4:16.

Have you ever lost a friend because of your beliefs? Paul struggled with the Galatian churches because they had believed the lies of false teachers. As he had done a number of times in this letter, he once again lamented the fact that the Galatians had turned their backs on the truth of the gospel that Paul had preached unto them (verses 13, 15). At one point, the churches and Paul had been so close that Paul suggested that the churches had "received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus" (verse 14). He went even further, describing their loyalty to him in verse 15: "For I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me."

How could such a strong relationship break down so quickly? Unfortunately, Judaizers had infiltrated the churches with lies about keeping the Law. Instead of the Galatian Christians repudiating these teachers and the lies they told, they accepted them. Sadly, the truth of the gospel has always been divisive. Jesus Himself predicted this would happen, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matthew 10:34-36).

You will find people in your life that will not accept the truth. Regardless, you must stand for the truth. You must continue to share Jesus even if it ends some relationships. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).

REFLECTION

I would rather plant a seed and lose a friend for now than say nothing and lose him for eternity.

Chris Floyd