Biblical Mic Drop: Who do you serve? - Galatians 1:10
In this series of blogs I intend on writing quick, thought provoking reads that challenge Christians toward the heart of Christ. They are intended to expand the readers’ thinking in challenging to apply biblical truths in your cultural context. Because of the nature of this application, the goal is to provoke more thought rather than arrive at conclusions. I don’t want to tell you what to do, I want to encourage you to Jesus!
“Let us serve the Creator, not the created.”
I love questions. I love asking questions. I love finding out why something works, the history that shaped a culture, and what makes people tick. I’m sure my favorite question growing up was “why?”, much to the longsuffering of my parents.
For years now one of my favorite verses of the Bible is Galatians 1:10. It is so convicting, encouraging, and a natural question to ask literally every action in our life.
10 For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. -- Galatians 1:10
I love this even more because it gets into the philosophy of “why” we do what we do. Epistemology, metaphysics, axiology, etc, I eat it all up.
In Galatians, Paul is addressing and rebuking syncretism. Syncretism is where one blends the truth of the gospel with the culture to create some sort of frankenstein religion that isn’t what the Bible teaches. These influences can come from our own experiences, our culture, other religions, and on and on, you get the picture.
For thousands of years, syncretism has been an issue as the blending of faith+culture. It’s really a frankenstein idol that masquerades as “truth”.
So two things to note about Galatians 1:10.
People can be anyone, including ourselves or our tribe.
The point is to please God by being a servant of Christ.
“...dive into scripture and align yourself to the words of God.”
So I encourage you to do a syncretization test. Pick a topic and ask yourself what you think about that topic. You can pick something personal like your job, family, home, etc. Or you can pick something cultural and “hot button” like politics, race, public health, CRT, BLM, etc.
Now, ask this question, “does what I believe please people or God?”
Then ask this question, “how does what I believe make me a servant of Christ?”
It will be revealing and challenging. I encourage you, reader, to not shrivel at the outcome, but rather dive into scripture and align yourself to the words of God. Pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit you can serve Jesus as you follow God’s word. Be faithful to him and surrender to his instruction.
Let us serve the Creator, not the created.
“The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is – in itself a monstrous sin – and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges. A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God.”
— A.W. Tozer