Galatians: community

Emotions looked like a bad stock market line graph in those days. One day, my joy soared and the next I was sitting in the basement of discouragement.

Fortunately, when the small group asked me, “So how are you doing?” I told them.

I was in the early weeks of pregnancy after two successive miscarriages, and hormones were playing tennis with my emotions.

They gathered around me, put hands on my shoulders and prayed. From that moment forward, those emotional swings leveled out. I still had ups and downs, but not those crazy extremes.

I’m glad I live in a community.

In Galatians 6, we see a few responsibilities of community. In v 1, we are asked to gently restore one overcome by sin. In v 2, we’re told to share each other’s problems. In v 3, we’re told to get off our high horse and help.

Up to this point, Paul’s letter to the Galatia churches urged them to run from legalism. Their salvation did not depend on their rules. But, in chapter 6, he seems to pile on the rules.

Not so. He points the way to valuing relationship. First, in the early chapters, with God and now with one another, Paul describes a healthy community.

Read Galatians 6 and answer these questions in your journal:

Paul describes a healthy community in the early verses of Galatians. What does that look like?

Why is verse 3 important in a healthy community?

Why is verse 5 also important?

Reflect on verse 10. Do you see that happening in your life?