{"id":2498,"date":"2013-01-08T08:22:36","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T15:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tgdarkly.com\/blog\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2013-01-08T08:22:36","modified_gmt":"2013-01-08T15:22:36","slug":"pauls-remarkable-comments-to-the-galatians-on-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/2013\/01\/08\/pauls-remarkable-comments-to-the-galatians-on-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul's Remarkable Comments to the Galatians: on Reputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his long introduction to the letter to the Galatians<\/a>, in chapters 1 and 2, the Apostle Paul recites his credentials as an Apostle and explains why he is writing the letter.\u00a0 In short, there was a division in the Church between Jewish Christians and the growing group of Gentile Christians, over whether the Gentile Christians were required to adhere to all aspects of the Jewish Law, including the requirement of circumcision.\u00a0 As Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul argued that the Gentile Christians should not be subject to the requirements of the Jewish Law (Torah).\u00a0 In fact, throughout the Pauline corpus of the New Testament, Paul’s treatment of the Torah is far more subtle than a simple dichotomy of Torah against<\/em> Grace — it is a narrative of completion and fulfillment and not one of opposition and supercession — but that is a bigger topic for another day.\u00a0 In any event, Paul traveled to Jerusalem to have it out with the leaders there, including Peter, who were siding with the Jewish Christians.<\/p>\n

There are so many remarkable comments and asides in Paul’s introduction that it’s hard to single one out.\u00a0 Today, this one struck me:\u00a0 “But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) — well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me.”\u00a0 (Gal. 2:6 (NASB)).\u00a0 Paul is speaking here of the leaders in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

I am easily impressed by pedigree and reputation.\u00a0 If Professor So-and-So or Reverend Whoseiwhats agrees with me, I feel more confident; if Professor Such-and-Such or Reverend Whichisthat disagrees with me, I worry.<\/p>\n

There is a degree to which this is appropriate.\u00a0 If I really know and respect someone’s work, it is wise for me to take his or her opinion seriously.\u00a0 Even more so, if I am under someone’s authority in a work or ecclesial setting, I may be required<\/em> to take another person’s opinion seriously.<\/p>\n

But Paul is not speaking here about well-earned or institutionally necessary deference.\u00a0 He is speaking about reputation-as-reputation:\u00a0 mere status, not substance.\u00a0 Here, Paul is unsparing:\u00a0 it makes no difference to him at all<\/em>.\u00a0 Paul is confident to brush aside mere reputation because he knows that finally all people stand equally before God on substance.\u00a0 We each are naked before the creator and judge of the universe.\u00a0 Now that<\/em> is both a humbling and a liberating thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his long introduction to the letter to the Galatians, in chapters 1 and 2, the Apostle Paul recites his credentials as an Apostle and explains why he is writing the letter.\u00a0 In short, there was a division in the Church between Jewish Christians and the growing group of Gentile Christians, over whether the Gentile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[72,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scripture","category-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p824rZ-Ei","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidopderbeck.com\/tgdarkly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}