Recently I was reading in Galatians and this passage stood out…”…as long as heirs are underage they are no different from slaves although they own the whole estate.” The context of this scripture is about how Christ came to make us sons and daughters, we are not held in captivity to the law, but given total freedom by the grace that is embodied in Christ Jesus. But I have been thinking about this scripture is light of our culture and our religious tendencies, not that of the church in Galatia. The letter to the church in Galatia was dealing with a people who were coming out Judaism. We are dealing with a people who live a form of undisiplined, skewed Christianity.
What stuck my heart is that the scripture mentions that because they are underage they are slaves instead of sons. I have come to be reminded of the half hearted examples of real Christianity that results in fruitless Christians. It seems that at the way we devote so little to our faith, that it is a wonder that a remnant still exists in the US. At best, we have a hand full of people who choose to participate in a mostly spiritless form of evangelism that makes me sick. At best, our love is conditional because of our lack of maturity. If the more fundamental actions of a beleiver are being missed how will we ever find enough responsibilty to correct and rebuke our brother and sisters.
It’s time to either jump in or get out of the way. You can never be victorious if you never mature in Christ, You will always be a slave to the mundane spirits that dwell in this world. But God has died to create in us the spirit of son-ship. The spirit of faithfulness and honor. God told Abraham, “Walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make a covenant with you and you will greatly increase your numbers”(Gen. 17:1-2). We will never be fruitful evangelically until we submit to the Father and labor with Christ unto maturity for the sake of the Kingdom.
Collision of Kingdoms 