Investigating the Bible: The baby and the bathwater

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

Lucille Ball delighted millions in the 1950’s with the “I Love Lucy” show. She was an intelligent and savvy businesswoman, but in her sitcom she portrayed a ditzy blond.

In one episode, her husband Ricky (Desi Arnaz) returned home and saw Lucy crawling around the living room floor. “What are you doing?” he asked. She replied, “I’m looking for the earrings I lost.” He was curious: “You lost your earrings in the living room?” “No,” Lucy said. “I lost them in the bedroom, but the light is so much better out here.”

When believers in Galatia began looking for salvation in the wrong place, the apostle Paul wrote to remind them of the true source of their hope and faith.

Paul visited the cities in the ancient province of Galatia three separate times. Many had accepted the message of salvation found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then he heard that they were being led away from these truths and were told by some teachers that this belief was not enough. The false teachers said these Gentile and uncircumcised men also needed to be circumcised for salvation. Paul was furious! “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” (Galatians 1:6, English Standard Version used throughout.) Later he explained the purpose and value of the Jewish religious laws like circumcision in the Old Testament: “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Galatians 3:24-26).

Today, we believers are sometimes guilty of inadvertently leading those outside the church to the wrong place for hope and away from the foundation of faith. Out of zeal for a better society, priority seems placed on rules of behavior. Paul explained the basics of belief and the place to start: “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ…” (Romans 3:22-24).

The important message is: Confess our personal sins and accept God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. As Jesus told his disciple Thomas: “…I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).

My college calculus instructor was a firebrand. At less than five feet tall and maybe 100 pounds wet, she had a deep passion for mathematics. She spiced her instruction on dry formulas and theorems with pithy sayings, often shouting when a student was discouraged by something: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!” She constantly lectured us to focus on the fundamental and important concepts.

The believers in Galatia were in danger of losing focus and placing their hope in a false friend. “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (Galatians 3:1-2).

Paul did highly value living a disciplined and good life. Once the seed of faith is planted in a person’s heart, it is to be nurtured to growth. The process takes time, just as it does for a field sowed with seeds to yield its crop.

Like a tree, Paul wrote that believers being led by the Spirit will bear the fruits of the Spirit, which are “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; …If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:22-23; 25-26).

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.)