October 26, 2024

Galatians 1.24 (NIV)

And they praised God because of me.

The truth of God must always usher in the praise of God.*

In this chapter, Paul presents his testimony and his credentials to the Galatian church. He is establishing his authority to confront them about things that were going on there (see verses 6 and 7). He refers to the churches in Judea who didn’t even know Paul but who, based on what they had heard, praised God because of what he had done through Paul. Paul is not bragging about himself but about how God had changed him from the man who had gone from persecuting Christians to the man who was preaching to them now.

Two of several applications that we can make from Paul’s statement are:

• The churches to which Paul referred glorified God but they didn’t “worship” Paul. It is hard for us to separate the message from the messenger, presenting a double opportunity for Satan. First, as receivers of the message, we like to put our preachers and leaders on a pedestal – which is the equivalent of idol worship. And second, as messengers (and humans in general), “our hearts crave recognition that rightly belongs only to God.”* Leaders struggle constantly with ego versus humility.
• People can change. Paul had been Public Enemy Number One, but these churches did not hold his past against him. I don’t know how long it took Paul to earn their trust after his conversion but someone had to be willing to give him a chance to prove himself. We do not know the “motivation and the condition of another’s heart,”* but in Christ we have to allow them room to grow and thrive in their faith.

Whether we have a disreputable past to overcome or whether we start building trust from higher ground; whether we are messengers or recipients; can we bless others beyond the point of appreciating us to the point of praising God?

It should ever be the end of the Christian man, not only to promote the glory of God by his works, but to illustrate the glory of God in his character.*