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Mark Snowden: A Thankless Letter for Thanksgiving (Galatians)
Mark Snowden, pastor of First Baptist Church in Floydada, called attention to the low degree of biblical literacy in the United States. He described how Scripture began with oral transmission and eventually became written documents passed down and intended for everyone. Lack of familiarity with Scripture leads to a flawed following of it.
In Paul’s written letter to the Christians in Galatia, he skipped his typical opening, in which he expressed thanks for those he addressed. Instead, he expressed his anger about the gospel being corrupted among the Galatians by Jewish insistence on circumcision. For their part, the Jews were concerned Paul didn’t take the gospel seriously enough, that he advocated cheap grace.
Just as circumcision became an unnecessary barrier between Gentiles and Jews in Paul’s day, Christians today can raise up unnecessary barriers between people and Christ today. Pure faith has no barriers, is lived in the Spirit and is for everyone.
This sermon was delivered during the morning worship service Nov. 21, 2021, at First Baptist Church in Floydada, as part of a yearlong series. The church read through the Bible in chronological order. The sermon for each week was from the previous week’s reading, only detouring for Easter and the Advent/Christmas season.
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