Seek To Be Justified

Galatians 2:17 KJV
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

This passage is a little challenging. Scofield says that the "we" the verse refers to are the Jews. He says this verse means that a saved Jew places himself once again under the Old Testament Law, he behaves as if he is still an unjustified sinner.

The phrase that catches me is this, "...seek to be justified by Christ..."

So many seek to be justified by good works.
By church attendance
By keeping the Ten Commandments
By obeying their church's rule
By being baptized

To be justified is to be cleared of all charges against us and to be given the righteousness of God. This justification is found only in Christ.

And once we have been born again (and more to the point of the book of Galatians) the one who is justified is to continue trust in the justifier, not in his own works, for his standing with God. When we see our standing with God as secure because of Jesus Christ we are free then to press ourselves in Christian service to bring honor and glory to Him.

The Servant of Christ

Galatians 1:10 KJV
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

The goal of every minister of Jesus Christ ought to be to be the servant of Christ. Paul says that if he had sought to please men he could not be that servant of Christ.

Not that we have to try not to please men. This is no command to be mean spirited, brazen and obnoxious. There is little room in Christian circles for that sort of person. Paul loved people. He nurtured and cared for them as a mother would her children. That ought to be the testimony of any true servant of Christ.

Nor does it mean that we must be thoughtless of others. David seemed to be given to thoughtfulness. Time and again he sought to show kindness, first to Saul, and then to those members of his family once Saul was dead. To reach out in gentleness and kindness to others is certainly no sorry quality.

It means that the true servant of Jesus Christ seeks to please Christ. His purpose is Christ and not people. Christ will send him to people and Christ, who is Himself meek and gentle, will certainly expect the same from His servants. But the servant of Christ has as his interest, Christ. It is He that he seeks to please. It is He that he seeks to serve. Whenever we get that mixed up, we are no longer serving Christ at all, but have become merely players in the religious arena.

This Is Not Too Much To Wish For

2 Corinthians 13:9 KJV
For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

My focus is on the phrase. "...this also we wish, even your perfection."

First thought, it is not wrong to say "I wish this would happen." Realizing of course that it would be wrong to "wish" for fleshly things, it is not wrong to employ the word "wish."

More importantly is what Paul wished for. He wished these Christians would become perfect. That is a load to ask for, but it is not too much to ask for!

Jesus said to His disciples,
Matthew 5:48 KJV
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

And Paul concluded the very chapter we are considering by saying,
2 Corinthians 13:11 KJV
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, ...

The Bible is profitable;
2 Timothy 3:17 KJV
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

And Jesus' judgment of the church at Sardis was
Revelation 3:2 KJV
..... I have not found thy works perfect before God.

We know we cannot be perfectly sinless until we reach heaven. But we can be complete, mature and well equipped for godly living and service.

That is not too much to expect.