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This holy book is the letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the believers living in Galatia. Previously, Paul had preached in Galatia to bring people to faith in Jesus. All this is recorded in chapters 13 and 14 of the book of Acts.
When Jesus's work began in Israel, most of the believers were Jews (‘Jews’ or ‘Israelites’ are names for the same people). These Jewish believers believed that Jesus was the Messiah spoken of by their prophets in their holy books. Therefore, they did not consider Jesus's teachings to be a new religion. To their thinking, Jesus's teachings simply completed the Jewish religion as God had foretold. Indeed, they believed that as Christians they didn’t need to abandon the principles of their religion as laid down in the Torah of Moses and the Yabur of David (Psalms). They added Jesus's teachings to these principles.
There was no difficulty with this when the word of God was preached only to the Jews. But when Jesus's disciples preached his word to other nations, some difficulties arose. The people of these nations who became Christians did not accept that the customs of the Jews should be added to Jesus's teachings, because Jesus's teachings were sufficient for them.
Because of this, some Jewish Christians spoke ill of Christians from other non-Jewish nations because they were not circumcised. These Jewish Christians said that an uncircumcised Christian has not obtained full salvation. When Paul learned that they were saying this, he opposed this idea by saying that if we obtain salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus, we do not need circumcision in order to receive that salvation. He did not say that circumcision is not good. He said that circumcision or any other principle cannot grant us salvation. Only the sacrifice of Jesus can do that.
The disagreement that existed between Jewish Christians and Christians of other nations can be a good lesson for us too. There are religious principles we must respect, but they cannot give us salvation. There are customs we can follow, but we must not consider them an obligation in order to be saved. It is a little difficult to explain all this, but God's holy book can grant us the wisdom to understand it.
Furthermore, Paul's letter to the believers in Galatia can still teach us how a believers should conduct themselves. Love is the first commandment for Christians. The Holy Spirit living in the believer's heart guides him or her in the ways of God. This is important, otherwise Satan will use every means possible to divert the believer onto another path, which is the path of sin. May God protect us from this. Amen!
