Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross; The Holy Martyrs and Confessors for the Faith, the Grand Prince Michael and His Nobleman Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernihiv; The Holy Great-Martyr Eustathius and those with him.
Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1.
Read Galatians 2:16-20
When we deeply care about someone, we react when that relationship is threatened. We will reject the interloper; we will rebut their argument. To get past our defenses, the mistake someone wants us to make must be made attractive and take advantage of our weak points.
The logical fallacy called “argument from authority” attempts to have us accept a claim just because an authority figure said it, without any other real evidence or reasoning. The argument relies only on a title or status instead of facts and proof. We are especially vulnerable to it when our desire for external validation is heightened by comparison with others, either by being critical of ourselves or them. It is especially effective when it is made to seem to be the fulfillment of what we are already committed to.
For some Gentile Christians in the Galatian church, that temptation to external validation came in the form of performing the Jewish dietary and ritual cleanliness law, urged upon them by seemingly authoritative Jewish Christians.
Paul undercut that appeal to authority by making the evidence of the gospel the center of his argument: he too was a Jew and his justification before God by faith in Christ was not a deviation from the law but the fulfillment of it. His relationship with God was now lived in connection to Christ in faith, for forgiveness of sins and living in love.
In our day, we can recognize this form of deception whenever a person or movement wants to add something to faith in Christ that pushes for some external conformity to be justified before God. Paul allows nothing to take the place of being united by faith with Christ in his crucifixion and living a life animated by faith in Christ to justify us before God.