Wednesday 5 Oct 2022

October 5: Galatians 2:7-10

Key Verse: Galatians 2:8
For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Devotion:
When you think of the apostles going out to spread the gospel, whom do you think they went to? We hear of them going out to many people and so many getting to know the truth and get into a relationship with God through their teachings; but when you look at it from the apostles point of view – who were they trying to reach?

Jesus reached out to so many people but we get to hear mostly about Him coming back to the Jews and teaching in the synagogues. We don’t always think about the other people He reached out to unless we are told specifically how he talked to Samaritans or others. The apostles where guided by the Holy Spirit to reach out to specific people. Between them they decided who would go where to cover as many people as possible.

Here we are reminded how Peter was an apostle to the circumcised – the Jews. This is the side I always think about when I hear about the apostles. But Paul was encouraged to be an apostle to the Gentiles – those uncircumcised who were rejected and shunned by the Jews because of the original words from God telling them not to mix with them when they were settling in the land. This was to stop them from giving in to the ways of the Gentiles because they seemed to be easily swayed away from God (as we know from historical records!)

God doesn’t always want us to reach out to the friends and families of the church goers… Yes some of us will need to reach out to them to encourage them to come into church and learn the truth; but some of us will be asked to go to those people who our society shuns or the people who we think least deserve to know Christ!

Points to Ponder:
Do you pick the easy task when you hear God calling?

Will you step forward and accept the difficult task if He asks?