Make sure your message matters

If you could write your loved one’s, the generations under you, one final letter, give them one bit of advice, one message for life, what would you write? What would be the one focus area that you believe they need to hear to live a fulfilled, joyful life?

That is a great question to ponder. It cuts through the busyness and mess of life, and gets to your individual purpose. It gets to what you believe is vital in life. It ultimately boils life down into the most important thing that you believe.

The New Testament details Paul’s three missionary journeys. On these journeys, he started 13+ churches. The churches are not the building we think of today. The churches are simply groups of people that bind together under the belief in Jesus. These groups of people included all races, radically different backgrounds, all genders. Paul especially cared for those that would be deemed less in society.

These churches were Paul’s “why” in life. He traveled on these missionary journeys to testify to Christ, the One who had changed his life. Many listened and believed and became part of the church. He deeply cared for these people, and he knew what they were up against.

In that day, if one believed in Jesus as the Messiah, one faced extreme persecution, as in potential death. So, Paul’s heart was probably heavy as he left the town and his church to the next town. He knew the road before them was going to be extremely difficult.

So, this is why we see 10 books in the Bible written by Paul to these various churches. He wrote to encourage, direct, make sure the churches stayed devoted and committed to what they first believed.

The first letter that Paul wrote was to his friends in Galatia, or modern day Turkey. We learn about Paul’s journey through this region in Acts 14, in the cities of Iconium and Lystra.

“But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.” Acts‬ ‭14:19-20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Paul was stoned in Lystra, almost killed, for the message he believed and was delivering. And, Paul knew that he was leaving the people with this same life of extreme persecution. So, Paul wrote the letter of Galatians.

Paul’s letter to the people could have began in any number of ways. He could have talked about what a life of obedience to Christ looks like. Or, he could have jumped into deep spiritual truths that they needed to know.

Apparently, some people in the city had started to spread a message contrary to what Paul had shared. They had presented a different Gospel. So, Paul begins the letter by emphasizing the foundational truth that their life must be built on. All else in life stems from this truth. He points to the key to handling the persecution, doubt, fear, anything they may face in life.

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” Galatians‬ ‭1:6-9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

His message to the church, the people that he loved? There is only one gospel. It is plain, it is clear. One gospel that Paul shared and anything else is not true. He states the gospel in the first sentence, “the grace of Christ.”

Paul knew the grace of Christ. He once murdered followers of Jesus. Then, Christ himself approached him, changed his life, and gave him a new mission. Jesus had died a sinless life, rose again, for Paul. This is the grace of Christ, and Paul knew that this is the foundation of everything else in life.

This is the message that Paul started his letter with to the people in Galatia. Nothing was more important than this foundational truth. All else comes from this gospel, as this gospel changes everything.

So, if you had a letter, one message to deliver to your loved ones, how would it begin? What is the most important word to get to them?

Many of us will never write a letter, a book, a message to our loved ones. But, the truth is, we are writing those letters every day through our actions. Our life is an open book to those closest to us. They know what the most important thing in our life is.

Make sure your message matters. Let the grace of Christ be on the tip of your tongue. That message changes everything.

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