I’m exploring Galatians 2 this week. Here is the passage from the NIV:
“James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.”
As I said in my first post, it is obvious that Paul is saying that when he went out into the world, he was to never forget the poor. We should do the same.
But who are the poor? For Paul, the poor were people from whence he was sent. We often misread the story from our own experience and see it as Paul going to the poor. And my first post, which reflected my early reading of the passage from 20+ years ago, has framed the conversation along the lines of going to the poor and being prepared to impact the poor. But the Galatians passage is actually talking about the poor in Israel, from whence Paul was sent. He was not sent to Asia-Minor, Athens or Rome to serve the poor in those countries … he was being asked to remember the poor back home when he visited those places of wealth.
Which got me thinking … when I go to a foreign land, do I remember the poor in my own country? It struck me that yes, I do, but not in a way you might expect. There are poor in our country, and I have learned lessons about serving them on international expeditions. But that’s not what I want to focus on today.
Briefing visitors on spiritual wealth vs financial wealth.
Instead, contemplate this idea. Even though I think the passage in Galatians is all about financial poverty, I believe that there is a correlation with spiritual poverty. When I travel away from my culture I am leaving behind a lot of people living in spiritual poverty. And then I often find myself interacting with people of rich spiritual vitality (though often financially poor). Anybody who has studied the rapid growth of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will understand that when you travel outside of the “developed” world you quite often enter into a more spiritually vibrant community.
It just makes me wonder about a different way to look at the passage in Galatians. If I’m to leave a place of (spiritual) poverty, and go to a place of (spiritual) vitality, shouldn’t I be sure to remember the (spiritually) poor that I am leaving behind? Of course.
And as Paul brought back gifts to the poor of Israel, shouldn’t I bring back gifts of (spiritual) wealth to the (spiritually) poor of my culture? Again, of course.
Now how you do that will vary with your talents, your experience, and any number of other factors. Way too many variables for me to get into that here (email me if you want to discuss it).
But there is one point that is probably universal for every instance: it is important for short term service trips to have times of debriefing as they reenter our local culture. We bring gifts from afar but we often do not even know it, and have still less understanding of what to do with these gifts. Thus the importance of post-trip reentry.
I’m not quite done sharing all of my thoughts about Galatians 2:10. My next post will focus on how we remember the poor in the midst of wealth.