by Tim Hall

It's a detail about my past of which I am not proud. When I was a teenager, the company I sometimes kept persuaded me to drink beer on two or three occasions. Though that was long ago, I vividly remember my reaction to the taste: Repulsive! "It's an acquired taste," I was told, an affirmation I've heard several times since. Thankfully, I abandoned the stuff before my taste buds were altered.

In his Galatian epistle, Paul wrote to Christians whose spiritual taste buds had been altered. In the beginning, their response to the gospel was enthusiastic. "You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus" (Galatians 4:13,14, NKJV).

When these Gentiles heard about Jesus and His death upon the cross, they saw the "good" in the "news" Paul preached. They were also grateful to Paul for his part in preaching it to them: "What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me" (Galatians 4:15). Paul had preached to them the pure truth of the gospel, and they had happily received that.

Things changed after Paul resumed his journey. Some followed Paul with a different twist on the gospel: A Christian must first be a Jew, submissive to all the regulations of the Law of Moses. Throughout the letter, Paul attacked such thinking as foreign to the truth of the gospel. In Galatians 1:6-9 he wrote: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed."

As the Galatians' spiritual tastes changed, so did their esteem of the one who had first taught them. Paul pleaded in 4:16, "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" Like silly teenagers who allow "friends" to turn them against the parents who nurtured and disciplined them, these Christians had turned against Paul. Instead of testing the claims of the Judaizers against the truth of Christ's gospel, they trusted the charismatic and sincere-sounding speeches. What a mistake they made by loosening their grip on the truth!

History's cycles continue to turn. People in all eras and cultures respond enthusiastically to the simplicity of the truth (see Randal Matheny's article from March 22, "These People Can't Exist"). They can see for themselves the concept of undenominational Christianity and the necessity to base beliefs and practices on the word rather than on whims and feelings. Along the way, though, tastes change. What was once repulsive to the taste is made to sound delicious. "We can't practice those things," the deceivers argue. "Such views pose insurmountable barriers to people seeking the truth." And so Christians are persuaded to turn away from those who first taught them God's word. Anyone who tries to speak only truth is viewed as an enemy.

We have long argued that God's word can be understood by the layman. Have we changed our view? Must we now rely on the intellectuals to tell us what God's word teaches? Or is it not still the case that honest students of God's word can discover God's will? "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him" (Psalm 34:8). I have a tongue; I can taste for myself. I also have a functional mind; I can interpret for myself.