Today we begin worship with:
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
The promise was not given to Isaac, but rather to his father Abraham. It was:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
The promise had a purpose. The word “so that” (hāyâ) is the natural result of the promise. It was not the obligation required by the promise (what we must do in response), but rather what God wanted to occur because of the promise.
And that purpose is what Paul is bringing us to in Galatians as children, not of the slave woman, but of the free woman:
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
As we walk today, let’s walk according to God’s purpose.
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