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I felt like today’s devotional’s title should be a question because I have been asking myself this same question. Am I bold enough to stand up for my faith? I know I love God and I am so grateful that He made himself known to me; I honestly don’t know if I would still be alive (and not surviving) if I didn’t know Him and didn’t become a child of God. Yet, this does not guarantee that I will always and on all occasions stand up for my faith. Galatians chapter 2 talks about how Paul was accepted by the apostles when he started preaching the word of God.

³ “Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. ⁴ This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. ⁵ We did not give in to them for a moment so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you”. (Galatians 2:3-5)

Let’s start by explaining a little bit about the difference between the uncircumcised (gentiles) and the circumcised. God told Abraham in Genesis 17:10 that he and his descendants were to be circumcised. Jesus, as one of the descendants of Abraham, was circumcised in a temple in Jerusalem on the eighth day after His birth (John 7:22-23). The actual circumcision is performed by removing part of the skin on a man’s penis but this term is used in the bible as a symbol of cutting away sin or cleansing from sin as a result of faith in God. In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses told the Israelites that God wanted them to circumcise their hearts and to no longer be stiffed-necked any longer. In short, God symbolically connected circumcision with a new, changed heart. Finally, in the New Testament, circumcision of the heart is a symbolic sign of new, spiritual life. Conversion of the heart is the result of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit regenerates and gives new life.

The circumcised were Jews and the gentiles (uncircumcised) were the outsiders, the non-Jewish people. But all of those concepts are being referred to as laws in the New Testament to preach that we were not justified by our works as the following verses say it well;

¹⁵ “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles ¹⁶ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in^[a] Christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:15-16)

To come back to our initial question, Paul shows how he stood up for his faith and spoke in front of people against how one of his friends was behaving when among the gentiles versus when with the circumcised.

¹¹ “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles (uncircumcised, non-Jews people). But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group (Jews). ¹³ The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. ¹⁴ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” (Galatians 2:11-14)

I believe that many of us sometimes behave differently like Cephas when among the gentiles (non-Christians) and circumcised people (Christians, those who had been given a new life through the Holy Spirit who lives in them). When doing this, we are not being true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ because our lives have been renewed through the Holy Spirit when we accepted Jesus Christ. Fortunately, we no longer have to do certain things such as circumcision to be justified (declared right before God). Jesus did the work and we receive the result through faith (Romans 4:5; Romans 5:1).

Let us stop living differently based on the people around us but walk in the truth we know. Not only that but let’s be bold enough to stand against those of us who are behaving like this, approaching them and reminding them of the truth we believe in because being like them, is being a hypocrite like Paul said in Galatians 2: 13. We should always remember that we are God’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5: 20) and live knowing that people sees God in us. Maybe you are the only chance for someone around you to see Jesus.

¹⁹ “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”. (Galatians 2:19-21)

For us to live a godly life, our old selves must die to give place to our new selves. Jesus needs to live in us, as well as the Holy Spirit who directs us through everything. Their presence in us, the zeal and passion will then give us the ability to stand for our faith when needed. But, on top of everything, we need to discern the love of God that made Him send His only Son to die for us when we were still sinners. What I am sure of is that Jesus did not die in vain as the bible says that we were made right through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross (Isaia 61:10). I invite you all to live out the faith we have and be bold to stand for it, to not compromise ourselves by living different lives based on our environment or circumstances but to stand in the person God made us to be and remind our brothers and sisters of the true gospel, the message of Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Father God, thank you for sending your only Son to die for me so that I can be justified through Him and not based on my works. I ask you to give me the discernment of Your love for me; I want to be able to recognize all the small acts of love You put on my way every day so that my love for You can also be greater. Help me to be real to You and to others and not compromise myself in any way. I want to be able to stand and speak for Your gospel when needed and live out what You have put in me to show to the world who lives and abide in me, in Jesus’ name Amen.