![\"Ministry](\"\/Banner-MOG-60.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Galatians 1:13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and<\/span><\/strong> tried to<\/span><\/em> destroy it. Truth to Learn Sometimes those who hate Christians the most become vibrant witnesses for faith in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n Behind the Words \u201cConduct<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek noun anastroph\u0113<\/span><\/em>, which is taken from the verb anastreph\u014d<\/span><\/em>. This verb is made up of ana<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cup\u201d or \u201cagain\u201d and streph\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto turn.\u201d Hence, the verb literally means \u201cto turn again\u201d or \u201cto return.\u201d By interpretation, it refers to \u201cmoving about in a place\u201d or \u201cdwelling in a place.\u201d Therefore, the noun form, anastroph\u0113<\/span><\/em>, refers to a person\u2019s \u201cmanner of living\u201d or \u201cpersonal conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n The word translated \u201cbeyond measure<\/span><\/em>\u201d is huperbol\u0113<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of huper<\/span><\/em> (or hyper<\/span><\/em>), meaning \u201cover\u201d and a form of ball\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto throw.\u201d So it literally means, \u201cto throw over<\/em>\u201d or \u201cto throw beyond<\/em>.\u201d By interpretation it means \u201cexceedingly much<\/em>.\u201d This is the word from which we get our English word hyperbole which means to exaggerate.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained Paul now begins to share a testimony of his early years as a Christian with the believers in Galatia as further evidence that he received not only his calling, but also the gospel message, directly from Christ himself. He will also point out later in this testimony that he personally confronted the apostle Peter and the leaders of the church in Paul starts out his testimony with the statement \u201cFor you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism<\/span><\/em>.\u201d Either Paul had shared this testimony with them previously or he knew that others had informed them of his former religious practices. He tells us that when he was a believer in the Jewish faith he persecuted Christians exceedingly as we see in the eighth and ninth chapters of Acts:<\/p>\n As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing<\/span> them<\/span><\/em> to prison.<\/span> (Acts 8:3<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.<\/span> (Acts 9:1<\/span><\/strong>, 2<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n Paul was one of the most zealous persecutors of the early church. He felt as if it was His calling in life to destroy those who believed in Jesus Christ. Isn\u2019t it amazing how God will take a person who is openly and violently opposed to the gospel message and turns them around to become evangelistically on fire for Him?<\/p>\n Application Remember Paul\u2019s background the next time you are verbally or physically attacked for sharing the gospel. Instead of getting angry at the one who attacks you, perhaps you should pray that God will touch their heart and use them for His glory.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something to think about, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2007 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to: Galatians 1:13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. Truth to Learn Sometimes those who hate Christians the most become vibrant witnesses for faith in Jesus Christ. Behind the Words \u201cConduct\u201d is translated from the Greek noun anastroph\u0113, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-1X","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/signature.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"e-mail](\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/Will_e-mail.gif\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"