{"id":123,"date":"2007-07-31T20:55:47","date_gmt":"2007-08-01T02:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/index.php\/2007\/07\/31\/galatians-115-a-called-one\/"},"modified":"2007-07-31T20:55:47","modified_gmt":"2007-08-01T02:55:47","slug":"galatians-115-a-called-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-115-a-called-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 1:15 – A Called One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ministry<\/p>\n

\n

Galatians 1:15<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called<\/span><\/strong> me<\/span><\/em> through His grace,<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have been called by God to serve Him.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cseparated<\/span>\u201d is a form of the Greek word aphoridz\u014d<\/span><\/em> which is a compound word made up of apo<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cfrom\u201d or \u201caway from\u201d and the verb horidz\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto define.\u201d Hence, aphoridz\u014d<\/span><\/em> means \u201cto separate\u201d or \u201cto set-apart for a particular office or work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the surface, this verse seems to say one thing when, in fact, it is saying something entirely different. The expression, \u201cseparated me from my mother\u2019s womb<\/span>\u201d appears to be a reference to God being in control of Paul\u2019s birth. But, Paul is not saying that God was responsible for, or participated in, his birth, but that from the time he was born, God set Paul apart for a particular work, spreading the gospel to the Gentiles.<\/p>\n

If you look at Ephesians 1:4, 5<\/span><\/strong> you will see that God chooses each one of us to be holy and blameless in his sight.<\/p>\n

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, <\/span>(Ephesians 1:4, 5<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

God does not simply choose us to be his children, he sets us apart. The word holy<\/span> means \u201cset apart.\u201d Just like Paul, you and I have been chosen and have been set-apart. And, not only did God set Paul apart for the ministry of Gentile evangelism but he also \u201ccalled\u201d him to the task, and we have also been called by God to serve Him, as Paul tells us in Romans chapter 8.<\/p>\n

In Paul\u2019s case, this setting-apart and calling is referenced in the first verse of the book of Romans:<\/p>\n

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be<\/span> an apostle, separated to the gospel of God (<\/span>Romans 1:1<\/span><\/strong>)<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

And later, as part of their commissioning by the church at Antioch<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, Paul and Barnabas were to be set-apart to the task that God had already called them to:<\/p>\n

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.<\/span> (Acts 13:2<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Paul was called and set-apart for a specific ministry. He was obedient and he turned the world upside down.<\/p>\n

Application <\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Every Christian has been chosen by God, separated from the remainder of mankind, and called to serve and obey our Lord and Master. And, according to Paul in the current verse, and in Ephesians 1:5<\/span><\/strong> quoted above, this separating and calling is according to God\u2019s choosing, \u201caccording to the good pleasure of His will<\/span>,\u201d not according to what we want to do.<\/p>\n

God is the one who does the calling. How we choose to respond to that calling is up to us.<\/p>\n

How have you responded to God\u2019s calling in your life?<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/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:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Galatians 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, Truth to Learn We have been called by God to serve Him. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cseparated\u201d is a form of the Greek word aphoridz\u014d which is a compound word made up of […]<\/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-123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-1Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123","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=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}