Galatians 6:12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Do you do things you don’t believe in just to keep other people from judging you or calling out your non-conformity? Do you not believe in the efficacy of mask wearing and yet still put on a mask? Do you hide your political leanings and not speak up because to do so would make you an object of ridicule?
This kind of duplicity is common, in fact, I think all of us do this at times in life. We don’t speak up, because it is easier to fade into the background than it is to defend our beliefs. It takes time and a willing audience to explain what and why you believe what we believe, and not everyone is willing and ready to hear our explanation. So instead, we keep silent. Expediency wins out.
Paul had been accused of compromising what he believed. People had Paul of abandoning his Jewish practices, the cultural and religious duties that filled most Jewish lives of that day and age. But he had also been accused of encouraging others to abandon these practice as well.
The non-Jews of Paul’s day didn’t need to adopt the practices that had defined Jewish life as a requirement for the new Christian faith. All these practices were part of the system that pointed forward to Jesus, and now that Jesus was here and had accomplished His work, the system was no longer needed as a pointing device.
So for these non-Jews, they had the reality to which the old rituals pointed.
I remember playing as a child with a stick that I pretended was a rifle. We would play cowboys and Indians. That stick was only a pretend substitute for the real thing. It had no power on its own to rescue anyone from an Indian onslaught. It was just a stick.
When I joined the US Army, I learned how to use an M16, a rifle with real capacity to enforce my words with power. I never had to use it in combat, but I was trained to use it effectively, along with my fellow soldiers, to enforce the will of the United States on those who would oppose it.
Since I now had an M16, I had no need of my stick. The role the stick played was obsolete, since I now possessed the real thing, my M16. The stick could go back to doing what sticks do, provide kindling for a fire.
If I am going to be persecuted for my faith, I want to exhibit genuine, life-saving faith in Jesus. I don’t want to be expressing a substitute faith that lacks any power to transform lives. If I am going to jail for my faith, I want it to be for the strongest expression of faith that I can present. I don’t want a hung jury faith. I want a guilty as charged faith.
The Arnold Journey 