If you’ve read “Paul: Sent one to the Gentiles”  you know who Paul is and what he did.  In 46-48 AD he started churches in the Roman province of Galatia.  When he returned back to his home church in Antioch in Syria he was confronted by Jewish Christians who had come up from Jerusalem.  These Jewish Christians were insisting that the non-Jews, or Gentiles, that were coming to Jesus must follow the law of Moses.  These “Judiazers” were also taking the same message to the newly formed churches in Galatia.  Paul, while in Antioch, received reports of what was happening to the new churches. His home church in Antioch was preparing to send Paul to Jerusalem to meet with the original leaders of Christianity.  That meeting would come to known as the Jerusalem Council.  Eventually the Jerusalem Council would decide that the Gentiles had been accepted by God without becoming Jew and that they did not need to follow the Jewish customs. The council did realize that many believers had been Jews and they encouraged the gentile believers to be sensitive to the feelings of these former Jews and their families.  In the mean time though Paul needed to help the new churches so he wrote a letter to the churches in Galatia.  That letter is the part of the New Testament we call Galatians.  It was written about 49 AD.  If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you might remember that the Jewish people were very serious about their Messiah, the promised one.  But they were only seeing the description of him that involved political salvation, he would be their forever king.  They had seen many times in their history what would happen if they did not follow God carefully, they had become very religious about the Old Testament laws.  They were missing the most important part of God’s promised kingdom, it wasn’t as much about palaces and pastures as it was about people.  And God did not just want Jewish people but people from every family on earth.  The passion of the Jewish people at the time of the early church put a lot of pressure on the church  to conform, the Jews did not want God’s plan sidetracked again.  to make matters worse not only did the Gentiles in the newly forming churches not believe that they needed to follow the Jewish customs many felt that God’s forgiveness meant that they did not have to follow any rules at all.  It was in the middle of this struggle that Paul wrote Galatians.  He wanted to be sure that the Galatians did not put their trust in religious rules but he did want them to remember that God has standards.  As we read Galatians we need to see how Paul deals with the tug of war going on in Galatia and the elsewhere.