Galatians 2:11-12 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. 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.
Exercise helps weak muscles gain strength. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have confirmed that regular physical exercise may be able to prevent chronic musculoskeletal pain in the neck, shoulder, back, as well as stiffness and pain in the joints. Allegorically, the weak spiritual muscles must be exercised regularly to be strengthened. While the Holy Spirit will take us through tests and trails to strengthen our spiritual muscles, the devil and his demons will attack the most vulnerable and weak spiritual muscles with temptations.
Temptations are satan’s snare to stumble us into sin while trials are God permitted setups for success.
The early church tried to integrate the Jewish customs of ‘work-based acceptance’ into ‘salvation by grace and grace alone’. The Jewish customs and the rabbinic law considered gentiles (non-Jews) as ritually unclean and outcasts as they ate impure foods. Those who did not follow the ‘kosher diet’ (a special diet mentioned in Leviticus 11), were considered unclean. Partaking in impure food was worse than idolatry and sexually immorality. Hence when the Jewish elite joined Cephas/Peter, (the Aramaic translation of Peter), in Antioch, he withdrew himself from the table of the gentiles. When Paul saw Peter segregating himself to please the influential Jews, he openly confronted and rebuked him.
Peter was put through a test to exercise boldness to overcome the fear of the criticizing Jewish converts and to stand as a pillar of truth but he failed the test as he yielded to the temptation to please people. For Peter, ‘traditions, rituals and Jewish customary practices’, was a weak spiritual muscle that had to be strengthened by regular exercise.
Test and Trials strengthen the spiritual muscles:
1. Diet: A good protein rich diet strengthens our physical muscles, likewise a good spiritual diet of God’s Word and pure thinking patterns build our spiritual stamina and strength. Spiritual muscles are built every day and a trial tests our spiritual stamina. The spiritually weak who feed on junk will fail the temptations of greed, gloating and glamour. Our prayer closet is our spiritual gymnasium.
2. Dedication: Regular exercise improves your brain health, helps to manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthens bones and muscles and improves our overall ability and agility. Similarly, everyday spiritual exercise of praying, reading the word and regular fasting builds spiritual muscles to resist temptation and grow through trials.
3. Dumbbell: Lifting dumbbells challenges the muscles and helps to build muscular strength. Trials are spiritual dumbbells that fortify inner strength. The stronger we become the heavier our dumbbells would be.
Build spiritual muscle every day.
Galatians 2:13 3 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
Prayer: Father God, show me the weak spiritual muscles that have to be strengthened. Give me the tenacity to build spiritual muscles through the test. Amen.
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