cut off your junk!

Galatians 5:1-12

The key words are: freedom, circumcised, faith, law. Paul uses two word pictures: the first is the yoke - the idea of enslavement and burden, the second is a runner cutting out of his lane and preventing another runner from advancing in the race.
Paul's main point is that we were set free to enjoy freedom, not to be re-enter slavery. He uses some pretty strong arguments, stating that if circumcision is necessary for salvation then we become responsible to the whole law again. We can't pick and choose which elements of the law (probably mostly referring to the ceremonial law and sacrificial system) we are going to observe and which ones we are not. He saves his strongest language for those who are preaching that circumcision is necessary for salvation - he wishes that they would go all the way and cut their junk off! And I thought Paul was supposed to be a saint!
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (v. 6b). This has been the main message of Paul and it is what I am slowly learning. God doesn't need me to impress him - he already loves me and is already pleased by me simply because he is God and I am his child. I can grow in my experience and expression of that love by reading my Bible, going to church, praying, serving, observing lent, etc. but those disciplines aren't the goal (growing in my experience of Jesus and his love are) and they don't make me any more special in God's eyes. To say that I can earn God's favour is nothing more than superstition - saying that if I perform the rituals properly, God will respond favourably to me (isn't that manipulation?).