Brethren, I beseech you, become as I am (Gal 4:12a):
A Reflection on Witness of Life
“Become as I am” (cf. 1 Cor 11:1)[1] is indeed one of the boldest statements of Paul. These are not merely a combination of words, but squirting from a person, who has drenched in the love of the Risen Lord, for the sake of forming the Galatians in the likeness of Christ. These Galatians are predominantly gentile community (cf. 4:8; 5:2-3; 6:12-13) of North Galatia, whom he called once foolish Galatians (3:1), later embraced them as children (4:19) and brothers (4:12; 5:11; 6:18). Apart from the pagan background of the Galatians, the polemical context, namely to warn against the Judaizers’ preaching different gospel (cf. 1:15) and to defend his own authority of apostleship (cf. 1:1,12) has paved the way for Paul, to spell a daring note. Thus it has a two-fold purpose in the letter to the Galatians.
First of all, the Galatians received faith from Paul. They need to be ushered into the mysteries of Christ. This formation is gradual and also tiresome, because of the previous roots in the native religious practices. That’ why he expresses his strong feeling saying, “I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you “ (4:19). In the process of this formation, the Galatians definitely needed a sample person, whom they can see face to face in order to pattern their lives after Christ. At this juncture, Paul being called by Christ directly (cf. 1:12), stood firm for the Lord in spite of persecution, and transformed himself totally unto Christ, feels that he represents Jesus Christ. This implies that he has entirely melted into Christ, hence seeing Paul is equal to experiencing Jesus Christ, in other words, he has become a replica of Christ for the gentile world. Secondly, his earnest request along with his converted new life in Christ bears witness to his authentic apostleship in contrary to the false propaganda by the Judaizers in the Galatian community. Thus they experienced Christ in the life of Paul whose life is in Christ always manifested by a deep zeal for the gospel, compassion and care for the community of believers, life of prayer for the unity, charity, boldness, and the joy of being a believer.
Paul’s open call made two millennia ago is very live even today. It touches both the individual believer as well as the people of God collectively. In the multi religious context of the Indian sub-continent, any Christian and the Church can repeat the words of Paul to the predominantly non-Christian setting, only if rooted in Christ and formed by his Spirit. Moreover, the people of this land are expecting a face of Jesus in every Christian and the Church. They are ready to discard the teaching of Christ and his mission, if his followers do not reflect in their day-today life the person of Jesus. That’s why, there have been a shift in the mode of evangelization, from the cross-road-preaching of the old, to a life of witness in daily existence. This strategy is firmly believed to be more effective and code-worded as silent evangelization. Therefore it is clear that only by a witnessing life, one can tell his non-Christian neighbours, “Imitate me, for I am the other Christ, seeing me you understand who Christ is, and what his mission is”. Only such a growth in the life of faith would reach Christ to the remotest streets of India.
G. Robert John Kennedy
31 August 2003
[1] Henceforth, all quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, The New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition for India, Bangalore: Theological Publications in India, 1999. They are immediately noted by permitted abbreviations for the particular book in the Bible.
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