We have just started a series in Galatians over the past couple of weeks. For us, this means a Sunday morning service built around the relevant passage and a follow up community group bible study where we think through the applications a little further.

This week, I was struck particularly by Paul’s defence of the gospel he received. Specifically, he made clear that his gospel did not come from human sources, but he received it directly from Jesus. To support this, he cites a series of pieces of evidence beginning with his former persecution of Christians whom he hated, didn’t know any personally, would never have listened to them and systematically sought to round up and imprison. Whatever else you make of that, it seems clear enough his gospel didn’t come from any of them!

What is particularly striking about his defence is how his supernatural claim to have received his gospel direct from Jesus led to a complete overhaul of his life and priorities. Paul went from Jewish religious scholar par excellence, with significant authority and clout, to being a nobody who was persecuted along with the church by the very people who once held him in high regard. There’s lots we might say about this, but this is what struck me: Paul’s supernatural claim to have heard from Jesus made his life (humanly speaking) exponentially worse. And this very fact seems to be what Paul cites, in part, to prove that the only explanation for his gospel is that it came directly from Jesus.

I think this is helpful to bear in mind when it comes to assessing those ‘words from the Lord’ we often hear today. Anybody claiming to speak in the name of the Lord should rightly be asked, ‘and why should we believe you?’ We can all say ‘God told me’. The real question is, ‘why should we believe you?’

There are lots of ways we might begin to answer that question. But it strikes me one of them is this: does this ‘word from the Lord’ mean your life is going to be utterly upended in some way like Paul’s? Does this ‘word from the Lord’ do anything to make your life harder? Does this ‘word from the Lord’ lead to your (human) disadvantage in some way?

Whilst I appreciate this is not a cast iron proof of anything, I do think it is telling. I am more inclined to at least consider the person who is saying something that actively disadvantages them and causes them much greater hardship than the person who brings something inane, self-aggrandising or evidently self-serving. I also think it is telling I am not aware of a single ‘word from the Lord’ I have ever heard anybody offer that meets this criteria. Which, if I’m honest, makes me a tad sceptical.

Let me be more direct. If somebody brings a ‘word from the Lord’ about some serious sin that they are in and it leads them to public repentance, I might be inclined to hear that. If somebody brings a ‘word from the Lord’ that means they are (personally) being encouraged to sell all their stuff and give it to the poor, I would be willingly to countenance it as credible. Somebody bringing a ‘God says’ about some hair-brained plan they’ve got that they want to strongarm everyone into following or who is clearly standing up to get some praise and adulation for their ‘word’, I am less inclined to listen. I have heard lots of the latter, none of the former.

I don’t suggest personal detriment is a cast iron proof here. I can see somebody might disadvantage themselves in the short-term to gain a following, or something else, over the long term. But I think it’s interesting that Paul, in defending his supernaturally received gospel, lands significantly on the (humanly apparent) detrimental effects on him and suggests this is a sign he is not just making stuff up. Bring a word with that sort of evidence and I might give you a hearing.