Read Galatians 1:11–12
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. Galatians 1:11

“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist,” wrote Emerson. Many others agree with him. The English art critic John Ruskin said, “I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.” The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, “We forfeit three fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.”

Francis Asbury, first bishop of the Methodist Church in the United States, once prayed at a deacon ordination, “O Lord, grant that these brethren may never want to be like other people.” Of course, there is a wrong kind of individualism that destroys instead of fulfills; but in a society accustomed to interchanging parts, it is good to meet a man like Paul, who dared to be himself in the will of God.

But his freedom in Christ was a threat to those who found safety in conformity. Paul’s enemies pointed to his nonconformity as proof that his message and ministry were not really of God. “He claims to be an apostle,” they argued, “but he does not stand in the apostolic tradition.” It is this misrepresentation that Paul answered in this section of Galatians. His nonconformity was divinely deliberate. God had chosen to reveal Himself in a different way to Paul.

Something to Ponder
In what ways are you a nonconformist? How does this play into the way you serve God?