The Gospel and Spiritual Maturity: Galatians 6:1-10

Hello and welcome to Series 2 and Episode 7. We are coming towards the end of our study of the book of Galatians and now we are in chapter 6.

Recap and Background

Those of you who have been following this teaching will know that in Series 1 we focused on Paul talking about his relationship with the Galatian churches and how he came to them and his other involvements with the Apostles.

In Series 2, he has been addressing a very fundamental problem that, after he left the Galatian churches, false teachers came in and preached literally, a different gospel. That is why the book of Galatians has been very turbulent, very emotional, and very confrontational. It has been a difficult book to read and study in some ways, but Paul is passionate in defence of the gospel. In Galatians 3:1, he made this very striking statement: ‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’ which we studied that in an earlier episode. He felt that it was almost as if a spell had been cast over their minds and hearts and they had forgotten the gospel which he had so clearly preached, and they were going to return to a legalistic religion based on going back to the Old Testament Law of Moses and particularly, to food laws, where they didn’t eat the same food as the other people in their community; following Jewish religious festivals and days; and particularly, male circumcision. They had been told, by the Judaizers, that the men who had converted to Christ, had become believers amongst the Gentiles, must be circumcised. This was an incredible thing to ask them to do. Paul challenged this very strongly. In Galatians 5: 1 he says, ‘It is for freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery’.

In the last episode, he introduced the wonderful life lived according to the power of the Holy Spirit. He began to explain to the Galatians the right way to live the Christian life. The wrong way to live the Christian life was to go back to the Old Testament and start to feel obliged to obey laws that were not designed to be followed by Christians in the New Testament. Paul also showed them the right way. He said, “You have been given the Holy Spirit. He is living within you; he is walking alongside you in your life; he wants to speak to you on a daily basis; he is going to transform your character from within and produce,” what Paul called, ‘the fruit of the Spirit’. We looked at this wonderful list of the characteristics of mature Christian behaviour in the last episode: ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’. Paul said, that if you follow the way of the Spirit, listen to what he is telling you to do and obey the promptings of the Spirit, you will be changed from within. You will become a different person; all these characteristics can exist in your character - not one for each person, but all of these nine fruit or characteristics in every single person.

We come to Galatians 6 where Paul is making some concluding comments, thinking how he can be practical for these Galatian churches. He has finished his argument about legalism, now he wants to be practical in terms of helping them become mature in their churches. What a wonderful goal: to become mature in church life and in Christian experience.

Dealing with Sin in the Church

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.”

Galatians 6:1-6, NIV

Paul starts this passage addressing the question of how to deal with people who fall into a specific sin or moral failure in church life. Paul often had to deal with this issue in churches and he comes back to it again here in the book of Galatians. How do we deal with people when things go wrong in church life? In the experience of most of us, that is what happens. Christians make really bad mistakes. They are often deceptive in the church community and hidden sin is there under the surface. Paul knew this perfectly well. He had experienced it in other churches and he tries to help the Galatians to deal with this kind of issue. This is advice added on because Paul is aware this is important in all circumstances.

Imagine the circumstance whereby somebody in the church community steals the church money and the church fund no longer has any money in it because somebody within the church community has stolen it. The money is gathered Sunday by Sunday by the church community, as happened in Paul’s churches and was kept by somebody for church purposes: to give to the poor; to help the leaders; to fund mission trips and all sorts of other things. Then we find out who has taken the money; the thief is in the church. What do we do there? That is exactly the kind of circumstance Paul has in mind here, ‘If someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.’ ‘Living by the Spirit’ means living according to the New Testament way of faith, rather than by Old Testament rules.

If the person acknowledges their sin and repents of it, the person should not be cast out of the church but should be restored. The aim is to restore people if they fail morally and deceive the church. We should be seeking to restore them, gently. They need to acknowledge their sin and face the consequences but we want to bring forgiveness to the person who has offended us. That sometimes doesn’t happen in churches. When people cause offence there is unforgiveness. Paul is implying here that God’s way is forgiveness. They have to take responsibility for their sin, of course - if they don’t do that, you can’t proceed down this road. But if they take responsibility, then forgiveness comes and so does restoration. I had a friend once who was a Christian in another church who was in business, and sadly he entered into a corrupt business and he ended up in prison for a short period of time, even though he was a believer. When he came out of prison some people took it as their responsibility to help to restore him to a good Christian life, and that was achieved over a period of time. That should be our goal. A difficult thing to do, but is an important responsibility.

We are, in that way, carrying the burdens of other people. We are hurt by their actions. Secondly, if we imagine the scenario that I described, the money has been stolen, so it also hurts us financially because we have to put more money into the church because the church leaders explain the church doesn’t have enough money. So, we are literally carrying the burden. Somebody’s wrong actions cause an emotional burden, a practical burden and sometimes a financial burden to the church members. Paul says, ‘Carry each other’s burdens.’ That is the cost of being in a Christian family when other people fail the community.

Spiritual Pride

From Galatians 6: 3 he talks about the risk when you are involved in a situation where someone else has failed, of feeling morally superior. Pride comes in.

I can feel superior to that person because I would never have done a thing like that; I would never have stolen the money from the church funds, or whatever it might be.

Paul quickly guards against that, by advising people to be very careful about our own attitudes to our own godliness and our own achievements. Spiritual pride can come in. We should be very aware of our actions and take responsibility for our own actions. One of the best ways to be aware of your motives and your actions is to have somebody, a friend who you meet with regularly, if that is possible in your circumstances, who you trust, who you can ask, “What do you think about my character? What do you think about my actions and my motives?” You can be open and transparent about who you are. I have two friends who I meet regularly, who I allow to ask me those kind of questions because I think these words are very important. We shouldn’t be deceiving ourselves. We should test our own actions and we should take responsibility for the actions that we carry out.

Honouring Church Leaders

Paul ends in Galatians 6: 6 with a very interesting statement, ‘Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.’ He now brings in a reference to the church leaders. ‘The instructor’ there, is probably a teacher or a pastor in the local church situation in the Galatian churches. Paul addresses the fact that it is the leaders of churches who should be helping dealing with these relational problems and the issues of sin that take place within church communities, and that we should honour the leaders who are taking this difficult responsibility to sort out these issues. He says that we should be very grateful for the teaching and the instruction that they bring and ‘share all good things’ with them. He is encouraging them to make sure that they give some financial support to the leaders in their churches.

This brings another very interesting question into mind. In the churches that Paul founded, there was no very clear structure of paying elders or pastors in churches. In fact, if you follow Paul’s ministry himself, you will find that sometimes he pays for himself; sometimes he is working in business in leather work, in tent making; sometimes he is financed by benefactors; sometimes he is supported by families where he lives for a long period of time in somebody’s house. Supporting leaders was quite a complicated issue in the early church. It wasn’t a settled church and wasn’t necessarily a very rich church; it was sometimes very small church communities. But the principle that Paul puts in here, is that the leaders and teachers should be supported by the church community in a meaningful way. For many of our churches around the world in these days, most of the pastors will be working full-time on their farms or in their jobs, and they will be giving their spare time to pastoring the churches. But, we can’t grow bigger churches on that basis. There isn’t enough time; there isn’t enough capacity. Paul envisaged a situation, which still applies in the church today, where some leaders are financed wholly or full-time to work for the church, and that is a good thing; some are financed for part of their time - they also work in business and have other sources of income; and some people aren’t financed at all because the resources are not yet available there. But the principle is that the church members should be seeking to support their leaders, out of respect for them and also because it will increase their capacity to grow the church and teach and lead their people well.

Word Online has been designed for many people to receive teaching about the New Testament, but haven’t had the time to study in Bible College, or to read many books about the New Testament. I have designed this product especially for people like you because maybe you didn’t have the finance available to you. You are a leader, someone who is responsible for other people and you didn’t have the opportunity. We are supporting you in that situation. Paul always wanted leaders to be suitably supported so that they could do their job well in the local church.

Reaping What We Sow

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Galatians 6:7-10, NIV

Paul introduces a very interesting idea here - that human how we live our human lives, is like sowing seeds; investing in some harvest in the future. We can either invest in our selfish ambitions, instincts or desires, or we can invest in God’s Kingdom. Paul saw a distinction here.

Do you remember the parable that Jesus told about the rich fool? The man who had a very successful farm and he had such a big harvest that he had to build extra barns in order to house the harvest. He decided to have a feast and drink some alcohol and rest and relax. He thought, ‘I have done so well in my farm that I can now take it easy for the next few years.’ and Jesus said, “You fool!” because that man died that evening. He had invested in his selfish, materialistic ambition, but he had not invested in the Kingdom. Jesus described him as ‘a fool’.

Paul has the same idea in mind here. I remember a man I worked with, about 30 years ago, who was drawn to the gospel but he was dependent upon alcohol. He said to me, “My life is going to go in one of two directions. Either I am going to really wholeheartedly believe in this Christian faith you are talking about, or I am just going to live in the world of alcohol dependence, getting drunk and drinking too much.” He stood in the middle. It was almost as if he could see in his own mind’s eye, and he could tell me clearly, “If I sow according to the flesh, the selfish desires, I will lead to destruction, or if I sow according to the Spirit it will lead to eternal life.” Sadly, he chose alcohol, and he died shortly afterwards. ‘God cannot be mocked.’ He knows what our deep choices are and we should be investing in the Kingdom.

‘Sowing to please the Spirit’ is the beautiful expression that Paul uses here. He has already explained how the Spirit is right at the centre of our lives. He wants to guide us in our daily lives and therefore, the implication here is, the Holy Spirit will lead us through circumstances and guide us to do things for God every day of our lives. We invest in God’s Kingdom by following those promptings. The Christian life consists of thousands of small actions following God’s way, following the Spirit, over many years. We invest in the Kingdom; we sow in the Spirit by thousands and thousands of small, mostly unseen, actions and prayers and thoughts. ‘Sow according to the Spirit,’ says Paul.

That is investing in the Kingdom of God but with such investment you don’t see the immediate results. Sometimes you don’t see any results at all until you get a reward from God. It could happen in this life but Paul primarily thinks of that reward being in eternity, when Jesus might say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant”,because you were faithful with few things. You might be a parent with thousands and

thousands of caring tasks for your children - sacrificial – that is your calling, that is hard work, that can please God. It might be in your workplace; it might be the quiet ministries in the church; or it might be that you are cleaning the church building. Whatever it is, ‘sow according to the Spirit.’ That takes faith and trust in God.

Some years ago I started a small savings account and put small amounts of money in a bank every month, and the idea is, that I only look and see how much money is in it once a year. I am not thinking about the amount of money or using the money for myself, I am keeping it for a long-term investment in my family. So, I am sowing a seed and I don’t see any benefit. I haven’t gained anything - in fact I have lost something because I haven’t got that money available. It is there for another purpose. I am sowing for a long-term goal, which will only be fulfilled in maybe 10 years’ time from when I am recording this talk. Within our Christian life it is really great to view the fact that every day we are investing, according to the Holy Spirit, for the long-term result. The long-term result is that we reap eternal life, verse 8.

That is why Paul says in verse 9, ‘Do not become weary in doing good.’ Maybe nobody appreciates the things you do; maybe nobody sees the things that you do; maybe you don’t get an immediate sense of a reward from God. But Paul says, you will be rewarded if you are faithful. Don’t be amongst those Christians who decide, it is not worth following God any longer. They have become weary and tired of all the good works. Paul says, “Don’t become weary. You are going to reap a tremendous harvest.” Almost certainly, he is referring here to the eternal reward that you will have. We always need to keep eternity in mind when we are Christians. We are not just saved in order to have that sense of freedom from guilt in this life; we are saved in order to enjoy an eternity with God. There are rewards for those who are faithful. Jesus makes that very clear in his teaching and Paul makes the point again here,

“We will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Dorcas

There is a beautiful example of this in the book of Acts, which I want to use as a final example in this episode. The book of Acts speaks mostly of the actions of leaders: Peter, Paul, Philip, Stephen, Barnabas and others. But, very occasionally, you get a little bit of biographical information about just an ordinary disciple. One of the very first Christian disciples, whose story is told to us, is a lady called Tabitha or Dorcas.

Tabitha is her Hebrew name. It is a very interesting and moving story about one of the first ordinary believers whose life is actually described to us in the New Testament. All we know about Tabitha comes from this brief description when she tragically dies prematurely, and then a miracle takes place. But I want you to notice the circumstances about her, what it says about her, as much as about the miracle. Acts 9: 36 – 40,

“In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, ‘Please come at once!’ Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning towards the dead woman he said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.”

Acts 9:36-40, NIV

The story is told for the miraculous aspect of it and the impact it has on the community but notice the details. Here was a woman, who was probably an older woman. The widows were brought in; maybe she was a widow too, but we don’t know that for certain. But notice that she had committed herself to caring for the poor by good works and particularly by a skill she had of making clothes. She had made many clothes which she hadn’t had opportunity to give away to people when she suddenly died. She fulfilled exactly what Paul is describing here. She did not become weary in doing good.

Reflections

Firstly, dealing with sin in the church is important. It is the responsibility of the leaders and the responsibility of church members is to have a very humble and gracious attitude towards those who have made serious mistakes and sinned against the church community.

My second reflection would be that, we are responsible for how we live our Christian lives. Paul is pointing out here, that it is not just a once in a moment miraculous act that brings you to salvation. That salvation is assured, but it is our responsibility to follow the leading of the Spirit, and to live productive lives for the Kingdom, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves - to ‘sow according to the Spirit.’ We should always be investing in the Kingdom and not becoming weary in doing good.

Thanks for listening and do join us for the last episode.