Galatians 6:1-10
Key Verse: 7b
“A man reaps what he sows.”
We have been studying the book of Galatians, in which the Apostle Paul defends the truth of the gospel from attacks by the Judaizers, who said that doing good works was necessary for salvation. This attitude is also called legalism. Galatians highlights the freedom that we have through faith in Christ. Jesus accomplished salvation by fulfilling the laws we could not keep and by receiving the punishment of death we should have received. Throughout the first five chapters of Galatians, Paul extensively explained the gospel based on the grace of God. In today’s passage, Paul tells us the practical results of this victory, which concerns our personal relationships, especially with fellow believers in Christ. If we separate this passage from the preceding chapters, we might misunderstand Paul’s statements about doing good works. We must understand that good works are the result of salvation, not the means to salvation. If we misunderstand this gospel principle, then we will misunderstand everything in today’s passage. For illustration, think of a train with two cars, one is grace and one is good works. Legalism puts the good works as the engine, and trailing along behind as the caboose is God’s grace. This illustration is backwards. The gospel puts the grace of God as the engine, and trailing along behind as the caboose are good works which God does through us. Paul has been emphasizing that doing good works to try to get God’s approval is absolutely useless. But good works are still important because the gospel is relational. Our freedom in Christ is not an excuse to become indifferent and carless toward others. Though some may think of walking by the Spirit as a private mystical experience, the fruits of the spirit, beginning with love, are practically carried out in personal relationships with other people. The gospel is about relationships with God and others. The gospel is the basis for a Christian community. May God bless us to grow in our understanding as we study this passage today.
First, Gospel relationships are not competitive (5:26)
Let’s read chapter 5:26, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” The word “conceit” literally means “hungry for honor”. Conceit is a deep insecurity, a perceived absence of honor, and a desperate desire to prove our honor and worth to ourselves and others. This leads us to constantly compare ourselves with others. The two possible effects of conceit are provoking others and envying others. The word “provoke” means to challenge someone to a contest. One who provokes believes that he is superior and who looks down on others as weaker. “Envying” is to be jealous of others. One who envies looks up in jealousy to someone who he feels is above him. Conceit leads to either a superiority complex or an inferiority complex. Both the superior person and the inferior person are self-absorbed, trying to gain self-worth through competition. When responding to criticism, the superior person becomes judgmental, and the inferior person becomes defensive. The gospel creates an entirely new self image. Walking by the Spirit, as we learned in chapter 5, enables Christians to subdue the conceited sinful nature. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see our sinful unworthiness and at the same time to take security in knowing how much God loves us, and how much God is concerned about the people around us. Jesus loved us so much that he died for us. When we realize that, we no longer crave love and honor from others. Rather, with the overflowing love that Jesus has given us, we feel compelled to share that love with others. In short, Christian relationships are governed not by rivalry, but by service.
Pricilla Shirer said, “In the first century in Palestine, Christianity was a community of believers. Then Christianity moved to Greece and became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome and became an institution. Then it moved to Europe and became a culture. And then it moved to America and became a business. We need to get back to being a healthy, vibrant community of true followers of Jesus.” Modern Christianity in America is often regarded as an organization of production and consumption. Throughout our Galatians study, we have been learning that salvation cannot be bought or sold. The Gospel of Jesus removes us from the self-centeredness of legalism, nationalism, and individualism, and restores us to a family relationship with God and his people. When God adopted us as his sons and daughters, we stopped being slaves. Our security comes, not from our accomplishments, but from God, our heavenly Father, who loves us unconditionally. Because God is our father, other Christians become our brothers and sisters, and we share God’s concern for unbelievers who are also his creation.
Second, Gospel relationships involve sharing burdens (1-6)
Let’s read verses 1-2, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” According to Galatians 5:14, the law of Christ is to love one another. This law is different from the legalism of the Judaizers. Instead of imposing burdens on others, we should help others to lift their burdens. Paul stated throughout the letter of Galatians that Christians are free from observing the law for salvation. But when our own burden is lifted by God’s grace, God wants us to help others bear their burdens also. Jesus invited those who are weary and burdened to come to him, and he promised to give them rest (Mt. 11:28). Christian, in the book Pilgrim’s Progress, began the story with an unbearably heavy back-pack to carry. But when he met Jesus, this backpack was lifted away and he felt light and free. Jesus bore the burden of our sins on the cross. Jesus took upon himself all of the burdens of our guilt and shame, and the resulting burden of death and condemnation. Jesus changed our status from slaves to sons and daughters. So, as sons and daughters of God, we have an obligation to serve other Christians who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. A yoke is a device which enables one ox to help another ox carry a burden. Jesus, who bore the burden of our sins, gave us the perfect model for sharing the burdens of others. Verse 1 is an example of burden-bearing. When we see someone caught in a sin, we should restore him gently. It takes spiritual maturity to help someone who is struggling with a sin problem so that we don’t criticize them and also so that we don’t fall into the sin ourselves.
Let’s read verses 3-5, “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else. For each one should carry his own load.” What does Paul mean when he says that we should carry each other’s burdens, and we should also carry our own load? We have heard a lot about unconditional grace. But the gospel does not teach people to be freeloaders. The load that we cannot help others carry is the load of their personal accountability before God on Judgment Day. Only Jesus can help them carry that load. In order to be able to help others carry their burdens, we first need to be strong in our personal responsibility. Otherwise, we give people burdens rather than take them. According to verses 3-5, our view of ourselves influences how we treat others. It takes humility to bear others burdens. If we think we are really something, we will not have a servant’s heart. According to verse 4, there is a legitimate kind of “pride” that a Christian can have about himself. It is not the conceited kind of pride that we discussed earlier, which leads us to look down on others. It is the kind of confident pride which we have in knowing that God loves us unconditionally. Testing our own actions means that we measure ourselves before God. When we do so, we will not compete with others, but will rather want to help them. The gospel frees us to have a new delight in doing good out of thankfulness rather than duty. Summarizing Luther’s Preface to Galatians, Tim Keller said, “Only through the gospel is there a new sense of delight in and service to God for the beauty of who he is in himself, not for what he gives you. That frees us to love others and do good deeds for their own sake, and not for how they profit us.”
Third, Gospel relationships are harvested by sowing and reaping (7-10)
Let’s read verses 7-8, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” We are so easily deceived by legalism or lawlessness. But we must not misinterpret God’s unconditional love, thinking that God is like a senile old grandfather. We can fool other people, but we can never fool God, and we cannot cheat the results of God’s grace. In Galatians chapter 5, Paul used a metaphor of fighting to describe the struggle of living by the flesh and living by the Spirit. But in today’s passage, Paul switches to a farming metaphor. Sowing and reaping are a natural principle as well as a spiritual principle that are taught throughout the Old and New Testaments. There are two kinds of ground: flesh and Spirit, and there are two kinds of harvest: corruption and eternal life. In the context of this metaphor, the seeds we sow are our lives. This includes our desires such as our thoughts, emotions, interests, and plans, and also our resources such as time, talent, money, and effort. We should be careful not to confuse this principle with trying to work for salvation. First of all, unbelievers do not have the Spirit, so they cannot sow to the Spirit; they can only sow to the sinful nature, either through superiority or inferiority. Secondly, God takes the credit for spiritual harvesting; we are only the helpers. Life is kind of like planting a garden. Many of our members rode bikes to the Chicago Botanic Gardens last weekend, and saw gardens that were well planted. The Message translation of verse 8 says, “The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.” This indicates that our sowing is not really our human effort, but rather God’s work in us when we yield to the Spirit rather than to the flesh. A clinical study indicated that between 7th and 12th grades, young people listen to 10,500 hours of rock music. If you analyze the lyrics of these songs that sow to the flesh, you can imagine what the harvest will be. Thank God for our West Loop praise band, which helps us to sow music to the Spirit. Similarly, movies, internet, and relationships are harvest fields to which we can either sow to the flesh or to the Spirit. Some people say that since Christians are saved by grace not works, we don’t need to worry about good works. But this is not true. Both Abraham and Lot were saved. Abraham cultivated a life of intimacy with God, but Lot was saved “as one escaping through the flames” (1Cor.3:15). Which one would you rather be like?
Let’s read verses 9-10, “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 the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Active Christian service is tiring. Sometimes we are tempted to get discouraged and give up. But God’s principle of harvest holds true in the end. There is an old saying, “Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” It takes time to reap a harvest. It doesn’t happen overnight. So we need to be patient and persistent in doing good, even when it looks like there is no effect.
Willliam Carey was the first modern missionary to India in 1793. Carey taught the Bible to anyone who would listen, but did not win a single convert to Christ for seven years. Sometimes Carey became discouraged, but he never gave up. In 1800, the first Indian was baptized as the firstfruits of a great harvest among the Indian people. Another story of delayed harvest is even more amazing. Luke Short was a colonist of Virginia who reached the age of 103. As he sat under a hedge, he remembered a sermon he once heard by the famous Puritan John Flavel. As he remembered the sermon, he asked God to forgive his sins through Jesus Christ and he was born again. The sermon Short remembered had been preached 85 years before. It was a long time between the sowing and the reaping of that harvest.
As we wait for the harvest, Paul tells us to do good to everyone, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, caring for the sick, helping neighbors, praying for people, and telling others about Jesus are good things that Christians should do. We should be willing to do good to all people. But Paul does point out that we should have a special responsibility to care for other Christians. Since we are all Children of God by adoption, other Christians have become our brothers and sisters in the family of God.
Today, we thought about Gospel relationships. First, Paul warned that conceit leads to provoking and envying. The sinful nature is based on competition, but the gospel leads us to lives of Christian service. When we are confident in God’s love and take rest in Jesus’ forgiveness, we can help others to bear their burdens. We also learn the principle of sowing and reaping. We sow our desires such as our thoughts, emotions, interests, and plans, and also our resources such as time, talent, money, and effort. If we sow to the sinful nature, we reap destruction. But if we sow to the Spirit, we reap eternal life. It takes time to sow and reap, but if we are patient, we will reap a spiritual harvest.