Chapter Twelve: The Marks of Freedom (Galatians 6:11–18)
The Runner-You Lose Your Direction ()
Paul was fond of athletic illustrations and used them often in his letters. His readers were familiar with the Olympic games as well as other Greek athletic contests that always included foot races. It is important to note that Paul never uses the image of the race to tell people how to be saved. He is always talking to Christians about how to live the Christian life. A contestant in the Greek games had to be a citizen before he could compete. We become citizens of heaven through faith in Christ; then the Lord puts us on our course and we run to win the prize (see ). We do not run to be saved; we run because we are already saved and want to fulfill God’s will in our lives ().
“You did run well.” When Paul first came to them, they received him “as an angel of God” (). They accepted the Word, trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, and received the Holy Spirit. They had a deep joy that was evident to all, and were willing to make any sacrifice to accommodate Paul (). But now, Paul was their enemy. What had happened?
A literal translation of gives us the answer: “You were running well. Who cut in on you so that you stopped obeying the truth?” In the races, each runner was to stay in his assigned lane, but some runners would cut in on their competitors to try to get them off course. This is what the Judaizers had done to the Galatian believers: they cut in on them and forced them to change direction and go on a “spiritual detour.” It was not God who did this, because He had called them to run faithfully in the lane marked “Grace.”
His explanation changes the figure of speech from athletics to cooking, for Paul introduces the idea of yeast (leaven). In the Old Testament, leaven is generally pictured as a symbol of evil. During Passover, for example, no yeast was allowed in the house (; ). Worshipers were not permitted to mingle leaven with sacrifices (), though there were some exceptions to this rule. Jesus used leaven as a picture of sin when He warned against the “leaven of the Pharisees” (); and Paul used leaven as a symbol of sin in the church at Corinth (1 Cor. 5).
Yeast is really a good illustration of sin: it is small, but if left alone it grows and permeates the whole. The false doctrine of the Judaizers was introduced to the Galatian churches in a small way, but, before long, the “yeast” grew and eventually took over.
The spirit of legalism does not suddenly overpower a church. Like leaven, it is introduced secretly, it grows, and before long poisons the whole assembly. In most cases, the motives that encourage legalism are good (“We want to have a more spiritual church”), but the methods are not scriptural.
It is not wrong to have standards in a church, but we should never think that the standards will make anybody spiritual, or that the keeping of the standards is an evidence of spirituality. How easy it is for the yeast to grow. Before long, we become proud of our spirituality (“puffed up” is the way Paul puts it, , and that is exactly what yeast does: it puffs up), and then critical of everybody else’s lack of spirituality. This, of course, only feeds the flesh and grieves the Spirit, but we go on our way thinking we are glorifying God.
Every Christian has the responsibility to watch for the beginnings of legalism, that first bit of yeast that infects the fellowship and eventually grows into a serious problem. No wonder Paul is so vehement as he denounces the false teachers: “I am suffering persecution because I preach the Cross, but these false teachers are popular celebrities because they preach a religion that pampers the flesh and feeds the ego. Do they want to circumcise you? I wish that they themselves were cut off!” (, literal translation)
Since the death and resurrection of Christ, there is no spiritual value to circumcision; it is only a physical operation. Paul wished that the false teachers would operate on themselves—“castrate themselves”—so that they could not produce any more “children of slavery.”
The believer who lives in the sphere of God’s grace is free, rich, and running in the lane that leads to reward and fulfillment. The believer who abandons grace for Law is a slave, a pauper, and a runner on a detour. In short, he is a loser. And the only way to become a winner is to “purge out the leaven,” the false doctrine that mixes Law and grace, and yield to the Spirit of God.
God’s grace is sufficient for every demand of life. We are saved by grace (), and we serve by grace (). Grace enables us to endure suffering (). It is grace that strengthens us (), so that we can be victorious soldiers. Our God is the God of all grace (). We can come to the throne of grace and find grace to help in every need (). As we read the Bible, which is “the Word of His grace” (), the Spirit of grace () reveals to us how rich we are in Christ.
“And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” ().
How rich we are!
At the close of an important speech to Congress on January 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt shared his vision of the kind of world he wanted to see after the war was over. He envisioned four basic freedoms enjoyed by all people: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. To some degree, these freedoms have been achieved on a wider scale than in 1941, but our world still needs another freedom, a fifth freedom. Man needs to be free from himself and the tyranny of his sinful nature.
The legalists thought they had the answer to the problem in laws and threats, but Paul has explained that no amount of legislation can change man’s basic sinful nature. It is not law on the outside, but love on the inside that makes the difference. We need another power within, and that power comes from the Holy Spirit of God.
There are at least fourteen references to the Holy Spirit in Galatians. When we believe on Christ, the Spirit comes to dwell within us (). We are “born after the Spirit” as was Isaac (). It is the Holy Spirit in the heart who gives assurance of salvation (); and it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to live for Christ and glorify Him. The Holy Spirit is not simply a “divine influence”; He is a divine Person, just as are the Father and the Son. What God the Father planned for you, and God the Son purchased for you on the cross, God the Spirit personalizes for you and applies to your life as you yield to Him.
This paragraph is perhaps the most crucial in the entire closing section of Galatians; for in it Paul explains three ministries of the Holy Spirit that enable the believer to enjoy liberty in Christ.
The Spirit Enables Us to Fulfill the Law of Love ()
We are prone to go to extremes. One believer interprets liberty as license and thinks he can do whatever he wants to do. Another believer, seeing this error, goes to an opposite extreme and imposes Law on everybody. Somewhere between license on the one hand and legalism on the other hand is true Christian liberty.
So, Paul begins by explaining our calling: we are called to liberty. The Christian is a free man. He is free from the guilt of sin because he has experienced God’s forgiveness. He is free from the penalty of sin because Christ died for him on the cross. And he is, through the Spirit, free from the power of sin in his daily life. He is also free from the Law with its demands and threats. Christ bore the curse of the Law and ended its tyranny once and for all. We are “called unto liberty” because we are “called into the grace of Christ” (). Grace and liberty go together.
Having explained our calling, Paul then issues a caution: “Don’t allow your liberty to degenerate into license!”
This, of course, is the fear of all people who do not understand the true meaning of the grace of God. “If you do away with rules and regulations,” they say, “you will create chaos and anarchy.”
Of course, that danger is real, not because God’s grace fails, but because men fail of the grace of God (). If there is a “true grace of God” (), then there is also a false grace of God; and there are false teachers who “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (, NIV). So, Paul’s caution is a valid one. Christian liberty is not a license to sin but an opportunity to serve.
This leads to a commandment: “By love serve one another” (). The key word, of course, is love. The formula looks something like this:
liberty + love = service to others
liberty − love = license (slavery to sin)
“I have an extra day off this week,” Carl told his wife as he walked into the kitchen. “I think I’ll use it to fix Donna’s bike and then take Larry on that museum trip he’s been talking about.”
“Fixing a bike and visiting a museum hardly sound like exciting ways to spend a day off,” his wife replied.
“It’s exciting if you love your kids!”
The amazing thing about love is that it takes the place of all the laws God ever gave. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” solves every problem in human relations (see ). If you love people (because you love Christ), you will not steal from them, lie about them, envy them, or try in any way to hurt them. Love in the heart is God’s substitute for laws and threats.
When our children were small, we lived next to a busy highway, and the children knew they would be spanked if they went near the road. As they grew older, they discovered that obedience brought rewards. They learned to obey not only to escape pain but to gain pleasure. Today they live in different metropolitan areas and all of them drive. But we neither threaten nor bribe them in order to keep them safe. They have a built-in discipline of love that regulates their lives, and they would not deliberately hurt themselves, their parents, or other people. Love has replaced law.
On a much higher level, the Holy Spirit within gives us the love that we need (; , ). Apparently the Galatian believers were lacking in this kind of love because they were “biting and devouring one another” and were in danger of destroying one another (). The picture here is of wild animals attacking each other. This in itself is proof that law cannot force people to get along with each other. No matter how many rules or standards a church may adopt, they are no guarantee of spirituality. Unless the Holy Spirit of God is permitted to fill hearts with His love, selfishness and competition will reign. Both extremes in the Galatian churches—the legalists and the libertines—were actually destroying the fellowship.
The Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum. He uses the Word of God, prayer, worship, and the fellowship of believers to build us up in Christ. The believer who spends time daily in the Word and prayer, and who yields to the Spirit’s working, is going to enjoy liberty and will help build up the church. Read 2 Corinthians 3 for Paul’s explanation of the difference between a spiritual ministry of grace and a carnal ministry of Law.
The Spirit Enables Us to Overcome the Flesh (, )
The conflict (vv. ). Just as Isaac and Ishmael were unable to get along, so the Spirit and the flesh (the old nature) are at war with each other. By “the flesh,” of course, Paul does not mean “the body.” The human body is not sinful; it is neutral. If the Holy Spirit controls the body, then we walk in the Spirit; but if the flesh controls the body, then we walk in the lusts (desires) of the flesh. The Spirit and the flesh have different appetites, and this is what creates the conflict.
These opposite appetites are illustrated in the Bible in different ways. For example, the sheep is a clean animal and avoids garbage, while the pig is an unclean animal and enjoys wallowing in filth (). After the rain ceased and the ark settled, Noah released a raven which never came back (). The raven is a carrion-eating bird and found plenty to feed on. But when Noah released the dove (a clean bird), it came back (). The last time he released the dove and it did not return, he knew that it had found a clean place to settle down; therefore the waters had receded.
Our old nature is like the pig and the raven, always looking for something unclean on which to feed. Our new nature is like the sheep and the dove, yearning for that which is clean and holy. No wonder a struggle goes on within the life of the believer! The unsaved man knows nothing of this battle because he does not have the Holy Spirit ().
Note that the Christian cannot simply will to overcome the flesh: “These two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do anything you please” (, WMS). It is this very problem that Paul discusses in Romans: “I do not know what I am doing. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do … For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (, , NIV). Paul is not denying that there is victory. He is simply pointing out that we cannot win this victory in our own strength and by our own will.
The conquest (v. ). The solution is not to pit our will against the flesh, but to surrender our will to the Holy Spirit. This verse literally means, “But if you are willingly led by the Spirit, then you are not under the Law.” The Holy Spirit writes God’s Law on our hearts (; see 2 Cor. 3) so that we desire to obey Him in love. “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy Law is within my heart” (). Being “`led of the Spirit” and “walking in the Spirit” are the opposites of yielding to the desires of the flesh.
The crucifixion (vv. , ). Paul now lists some of the ugly “works of the flesh.” (You will find similar lists in ; ; ; .) The flesh is able to manufacture sin but it can never produce the righteousness of God. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (). This list in Galatians can be divided into three major categories:
The sensual sins (vv. , ). Adultery is illicit sex between married people, while fornication generally refers to the same sin among unmarried people. Uncleanness means just that: a filthiness of heart and mind that makes the person defiled. The unclean person sees dirt in everything (see ). Lasciviousness is close to our word debauchery. It speaks of a wanton appetite that knows no shame. It goes without saying that all of these sins were rampant in the Roman Empire. Drunkenness and revellings (orgies) need no explanation.
The superstitious sins (v. ). Idolatry, like the sins named above, is with us today. Idolatry is simply putting things ahead of God and people. We are to worship God, love people, and use things, but too often we use people, love self, and worship things, leaving God out of the picture completely. Jesus tells us that whatever we worship, we serve (). The Christian who devotes more of himself to his car, house, or boat than he does to serving Christ may be in danger of idolatry ().
The word witchcraft is from the Greek word pharmakeia, which means “the use of drugs.” Our English word pharmacy is derived from this word. Magicians in Paul’s day often used drugs to bring about their evil effects. Of course, sorcery is forbidden in the Bible as are all activities of the occult ().
The social sins (vv. ). Hatred means “enmity,” the attitude of mind that defies and challenges others. This attitude leads to variance, which is strife, the outworking of enmity. Emulations means jealousies or rivalries. How tragic when Christians compete with one another and try to make one another look bad in the eyes of others. Wrath means outbursts of anger, and strife carries with it the idea of “self-seeking, selfish ambition,” that creates divisions in the church.
Seditions and heresies are kindred terms. The first suggests division, and the second cliques caused by a party spirit. Divisions and factions would be a fair translation. These are the result of church leaders promoting themselves and insisting that the people follow them, not the Lord. (The word heresy in the Greek means “to make a choice.”) Envyings suggests the carrying of grudges, the deep desire for what another has (see ). Murders and drunkenness need no elucidation.
The person who practices these sins shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul is not talking about an act of sin, but a habit of sin. There is a false assurance of salvation that is not based on the Word of God. The fact that the believer is not under Law, but under grace, is no excuse for sin (). If anything, it is an encouragement to live in obedience to the Lord.
But how does the believer handle the old nature when it is capable of producing such horrible sins? The Law cannot change or control the old nature.
The old nature must be crucified (v. ). Paul explains that the believer is identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6). Christ not only died for me, but I died with Christ. Christ died for me to remove the penalty of my sin, but I died with Christ to break sin’s power.
Paul has mentioned this already in Galatians (see ), and he will mention it again (). He does not tell us to crucify ourselves, because this is impossible. (Crucifixion is one death a man cannot inflict on himself.) He tells us that the flesh has already been crucified. It is our responsibility to believe this and act on it. (Paul calls this “reckoning” in Rom. 6; you have the same truth presented in ).
You and I are not debtors to the flesh, but to the Spirit (). We must accept what God says about the old nature and not try to make it something that it is not. We must not make “provision for the flesh” () by feeding it the things that it enjoys. In the flesh dwells no good thing (), so we should put no confidence in the flesh (). The flesh is not subject to God’s Law () and it cannot please God (). Only through the Holy Spirit can we “put to death” the deeds that the flesh would do through our body (). The Holy Spirit is not only the Spirit of life (; ), but He is also the Spirit of death: He helps us to reckon ourselves dead to sin.
We have seen two ministries of the Spirit of God: He enables us to fulfill the Law, and He enables us to overcome the flesh. He has a third ministry as well.
The Spirit Enables Us to Produce Fruit (, )
It is one thing to overcome the flesh and not do evil things, but quite something else to do good things. The legalist might be able to boast that he is not guilty of adultery or murder (but see ), but can anyone see the beautiful graces of the Spirit in his life? Negative goodness is not enough in a life; there must be positive qualities as well.
The contrast between works and fruit is important. A machine in a factory works, and turns out a product, but it could never manufacture fruit. Fruit must grow out of life, and, in the case of the believer, it is the life of the Spirit (). When you think of “works” you think of effort, labor, strain, and toil; when you think of “fruit” you think of beauty, quietness, the unfolding of life. The flesh produces “dead works” (), but the Spirit produces living fruit. And this fruit has in it the seed for still more fruit (). Love begets more love! Joy helps to produce more joy! Jesus is concerned that we produce “fruit … more fruit … much fruit” (, ), because this is the way we glorify Him. The old nature cannot produce fruit; only the new nature can do that.
The New Testament speaks of several different kinds of “fruit”: people won to Christ (), holy living (), gifts brought to God (), good works (), and praise (). The “fruit of the Spirit” listed in our passage has to do with character (). It is important that we distinguish the gift of the Spirit, which is salvation (; ), and the gifts of the Spirit, which have to do with service (1 Cor. 12), from the graces of the Spirit, which relate to Christian character. It is unfortunate that an overemphasis on gifts has led some Christians to neglect the graces of the Spirit. Building Christian character must take precedence over displaying special abilities.
The characteristics that God wants in our lives are seen in the ninefold fruit of the Spirit. Paul begins with love because all of the other fruit is really an outgrowth of love. Compare these eight qualities with the characteristics of love given to the Corinthians (see ). This word for love is agape, which means divine love. (The Greek word eros, meaning “sensual love,” is never used in the New Testament.) This divine love is God’s gift to us (), and we must cultivate it and pray that it will increase ().
When a person lives in the sphere of love, then he experiences joy—that inward peace and sufficiency that is not affected by outward circumstances. (A case in point is Paul’s experience recorded in .) This “holy optimism” keeps him going in spite of difficulties. Love and joy together produce peace, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (). These first three qualities express the Godward aspect of the Christian life.
The next three express the manward aspect of the Christian life: long-suffering (courageous endurance without quitting), gentleness (kindness), and goodness (love in action). The Christian who is long-suffering will not avenge himself or wish difficulties on those who oppose him. He will be kind and gentle, even with the most offensive, and will sow goodness where others sow evil. Human nature can never do this on its own; only the Holy Spirit can.
The final three qualities are selfward: faith (faithfulness, dependability); meekness (the right use of power and authority, power under control); and temperance (self-control). Meekness is not weakness. Jesus said, “I am meek and lowly in heart” (), and Moses was “very meek” (); yet no one could accuse either of them of being weak. The meek Christian does not throw his weight around or assert himself. Just as wisdom is the right use of knowledge, so meekness is the right use of authority and power.
It is possible for the old nature to counterfeit some of the fruit of the Spirit, but the flesh can never produce the fruit of the Spirit. One difference is this: when the Spirit produces fruit, God gets the glory and the Christian is not conscious of his spirituality; but when the flesh is at work, the person is inwardly proud of himself and is pleased when others compliment him. The work of the Spirit is to make us more like Christ for His glory, not for the praise of men.
The cultivation of the fruit is important. Paul warns that there must be a right atmosphere before the fruit will grow (). Just as fruit cannot grow in every climate, so the fruit of the Spirit cannot grow in every individual’s life or in every church.
Fruit grows in a climate blessed with an abundance of the Spirit and the Word. “Walk in the Spirit” () means “keep in step with the Spirit”—not to run ahead and not to lag behind. This involves the Word, prayer, worship, praise, and fellowship with God’s people. It also means “pulling out the weeds” so that the seed of the Word can take root and bear fruit. The Judaizers were anxious for praise and “vainglory,” and this led to competition and division. Fruit can never grow in that kind of an atmosphere.
We must remember that this fruit is produced to be eaten, not to be admired and put on display. People around us are starving for love, joy, peace, and all the other graces of the Spirit. When they find them in our lives, they know that we have something they lack. We do not bear fruit for our own consumption; we bear fruit that others might be fed and helped, and that Christ might be glorified. The flesh may manufacture “results” that bring praise to us, but the flesh cannot bear fruit that brings glory to God. It takes patience, an atmosphere of the Spirit, walking in the light, the seed of the Word of God, and a sincere desire to honor Christ.
In short, the secret is the Holy Spirit. He alone can give us that “fifth freedom”—freedom from sin and self. He enables us to fulfill the law of love, to overcome the flesh, and to bear fruit.
Will you yield to Him and let Him work?
The story has often been told about the message the founder of the Salvation Army sent to their international convention. General William Booth was unable to attend personally because of ill health, so he cabled the delegates a message containing one word: “OTHERS!”
In the popular comic strip “Peanuts,” Lucy asks Charlie Brown, “Why are we here on earth?” He replies, “To make others happy.” She ponders this for a moment and then asks, “Then why are the others here?”
“One another” is one of the key phrases in the Christian’s vocabulary. “Love one another” is found at least a dozen times in the New Testament, along with “pray one for another” (), “edify one another” (), prefer one another (), “use hospitality one to another” (), and many other like admonitions.
In the section before us, Paul adds another phrase: “Bear ye one another’s burdens” (). The Spirit-led Christian thinks of others and how he can minister to them. In this section, Paul describes two important ministries that we ought to share with one another.
The legalist is not interested in bearing burdens. Instead, he adds to the burdens of others (). This was one of the sins of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day: “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (). The legalist is always harder on other people than he is on himself, but the Spirit-led Christian demands more of himself than he does of others that he might be able to help others.
Paul presents a hypothetical case of a believer who is suddenly tripped up and falls into sin. The word overtaken carries the idea of being surprised, so it is not a case of deliberate disobedience. Why does Paul use this illustration? Because nothing reveals the wickedness of legalism better than the way the legalists treat those who have sinned. Call to mind the Pharisees who dragged a woman taken in adultery before Jesus (John 8). Or that Jewish mob that almost killed Paul because they thought he had defiled the temple by bringing in Gentiles (). (Legalists do not need facts and proof; they need only suspicions and rumors. Their self-righteous imaginations will do the rest.) So, in this paragraph, Paul is really contrasting the way the legalist would deal with the erring brother, and the way the spiritual man would deal with him.
A contrast in aim. The spiritual man would seek to restore the brother in love, while the legalist would exploit the brother. The word restore means “to mend, as a net, or to restore a broken bone.” If you have ever had a broken bone, you know how painful it is to have it set. The sinning believer is like a broken bone in the body, and he needs to be restored. The believer who is led by the Spirit and living in the liberty of grace will seek to help the erring brother, for “the fruit of the Spirit is love” (). “By love serve one another” (). When Jesus sought to be a physician to the sinful, He was severely criticized by the Pharisees (), and so the spiritual believer today will be criticized by the legalists.
Instead of trying to restore the erring brother, the legalist will condemn him and then use the brother to make himself look good. This is what the Pharisee did in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (). “[Love] shall cover the multitude of sins” (). The legalist rejoices when a brother falls, and often gives the matter wide publicity, because then he can boast about his own goodness and how much better his group is than the group to which the fallen brother belongs.
This is why Paul admonishes us, “Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another” (). The word provoke means “to challenge to a contest, to compete with.” The believer who walks in the Spirit is not competing with other Christians or challenging them to become “as good as he is.” However, the legalist lives by competition and comparison, and tries to make himself look good by making the other fellow look bad.
A contrast in attitude. The Spirit-led believer approaches the matter in a spirit of meekness and love, while the legalist has an attitude of pride and condemnation. The legalist does not need to “consider himself” because he pretends he could never commit such a sin. But the believer living by grace realizes that no man is immune from falling. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (). He has an attitude of humility because he realizes his own weaknesses.
But there is a second contrast: he knows the love of Christ in his own heart. “The law of Christ” is: “Love one another” (; ). Paul has already discussed the “law of love” (), and now he is applying it. “Tender loving care” is not a modern invention, because Paul is urging it on believers in this passage. How much we appreciate it when the doctor uses tenderness as he sets a broken bone. And how much more should we use “tender loving care” when we seek to restore a broken life.
It takes a great deal of love and courage for us to approach an erring brother and seek to help him. Jesus compares this to eye surgery ()—and how many of us feel qualified for that?
Paul probably has in mind here our Lord’s instructions on reconciliation (). If your brother sins against you, go talk to him privately, not for the purpose of winning an argument, but for the purpose of winning your brother. (That word gained is the same word Paul uses in to refer to winning the lost to Christ. It is important to win the lost, but it is also important to win the saved.) If he hears you, then the matter is settled. But if he will not agree, then ask one or two spiritual people to go with you. If he will still not settle the matter, then the whole church must be informed and take steps of discipline. But Jesus goes on to point out that the church must practice prayer () and forgiveness (), or discipline will not be effective.
The legalist, of course, has no time for this kind of spiritual “soul-winning.” When he hears that his brother has sinned, instead of going to the brother, he shares the sad news with others (“so you can pray more intelligently about it”) and then condemns the brother for not being more spiritual.
Remember, the legalist makes himself look better by making his brother look worse. Thus Paul’s warnings here (). The Judaizers were guilty of boasting about themselves, their achievements, and their converts (). They usually did this by comparing themselves with others (see ). But such comparisons are sinful and deceptive. It is easy to find somebody worse off than we are, so that our comparison makes us look better than we really are. Christian love would lead us not to expose a brother’s failures or weaknesses, no matter how much better it would make us look.
A man should “prove his own work” () in the light of God’s will and not in the shadows of somebody else’s achievements. “Each man should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each man should carry his own load” (, NIV). There is no place for competition in the work of God, unless we are competing against sin and Satan. When we see words like “best, fastest-growing, biggest, finest” applied to Christian ministries, we wonder who is getting the glory.
This does not mean that it is wrong to keep records. Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to say, “Those who criticize statistics usually have none to report.” But we must be careful that we are not making others look bad just to make ourselves look good. And we should be able to rejoice at the achievements and blessings of others just as if they were our own (). After all, if one member of the body is blessed, it blesses the whole body.
There is no contradiction between and , because two different Greek words for burden are used. In it is a word meaning “a heavy burden,” while in it describes “a soldier’s pack.” We should help each other bear the heavy burdens of life, but there are personal responsibilities that each man must bear for himself. “Each soldier must bear his own pack.” If my car breaks down, my neighbor can help drive my children to school, but he cannot assume the responsibilities that only belong to me as their father. That is the difference. It is wrong for me to expect somebody else to be the father in our family; that is a burden (and a privilege) that I alone can bear.
Just as one another is a key phrase in the Christian vocabulary, so is the word fellowship (translated “communicate” in ). From the very beginning of the church, sharing was one of the marks of Christian experience (). The Greek word has now worked its way into our English vocabulary, and we see the word koinonia here and there in religious publications. It simply means “to have in common,” and refers to our common fellowship in Christ (), our common faith (), and even our sharing in the sufferings of Christ (). But often in the New Testament, koinonia refers to the sharing of material blessings with one another (; ; [Greek text]). It is this that Paul has in mind in these verses.
He begins with a precept (), urging us to share with one another. The teacher of the Word shares spiritual treasures, and those who are taught ought to share material treasures. (Paul uses a similar approach when he explains why the Gentile churches ought to give an offering to the Jewish believers—.) We must remember that what we do with material things is an evidence of how we value spiritual things. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” ().
Because the Apostle Paul did not want money to become a stumbling block to the unsaved, he earned his own living (see 1 Cor. 9), but he repeatedly taught that the spiritual leader in the church was to be supported by the gifts of the people. Jesus said, “The laborer is worthy of his hire” (), and Paul echoes this statement (, ).
But we must realize the spiritual principle that lies behind this precept. God does not command believers to give simply that pastors and teachers (and missionaries, ) might have their material needs met, but that the givers might get a greater blessing (). The basic principle of sowing and reaping is found throughout the entire Bible. God has ordained that we reap what we sow. Were it not for this law, the whole principle of “cause and effect” would fail. The farmer who sows wheat can expect to reap wheat. If it were otherwise, there would be chaos in our world.
But God has also told us to be careful where we sow, and it is this principle that Paul deals with here. He looks on our material possessions as seed, and he sees two possible kinds of soil: the flesh and the Spirit. We can use our material goods to promote the flesh, or to promote the things of the Spirit. But once we have finished sowing, we cannot change the harvest.
Money sown to the flesh will bring a harvest of corruption (see ). That money is gone and can never be reclaimed. Money sown to the Spirit (such as sharing with those who teach the Word) will produce life, and in that harvest will be seeds that can be planted again for another harvest, and on and on into eternity. If every believer only looked on his material wealth as seed, and planted it properly, there would be no lack in the work of the Lord. Sad to say, much seed is wasted on carnal things and can never bring glory to God.
Of course, there is a much wider application of the principle to our lives; because all that we do is either an investment in the flesh or the Spirit. We shall reap whatever we have sown, and we shall reap in proportion as we have sown. “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (). The believer who walks in the Spirit and “sows” in the Spirit is going to reap a spiritual harvest. If his sowing has been generous, the harvest will be bountiful, if not in this life, certainly in the life to come.
Paul’s enemies, the Judaizers, did not have this spiritual attitude toward giving and receiving. Paul sacrificed and labored that he might not be a burden to the churches, but the false teachers used the churches to promote their own schemes and fill their own coffers. This is also what happened in the Corinthian church, and Paul had to write them: “In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face” (, NIV).
How many times we have seen the sacrificing godly pastor persecuted and driven out, while the arrogant promoter is honored and gets everything he wants. The carnal believer thrives under the “spiritual dictatorship” of a legalistic promoter-pastor, because it makes him feel secure, successful, and spiritual. The carnal believer will sacrifice what he has to make the work more successful, only to discover that he is sowing to the flesh and not to the Spirit.
Having given us the precept () and the principle behind the precept (), Paul now gives us a promise (): “In due season we shall reap if we faint not.” Behind this promise is a peril: getting weary in the work of the Lord, and then eventually fainting, and stopping our ministry.
Sometimes spiritual fainting is caused by a lack of devotion to the Lord. It is interesting to contrast two churches that are commended for “work, labor, and patience” (; ). The church at Ephesus had actually left its first love and was backslidden (). Why? The answer is seen in the commendation to the Thessalonian church: “Work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope.” Not just work, labor, and patience, but the proper motivation: “faith, love, and hope.” How easy it is for us to work for the Lord, but permit the spiritual motivation to die. Like the priests of Israel that Malachi addressed, we serve the Lord but complain, “Behold, what a weariness is it” ().
Sometimes we faint because of lack of prayer. “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (). Prayer is to the spiritual life what breathing is to the physical life, and if you stop breathing, you will faint. It is also possible to faint because of lack of nourishment. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (). If we try to keep going without proper food and rest, we will faint. How important it is to “wait upon the Lord” to get the strength we need for each day ().
But the promise Paul gives us will help to keep us going: “In due season we shall reap.” The seed that is planted does not bear fruit immediately. There are seasons to the soul just as there are seasons to nature, and we must give the seed time to take root and bear fruit. How wonderful it is when the plowman overtakes the reaper (). Each day we ought to sow the seed so that one day we will be able to reap (). But we must remember that the Lord of the harvest is in charge, and not the laborers.
Sharing blessings involves much more than teaching the Word and giving of our material substance. It also involves doing good “unto all men” (). There are those in this world who do evil (); in fact, there are those who return evil for good (). Most of the people in the world return good for good and evil for evil (see ; ). But the Christian is supposed to return good for evil () and to do this in a spirit of Christian love. Actually, the Christian’s good works are a spiritual sacrifice that he gives to the Lord ().
We are to “do good unto all men.” This is how we let our light shine and glorify our Father in heaven (). It is not only by words that we witness to the lost, but also by our works. In fact, our works pave the way for our verbal witness; they win us the right to be heard. It is not a question of asking, “Does this person deserve my good works?” Did we deserve what God did for us in Christ? Nor should we be like the defensive lawyer who tried to argue, “Who is my neighbor?” () Jesus made it very clear that the question is not “Who is my neighbor?” but “To whom can I be a neighbor?”
As we “do good unto all men,” we must give priority to “the household of faith,” the fellowship of believers. This does not mean that the local church should become an exclusive clique with the members isolated from the world around them and doing nothing to help the lost. Rather, it is a matter of balance. Certainly the believers in Paul’s day would have greater needs than would the outsiders, since many of the believers suffered for their faith (see ). Furthermore, a man always cares for his own family before he cares for the neighborhood ().
We must remember, however, that we share with other Christians so that all of us might be able to share with a needy world. The Christian in the household of faith is a receiver that he might become a transmitter. As we abound in love for one another, we overflow in love for all men ().
This is how it was meant to be.
It was Paul’s custom, after dictating a letter, to take the pen and write his own farewell. His standard signature was, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (; see ). But so concerned is Paul that the Galatians get the message of this letter that he takes the pen and writes an entire concluding paragraph with his own hand. “Look at the large letters I write with my own hand!”
Why did Paul write this paragraph, and why did he use such large letters? The Holy Spirit inspired him to add these closing words to give one more contrast between the legalists and the Spirit-led Christians, to show that the Spirit-led believer lives for the glory of God, not the praise of man. And he wrote in large letters for emphasis: “DON’T MISS THlS!”
Some Bible students believe that Paul’s thorn in the flesh (; ) was some kind of eye trouble. This would mean that he would have to write in large letters so that he himself would be able to read what he had written. Whether or not that is true, Paul is making it clear that he has something important to write in conclusion, that he is not simply going to end the letter in some conventional manner. If he did have eye trouble, his willingness to write this closing paragraph with his own hand would certainly appeal to the hearts of the readers.
He has shown them that the believer living under Law and the believer living under grace are diametrically opposed to each other. It is not just a matter of “different doctrine,” but a matter of two different ways of life. They had to choose between bondage or liberty (), the flesh or the Spirit (), and living for self or living for others ().
Now he presents a fourth contrast: living for the praise of men or the glory of God (). He is dealing with motive, and there is no greater need in our churches today than for an examination of the motives for our ministries. We know what we are doing, but do we know why we are doing it? A good work is spoiled by a bad motive.
Paul approaches this delicate subject in an interesting way. The legalists wanted to subject the Galatian believers to circumcision, so Paul takes this up and relates it to the work of Christ on the cross, and also to his own ministry. In this paragraph Paul presents three “marked men”—the legalist (), the Lord Jesus Christ (), and the Apostle Paul himself ().
Paul does not have anything good to say about the legalist. He describes him and his kind in four ways.
They are braggarts (vv. , ). Their main purpose was not to win people to Christ, or even to help the believers grow in grace. Their chief purpose was to win more converts so they could brag about them. They wanted to “make a fine impression outwardly” even though they did no good inwardly. Their work was not done for the good of the church or for the glory of God; it was done for their own glory.
While it is certainly not wrong to want to win people to Christ, or to see the work of the Lord increase, it is definitely wrong to want these blessings for the glory of man. We want to see more people sharing in our ministries, not so that we can count people, but because people count. But we must be careful not to “use people” to further our own selfish programs for our own glorification.
I receive a number of local church newsletters and newspapers. I was shocked to find an article in one of them in which the pastor named several other churches and proceeded to explain how his church was much better. Some of the churches he mentioned were not evangelical in belief, and I wondered what those members would think of Christ and the Gospel if they read his boastful critique. No doubt it made it difficult for the believers to witness to these other people once this pastor had condemned their churches.
They are compromisers (v. ). Why did they preach and practice circumcision and all that went with it? To escape persecution. Because Paul preached the grace of God and salvation apart from the works of the Law, he was persecuted (). The Judaizers tried to make the Christians think that they too were Christians, and they tried to make the followers of the Mosaic Law think that they too obeyed the Law. Consequently, they escaped being persecuted by the legalistic group for their identification with the cross of Christ and its devastating effect on the Law.
We are prone to look at the cross (and crucifixion) in a sentimental way. We wear crosses on our lapels or on chains around our necks. But to the first-century citizen, the cross was not a beautiful piece of jewelry; it was the lowest form of death and the ultimate in humiliation. The proper Roman citizen would never mention the cross in polite conversation. It stood for rejection and shame.
When Paul trusted Christ, he identified himself with the cross and took the consequences. To the Jew the cross was a stumbling block, and to the Gentile it was foolishness (). The legalists, emphasizing circumcision rather than crucifixion, won many converts. Theirs was a popular religion because it avoided the shame of the cross.
They are persuaders (v. ). The word constrain carries with it the idea of strong persuasion and even force. It is translated “compel” in . While it does not mean “to force against one’s will,” it is still a strong word. It indicates that the Judaizers were great persuaders; they had a “sales talk” that convinced the Galatian believers that legalism was the way for them. Whenever Paul presented the Word, it was in truth and sincerity, and he used no oratorical tricks or debater’s skills. (See and to see how Paul presented the Word to his listeners. Paul was not a politician; he was an ambassador.)
They are hypocrites (v. ). “They want you to submit to the Law, but they themselves do not obey the Law.” The legalists belonged to the same group as the Pharisees about whom Jesus said, “They say and do not” (). Of course, Paul is not suggesting that the Judaizers should keep the Law, because keeping the Law is neither possible nor necessary. Rather, he is condemning them for their dishonesty; they had no intention of keeping the Law, even if they could. Their reverence for the Law was only a mask to cover their real goal: winning more converts to their cause. They wanted to report more statistics and get more glory.
Yes, the legalist is a marked man; so when you detect him, avoid him.
Paul keeps coming back to the cross (; ; ; , ; ). “If righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain” (). The wounds of Calvary certainly make Christ a “marked Man,” for those wounds mean liberty to those who will trust Him. The Judaizers boasted in circumcision; but Paul boasted in a crucified and risen Saviour. He gloried in the Cross. Certainly this does not mean that he gloried in the brutality or suffering of the cross. He was not looking at the cross as a piece of wood on which a criminal died. He was looking at the cross of Christ and glorying in it. Why would Paul glory in the Cross?
He knew the Person of the Cross. Jesus Christ is mentioned at least forty-five times in the Galatian letter, which means that one third of the verses contain some reference to Him. The person of Jesus Christ captivated Paul, and it was Christ who made the Cross glorious to him. In his early years as a Jewish rabbi, Paul had much to glory in (; ); but after he met Christ, all his self-glory turned to mere refuse. The legalists did not glory in the cross of Christ because they did not glory in Christ. It was Moses—and themselves—who got the glory. They did not really know the Person of the Cross.
He knew the power of the Cross. To Saul, the learned Jewish rabbi, a doctrine of sacrifice on a cross was utterly preposterous. That the Messiah would come, he had no doubt, but that He would come to die—and to die on a cursed cross—well, there was no place for this in Saul’s theology. The cross in that day was the ultimate example of weakness and shame. Yet Saul of Tarsus experienced the power of the Cross and became Paul the apostle. The cross ceased to be a stumbling block to him and became, instead, the very foundation stone of his message: “Christ died for our sins.”
For Paul, the Cross meant liberty: from self (), the flesh (), and the world (). In the death and resurrection of Christ the power of God is released to give believers deliverance and victory. It is no longer we who live; it is Christ who lives in us and through us. As we yield to Him, we have victory over the world and the flesh. There is certainly no power in the Law to give a man victory over self, the flesh, and the Law. Quite the contrary, the Law appeals to the human ego (“I can do something to please God”), and encourages the flesh to work. And the world does not care if we are “religious” just so long as the Cross is left out. In fact, the world approves of religion—apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, the legalist inflates the ego, flatters the flesh, and pleases the world; the true Christian crucifies all three.
He knew the purpose of the Cross. It was to bring into the world a new “people of God.” For centuries, the nation of Israel had been the people of God, and the Law had been their way of life. All of this was preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ (). Now that Christ had come and finished His great work of redemption, God had set aside the nation of Israel and brought into the world a “new creation” and a new nation, “the Israel of God.” This does not mean that God is finished with the nation of Israel. Today, God is calling out from both Jews and Gentiles “a people for His name” (), and in Christ there are no racial or national distinctions (). Paul clearly teaches, however, that there is a future in God’s plan for the Jewish nation (Rom. 11).
One purpose of the cross was to bring in a new creation (, NIV). This “new creation” is the church, the body of Christ. The “old creation” was headed by Adam, and it ended in failure. The new creation is headed by Christ, and it is going to succeed.
To the Romans, Paul explained the doctrine of the two Adams—Adam and Christ (). The first Adam disobeyed God and brought into the world sin, death, and judgment. The Last Adam () obeyed God and brought life, righteousness, and salvation. Adam committed one sin and plunged all of creation into judgment. Christ performed one act of obedience in His death on the cross, and paid for all the sins of the world. Because of Adam’s sin, death reigns in this world. Because of Christ’s victory, we can “reign in life” through Jesus Christ (). In other words, the believer belongs to a “new creation,” a spiritual creation, that knows nothing of the defects and limitations of the “old creation” (see ).
Another purpose of the cross was to create a new nation, “the Israel of God” (). This is one of many names for the church found in the New Testament. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (). Peter identifies that nation as the family of God: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation” ().
As mentioned previously, this does not mean that the church has permanently replaced the nation of Israel in the program of God, but only that the church is “the people of God” on earth today just as Israel was in centuries past.
What a rebuke to the Judaizers. They wanted to take the church back into Old Testament Law, when that Law could not even be kept by the nation of Israel! That nation was set aside to make way for God’s new people, the church!
Believers today may not be “Abraham’s children” in the flesh, but they are “Abraham’s seed” through faith in Jesus Christ (). They have experienced a circumcision of the heart that is far more effective than physical circumcision (; ; ). For this reason, neither circumcision nor the lack of it is of any consequence to God (; see also ).
There was a time when Paul was proud of his mark of circumcision (), but after he became a believer, he became a “marked man” in a different way. He now gloried in the scars he had received and in the suffering he had endured in the service of Jesus Christ.
The contrast with the legalists is plain to see: “The Judaizers want to mark your flesh and brag about you, but I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus Christ—for His glory.” What a rebuke! “If your religious celebrities have any scars to show for the glory of Christ, then let them be shown. Otherwise—stop bothering me!”
Paul is not claiming that he bore the five wounds of Calvary on his body. Rather he is affirming that he has suffered for Christ’s sake (something the legalists never did), and he had on his body the scars to prove it. When you read , you have no difficulty understanding this claim of his, for in many ways and in many places Paul suffered physically for Christ.
In Paul’s day, it was not unusual for the follower of some heathen god or goddess to be branded with the mark of that idol. He was proud of his god and wanted others to know it. In the same way, Paul was “branded” for Jesus Christ. It was not a temporary mark that could be removed, but a permanent mark that he would take to his grave. Nor did he receive his brands in an easy way: he had to suffer repeatedly to become a marked man for Christ.
It was also the practice in that day to brand slaves, so that everyone would know who the owner was. Paul was the slave of Jesus Christ, and he wore His mark to prove it.
It is worth noting that sin brands a person. It may mark his mind, his personality, even his body. Few people are proud of the sin marks they bear, and conversion does not change them. (Thank God, those changes will come when Jesus returns!) How much better it is to love Christ and live for Him and be “branded” for His glory.
Believers today need to remember that it is the Christian leader who has suffered for Christ who has something to offer. The Judaizers in Paul’s day knew nothing of suffering. They may have been persecuted in some small way for belonging to a religious group, but this is far different from “the fellowship of His [Christ’s] sufferings” ().
Beware of that religious leader who lives in his ivory tower and knows nothing of batthng against the world, the flesh, and the devil, who has no “marks” to show for his obedience to Christ. Paul was no armchair general; he was out in the front lines, waging war against sin, and taking his share of suffering.
So, Paul comes to the end of his letter; and he closes just the way he began: GRACE! Not “the Law of Moses,” but THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!
No more need be said, because that says it all.