A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.
The Futility of Living without Loving
An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.
Tying the chapter to life with God.
Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.
Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.
Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.
“It is easy to talk about the fruit of the Spirit while doing
very little about it. So Christians need to learn that it is in concrete
situations, rather than in emotional highs, that the reality
of the Holy Spirit in their lives is demonstrated.”
James Boice
In chapter 6, Paul advises the Galatian Christians: In light of the gospel of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit (chap. 5), you are now free to help others. You can help them in three ways. First, you can help other Christians carry their burdens (6:1–5). Second, you can help your pastor(s) by financially supporting them. Third and finally, you can help others by serving them with pure motives.
In the 1988 presidential campaign, commentators and voters made much about the character of the candidates, especially those who were rumored to be womanizers. One of the leading candidates had ridiculed another man who had fallen under public attack for his conduct toward women. This leading candidate dared the press to follow him and try to find any misconduct on his part. The press took him up on the dare. Some time later news media published photos of this man himself on a yacht in the Caribbean with an attractive lady who was not his wife. The name of the yacht, prophetically, was Monkey Business. The scandal grew so large that this candidate was forced to withdraw from the campaign which he might have won.
A similar incident happened during the eighties with moral scandals that rocked the Christian television industry. A leading television evangelist was caught in a moral lapse which made headline news all over the United States for a long time. I recall hearing an interview with another television minister who leveled a scathing rebuke of the evangelist who had sinned. I was taken aback at the intensity of this attack but somewhat comforted by the thought that I wouldn't ever need to worry about this evangelist falling into immorality. However, it wasn't long before the story of this second evangelist's moral lapse was on newspapers and weekly newsmagazines across the nation.
Both the television evangelist and the leading presidential candidate were arrogant in their condemnation of others, and their own indiscretions were revealed a short time later.
Paul warned of that attitude in this final chapter of Galatians. He encouraged us to treat gently other Christians who have fallen into sin, all the time watching out for ourselves, lest we also be tempted. He went on to encourage the Galatians not to weary in doing good things, because we will eventually reap our reward from the Lord. Focusing on relationships and personal character provides a fitting end to a rather heavy doctrinal book.
Help One Another
MAIN IDEA: The message of grace frees us from selfishness to bear others' burdens, share financial blessings, and minister with pure motives.
The Freedom to Bear Others' Burdens (vv. 1–5)>SUPPORTING IDEA: Mature Christians help restore friends who fall into sin.
6:1. In chapter 6, Paul applies freedom to our relationships. He's going to tell us that the Christian who walks in the Spirit is free from selfishness and so freed to love others unselfishly. He wants spiritual people to show concern for one another and respond properly to a fellow Christian who has fallen into grave sin. You who are spiritual, in this context, refers to those manifesting the fruit of the Spirit. These believers with Christlike character traits produced by the Holy Spirit encourage faltering Christians. The legalist is judgmental, harsh, and condemning toward those who struggle with sin (Acts 15:10). They know the law, and they know the consequences of falling short of obedience to the law. But they do not know mercy.
To illustrate grace, Paul presents this hypothetical case of a believer who is caught in a sin. Caught implies that the sin was not premeditated. The word was once used to describe a Roman legion which had been overrun by a Jewish military force. The way the spiritual one should deal with this sinning brother is to restore him gently. Restore means “to mend, as a net, or to restore a broken bone.” The sinning Christian is like a broken bone that the body of Christ must reset. This delicate restoration must be done gently, the same word found in chapter 5 in the list of the fruit of the Spirit. A harsh, legalistic reaction to a sinning brother will only make things worse. A gentle, graceful response can help. We can only ask ourselves which response we would want if we were the one caught in a sin.
6:2. When we help carry the crushing burden of the one who has fallen in sin, we fulfill the law of Christ which is the principle of love (compare 5:14; John 13:34). When a fellow believer succumbs to temptation, it is not our place to judge and condemn him (Matt. 7:1–6). Rather, we are to make sure he knows we love him and want to help him overcome his weakness and grow spiritually.
6:3–4. When a Christian sins, we easily fall into the temptation of pride. We commit this sin when we compare ourselves to those who have fallen morally and feel better than they. This comparison can lead to a condescending attitude that says, “You fell, and I didn't.” We may secretly be glad that something bad has happened to him. If we take on this “holier than thou” attitude, we fall into the sin of pride. We also destroy any opportunity to have a restorative influence on the struggling believer. Yet Paul tells us that rather than experience prideful feelings of superiority, we should test ourselves through self-examination to see if there is any prideful breach in our moral armor.
6:5. We exhibit a permissible, good pride, or gratitude to the Lord, when we are carrying our own load well. Load means “backpack” and signifies the responsibilities that each of us carries around. It is also the common term for the cargo a ship is designed to carry. It is improper for us to compare ourselves to a sinning Christian and to feel superior to him. Rather, we are to look at the normal, day-to-day responsibilities each of us carries around and feel a permissible good pride when we are fulfilling them responsibly.
Freedom to Share Financial Resources (vv. 6–10)SUPPORTING IDEA: Mature Christians share their financial resources with their pastor/teacher(s) as well as with others who instruct them in spiritual truth.
6:6. Most of us are naturally selfish and must overcome this fault as we mature. Paul shows how grace frees us to share financially with others. He begins in verse 6 with a precept on generosity. He says that we must share our financial resources with our spiritual leaders. When a pastor-teacher shares instruction, then the student is to reciprocate by sharing all good things. Pastoring and teaching is time-consuming. The one who devotes his life to such ministry can hope to earn a living from his occupation (compare 1 Cor. 9:11–14).
6:7–9. To support his admonition to give, Paul shares a principle of cause and effect. A grave warning states that God cannot be mocked. Why? Because a man reaps what he sows. Mocked means “to turn up one's nose” or “treat with contempt.” One who turns up his nose at God and sneers at him doesn't change this immutable “law of the harvest.” Disregarding God's counsel, we will always suffer. Each of us by our thoughts, attitudes, and actions is constantly planting for a future reaping. Time may pass before the crop ripens, but the harvest is inevitable. Consider the harvest! In this application of the harvest principle, by giving (sowing) to our spiritual leaders, we can expect to reap a spiritual harvest of abundant ministry. In contrast, a Christian who fails to support his spiritual leaders is sneering at God and can expect discipline. Such a selfish Christian spends his resources to gratify his own personal desires. In contrast, the Christian who shares his finances adds interest to the capital of eternal life. In a broader application of this principle, remember there are no miracle crops. You reap spiritually, relationally, mentally, and physically in direct relation to what you plant. It is foolish to think that you can live irresponsibly and not suffer damaging consequences. Yet to the generous, Paul shares an encouraging promise: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. It is discouraging to continue to do good and not see a reward. Paul challenges the Galatians to keep on giving because God promises to reward those who are faithful in the long run.
6:10. The believer is to do good to both believers and unbelievers with believers having priority. Christians in that era suffered great economic hardship as a result of rejection and persecution. With no government assistance programs, they had no one else to help but other believers. Though Christians should be willing to help anyone in need, caring for fellow believers is still a priority.
Freedom to Minister with Pure Motives (vv. 11–18)SUPPORTING IDEA: Mature Christians minister out of pure motives of love.
6:11. Paul concludes his epistle to the Galatians by contrasting the improper motives of the legalists with his proper motives. Paul now discontinues using a scribe. In Koine (common) Greek quotation marks were not used. So emphasis was conveyed by enlarging the letters of the words written. Paul personally picks up the pen and writes with large letters to emphasize his concluding words and to validate that the letter was genuine.
6:12. The fear of others may have been a significant motive of the Judaizers. They may have been trying to accommodate the gospel to the Jews to avoid persecution by them. By including the law, they made the converted Jews happy. In contrast, by preaching the grace message which excluded the law, Paul had experienced harsh persecution at the hands of the Jews.
6:13. Other than being circumcised, some of the Judaizers did not try to keep the law, but they wanted new converts to Christianity also to be circumcised because it made them look good to the other legalists.
They bragged about the number of converts who were also circumcised.
6:14. In contrast to the Judaizers, Paul had pure motives. Paul's motive was to brag, not about himself or his merits, but about the cross of our Lord Christ. The Judaizers gloried in the flesh (circumcision), but Paul gloried in Christ.
The world was crucified to Paul and he to the world. He looked at the world as if it were on a cross; that is, he considered the world as good as dead and he as good as dead to the world.
6:15. It is easy to get caught up in the externals (of circumcision or uncircumcision). Paul says that in all reality, the externals are meaningless. What counts is a new creation produced by a new spiritual birth (compare 2 Cor. 5:17). What counts is God changing us from the inside out. The message of the Judaizers was powerless to change hearts. What changes hearts is faith in Christ for both salvation and spiritual growth.
6:16. Peace and mercy are available to those who believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ.
6:17. The marks of Jesus are all over Paul's body. The word marks was used of the brand that identified slaves or animals. Paul had often been beaten for the sake of Christ, even in Galatia itself (Acts 14:19). Some of those who would be reading this letter would recall how Paul had nearly died to get the message of the gospel to them. Paul's stonings and beatings as an apostle of the message of grace are his final proof that he is a true apostle. These markings are his signs that he was a slave of Christ and not of the law. These physical scars were Paul's final credentials of authenticity. These signs of ownership indicated that his motive was to please God regardless of the consequences. Paul would rather fight for truth and grace than switch to falsehood and the law. These marks are Paul's way of saying, “Here me well. I've earned the right to be heard, respected, and obeyed.”
6:18. Paul began his letter with the commendation of grace (Gal. 1:3). Now he concludes with that same blessing of grace. Throughout all the division and suspicion, Paul still ends with affection by calling them brothers. With all of his godly logic and now his open love, how can the Galatians refuse the appeal of this letter? How can they continue to accommodate the theological atrocities of the Judaizers? We hear nothing more about these churches, and we are led to believe that Paul persuaded them to abstain from legalism and to affirm grace. For a short moment they thought about going back to the dark prison of legalism, but finally they came to their senses and stayed out in the bright sunshine of grace's freedom.
MAIN IDEA REVIEW: The message of grace frees us from selfishness to bear others' burdens, share financial blessings, and minister with pure motives.
The law was powerless to change lives. It focused on the externals. The grace of Christ is powerful because it changes us from the inside out. Every person struggles with selfishness. We get preoccupied with our finances, our families, our loneliness, our time crunches, and our aches and pains. Yet all around us are people sharing the same problems. They are so overcome by difficulties that often they are emotionally and spiritually down. Grace frees us and empowers us by the Holy Spirit to reach out to them and to turn their heart light on through simple expressions of love. They simply need us to love them in word and deed. Are you bearing others' burdens? Do you give to support the work of your church and pastor? If everyone gave the same amount you give, how long would God's work go on? When you do serve others, what is your motive? Do you do it, like the Judaizers, to make a good impression? Or do you do it as appreciation for what God has done for you?
PRINCIPLES
APPLICATIONS
The Futility of Living without Loving
The greatest practical demonstration of grace is love. Grace always shows itself in care and concern for others. When the legalistic Pharisees asked Jesus to name the greatest commandment, he told them the greatest commandment was to love God and others (Matt. 22:34–40). Paul reiterates the preeminence of love in his famous love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. Therefore:
A plaque hanging at a beachfront home echoes the shallow love of many people. It says, “If you think you don't have friends, buy a beach house.” Another young man with a new ski boat said, “I have fair-weather friends. When the weather is fair, they come out.” It's frustrating in an ever growing, impersonal world to want someone to love you unconditionally and faithfully and to hear them say either in word, attitude, or action:
Loving the lovely is a lot easier than loving the unlovely. It's much easier when it costs nothing. Yet Galatians teaches that God gives us the power through his Spirit to love others. When we are a new creation in Christ (Gal. 6:15), we have the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16–26) to step outside of our own self-centeredness and to think of others. The goal is to go from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness to ministry-centeredness. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can love and serve others.
Now Lord, you know that I cannot truly love unselfishly without your grace. Forgive me for harshness when my fellow Christian has stumbled. Forgive me for feeling better about myself when others fail. Make me generous to all people, especially to those who teach and lead me at church. Thank you that I am a new creation in Christ and that you provide all that I need to love you and serve your people. May peace and mercy follow me just as Paul wished peace and mercy upon the Galatians. Amen.
A. Tempted (v. 1)
Tempted (Greek peirazo) means, “try, make trial of, put to the test” (BAGD, 640). Temptation or to be tempted is not sin. Everyone experiences temptation. Sin occurs when one yields to the temptation. Jesus was the only one to encounter temptation without succumbing to it and, therefore, not sinning.
Temptation comes from various sources. In the temptation of Jesus, Satan is the tempter (Matt. 4:1). As the principal source of temptation, Satan uses a myriad of instruments to entice men and women to disobey God and sin. Some examples include our own lust (Jas. 1:14), Christian friends (Matt. 16:22,23), and evil associates (Prov. 1:10). Temptation to sin does not come from God (1 John 2:16; Jas. 1:13). God in his providence uses events in our daily lives to test our faith. He may lead us to a place of testing, but he does not himself tempt us (Matt. 6:13).
B. Cross of Christ (v. 12)
The cross of Christ refers to all Jesus did to bring salvation, climaxing in his death on the Roman cross at Calvary. The cross brings different reactions from believers and unbelievers. The faithful see it as a call to discipleship and witness. Unbelievers like the legalists of Paul's day see it as an instrument of scorn and ridicule. To gain identity in Christ's cross is to face persecution from Christ's enemies as he was persecuted on the cross. As Daniel Arichea expresses it: “Anyone preaching the whole meaning of the cross would, of course, be persecuted by Jews. Paul accuses the false teachers of modifying the message in a way that would guarantee their remaining in good standing within the Jewish community” (A Translator's Handbook on Paul's Letters to the Galatians, Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 1976, 155). In like manner Andrew H. Trotter Jr. affirms:
Those who are compelling others to be circumcised are avoiding being persecuted “for the cross of Christ” (6:12), and Paul expressly declares that he will never boast in anything except “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (v. 14). Thus the cross is as central to living the Christian life as it is to entering into it (Elwell, 137).
We gain salvation only through the cross, not through our works. We live out salvation by enduring the world's scorn, ridicule, and persecution. Only the way of the cross leads home to God's eternal salvation.
C. New creation (v. 15)
As believers in Christ, we are born again to a newness of life. Paul says we are a new creation. New (Greek kainos) means “in contrast to something old” (BAGD, 394). It has the sense that the old has become obsolete and should be replaced by what is new. In such a case the new, as a rule, is superior to the old (BAGD, 394). Creation (Greek ktisis) carries the idea of “that which is created as the result of that creative act” (BAGD, 455). Paul describes the Christian as this kind of new creation. Creation is always God's work, never ours. Circumcision and other acts of law cannot be part of the new creation, for man performs them. We can be a new creation only as God chooses and creates. Only when he takes our old fleshly self and creates a new person of the Spirit are we counted among his people. Being part of his people is the only thing in the world that counts for anything.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. COMMENTARY
C. CONCLUSION: THE FUTILITY OF LIVING WITHOUT LOVING