Reaping Destruction from the Flesh

Gal 6:6-14 reaping destruction from the flesh

Let’s open our bibles to Galatians chapter 6. Last week we unpacked verses 1-5. This morning we will camp out on vv6-10.

I don’t know about you guys but I am excited about getting into the word this morning. Is anybody else excited about the word? Who is excited to receive instruction in the Word? I am excited to instruct you.

As your instructor, I have reason to be excited. The very next verse in Galatians 6:6 states anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.

Anyone who receives instruction in the word – that’s you – must share all good things with his instructor – that’s me. That’s exciting.

• Who has cash on them? Cash is good.
• Cindy, your silver car is a goooooood thing.
• AJ and Joy have some neat star wars décor for Silas. I’ll be by after church to grab it from ya.
• Audrianna has a purple sweater – that’s a good thing.
• Who got starbucks this morning? Good thing – I’ll finish that off for ya.

See, this morning is where we depart completely from the context of Galatians and start talking about the offering plate.

The precept that is almost always derived from this verse is pay your pastor. Pay your pastor for preaching the word, for instructing you in the word. For years I thought that’s what this verse meant.

Every single bible teacher I respect teaches this. Every commentary I’ve read with the exception of one, teaches this. Every sermon I have ever heard on this verse teaches this. Pay your pastor.

And this can go so far as “If you contribute very little to this ministry, you will be in a shack in heaven. If you contribute much to this ministry you will reap much; you will have a mansion in heaven.”

I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think that’s what this verse teaches. I don’t think the underlying precept in Gal 6:6 is pay your pastor. The NT teaches that elsewhere, but I don’t believe it teaches it here.

This is a biblical precept.

1 Cor 9:13-14 ¹³ Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? ¹⁴ In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

1 Tim 5:17-18  ¹⁷ The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. ¹⁸ For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

So, this is a Biblical precept: those instructed in the word should compensate their pastors. In reference to this biblical precept, in his commentary Tom Schreiner says “Those being taught are exhorted to support financially those who teach the Word, presumably so that the teachers can invest the requisite time and energy for study and proclamation.”

So there is a Biblical precept for compensating one’s pastor and it is Biblical for a church to provide the financial needs of the pastor that he might be afforded time to study the word in order to proclaim it effectively.

In 1 Cor 9 and 1 Tim 5, the precept of paying pastors is clearly taught, it flows from the context. However, I don’t believe that is what Paul means in Gal 6:6. It could be, I could be wrong, but if it is, it seems to come out of nowhere; it doesn’t flow from the context.

So if this verse doesn’t mean pay your pastor, what does it mean? I think it relates directly to what Paul started saying in chapter 5.

Paul exhorted his readers to live by the Spirit (God-centered) and they would not gratify the desires of the flesh. If believers live a God-centered life, the fruit of that life will be moral and virtue as the fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, etc. However, if one walks in the flesh, living a self-centered life, the fruit of that is sin. In other words, you reap what you sow. The way you live will determine the fruit of your life. Live self-centered, the result is sin and sin has consequences, usually unpleasant ones. Live God-centered, the result is a moral and virtuous life, which also has consequences, usually rewarding ones, good ones.

In 6:1-5, Paul gives practical advice on how to come alongside a brother who is walking in the flesh and to restore that brother to walking in the Spirit. Why? Because we want to look good since we can point out specks in our brother’s eye and make ourselves look better? NO! So that the brother might share in the good consequences of living a God-centered life. There are consequences that follow from sin – they are bad. There are consequences that flow from a moral and virtuous life and they are good.

So if your brother is walking in the flesh, is caught in a sin, come alongside him, restore him gently that he may share in the good things that you enjoy in your walk of life which is by the Spirit. I believe that is what Paul means in Gal 6:6.

This act of restoration, bringing your brother back to a God-centered walk, walking by the Spirit, not the flesh, will bring forth good. You already experience that good and you instruct your brother in the word that he may share in those good things with you.

Hopefully I have drawn out the proper meaning of verse 6. While contributing to the financial needs of a ministry is biblical, I think Paul means here that those restored to walking in the Spirit will enjoy the fruit of the Spirit along with the one who restored him.

He continues inverse 7:

 ⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

Do not be deceived, Galatians! Whose deceit was Paul warning the Galatians against? It seems that Paul has the Judaizers in mind here. They were sowing seeds of the flesh, teaching doctrines of the flesh, the Law, namely circumcision. It seems that Paul is saying don’t be deceived by those guys and the seeds of the flesh they sow. God cannot be mocked. They will reap what they have sown.

Don’t be deceived by their seeds of flesh, but believe me (Paul) as I, have sown seeds of the Spirit, the gospel message: we are not justified by works of the flesh, but rather faith in Christ alone brings about your justification. Simply believe and love.

⁸ 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. Again, Paul seems to have in mind the Judaizers here. They were sowing to please the flesh. They were sowing seeds of the flesh: circumcision/law. Why were they sowing them? For self-centered reasons, to please the flesh. People are out there persecuting believers, namely Jews because the message of the cross is offensive to Jews. It says the things you find identity in: ethnicity, the Law, circumcision, the Land, the temple, it is all about to come to nothing in the coming judgment. So the Judaizer says “We will affirm Torah and Land and circumcision in order to not be persecuted. We will say that yes, Jesus is messiah but we won’t say that circumcision is of no value. So we will preach a message of the flesh: circumcision, in order to please the flesh; we will preach a certain message with self-preservation in mind as we are not willing to undergo the persecution for believing. This is a very self-centered approach.

Paul says don’t be deceived. A man reaps what he sows. They are sowing to the flesh and from the flesh they will reap destruction. They want to belong to the flesh covenant, they will reap destruction.

However, those who sow to please the Spirit, sowing seeds of gospel truth, faith in Christ and that faith expressing itself in love, they will reap eternal life. Pleasing the spirit means pleasing God. The way of the Spirit is God-centered. What is it that is pleasing to God? Faith. Faith is pleasing to God.

Heb 6:1-6 ¹ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.

 ³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

 ⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

 ⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God

The only way to please God is by faith.

Again, Paul is saying those who sow to please the Spirit will reap eternal life. How do you sow to please the Spirit? Faith. So eternal life comes to those of faith, while destruction comes to those of the flesh, those of the law.

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

He encourages them: let us not become weary in doing good. Let us continue to believe and preach the gospel, the ultimate good, in spite of persecution. That kind of opposition would make one weary. Let’s persevere to the end of the age.

Let the good news also be accompanied by good deeds. Doctrine drives your actions. God-centered theology goes hand in hand with a God-centered walk of life that is manifest in moral and virtue, the fruit of the spirit among which is goodness. Let us walk in the truth of the gospel and live the good life that flows out of that – the good life that is characterized by love toward our neighbor.

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Now, here I believe that Paul is speaking of the harvest at the end of the age.

Mark your place in Galatians because we are going to come back to it. Turn with me to Matt 13. ²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

   ²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

   ²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

   “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

   ²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

So here we have a parable, a story about a man who sowed good seed of wheat and an enemy who came through in that same field and sowed bad seed of weeds. We have a sowing of 2 different kinds of seed, good and bad. People look at the field and wonder why is there weeds coming up with the wheat.

There is a universal truth: A man reaps what he sows. If a farmer sows only pumpkin seeds in his acreage he cannot expect at harvest time to reap strawberries in that acreage. Nor can he expect watermelons or cantaloupe. If he only sowed pumpkin seeds, he will only reap pumpkins. A man reaps what he sows.

So in our story it doesn’t make sense that the man who sowed wheat has weeds growing up in the field. So the servant asks, didn’t you sow good seed? Why is this bad crop coming up?

The answer: I didn’t plant that; an enemy did. There’s 2 sowers: the man who sowed good. The enemy who sowed bad. So, do you want us to pull up the weeds? No. That could be bad, you might uproot the good with the bad. Let both grow together till the harvest and at that time we will make a clear distinction between the good and the bad. We will then put the weeds in bundles to be burned and put the wheat in my barn.

Good stuff. We could look at this parable and try to figure out what Jesus meant by it, but we don’t have to because this is one of those parables that the disciples asked Jesus to explain.

Before they do, in vv 31-35 he told another parable. Let’s skip over that and pick up in v36.

 ³⁶ Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

 ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

   ⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

So again, 2 different seed sowers. One, Jesus, is sowing good seeds: believers. The other is the enemy. Who was clearly manifest in Scripture as the enemy of Jesus? The teachers of the Law. Who did Jesus clearly say was of their father, the devil in John 8? The teachers of the law. They are sowing bad seed: the unbelievers who were slandering and persecuting believers.

So the workers, saying “should we pull up the weeds” are God’s messengers wondering should we just give these guys the boot and take care of them now? Jesus, the good sower says, nope. If you do that, you may boot out people who truly belong to God. Wait until the harvest. When is the harvest? The end of the age(v39).

We discussed in the beginning of Galatians what the present evil age in Paul and Jesus’ day referred to: the OC age. At the end of the OC age there would be a harvest, when a clear distinction would be made between the good crop and the bad crop, the result of the good seeds and the result of the bad seeds. That which grew out of the bad seeds were the teachers of the law and their followers, those who belonged to the OC, who rejected the Spirit Covenant and walked in the flesh covenant. The end of the age was upon them and they would be burned in the blazing furnace at the end of the age.

The seeds are metaphorical, the wheat and the weeds are metaphorical. The furnace is metaphorical. Jesus was a prophet and His language followed that of the prophets. So according to the prophets, what did a blazing furnace represent? Jerusalem on fire. In Ezekiel 22, God spoke through his servant Ezekiel to warn them of the coming judgment at the hands of Babylon. That destruction in 586 BC didn’t end the OC age. It was simply a judgment followed by 70 years of captivity and then being restored to the land. In that passage, we read: Ez 22:17-22 ¹⁷ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, the people of Israel have become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are gathered into a furnace to be melted with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and I will blow on you with my fiery wrath, and you will be melted inside her. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath on you.’”

This was manifest in 586 BC at the hands of Babylon. Like Ezekiel, throughout Jesus’ ministry, as a prophet of God, he warned of a coming judgment in the same fashion. In the same way that God brought a foreign nation to destroy Jerusalem in 586 BC, God was about to bring a foreign nation to destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD in their generation, in their lifetime. The difference is that this coming judgment in Jesus’ first century generation marked the end of the OC age.

Jesus calls that age ending judgment the harvest, when the wheat would be separated from the weeds. The weeds would be burned in the furnace and the wheat would be gathered into the barn. In other words, the OC people who belonged to the flesh were destroyed by Rome.

Let’s flip back over to Galatians 6 and pick up where we left off keeping this understanding of the harvest in mind. Remember: 2 types of sowers – one who sows the good seed: those of the Spirit, the other who sows the bad seed, those of the flesh - children of the devil who will be destroyed in the fire.

I believe what Paul is about to say correlates directly to this.

At the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Again, the proper time. Should we pull up the weeds now? Nope…it’s only 50 AD. It’s not time for the harvest yet. There is a harvest on the horizon for Paul’s audience and according to the Scriptures it would happen at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, in their generation, which marked the end of the age. At that time they would reap a harvest: namely the kingdom as their inheritance.

¹⁰ Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Again, Paul exhorts them to the goodness that should accompany the gospel. Just as Jesus taught them to love, so now Paul teaches them to love. Since you belong to God, and you sow to please the Spirit, do good.

Doctrine and action go hand in hand.

¹¹ See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! Now this may trip you out a little bit, but most letters in Paul’s day (including his own) were not actually written down by the author’s own hand. They would usually pay someone to use nice paper and a nice pen with nice handwriting. They would typically verbalize what they wanted written and the person would write it out. You see this at the end of Romans where the one writing down Paul’s words takes license to give his own little greeting.

In the case of Galatians, Paul wrote it down himself. His mention of large letters could refer to 2 things. Some say that Paul had a medical issue with his eyes and had trouble seeing, hence the mention earlier, of what has happened to all your joy. You would have torn out your eyes and given them to me if you could. So in order to see what he was writing, he had to write large. That is one possibility. The other possibility is that Paul is trying to emphasize what he is writing. He is bringing his letter to a close and he wants to grab their attention. It’s almost like all caps.

He continues:

 ¹² Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.  We have already touched on this. Paul had said that those who sow to please the flesh will from the flesh reap destruction. He points here to the fact that their means of sowing to the flesh is trying to compel the Galatians to be circumcised.

I’ll just point out here again that right here in verse 12, we have an interpretive key to unlocking the context of the letter: Judaizers imposing law on gentile galatian believers. I’ve been reiterating that throughout the book, but I want you to see here that it’s not something that I just made up. It’s right here in the text. It’s crucial to know the story behind the Scripture. Sometimes it’s not in the text and history books and commentaries are helpful in that area, but in this case it is.

¹³ Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.  Again, they are sowing to please the flesh. They are sowing seeds of the law with self-centered motives. They don’t even keep the law themselves and yet they want you to be circumcised. This is inconsistent to say the least because whoever does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. You can’t divide the Law up into parts and follow bits and pieces. The Law is a unit. Follow part of the law you must follow the whole thing. And they weren’t. Their motives are wrong. They are self-centered. They are sowing to please the flesh and they will reap accordingly.

¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. The Judaizers want to boast in your circumcision. They want to boast about things of the flesh. Not me, Paul says. May I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Everything of this current world that I once found identity in: my ethnicity, Torah, circumcision, land and temple…rubbish…I am dead to it. it’s dead to me – It has been crucified to me. It has nothing for me. And I have been crucified to it. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So, to sum up, Paul exhorted the Galatians to not be deceived by the Judaizers and the seeds that they were sowing, which were seeds of the flesh, seeds of the Law, namely circumcision. They were sowing seeds to please the flesh. They were teaching Law in pursuing their own interests. What were those interests? To avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. As Jesus warned in the SOM, there would be persecution for believers and there was, especially from ethnic Jews. The message of the cross was an offense to the Jews because it stripped them of identity in circumcision and said everything you put stock in is about to go down. Your stock market is about to crash. The OC was a bad investment in the first century. They are sowing to please the flesh and from that they will reap destruction because those who belong to the OC were about to be destroyed in the coming judgment at the hands of the Romans.

Paul has the same flow of thought from the first chapter to the last chapter.

Chapter 1: Jesus died to rescue us from the present evil age. These guys are preaching another gospel.

Chapter 2: this is so serious, I had to rebuke Peter for not acting in line with the truth but walking according to the flesh

Chapter 3: you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? After beginning with the Spirit are you now trying to attain your goal by the flesh?

Chapter 4: Abraham had 2 sons. One of the flesh. The other of the Spirit. What does the scripture say about the one of the flesh. Cast him out; he will not share in the inheritance with the son of the promise. He will be amongst the weeds burned in the furnace, he won’t be gathered into the barn.

Chapter 5: don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Chapter 6: You reap what you sow. If you sow to please the flesh, you will reap destruction. If you sow to please the spirit, you will reap eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Free to Serve

gal 5:13-15 Free to Serve

GALATIANS IS THE GOSPEL

In case you haven’t noticed, the book of Galatians is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and there is no news greater. You may recall our brief survey of the gospel in which we noted that the gospel is good news and contained within it a message of moving from slavery to freedom.

GOSPEL IN HISTORY

Gospel or good news had been preached throughout history. Moses preached a gospel to Israel of Old that God would redeem them from slavery in Egypt while destroying wicked Egypt and the Promised Land awaited them as they went from slavery to freedom as the result of God’s work on their behalf. Isaiah preached good news to the Jews who would be in Babylonian captivity that God would destroy Babylon and rescue his people from that bondage and bring them into freedom. And in the first century Jesus preached not only A gospel, but THE Gospel, the ultimate good news of moving from slavery to freedom. That movement from slavery to freedom for the Jews was a movement from the OC to the NC, from a covenant of slavery to a covenant of freedom.

PAUL’S MESSAGE IS SLAVERY TO FREEDOM

This is the message that Paul defends in his letter to the Galatians. He spent several chapters developing the doctrine that the Law was a covenant of slavery and from that doctrine he derives his exhortations to the Galatians. The exhortation begins at the beginning of chapter 5:1 it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Today we will camp out in Gal 5:13-15 (turn there now in your bibles). There we will see that Paul picks this idea back up and expands upon it. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

ISN’T THAT SCARY? DOESN’T LAW SECURE ORDER & MORALITY?

Freedom from slavery as a general idea sounds great, but freedom from the law sounds scary. After all, isn’t the Law designed to establish order and morality? People who know and understand the depravity of man will certainly be concerned with what may come of a community apart from the law. Doesn’t that freedom lead to anarchy, chaos and sin? How will we maintain order and peace and morality apart from the Law? How will we prevent anarchy, chaos and sin? Wasn’t this the purpose of the Law – to establish order and morality?

Before we jump into the text, let’s consider a few problems with the Law as a means of establishing and maintaining order and morality, since that is the general thought.

• It didn’t create a moral heart, but stirred up the desire to transgress (Rom 7).
• Law keeps order by way of fear of consequences. It worked through coercion. Eye for an eye. So the motives of men to obey were purely selfish.
• It is preferable for people to act by their own volition, for people do something because they want to not because they have to. Consider this in your own life:
  • Do you want your wife to be physically intimate with you because it’s her moral obligation, her wifely duty and she has to or because she wants to?
  • Do you want your children to honor you because they have to as a moral obligation or because they truly esteem you and want to honor you?
  • Do you want your friends to call you and spend time with you because they have to as a friend is obligated or because they want to?

So the general thought is that the Law will establish order and morality, but as we have seen, the law falls short of doing this effectively for a few reasons. It operated on fear and coercion, and it often produced rebellion.

So the argument in favor of the law as a means of establishing order and morality is dismantled at the outset. So the Law wasn’t really effective in establishing order and morality…

BUT THE QUESTION REMAINS: “IF WE ARE NOT UNDER LAW, HOW DO WE LIVE? And what will establish order and morality?

Paul touched on it briefly in v6 faith expressing itself through love.

Here he goes farther and fleshes it out even more. Read with me in Gal 5:13-15 ¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Let’s draw out the meaning and application of this text.

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. 

CALLED TO BE FREE?!?!?!

It’s easy to see how an immediate response to freedom is I can do whatever I want. Which is great. But the problem with that is what is going to keep people from using that freedom to murder, steal, and cheat one another? The natural thought is: the Law accomplished that; if you take away the Law you take away order and morality, right? That is the problem Paul will deal with in this text.

He begins by exhorting them; You were called to be free, BUT: Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh!

THE FLESH. What does Paul mean by the flesh? We have talked about this concept of flesh all throughout Paul’s letter. This is a complex term that has multiple meanings which are always driven by the context.

• Human effort/striving
  • law works for righteousness
  • Gal 3:3 after beginning with the spirit are you now finishing in the flesh?
• That which is natural
  • As opposed to supernatural
  • For example the birth of Ishmael
• Pertaining to selfishness/sinful (trying to satisfy self through sin)

We must be careful not to only attribute flesh to sin (but rather to the broader scope including also human effort – the natural man). They all go hand in hand, but in this verse (5:13) Paul uses it to refer to the 3^rd – trying to satisfy self through sin.

SEEKING SELF SATISFACTION

• I want money because I want stuff, so I will cheat on taxes and rip people off.
• I want sexual satisfaction so I will commit fornication, look at pornography, and gratify myself.
• I want people to think highly of me so I will gossip about this other person so I can look better than him. I will slander this person to make me look better.
• I don’t like how I’m not the most popular person, I am jealous of that person who is.
• I want what they have so I covet their possessions.

Notice the “I” factor in all of that. I want, I desire, it’s about me.

Paul says don’t go that route. Don’t use your freedom for the “I factor.” Don’t use your freedom to sin and to walk in selfishness. Do not use your freedom for the flesh. RATHER, serve one another in love. These are interesting words. Essentially Paul is saying 2 things:

• Don’t use freedom to serve self, but use freedom to serve others.
• In fact, use your freedom to do the work of a slave.
  • The work of a slave is to serve others.
  • You are not bound by a law that makes you a slave.
  • You are in a position to serve others not because you have to, but because you want to.

The so-called problem that freedom will lead to sin rooted in selfishness is not even a problem because the freedom we have in Christ should actually lead to a selflessness rooted in love.

Christians aren’t free to sin, but free to serve.

¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Now Paul’s entire discussion in Galatians is: believers, you are not under the Law of Moses. But even the Law of Moses itself is summed up in one command: love your neighbor as yourself. You’re not under that Law, but if you were, it is summed up in a word: love.

• The Law said do not murder. You don’t want your neighbor to murder you, don’t kill others. Love your neighbor as yourself.
• The Law said do not commit adultery. You don’t want your neighbor sleep with your wife, don’t sleep with his. Love your neighbor as yourself.
• The Law said do not steal. You don’t want your neighbor to steal from you, so don’t steal from your neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself.

So everything that one desires from the law – order and morality – is actually accomplished by following one simple principle: love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul says the same thing in Romans. Remember Romans is a great commentary on Galatians.

Rom 13:8-10  ⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”^[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^{[b] 10} Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

So again, the entire discussion revolves around the Law; Paul has said, believers, you are not under the Law. But if you are concerned that a lack of Law will result in the lack of morality, have no fear: the exhortation to love will produce a morality far greater than the Law ever could have produced and even the Law itself is summed up by this exhortation to love.

Paul now says:

¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

This idea of biting and devouring each other goes hand in hand with the idea of the flesh. It is the natural way of beasts in the natural world.

I believe this biting and devouring and destruction correlates to both aspects of the flesh – the religious works righteousness aspect as well as the seeking of self satisfaction.

How does this relate to Paul’s discussion about the Law? Well, if the works of the Law (aka works of the flesh) were being introduced as a means of righteousness, consider the natural result: Comparing how righteous one is to another.

• I followed this command and that command.
• Oh, you’re eating that? You’re not as righteous as me.
• Oh, you didn’t observe the Sabbath? I did.
• And guess what else I did. Did you do that?

There is a natural tendency to look down upon others and elevate self in pride based on works of the flesh – there is a sense of biting and devouring one another.

I have hurt people I love in this room through my own self-righteous legalism.

• You drink alcohol? I don’t.
• You watch that on TV? I don’t.
• You listen to secular music? I don’t.

There is no place for that in the body of Christ. But that is the natural tendency of a works-based righteousness. That is the result of works of the flesh: comparing yourself with others, looking down on them and being puffed up with pride – biting and devouring one another, destroying one another.

But, if the works-based righteousness is set aside and the community says with one voice, “We are not righteous based on what we do but based on what Christ did” there is an attitude of grace and mercy and humility toward others. This is the kind of attitude that builds up the Body of Christ rather than destroying it.

So in regards to religious righteousness, based on works of the flesh, the result is biting and devouring and destroying by way of comparison and pride.

But the same holds true in regards to seeking self satisfaction by way of works of the flesh.

Examples:

• I don’t care if they don’t have enough money to eat this month, I’m using my money to eat more than enough and desert and then get this shiny thing I’ve been wanting.
  • This attitude leads to destroying one another by neglect.
  • But serving one another in love is seeking to care for the needs of others and offering to help provide food for the one who has less.
• CRACK. (freedom to indulge the flesh) If I want to feel real good and I smoke crack, I may end up doing things I regret while high, hurting others. I may end up a crack-head that needs another crack fix and steal from my own people to pay for my addiction – biting and devouring others.
• KING DAVID. We see an example of this in the Scriptures with King David, who was supposed to be off at war. He already wasn’t doing what he should have been doing. Then he sees Bathsheba bathing on the roof. And instead of going inside to one of his own wives he sends for Bathsheba the wife of Uriah the Hittite. I don’t care if this is his wife. I want her. Oops. She’s pregnant. Send for him. Have another drink Uriah and go home to your wife. Oh, he won’t go for that. Put him on the frontline and when the battle is fiercest, pull back and let him be devoured by the sword. So we see in David’s actions a seeking of self satisfaction by way of the flesh. In this he was “biting and devouring” his neighbor Uriah the Hittite AND DESTROYED HIM.
  • David’s mentality was “How can I satisfy self?” without regards for his neighbor.
  • However, if David’s mentality was “how can I serve others in love?” he never would have sent for Bathsheba, he probably would have been off at war.

So, again, works of the flesh can lead to a sense of biting and devouring one another:

• works of the flesh in a religious context in seeking righteousness by works resulting in comparison and pride.
• works of the flesh in a seeking self satisfaction sense resulting in the destruction of others’ well being.

In either context the solution is: rather than using our freedom to satisfy the flesh, serve one another in love. Rather than having a mentality of how can I satisfy self, a believer should have the attitude of how can I serve others in love?

Christians are free. Not free to sin, but free to serve.

We are all seeking meaning, purpose and self satisfaction. Ironically, that is not gained through human effort, it is not gained through natural means, but supernatural means. It is not gained by living according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

ILLUSTRATION

Let me illustrate this with something I experienced this past week. My daughter Ellie is 16 months old. We had hot dogs for dinner and the tongs were still out. She was playing with them trying to open them.

These tongs are spring loaded and they have a clip that keeps them closed. If you move the clip near the bottom, the ends spring open quite easily. But if the clip is near the top, they remain closed.

Well the clip was near the top and Ellie was trying and trying to pry it open. Ellie is a child. She isn’t mature. From her perspective, if she wants to separate the tips, she must pry them open. So she tried harder and harder to pry them open. No matter how hard she tried in her own human strength and according to natural means in and of herself, she could not attain her goal. But her father did something for her that seemed entirely unnatural (one might say supernatural); I squeezed the tips together, letting the clip slide down to the pivot point. Then the tips sprung open without any effort from her and her goal was accomplished with no human effort whatsoever, in fact that which she did which was natural to her worked against her. That which seemed to go against her goal actually accomplished her goal.

I think this illustrates our point well. Humans have a goal of righteousness. It seems natural to humans to work for this righteousness. So humans perform works of the flesh in attempts to be righteous before God. However this is like trying to pry the tongs open with the clip in place. No matter how hard we try in the flesh, we can’t be righteous before God. However, a status of righteousness actually comes when we allow our heavenly Father to do a supernatural work on our behalf that seems totally unnatural to us. It is when we trust in the work of Jesus Christ that we have righteousness. This is like Ellie letting her Father squeeze the tips to move the clip so that the tongs spring open, the open tongs representing a state of justification.

Humans also seek meaning, purpose and self – satisfaction. The same illustration can be used. The prying of tong tips with human effort can be compared to seeking self satisfaction by works of the flesh – natural means. After all, if I want to be happy, I need to do what will make me happy and that is being wealthy and having stuff and being esteemed in the eyes of others and if I need to step on heads to climb the corporate ladder and cheat others and slander others to get there, by golly that’s what I’ll do. That’s natural; that’s the flesh. If I want these tongs open I better pry them. They’re not coming open I’ll pry harder. However, the tongs don’t open by self effort. They open by relying on the work that the father does, outside of the child’s work. In the same way, meaning and purpose and self satisfaction is not found through works of the flesh, but by relying on the work of the father. Though it seems to natural man that I must strive for satisfaction through my own works and self effort, that actually gets man in trouble and harms his neighbor. Meaning and purpose are found in Christ. True satisfaction of the soul is found in Christ – faith in Christ – faith expressing itself through love – serving one another in love. I will find that I am truly satisfied when I use my freedom not for the flesh, not to seek to satisfy self, but when I seek to serve others in love.

We are free from the Law – So let us find our righteousness not in works of the Law, but in Christ. And let’s not use our freedom to indulge the flesh, but to do the work of a slave, serving one another in love.

It sounds bizarre, like squeezing the tongs to open them, doing the very opposite of what we would naturally tend to do, but it is not the natural way of life that we are called to in Christ, but the supernatural way of the Spirit.

The Christian life is not about serving self in sin, but serving others in love.

Yes we are free, not free to sin, but free to serve.

Running the Right Race

Gal 5:7-12 Running the Right Race

Last week we ventured into Galatians 5. There we saw that Paul drew from everything he had said prior in order to come to what I believe is the summary statement of Galatians. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Gal 5:1).

Paul showed very extensively that the Law or Old Covenant was a form of slavery or bondage, while the NC in Christ is freedom. Drawing heavily from the Exodus motif, Paul showed that the Exodus of old was a pattern – it was a type of the spiritual Exodus that was occurring in his day. Christ, the antitype of Moses, led a spiritual exodus out of spiritual slavery in spiritual Egypt. This was manifest in the transition from OC to NC.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” Paul said. He continued by saying that if they let themselves be circumcised Christ would be of no value to them. Christ + something = nothing.

Paul continued by saying that anyone who circumcised himself would be obligated to follow the whole law because you cannot divide the Law and follow part of. The Law is all or nothing; it is a unit.

He concluded that section by answering the question that is inevitably raised by a discussion about the Law. If Christians aren’t bound by the Law, how then do we live? What is going to keep us from being bad? How do we live as Christians? His answer: faith expressing itself through Love. That, my friends is the essence of the Christian life. The Christian life is very simple - in a nutshell: faith expressing itself through love.

So let’s continue in our text, picking up in verse 7 and continuing through v15. Gal 5:7-15

⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? ⁸ That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” ¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

In verse 7 Paul says ⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 

You were running a good race. This is a metaphor used elsewhere in the NT. If you would like some references, we see that also in Phil 2:16, Heb 12:1, and 1 Cor 9:24-26. I believe this metaphor is best understood in its historical context. It seems that there is a finish line in sight and Paul is encouraging his contemporaries to finish the race strong. I believe the finish line is none other than the end of the evil age that was still present when Paul wrote – the OC age. I believe that finish line was crossed when Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. This was the focal point of NT prophecy.

Consider the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They had much to say to Israel – namely Judah, yet the focal point of their prophecies was the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. In the same way, JTB, Jesus and his apostles had a lot to say to Israel, but the focal point of their prophecies was the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome. In my opinion, this event is one of the most overlooked and underappreciated events in history. I was watching a secular documentary by A&E on the Jewish war with Rome and these scholars with PhD’s are all convinced that it was such a pivotal moment in history that if Rome did not destroy Jerusalem and her temple, Christianity would have died due to Jewish persecution. However, since that event did happen, Christianity blossomed and spread like wildfire. That sheds light on the situation.

Our text uses the metaphor of a race. Consider a race. You’re trying to see who will be the victor. Will it be this participant or that participant? In this case, who will emerge triumphant as God’s true people? When the true sons of God are manifest who will it be? Will it be those who claim that ethnicity and circumcision of the flesh and Torah keeping define God’s people or will it be those who claim that Christ defines God’s people?

That was the race they were running in the first century. Apparently, the Galatians were running a good one, because they were running in the right direction – towards Christ. They were direct disciples of Paul. But something happened – something that necessitated a letter from Paul to correct their course. ⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 

So in this metaphorical race, they were running a good race, running toward Christ, but someone cut in on them. Paul asks this in the form of a question: who cut in on you? He knows the answer in a general sense and so do we: the Judaizers. The Judaizers came in and steered them off course.

And look what Paul says about this. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?

Now, if these Judaizers were doing anything, they weren’t keeping the Galatians from obeying, right? If anything, they were trying to make sure they were obeying the truth. There’s this command of circumcision…are you obeying that? What about the Sabbath and the feasts, are you obeying them? The Judaizers were all about ensuring obedience. They weren’t trying to keep anyone from obeying, right?

Wrong! The text says who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth. In other words, Paul says that for a believer to observe the commands of the Law is to disobey the truth. Remember in last week’s passage, we saw that it’s not both/and, but either/or. It’s not Christ and Law, but Christ or Law. Faith in Christ alone is obeying the truth. Faith in Christ plus the Law is not obeying the truth. The truth is not circumcision sanctifies. The truth is Christ sanctifies. The truth is not Sabbath sets apart. The truth is Christ sets apart.

Once again, Paul delivers a devastating blow to the notion that the observance of the Law can add to the work of Christ.

Christ plus something equals nothing. To obey the Law of Moses is to disobey the truth. Jesus is the truth.

⁸ That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. In other words, that idea is not from God. God called you to Himself. This is not of God. This doctrine is of man.

⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”  Paul is showing how destructive it is to be persuaded by error. He uses another metaphor: yeast. Consider the way yeast works; you don’t need much. Just a little bit will work through a whole batch of dough.

Jesus had already used this metaphor:

Matt 16:5-12 ⁵ When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. ⁶ “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

 ⁷ They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”

 ⁸ Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? ⁹ Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹¹ How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

So Jesus is using the metaphor of yeast to speak of the erroneous teachings of the religious leaders of OC Israel.

Paul picks up on this metaphor and uses it in the same way. Be on your guard against incorrect teachings. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. It only takes one bad apple to ruin the bunch. It only takes one Judaizer to steer the church in the wrong direction. He certainly has dispensed with any ideas, well, it’s just this one guy, not that big of a deal. Paul seems to think it’s a big deal and had a lot to say in his letters about the error of the Judaizers.

Just one Judaizer teaching people that works of the Law are binding on believers is enough to spread through the whole church and get the whole church off course.

¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 

He says here the one who is throwing you into confusion will have to pay the penalty.

I don’t know what that means. If you would have asked me 6 years ago, I’d have popped off, “that sucka is gonna burn in hell!” Since then I’ve studied a little bit more and I don’t know that’s what Paul has in mind. But, I’m not going to let what I don’t know rob me of what I do know. And I do know that Paul sees this as a gross error that deserves some form of punishment.

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 

Paul was clearly not preaching circumcision. If he was, the Jews may have been cool with him. But he was preaching something that was offensive to them. What Paul preached was a stumbling block to the Jews.

The Jews were expecting a Messiah or King that would take the throne in Israel and deliver them from the tyranny of Rome and establish the Kingdom of God on earth where Israel would be the dominant race and be seen as God’s special people with all other nations bowing at her feet. That’s what they expected. But God didn’t send Israel a King who would sit on a physical throne and ride a physical horse into a physical battle to defeat the physical enemies of the Jews and establish a physical kingdom. God sent them Jesus:

• a man who suffered
• a man accused of blasphemy
• a man hated by the religious leaders
• a man who died
• a man who was hung on a cross.

First of all, how would God’s Messiah deliver Israel from her enemies if he died? A dead Messiah just doesn’t fit the bill.

Furthermore, look at just how he died. ON A CROSS. The Jews would have seen Jesus to be under God’s curse, for it is written Deut 21:23 cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. The Jews saw Jesus as cursed by God. Paul, you’re saying that this man who was hung on a cross is the king of the Jews? May it never be! That’s crazy talk. The King of Israel is God’s anointed, not God’s cursed. This man was hung on a tree, thus cursed by God. No way can he be our Messiah.

This was a stumbling block to the Jews. It was offensive to the Jews. But, it was foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted (under God’s curse). But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by his wounds we are healed.

So, yes, Jews, you did consider him cursed by God, BUT he was on that cross to bear our curse, becoming a curse for us, on our behalf.

So the preaching of the cross was an offense to the Jews. A messiah who doesn’t deliver us from Rome, but gets rejected by the people, beat up by them, accused of blasphemy and then dies? Dies on a cross, under God’s curse? That’s offensive to the Jews.

It’s a message that further offends them by saying everything you put stock in is going bankrupt:

• The Law
• your ethnicity
• circumcising the flesh
• the temple
• the land…all of it…

It means nothing. Everything you put pride in is pointless. That is highly offensive to a Jew.

So now Paul just gets roguish.

¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

As for those agitators, once again. This is why it’s important to know the story behind the Scriptures. The agitators are the Judaizers. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. That’s a big word.

Dictionary.com defines emasculate as to castrate or remove the testicles.

In other words, Paul says, those guys who are -so interested in the cutting of the flesh of the male reproductive organ, may they get happy with the scissors. May they not only cut the foreskin of the penis, but cut off the scrotum too! May they just castrate themselves.

Jesse put it nicely. You guys want to be on the team. Forget JV, go varsity.

The logic…Think about it. Cutting off a little bit of flesh makes you more righteous before God, well, why not cut off a lot and get that next level Mansion in heaven.

There is some irony in this because Paul is pointing out the logical conclusion of that kind of thinking, which they wouldn’t really do. But he was implying that they should do like the pagans do in their religious practices, castrate themselves. Which, again, is ironic because

Deut 23:1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.

In other words, our discussion here is about who is part of the assembly of God’s people? Is it those who just believe in Jesus or the people who cut skin off of the penis? Paul says the people cutting skin off the penis should just go the whole way and emasculate themselves. Which would actually disqualify them from entering the assembly.

So this portion of our letter is very specific to Paul’s original audience. The Galatians in the first century. THEY were running a good race. Judaizers had cut in on THEM and kept THEM from obeying the truth. THEY were being thrown into confusion by agitators.

However, there are a few golden nuggets in which we can find application for today.

Christians should obey the truth and not allow anyone to persuade us away from the Truth.

We have truth laid out for us clearly in Scripture. We often take our Bibles for granted. We have the entire canon of the NT. The Galatians probably only had this letter. They may have come across a copy of a gospel or another letter. Peter wrote to the elect in the region of Galatia so they may have read his letter. But they didn’t have the entire NT as we do. The problems and issues in the churches provided occasions for letters from Paul that explain the theological truths that often take for granted. We have truth laid out for us clearly in Scripture. Let’s not depart from that. Let’s believe and behave according to the truth of the text.

While the Judaizers and their influence had a first century context, the exhortation to remain in the truth remains today. There are many influences today that would seek to do the very work of the Judaizers and cut in on us to cause us to change course and depart from the truth of the text.

Let’s be on our guard against the door to door deceivers of our day. I don’t think the mormons or JW’s are intentionally trying to deceive anyone, but are sincerely convinced of what they believe. I don’t think the Judaizers were intentionally trying to deceive anyone but were sincerely convinced of what they believed. Sincere as they may be, they are wrong.

Let’s remain in the truth and be on guard against those who would undermine our journey on the right course.

This means that we need to know our Bibles so that we can distinguish truth from error.

Furthermore, Paul used the phrase – “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” That is a timeless truth that we should take to heart. Erroneous theology, just a little bit, has the power to do damage. This is why it’s so important to get our theology from the Scriptures. In our studies we may look to other sources: Commentaries can be great tools to help us understand, listening to a John Piper sermon can help, reading articles on line can help, sitting right here and listening to m can help. BUT…they may also be in error. Commentaries can get things wrong. Piper can get things wrong. I can get things wrong.

So if you’re reading the Scriptures, it is important to use proper hermeneutics – that is the proper means of interpretation. If you’re venturing outside of the Scriptures to other resources, be careful and test everything against Scripture for consistency. Be a Berean. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. It is important that we guard the truth of Scripture.

A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. So let’s try to nip falsehood in the bud before it blossoms and cross pollinates.

Now, I just want to say on that note that some Scripture is hard to understand. We may never understand certain Scripture. Some doctrines are difficult. Thus, while we want to guard our doctrine carefully, we also must remember to do that within the realm of grace. We need to be humble and teachable with a heart that wants to know the truth even if the truth means something different than our favorite author or evangelist or childhood pastor said. We need to be lovers of the truth. But we also need to be lovers of our brothers. Lovingly lead people into truth and lovingly challenge beliefs that seem contrary to truth.

As always our lives should be marked by faith expressing itself through love.