The book of Galatians was a letter written from Paul to the churches in what is now the country of Turkey. He wrote this letter to refute the teachings of the Judiazers who were saying that in order to be a true and whole Christian you had to be circumcised according to the Old Testament Law. The whole letter deals with the subject of the Law versus the Spirit.
We’ve learned a lot about the fruit of the Spirit in the past couple weeks. Overall it is hard to separate the different portions of the fruit of the Spirit because of the fact that they are all combined. The Scripture does not say "fruits of the Spirit". It is not plural. It is the "fruit", singular. They are all related, and as said last week, they can all be put together as love. From joy to self-control, they are all an outward sign of love. When you have joy, peace and patience you have love. You are showing love when you show someone kindness, show faithfulness, gentleness and show self-control. When you have the Spirit you have love, and when you have love you show goodness.
---Scripture Reading---
This portion confused me for awhile, particularly the last phrase of verse 10, "especially to those who belong to the family of believers." I really had to pray about it for a long time. It bothered me. I was reading it as it was saying that we should be treating fellow Christians better than those who weren’t in the fellowship of believers. I just couldn’t understand why Paul would say this. But after much prayer and further study, the Holy Spirit revealed that I was taking the phrase and more importantly the word "especially" out of context. I should’ve been reading it as a whole letter and not just as a small paragraph or phrase.
As I said, the subject of goodness is all encompassing. The act of goodness is all encompassing. We are to do good to all.
Point 1: Do Good To All
Anchor verse: Gal. 6:10a "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people"
We are to do good to all. It cannot be said any plainer. In order to show people the love that comes from Him we are to do good. The Bible is full of verses describing how we are to treat our fellow man. Jesus Himself was the perfect example of this, not just in word, but in deed as well. He didn’t just say to be a servant of your fellow man. "’Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’" He showed us in His life…and His death. The example Jesus gave us is beyond compare, but we need to realize that because goodness is part of the Fruit of the Spirit it is a sign of continuing spiritual growth. If we aren’t treating our neighbor like we would like to be treated, if we are spending more time being bitter and crusty than we are being happy and joyful then we need to do some soul searching.
Mother Theresa, one of the great heroines of the faith who was actually just made a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, is a person who took Jesus’ words literally. She made herself like a servant to people of lower classes in a society where that was unheard of. In India, this caste system is how the country runs. A person cannot climb to a higher class than what they were born into, and it’s a disgrace to want to be in a lower one. Mother Theresa left the family she knew and spent her life doing good for other people. She made herself their servant. She did good to all as Galatians 6:10 tells us to do. We cannot forget the last part of this verse, though.
Point 2: Especially Love Each Other
Anchor Verse: Gal. 6:10b "especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
What does this mean? Does this mean we are to treat fellow Christians better than we treat non-Christians? NO. When reading this portion we must realize why Paul is writing this letter. The Judiazers were teaching a heresy regarding the proper way to become a Christian and Paul wanted to clear it up. He was writing this letter to a specific group of people doing specific things, but it does have a message for us today. What would be some reasons for doing good to all, especially to those who are fellow believers? First of all, if we can’t show love to the people we have a connection to within Christ how can we show the true love of Christ to those who aren’t Christians? Eugene Peterson puts it great, "Let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith." We must start by loving those who are hard to love in the Church (because we know somebody like that) and then once we’ve learned that we can move on to bigger and better things and show our love to non-Christians.
Secondly, we must start by loving fellow Christians first because people who aren’t Christians are watching us. If they hear us preaching "Love your neighbor as yourself" and then see us tearing each other down what are they going to think? What do they think? Lawsuits and fighting between individuals in the Church. Arguing and backbiting. Heated arguments over the subject of backsliding versus eternal security. We need to be a witness to the world and if we can’t love each other and treat our brothers and sisters in Christ like brothers and sisters we are not going to bring anyone into the Kingdom.
In this portion in Galatians Paul doesn’t just tell us to do good to all, but he also encourages us.
Point 3: Do Not Become Weary
Anchor Verse: Gal. 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Pastoral burnout. It’s become a trend. It happens all the time. Pastors and other people in ministry are stretching themselves too thin. They are taking on too many responsibilities in the church and in the community. They give and give and give, but forget to take care their own spiritual lives. "No, I can’t go home yet today. I still have this pile of memos to go through. There is just too much to do." As we have previously learned, we are to do good to all, but we must not become weary in doing it. We must learn when to say, "Okay, I need this time to refresh my own spirit." "I can’t pastor anyone else until I am fed a little." We must not become weary in doing good. We are of no help to the Kingdom and the work of God if we end up in the psychiatric ward of a hospital from a nervous breakdown. God needs workers who give everything they have to His cause, but they need to be workers who know when they need Him to give them a fresh filling of strength to endure till the end and reap the harvest we are promised.
When I was in high school I attended an Assemblies of God church. The head pastor at the church, Pastor Dan, was one of the hardest workers I had ever met. He was always there for his congregation, and it didn’t matter what time of the day or what kind of problem they had. Pastor Dan was Christian man who knew that he was to do good to all, but he also knew of the verse that says not to become weary in doing good. He was so immersed in God’s Word and spent so much time in prayer that there was no way that he could become weary. The fruit of the Spirit burst from him like a constant supernova. His love became joy which became patience which became goodness, and he didn’t become weary from doing good. He is going to reap a plentiful harvest of eternal life.
Point 4: You Will Reap a Harvest
Anchor Verse: Gal. 6:7a-8 "A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."
I don’t think it could be put in plainer English than that. The verse says if you sow to please your sinful nature you will die. If you sow to please the Holy Spirit you will reap eternal life. The analogy of a harvest is used often in the Bible. Jesus used it. The Prophets used it. And here, Paul uses it. Usually when it is used, it is being used to describe the world as the fields and the people in it are the crops. The good crops with the full heads of wheat are stored in the storehouse while the chaff is blown away and burned. Here, though, Paul is talking about our individual harvests. Whatever a man puts his time into while he is on earth, that is what he will obtain when he dies. As it is put in the modern English of The Message, "The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others-ignoring God!-harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds!" But the opposite is also true. If we do good to all me and we don’t grow weary while doing it we will reap a harvest of eternal life.
The Fruit of the Spirit is a huge topic to cover. I guess that’s why it was split up to be done over the course of three weeks. We must not forget, though, that the fruit is one thing. It is not plural and individual fruits. All the topics are related. Love is Kindness. Joy is Gentleness. And Faithfulness is Self-control. When we are in the Spirit and growing to know Him better we will begin to show more and more signs of the fruit. We will begin to love each other more. We will begin to show each other more and more kindness. And we will Do Good to all men, especially to those who are believers. We will know when we need to spend extra time with God and when we need to be refreshed and we when the end comes we will reap a harvest of eternal life.
With God’s help and continued obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit we will continue to grow closer to Him and grow in Holiness. We will continue in the process of sanctification and show the outward signs of the fruit of the Spirit.
If you have grown weary in doing good and need to be refreshed right now come to the altar and ask God to energize you once a again. Ask Him to fill you with His power so you can do His work once again.
As we grow closer to Him we will learn more and more about His goodness and how we can mirror His goodness to others.
Altar Call Chorus: "Good to Me"
