Galatians 6: Living Your Best LifeНамуна

How many times have you been caught in some sin without realising it? You didn’t deliberately go into it; it just seemed to creep up on you from behind, and you were suddenly ‘overtaken’ by it. As a result, you felt crushed by your failure and the consequent sense of guilt.

When you see this happen to someone else, what should you do? Do you ignore it and say that it’s none of your business? Do you feel unable to say anything to them because the same thing has happened to you? In verse 1 we’re told to ‘restore’ such a person. But what does that mean?

In the last study we talked about life in the Spirit. We saw that God intends us to be living ‘in the Spirit’. We are to be Spirit-filled people. He desires that the fruit of the Spirit be evidenced in our lives every day. So then, out of genuine love we will go to this person who has sinned and seek to help them to know afresh that they are forgiven and that their guilt has been taken away on the cross. 

We will try to ‘restore’ them to a place of peace and trust and joy once again. We will do this very gently because we will know we are failures just as they are. There can be no pride in it, nor any harshness, nor any note of condemnation for we know only too well that we too could be tempted and so fall in the same way as they have (read I Corinthians 10:12).

Back in chapter 5, verse 13, we saw that ‘through love [we are to] be servants of one another’. In so doing, we fulfil the law ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. This is the ‘law of Christ’—going out to love totally for the other person’s good. By bearing one another’s burdens, we are loving in this way. We are acting toward them as Christ would (verse 2. Read Romans 15:1-3).

In 5:26 Paul said that living in the Spirit does not allow any self-conceit, or provoking of one another, nor any envious attitudes. These all come from pride. They come from thinking we’re pretty good when compared with others. Such a person will never help others and will never bear the burdens of others. 

Unfortunately, there are Christians like this today. They think they are ‘above’ such menial tasks. They would never bring themselves to such servile (servant-like) actions. That would only demean them in the eyes of others! They would feel put down. They would not feel so important!

Can you see that a Christian who thinks this way is deceiving himself (verse 3)? He thinks he’s pretty crash-hot, but in fact, he’s nothing. He is self-inflated! He’s a contradiction of all that a Spirit-filled Christian should be (compare this with James 1:26-27).

This danger of pride lurks in us all. That’s why we should judge our own good deeds in the light of God’s Word, and not go about comparing ourselves with others. If what we do is right and is according to the truth, then that’s great. It’s not wrong to be ‘proud’ of doing what’s right. You can be thankful and very grateful to the Lord. But don’t boast, and don’t show off. Don’t even think boastful thoughts about yourself (verse 4).

Verse 5. We will all have to give an account to the Lord for our conduct in this life. Our deeds will be judged. That’s why no one else can do our appointed tasks for us. We must all bear our own ‘burdens’—our own responsibilities, our own load. We must be strong and learn to carry these loads on our own shoulders. 

We must not expect others to carry them for us. Out of love, we will seek to help others with their loads (verse 2), but we must not be demanding that others help us with those burdens which are our duty to bear.

In Paul’s day, ordinary teachers did not have any time to earn money, and they were supported by their pupils. ‘Why not support your teachers of the Gospel in the same way?’ Paul says (verse 6). This would be an act of love, and would be a sharing of their ‘burden’. 

Paul himself never asked for money from any of his converts, and in fact, worked as a tent-maker to support himself (see Acts 18:3; I Corinthians 4:12; 9:14-15; 2 Corinthians 11:7). But he wrote this, no doubt, with other Christian preachers and teachers in mind, who needed this kind of financial and material help.

Verses 7 and 8 return to the whole subject of Spirit-way living as opposed to flesh-way living. Paul says that all that we do in life is a sowing. All our actions and words are like sowing a seed that will one day grow into some kind of fruit. The big question is: ‘What kind of fruit?’. 

If we ‘sow’ to the flesh by living along the lines that it dictates, then the ‘fruit’ at the end will be corruption and death. It is the way of disobedience. It is the way of self. It is the way of pride and self-conceit. On the other hand, if we ‘sow’ to the Spirit, by living in obedience to His will and by moving out in love to do others good, then the ‘fruit’ at the end will be eternal life.

We are warned to be terribly careful here. God can’t be fooled. If we take this matter lightly, then the only persons being fooled are ourselves. We are deceiving ourselves. We may think we are getting away with it, but the end result will prove otherwise, That’s why the Scripture is constantly telling us to have the end result in mind in all that we do in this life. 

It is the end that counts.

So then, don’t give up! Keep on doing good. Don’t get slack in doing what you know is right, because in the end you will receive the reward—you’ll reap the harvest! God has His right time, and we must not lose heart because it seems far off (verse 9). Take every opportunity to be doing good to everyone you meet, but especially to your Christian brothers and sisters (verse 10).