Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Galatians 6:6-10 ESV

Although all that remained of Jerusalem was ruins, the 50,000 returning Jews rejoiced to be home. Because of their rampant and unrepentant sin, Yahweh had brought His judgment upon the kingdom of Judah through the hands of the Babylonians. Both Jerusalem and the temple were thoroughly destroyed and all but the very poorest were taken away into captivity. But though they often forgot and forsook Him, God did not forget nor forsake His people. After seventy years, the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, and just as Isaiah had predicted, King Cyrus did good to the people of God by ordering that all who were willing should return to Jerusalem. In fact, he commanded them to rebuild the temple. He even provided them with the material to do so; of course, with the expectation that they would pray favorably for him.

Indeed, at the laying of the foundation of the temple, Ezra records that the people both wept and shouted for joy, so was the mixture of emotions among the people.

But before they could finish the temple, adversaries rose up against them to hinder their progress, and sadly, they succeeded. For fifteen years, the foundation stood empty, as the Jews went about rebuilding the city and their own homes. After a decade and a half, Yahweh sent the prophet Haggai with a message:

Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Whether the Jews realized it or not, nothing was working properly for them. All of life had become even more of an uphill climb than usual, but they seem not to have noticed. Indeed, God goes on in verse 11 to say that He had brought a drought upon their land. In verse 9, the LORD says why He did all of this:

You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

Because the temple was the place of God’s presence in their midst, their neglect of the temple revealed their apathy toward God Himself. They were more concerned with pursuing personal wealth than they were with worshiping Yahweh. They did not honor the God who is good and does good, and thus found themselves disconnected from His good blessings. Jesus expressed this principle whenever He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

The natural desire of our flesh is to put ourselves first, but those who are governed by the Spirit seek the glory of God and the good of others as their first priority. And that is the encouragement that Paul gives in the passage before us, for we are to do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith.

SHARE ALL GOOD THINGS // VERSE 6

As I noted last week, the first ten verses of chapter six form a collective unit of practically showing how Christians are to walk in the Spirit. Verses 1-5 focused upon the war against our sin, and our duty to help one another over the course of that battle, particular whenever our sin seems to gain the upper hand. Now with verses 6-10, Paul turns his attention toward more general good works, especially within the church. This slight change of thought is indicated in the Greek with the word δε, which the ESV leaves untranslated except for starting a new paragraph. 

First, Paul writes: Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Here the apostle reminds the Galatians of their duty to support those who teach them the Word of God. Of course, even though Paul sometimes voluntarily refused to be compensated for his ministerial work, he staunchly defended the principle. For example, in 1 Corinthians 9:8-12, Paul even uses similar language to our present passage:

Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

Or in Romans 15:27, Paul speaks of the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia giving to help the Christians in Jerusalem, and he explains: “For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.”

The same principle is at work in verse 6. The one who is taught the word has received a spiritual blessing; therefore, he is obliged to share his material blessings with the one who teaches. Frank Thielman notes that “Students or their families typically supported their teachers in antiquity, and Paul was in favor of church leaders’ receiving support from their churches, so there is nothing surprising about this instruction” (644). Indeed, they were very likely sharing their goods with Judaizers, for I very much doubt that they were foregoing their compensation as Paul and other apostles had done. Instead, as Calvin notes, “it is one of the tricks of Satan to defraud godly ministers of support, that the Church may be deprived of such ministers” (177).

And sadly, that is a rather successful trick throughout church history. The 1689 Baptist Confession gives us a wise aim, saying:

The work of pastors is constantly to give attention to the service of Christ, in his churches, in the ministry of the Word and in prayer, watching out for their souls, as those who must give an account to him. It is therefore incumbent  on the churches to whom they minister, not only to give them all due respect, but also to impart to them a share of all their good things according to their ability. This is so that they may have a comfortable income without becoming entangled in secular concerns and may also be capable of exercising hospitality toward others. This is required both by the law of nature and by the express order of our Lord Jesus, who has ordained that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. (26:10)

Of course, this principle can be and certainly has been abused. But I think Christopher Ash gives wise counsel:

So here’s the paradox. If pastors stand on their rights, press for good pay and conditions, and insist on being treated with respect, we are wise to be cautious and not to give them too readily what they ask. But if they don’t—if, like Paul, they will “put up with anything” to bring us the gospel of Christ—then we will want to pour ourselves out in giving them generous honour.

This requires a twofold prizing of God’s Word. First, the pastor must prize the Scriptures and make teaching them his chief responsibility. Phillip Ryken writes:

Teaching the Word–this is as simple and as clear a job description of the gospel ministry as there is. These days ministers are tempted to perform many other jobs. They have become salesmen, businessmen, musicians, entertainers, comedians, janitors… anything and everything except preachers. But a true minister is nothing more and nothing less than a minister of the Word. The center of any gospel ministry must be the exposition of Holy Scripture. (253)

Indeed, we see that shift in the tendency now to say the pastor’s office rather than the pastor’s study.

Second, the congregation must prize the Scriptures and expect the Word to be clearly and faithful taught, minimally, on each Lord’s Day.

SOWING AND REAPING // VERSES 7-8

Paul continues:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The apostle wrote this letter because the Galatians were being deceived by false teachers. Remember that in 3:1 he called them bewitched, as if they had been placed under a magical spell. Specifically, they were being deceived into rejecting Christ and the gospel that only He brings. Thus, warning them here of being deceived is not a hypothetical circumstance. They had been deceived with regards to the gospel, and they were entirely capable of being deceived on other matters as well.

Indeed, the only safeguard against deception is holding fast to the Word of God, for as Jesus prayed to the Father: “Your Word is truth.” And as a side note, I believe that the great deception behind the abundance of conspiracy theories today is to take our focus away from God’s Word. As Psalm 119:23 says, “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.”

God is not mocked. What does Paul mean by this? After all, we find numerous examples in Scripture of people mocking God. He means, of course, that God will not endure being mocked. Take Goliath as an example. He cursed David, Israel, and the LORD, and God gave him into the hand of David. So it shall be with all who defy and mock the LORD.

But how were the Galatians in danger of mocking God? They were rejecting the sufficiency of Christ and taking confidence in their own righteousness through keeping the law. That the heresy that they were entertaining, and it is a mockery of Christ and His work to redeem us from our sins through His life, death, and resurrection.

For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. Here Paul gives us a metaphorical principle to consider, and as it common in the Scriptures, it is grounded in basic agriculture. The principle is simple: you harvest whatever you plant. Now note that Paul is not commenting here on the amount of the harvest. Instead, he simply noting that you cannot plant corn and expect to harvest wheat. Nor will carrot seeds yield potatoes. This elementary principle also applies spiritually: For the one sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The return to the terms flesh and Spirit ought to immediately bring us back to chapter five’s description of each person’s conflict between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit and of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. Whichever desires we satisfy, we sow either to the flesh or to the Spirit. We sow to the flesh by yielding to temptation and sin, and if we do so, we will reap corruption. The Greek word for “corruption” is often used for the decaying or composition of a corpse. Indeed, it is the word that both Acts 2 and the Septuagint use for Psalm 16:10, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” Sin is, of course, the cause of eternal, spiritual decay, but that decay begins in this life for those who sow to their flesh.

Or as John Stott writes:

Every time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fantasy, or wallow in self-pity, we are sowing to the flesh. Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious influence we know we cannot resist, every time we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying, every time we read pornographic literature, every time we take a risk which strains our self-control, we are sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and wonder why they do not reap holiness. Holiness is a harvest; whether we reap it or not depends almost entirely on what and where we sow.

Indeed, if we sow to the Spirit, we reap the harvest of eternal life, which we begin to enjoy now. To live according to the Spirit means keeping in step with the Spirit, walking by the Spirit just as the disciples walked beside Jesus. As we do this, the Spirit through the Scriptures shows us more of Christ, and we know Him more and more. And to know Christ is eternal life (John 17:3). There is no such thing as a Christ-less heaven, for Jesus is everything heavenly about heaven. Those who reject Christ also reject eternal life, while those who know Christ already have eternal life in this life. This is why I think Lewis is right to say that all get what they want, but they do not all like it. If we do not desire obedience to God and fellowship with Christ in this life, why would we enjoy it for all eternity?

We should also note that, given the context, we can either sow teaching of the flesh or the Spirit into our hearts. Consider Paul’s charge to Timothy:

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

That is what the Galatians were in danger of doing, for the Judaizers were teaching the myth of salvation through keeping the law and were making much of the Galatians while they were doing it. Ironically, given how much they speak about sowing and reaping, this is exactly what happens with prosperity teachers as well. Such false teachings flourish because people sow toward their fleshly desires. Rather than delight in being accurately taught God’s Word and rejoicing to contribute financially to the spread of the gospel, many give to “ministries” with the expectation of God giving more back to them. But that is sowing to the flesh rather than to the Spirit.

But we should delight to support Christ-exalted and gospel-proclaiming ministries, and we should do so with the prayerful expectation that God will use our meager seeds for His great harvest. Consider the example of Theophilus. Whether he was one man or a pseudonym for a group of supporters, most theologians assume that he patroned Luke during the writing of his Gospel and Acts. If that is the case, has money ever been spent more wisely? Each time we use Luke or Acts, we reap a harvest from the seed that he sowed.

DOING GOOD // VERSES 9-10

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Paul now broadens the notion of sowing to the Spirit by calling doing good. Thielman notes that “a ‘good’ (Gk. kalos) work is the product of effort at producing something fitting, useful, and beautiful” (644-645). This is the word that the Septuagint uses for God calling creation good. Thus, we can use Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians 4:28 as an example of this: “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” As Christians, we should not be content with simply refraining from harming anyone; instead, we should actively engage in doing good.

Indeed, in verse 10, the apostle exhorts: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Here he uses another word for good (ἀγαθὸς), which reflects goodness (ἀγαθωσύνη) within the fruit of the Spirit. It covers any manner of good thing, but perhaps specifically implies charitable giving, as it seems to indicate in verse 6. Paul says we are to do good to everyone, whenever we have the opportunity to do so. However, we are particularly to do good to our fellow Christians within the household of faith. Our compassion and charity ought to be toward all people, but we have a specific duty to our fellow believers because we are members of the same body and are collectively the bride of Christ. In fact, because the Holy Spirit now dwells within us as living temples of God, a disregard for the needs of our brothers and sisters places us in the same position as the Jews of Haggai’s day.

Now while we ought to desire and aim to do good to everyone, Paul himself here acknowledges a hierarchy of prioritization. Considering other Scriptures, we can note a general principle of concentric circles of priority. In 1 Timothy 5:8, Paul says, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” So, that is our first responsibility and highest priority. I make this note because it is often tempting to sacrifice the needs of one’s immediate family for the sake of others, but while it may be well-meaning, doing so is disobedience to God’s command. Speaking of men, we are chiefly called to love our wives as Christ loved the church and to image as best we can the heavenly Father to our children. And, of course, that will also involve showing them the blessings of generosity and sacrifice.

After our own households, each person’s local church should be his highest priority. Todd Wilson explains why:

Why? Because it is our primary family; it is, the apostle says, “the household of faith.” It is where we find identity and security, receive nurture and nourishment, get encouragement and support, benefit from teaching and training, modeling and mentoring, discipline and discipleship. The local church is our spiritual home, and those who gather week by week are, Biblically speaking, our true brothers and sisters. (219)

Beyond this, we should be glad to help fellow Christians within our community and especially suffering and persecuted Christians abroad. Truly, there is never a lack of opportunity.

But given the hard work and sacrifice of doing good, how are we to keep from giving up or growing weary? A farmer sows seeds into the ground with the harvest in mind. Tilling, sowing, watering, and weeding are all difficult tasks, but in the end, they yield a crop. Like a farmer focuses on the harvest, we set our eyes upon our eternal rest and reward in Christ. Indeed, such a focus will help us to remember that our time of doing good in this life is short. As N. D. Wilson notes:

Lay your life down. Your heartbeats cannot be hoarded. Your reservoir of breaths is draining away. You have hands, blister them while you can. You have bones, make them strain—they can carry nothing into the grave. You have lungs, let them spill with laughter. With an average life expectancy of 78.2 years in the US (subtracting eight hours a day for sleep), I have around 250,000 conscious hours remaining to me in which I could be smiling or scowling, rejoicing in my life, in this race, in this story, or moaning and complaining about my troubles. I can be giving my fingers, my back, my mind, my words, my breaths, to my wife and my children and my neighbors, or I can grasp after the vapor and the vanity for myself, dragging my feet, afraid to die and therefore afraid to live. And, like Adam, I will still die in the end.

Living is the same thing as dying. Living well is the same thing as dying for others.

Of course, that is exactly what our Lord did. He died for us, so that we might live in Him. Indeed, He died to give us the greatest of all goods: Himself. Remember what the writer of Hebrews says:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Indeed, as we come the Lord’s Supper, let us look to Jesus. This bread and cup testify His broken body and shed blood through which Christ paid the debt of our sins and secured our adoption as sons and daughters of God. Through the sacrifice of Himself, we now have life everlasting. Let it also be a goad in our sides to follow after His example, to likewise lay down our own lives and interests for the good and benefit of others and especially for one another.