Galatians 6:6-18

Context

Why was Paul writing this to the Galatians? What was Paul’s hope for their immediate context?

The Galatians were being pulled back by false teachers “adding to the gospel,” as we say, which essentially means “teaching a different gospel,” which leads to desertion of the gospel.

The problem was one, I think, of application. They were not teaching an overtly different gospel. These teachers were not teaching that Christ didn’t die for their sins, or that God sent new angels to them to reveal new revelations to them. No—these teachers were simply teaching bad application.

What was the bad application? Go and keep the law—get circumcised. Lest we misunderstand what Paul is preaching against, he gives it to us clearly in .

Galatians 5:6 ESV

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Paul wants us to know that there used to be a way of life—according to the law, and following it to a T. Get circumcised on the 8th day, observe the sabbaths and religious festivals, follow all of the kosher laws, make atonement through the sacrificial system for sins, and so forth.

But now, in Christ, there is a new law. There is a new way of life. A new identity as God’s people. No longer are you identified by law, but you are now identified by love. By faith working through love.

That is not what the Galatians had been understanding, so Paul writes as clearly as possible to the Galatians to get this point across. Not faith working through obedience to the law, but faith working through love.

I would say that is the turning point of the letter—the climax. Paul works up and up and up to , and then from there, it’s as though he takes a deep breath and begins his conclusion.

“You have been led away, and let me tell you the truth. It’s by faith, it’s all by faith, and not law. He gave the example of Abraham to show that it’s by faith, not by law, that we are justified, and then in 5:6 “it’s not obedience to the law, it’s not circumicision—it’s faith working through love.”

And then we come to a decrescendo. “You were running well, who stopped you?”

So he talks about

Leaven that has threatened to pollute the whole lump

The life of freedom

Life in the Spirit, rather than in the flesh

And then he gets to Chapter 6 to give the Galatians some solid application for what a life of love looks like.

And I am so glad we came back to . At first I thought “ is the obvious stuff that we can all read and be encouraged by as we live,” but I’m so glad we came back to close with because this is some real meat for us. This stuff is hard, but this stuff is what we should be pursuing as the church.

Paul spends most of this letter pointing out what they shouldn’t be doing. gives us a little window into what they should be doing. Rather than just referring to “freedom” and “life in the Spirit” in general and then closing, the apostle Paul gives them some real handles on what this looks like. And they needed it.

What parallels might there be for our context

And I think we desperately need this, too. As Americans, it would be just like us to skip over the application.

We’re a remarkably principled people. We’ve got our principles, but when it comes to practicals—you do you, and I’ll do me.

Paul gives principles, yes, but he also gives practicals. And for Paul, the practicals are crucial. What you do matters. Just look at

Galatians 6:7 ESV

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Galatians

God is not mocked. He gave us our freedom for a purpose. Not that it might be squandered away for sin or for selfish reasons, but that we might use it for loving others and for loving him.

And this is real stuff. This is real meat. Satan doesn’t want us to talk about this stuff, because this has to do with the kingdom of God breaking into the present. This has to do with the kingdom of light breaking into the present in real, manifest ways, that display him before a watching world who is looking for him.

I heard someone say once, forgive me for not being able to cite it (it wasn’t me) or even quote it directly, but the gist of it was this: we are theologically obese and ethically starved. We have an excess of knowledge, and a deficit of application.

And this is a problem, we all know it. With our partnerships, it would be easy for someone to walk in the room, listen to our talk about partnerships and say “man, this church talks a big game about partnerships,” but then looks at the average number of hours each of our covenant members spends engaging with our partnerships and says “hang on, this is all talk.” Some of you might have thought this before.

Let me say this about that: we are a church plant learning how to develop partnerships, and if we have the same level of engagement with partnerships in 2 years that we do today, then we’re doing something wrong. We have been learning a lot, and God is preparing us to wrap systems and structures and real investment into these opportunities. We must learn before we do, but we learn so that we may do. If we are learning stuff that doesn’t affect what we do, then what we are learning is useless.