Let Us Do Good To Everyone
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Galatians
Galatians
The Epistle to the Galatians is about identity. What does it mean for a person to be a Christian? How do you get in, and what does it mean once you’re in. Paul’s answer answer comes at the end of chapter 3:
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Since we’re going to have a baptism later today/in a bit, it’s worth reflecting for a moment on these words. The way you get into the community of faith, the way you get into Christ, is to be baptized into him. That’s why this day, when we will baptize a new member of our community, is so important and why the church refers to baptism as a sacrament. And once we are in Christ, whatever we were before, whatever we thought identified us the most, that disappears because we become new creations and members of the one body of the Messiah. And if that wasn’t incredible enough, Paul says the most remarkable thing which turns some theological systems both of his day and ours completely on their head.
He says that if you are Christ’s, meaning you have been baptized into Christ and therefore put him on as your primary if not only identity, rather than your nationality, race, social standing, or gender, then you are a child of Abraham, and therefore an heir of the promises made to Abraham and his offspring forever. And right here, this sermon could take a hard turn towards a talk about different theological systems and what it means to be Israel in the New Testament, but that’s not what I want to talk about this morning.
Paul’s vision of what it means to be in Christ is more than merely baptism as our entry point, the Messiah as our identity, and the promises to Abraham and his offspring as ours by right of being in Christ. Paul’s concern is not just theological but ethical, and so in chapter five, he turns to a discussion of Freedom from the Law and the Holy Spirit in chapter five, and then his ethical discussion, and the letter itself, comes to a close with the words we heard this morning. There are a few verses here that I want to focus on this morning.
Galatians 6:9–10 (ESV)
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.
It should go without saying that part of what it means to be a Christian is doing good for others, but lately it seems that it does need to be said. There are certain voices today who want to suggest that a Christian’s only responsibility is to those in the church. For example, there are those who suggest than when Jesus says,
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
He refers only to his Christians brothers and sisters, or perhaps his national brothers and sisters, the Jews. Whatever one wants to say about this wrong interpretation, the church has always interpreted the whole of the New Testament to say that one of the Church’s, and therefore one of the Christian’s, primary vocations is to do good for everyone. Not merely for those of the same faith as ours, or the same country as ours, or the same race, or the same gender, or the same social standing, or whatever, but for everyone.
And I want to point out here something that we say every Sunday. When Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, he responds with the summary of the Law which the celebrant says almost every Sunday. After the first commandment about loving God with all of our heart, mind, and strength, Jesus says,
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The second commandment is like the first because, if we’ve listened to the Old Testament prophets at all, the primary way in which we love God is not through our worship but through loving our neighbors as ourselves. For example, Isaiah says,
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
The primary way in which Christians are to love God with all that they are is by loving our neighbors as ourselves, and therefore
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.
You see, it’s not that we have a responsibility to do good only for our Christian brothers and sisters, but rather, we have a responsibility to do good for everyone and especially for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
And here’s the good news. That is something this church, all of you, do incredibly well. This church is overly generous with its time, treasure, and talents, and we focus in, as we did this weekend, and as some of you have done for months, on doing good for a member of our Christian family, but we’re also here for the whole community around us, and in fact, the whole world.
Because of your generosity, we send 5% of our giving right out our doors to other organizations that are doing good locally and abroad. Because of your generosity we’re able to have gift cards on hand and pay people’s electric bills and put them up in rooms for a night and help a kid with mental issues get back to his family in West Virginia. Because of your generosity and hard work we’re able to have our trailer park ministry and we were able to help one of our elder sisters move from one residence to another and we’ve been able to donate food to various food banks and the list could on and on.
And it occurred to me as I was writing this that much of this happens outside our Sunday worship, so you might hear about some of it, but that’s not enough to get a full picture of the good that this church is able to do because of your generosity with your time, treasure, and talents. So all I really want to do today is twofold: First, I want to say thank you. Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for your time. Thank you for enabling this church to be the church and to do good for everyone, and especially for those who are of the household of faith. And second, I just want to say with Paul, “let us know grow weary of doing good.” This is why the church exist. This is part of that healing for the nations that I mentioned last week. We are here to do good for as many people as we can and especially for members of our own Christian community. But it can be tired. It can be exhausting. Because there is so much need. So much hurt. So much pain. So much work to be done. But don’t lose heart...
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
The harvest is coming, and …
Galatians 6:8 (ESV)
the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Amen.