Missions Paul

Paul knows there are teachers teaching the Galatian churches. He refers a lot to the Old Testament. It was his Bible, the Spirit was using him and others to write the New Testament. This letter would be passed around Galatia and teachers would teach from it. The ‘Bible’ and the teaching from it was being passed on. And it continues today!

Following on from verse 5 where Paul calls for those walking with the Spirit to carry out their duties. Our ‘load’ is not a burden for someone else to help carry. It is our lot, our life, our situation of which our focus is on walking our life to the best of our own ability. However, those who teach are highlighted and so are those who listen to their teaching.

“Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.” (Galatians 6 v 6)

Why do Churches focus on the teaching of the Bible? It is because it always has been. It is the right thing to do as demonstrated by the importance of the Bible not only in Paul but also in the life of Jesus.

Remember how Jesus in the most excruciating unbelievable traumatic of times, hanging on the cross, quoted these words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”

Why did Jesus say what he said? It is because as he went through hell the power of the Word of God held him. Just as he had done on many occasions where he would quote one verse from an Old Testament passage and the lesson wasn’t in what he quoted but the rest of the passage that he had been silent on. He endured because of the Scriptures.

What was Jesus saying? Maybe this: ““Though I feel abandoned and am going through hell, I still trust Him. And I know later in this Psalm that I am quoting, a Psalm that speaks of me, that vindication will come after the suffering.” God’s written Word is at the centre of the cross. It was instructing Jesus in his hour of need. Psalm 22, the Messianic Psalm, was in the mind of Christ. He was being held together by the Word.

Every week people gather in churches with all kinds of burdens and the instructor who diligently carries out their ‘load’ is used by the Spirit to lift off those burdens and minister life. It truly is an amazing thing to see when God uses this medium powerfully. Those who come with notebook and pen or whatever device is used to take home what God has spoken to them about through the teaching are more likely to be changed by God’s Word than those who don’t.

This is an interesting verse and worth pausing and thinking of our instructors. If we are teachers likewise, this is quite a ‘load’ which we need to give ourselves to.

There is obviously an instruction for those who receive from their instructor and we need to ponder that tomorrow.

Whether you are a Pastor or a leader of simply you are caring for others here are 3 important truths you should know.

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. ⁴ Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, ⁵ for each one should carry their own load.” (Galatians 6 v 1-5)

The 3 truths are dangers to avoid when restoring (v1) and carrying the burdens of others (v2).

1. This does not make you superior to them, v3.
2. This does not mean you cannot have a sense of pride in what God has done for you without it moving into the area of being conceited or comparing yourself with others, v4.
3. This does not mean you ignore your own life and what has been given to you to carry. Your ‘load’ is not a burden for someone else to help carry. It is your lot, your life, your situation of which you focus on walking your life to the best of your own ability, v5.

Moving on from chapter 5 Paul continues to carry the picture of a community free of conceitedness, jealousy and envy. This is the family (note brothers and sisters) of God. He now gives instructions to when things get difficult within that community. The instruction is for ordinary Christians who are walking with the Spirit, who live by the Spirit and who are in alignment with Him (as in chapter 5).

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6 v 1-2)

Some people are caught.

At times I have heard the sound of almost rejoicing when a Christian is caught. It is almost like, ‘yes we got them!’ Where did that ever come from?

Where did Peter deny Jesus? It was around a fire. Where was he restored? Yes, around a fire.

Do you recall how on the lakeshore Peter was facing a fire with Jesus behind it, a gentle reminder of his failure. No one says anything, it’s silent.

This is what Jesus didn’t say to Peter: “I told you so. I said you would deny me. But oh no you insisted you wouldn’t. You are so full of words and your own importance. When it came to it you were no better than the rest of them. How do you feel now?”

That could have been the response. But there is no investigation or inquiry so that lessons could be learnt. There’s just Jesus, Peter and a fire.

We do need the gentleness of Christ leading us to our ‘fires’ that the process of healing and restoration may begin. The restoration word means to render complete again and to make one what he/she ought to be. How amazing is that?!

Some people are burdened. Paul gives an example of what the law of Christ is. In 5:13 he said it was to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ but what does that mean? It is to stand in their shoes; to get underneath the weight of their life and carry it; instead of laying burdens on them as the false teachers were doing it is to take them off.

Some will have woken today to the hurt of yesterday.

When we are the sinner we cry for mercy. But the natural response when we are sinned against is to cry for justice.

The blood of Jesus is not ‘Father get these murderers’ but “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

What name needs to be mentioned that would cause you to react with? They may have died years ago. The event is not far from you. Is unforgiveness still there?

Some in the church love Matthew 18:15 and quote it often as they storm off to confront a brother about the hurt they have caused them. But that verse has nothing to do with getting even nor about someone dealing with their hurt or anger. This is all about reconciliation back into the community of believers. This is all about taking responsibility for each other. This is all about spurring one another on, iron sharpening iron, accountability and making sure disciples don’t fall away.

We want the very best for people. Whether they are caught in a sin or burdened by the weight of life, we are there for them because it fulfils the law of Christ and it is what the Spirit wants us to do.

The acts of the sinful nature and the fruit of the Spirit seem to battle all our lives. How do we do this? Maybe that is the question the Galatians are asking also.

It is worth reminding ourselves that 5:14 is the crucial text in this letter, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5 v 19-26)

This last verse is key. That’s what Paul is focusing on. The church. How we relate to one another.

Perhaps the false teachers are boasting about what’s not there, they are conceited and are offering some social status to the Galatians if they follow them. Paul calls it out. Provoking is in the area of feeling superior to one another, one upmanship. Paul calls it out. Envying of each other’s position or title or achievements again Paul calls it out.

There’s no place for this in the church or any group within the church. We have to be better than the world.

That’s the focus for the acts v the fruit.

Now you might disagree with this because you may have been brought up on rules and been taught a God of rules and maybe you are right. But I am finding that my life with Christ calls me not to focus on other people’s interpretation of rules for living. My life with Christ calls me not to focus on being what others want me to be, holy, blameless and a good man but to be who He has made and continues to make me. I have found my life with Christ is about Him and not me. I feel free in that.

Paul says we belong to the One who is all in all; we have been crucified, past tense; and thirdly we keep in step with the Spirit, we are in alignment with Him. That’s how we respond. That’s how we battle the acts v the fruit. Jesus Christ is everything and at every moment of our life; we have become dead to those things that take us away from Christ and the Spirit is now our guide through this life we live.

The Message says of what Paul said on Colossians 3 v11, “Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.”

The Message helps.

Everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. Isn’t that amazing?! Isn’t that the most important thing to centre our thoughts on?!

So?

• As you have died with Christ, hidden and raised with Him, you are not where you think you are at times. You are above your circumstances. Stay there.
• There is a way of life you used to live, don’t be tempted to go back there.
• Don’t pretend to be someone you are not anymore.
• Everything now is about Christ, let your life remain so.
• Ask the Spirit to guide you today.

So instead of trying and failing to please God we have stepped into a whole new way of life.

Jesus Christ was born under the law of God, lived under the law and died by the law becoming a curse of sin and death. (Galatians 4) The cross of Christ has been placed on top of the law of God. Our attempts of trying to be good are filtered through the death of Christ. We have died in Christ and we have been made righteous. The evidence is not our achievement but Christ’s.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5 v 22-26)

We allow the Spirit the freedom to move in our lives, to breathe, grow and bear fruit.

We focus on being and the Spirit focuses on the doing.

The result is that the Spirit declares the righteousness of God in our lives in a greater way than all of our trying.

We are released to serve by simply being. Come Holy Spirit!

Some things don’t need to be mentioned. They are obvious. 

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21

Sexual sins, v19, worshipping sins, v20 and sins against people v20-21; they hurt and they are harmful.

In this context Paul isn’t simply coming up with his own list of sins not to do. This is certainly not a new Torah for us all to attempt in order to be acceptable to God. Rather as he has instructed us to walk with the Spirit he now shows us what life would be like if we don’t. It is only a life with the Spirit that will keep us and others from such unhappiness. And it is only the Spirit life that will take us into the kingdom. This is not the other world, heaven, our eternity, but this is now. Paul is desiring a new creation, a new community where people don’t hurt one another and where we don’t live for ourselves but we love God and love others. 

Some grab this list and use it as a checklist. Some look at the sins and order them to how they think some are worse than others. “Envy surely isn’t as bad as drunkenness and orgies” and “selfish ambition isn’t as bad as witchcraft” that’s what is thought. Yet Paul doesn’t do that. He simply puts them in the same list. They’re all bad. The point is not a checklist. If it was then it’s not complete for “… and the like” leaves us wondering what else is on his mind. The point is that without the Spirit’s help we will all fall into these sins. Without walking with the Spirit we will all walk down this path of sins, no matter if we are Christian or not. 

There are just some days when in the battle between trying in your own strength and living in the realm of the Spirit you just feel you’re not doing too well. There are just some days when you just may not feel worthy to be called God’s child. You can’t identify anything that warrants or qualifies you for this amazing position. So once again … welcome Holy Spirit! Where would we be without Him?!

Today are you going to try and be the best Christian you can ever be? Why? You know you will fail! Why try and be what you already are? Why try to do what He has already done for you? Whatever part of the godly lifestyle you set your aim on it will only show you how far short you have failed to keep that standard. The Torah was never meant to be a means of salvation but always to establish guilt for sin. So why try to become free through effort to keep what we will never be able to keep? Why become enslaved again by trying? Why say we have tried when Jesus has died for our freedom? Don’t set yourself up to fail. Live in the freedom He has won for you.

As we move into this passage where sins and fruit are mentioned it is important to understand the above. This is not about the Spirit v flesh; this is about the Spirit v the Torah attempts for approval, such as circumcision. That is the context and in ours it is the same. We might not be battling against those who say we should be circumcised but we are battling against those who say we should be like this and that to be accepted by God.

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Galatians 5 v 16-18)

If you are walking in the Spirit, living by the Spirit, you will find that the flesh life (the desire to try and find approval from God by your lifestyle) will not get a hearing! So as we read these verses this is not a command ‘do not gratify’ that’s not what it says. Paul is stating a fact. Live by the Spirit, walk with the Spirit and you will live, death will not come near you.

The Torah in Deuteronomy is set in the context of those 2 perimeters of life and death. Everyone wants life, we all want to become all that we can become in God, no one wants death.

Walking with the Spirit brings life and holds back, pushes back the temptation to try to accomplish the Torah for acceptance (and the further lists that man have created) which leads to death because we will continually fail, we will never ever succeed.

We therefore today call on the Spirit again so that we walk with Him.

Sermons on freedom and legalism often can be heard in this way: “point 1 …we are free from legalism …. Point 2 … now here’s a list of things not to do as a Christian.” It seems it is hard to totally kill off legalism! We just sugar coat it up a bit to try and make it look different.

This is important as we begin to read into a final section of the letter where Paul speaks of our discipleship to Christ and how to live our lives in the freedom He has given us.

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galatians 5:13-15

In contrast to the legalists we are free. But it is so much more than that.

In contrast to those who perform FOR ACCEPTANCE from God we are free.

That is the key. FOR ACCEPTANCE.

This is not about the list. There are good things on the list. There are things that are not good to do and there are things that are very good to do. But it is the attitude behind those things and the reason for those things that is important. 

Generally speaking there are two ways we try to live. We try to be the best Christian around and keep all the rules we have been given or we don’t bother with any of the rules of living and we live for ourselves. This is where Paul begins.

Freedom is not for yourself. In fact Paul is clear that actually it is not about you but about others. “You, my brothers and sisters” brings us to recognise that we are family, there are others here not just me. Don’t let your freedom be about you, don’t “indulge” you, but “serve one another humbly in love.” Here it is, “the entire law” not just circumcision laws or other aspects of the Torah, but the entirety, love other people.

If every dispute and every division that has ever been created by Christians went through the filter of just 2 things then there actually would be no hurt from disunity ever. Of course you know what it is, the royal law. (Mark 12:28-31) The Royal law is to love the only one God alone and to make a commitment that you will demonstrate your love for Him by your love for others. This is the foundation that the list of behaviours sits on. It is not for approval but a demonstration of our love for God.

The vertical relationship is expressed in the horizontal relationship. You cannot separate your worship of God and how you relate to others.

Nothing is greater than the commands to love. All the other great things we can do in life are secondary.

Whatever you long for, long for it for your neighbour. Whatever you seek then also give.

Let love for yourself be first transformed and fulfilled in the One who gives life abundantly and who satisfies the heart, soul and mind. Then from this place love others with the same love that transformed your self-love. This is the freedom we have been given.

“I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Galatians 5 v 10-12)

We use hyperbole all the time.

We could eat a horse we are that hungry. Has anyone tried to do that?

Today I have a million things to do. Have we actually counted?

My bags weigh a tonne. Did we weigh them?

I am spinning plates. Do we actually do that?

I could sleep forever. Is that death?

Exaggerated statements.

Gouge out the eye if you are lusting. Remember who said that?

And today, here is my favourite, ‘chop it off’. Look at verse 12 again.

Go on a search engine and read through articles on the word Galli or Cybele. You will see that the Roman goddess Cybele, the mother of all the gods, was well-known at the time of Paul’s generation. Her priests were called ‘galli’ and they devoted themselves to Cybele by castrating themselves and wearing the clothes and jewellery of Roman women. Interestingly the word can also mean Galatians!

So when Paul says he wishes that these false teachers would do more than remove the foreskin everyone is aware of his exaggerated use set in the context of their Roman world.

It was a strong use of vocabulary. It was shocking. But it was very clever. 

Paul used shocking words because:-

a) the work and words of the false teachers was shocking; 

b) cutting off the reproduction organs means there will not be another generation rising up with this disturbing message that performance leads to acceptance by God.

c) no matter how much we work at trying to get the approval of God, whether we make the cut of the foreskin or we cut more, we can never do enough to earn the love of God because we already are loved; 

d) the violation of the body mirrors the violation of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

e) to cut off means they will be cut off from the church (Deuteronomy 23:1) and that’s where they should be.

Maybe Paul wasn’t exaggerating. Maybe he wasn’t using hyperbole. Maybe he was really serious. If so it only reveals exactly how important the cross of Christ and the power of the gospel was to him.

 

“I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. ¹² As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Galatians 5 v 10-12)

How does he know? How is he so sure that these people will in the end not turn their back on the gospel and follow the false teachers who are insisting on circumcision and adherence to the Torah? He is confident they won’t. This isn’t the first time.

Romans 8:38. How has he become convinced that nothing will separate us from God’s love?

Romans 14:14. How has he become convinced that people need time and freedom to journey at their own pace with God?

Romans 15:14. He is convinced they are full of goodness, again how?

Phil 2:24. He is confident he will visit but where does that confidence come from?

The answer to all of this is his relationship with Jesus. It is his prayer life with Jesus. We have read earlier in Galatians 1:11-12, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” In that place Paul received a conviction, a confidence and a persuasion from the Spirit that the Galatians will not buckle and give way to the false teachers but that they will hold to the grace of the gospel.

That’s one of the ways Paul is convinced. The other is clearly his commitment to studying the Old Testament. We have already seen how this letter is heavily influenced by Isaiah 44-66 and the major story of the Bible that of Abraham and Sarah, in fact there are 14 clear references lifted from the Old Testament Scriptures.

But perhaps one more thing to ponder. This confidence doesn’t mean he sits back and does nothing. In fact this confidence ‘in the Lord’ means that God will do this through Paul’s writing to them. God is going to use Paul so that the Galatians, ‘will take no other view’. That’s how Paul knows stuff!

He knows what the Lord is going to do because he has been talking to Him about it and he has been reading his Bible! He also knows what he can do in this situation, he can write and he knows that is the way God is going to do this work amongst His people.

How did Paul know stuff? Through prayer, the Scriptures and his availability to be used by the Lord. Nothing has changed. It is still a wonderful method to life.