(Audio version; Music: "Broken Hallelujah" by: The Afters and "They Will Be Done" by: Hillary Scott & The Scott Family)
Introduction
We
all have people in our lives that we love to do things for. We love them and
they never expect anything from us so we happily serve them and do things for
them because it brings us great joy. I happen to have lots of great people like
that in my life. Be honest though, we all have lots of people in our lives we
don’t necessarily love and maybe even don’t like very much. I’ll confess, there
are a few people like that in my life and it is really hard to serve them. They
strike me as having an air of entitlement and then seem somewhat ambivalent
about anything that is done for them. There is a cynical saying that goes: “No
good deed goes unpunished.” Implying that there’s not consistently enough
reward in doing good deeds for people. But I don’t believe that. I am convinced
that no good deed is wasted even if we don’t experience any immediate reward
for the good we do to and for people. Let’s face it though, there are some
people in all our lives that somehow manage to suck all the joy out of doing
something good for them and that’s When
Doing Good Gets Hard.
You’d
think that doing good things for people in your family would be the easiest
thing to do, but you’d be wrong. At least it was hard for me. My dad was an
abusive alcoholic for the first almost 35-years of my life. For those 35-years
I was terrified of him. Once I had the courage to confront him about his
drinking, it paved the way for him to change his behavior. However, even though
he quit drinking, it was never easy for me to happily serve him and do anything
good for him regardless of how hard I tried. But here’s my question: Are we
called to enjoy doing good for people
or are we simply called to do good for people? It’s subtle but do you see the
difference? When we do good only when we enjoy it, we’re doing it primarily for
what we get out of it. However, when we do good because we are called to do
good, even if we don’t feel like it, and especially if we believe the recipient
doesn’t deserve the good we do, that’s When
Doing Good Gets Hard. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what we are called to
do. But why? Because God has a purpose for all our good deeds even though we
may never witness the results of our good deeds in this life. But is it enough
for us to know that God has a specific purpose for our good deeds? Do we really
have to keep doing good When Doing Good
Gets Hard?
Subject
Text
Galatians 6:1-10
1Brothers
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. 2Carry
each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If
anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4Each
one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves
alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5for each one
should carry their own load. 6Nevertheless, the one who receives
instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. 7Do
not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever
sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows
to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let
us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of
believers.
Context
Paul’s
letter to the church in Galatia focused primarily on reminding the church that
when they accepted Christ, they were set free from adherence to the
requirements of the Law. Unfortunately, the young church, founded by Paul
during his first missionary journey through the region, faced mounting pressure
from Judaizers who insisted that their faith in Jesus had to be supplemented by
faithfully observing the dictates of the Law. You can imagine how Paul, the
former Pharisee, reacted to this. Paul, an expert in the Law, recognized,
perhaps better than most that the Law didn’t represent freedom but instead only
served to enslave people with it’s suffocating demands for perfection that no
one could possibly fulfill—that is until Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection
was the perfect fulfillment of the Law that set believers free to live
according to God’s grace not according to the Law. The believers in Galatia
were becoming more and more marginalized because of their faith in Jesus,
squeezed between unbelievers on one side who were living to please their sinful
desires and Judaizers on the other side who rejected God’s offer of salvation
by grace alone through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was in
this environment that the Galatian believers were, nevertheless, called to live
in peace, serve, and do good to those they were being marginalized by. And
that’s When Doing Good Gets Hard.
Text Analysis
1Brothers 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.
Sometimes
I think people assume that once someone becomes a Christian, they no longer
sin. I wish that were true. The real truth is that Christians still commit sins
and often struggle with the same sins they struggled with before they became
Christians. It is true that some Christians are set free from some of the sins
they struggled with before becoming Christians and other Christians are
gradually moving toward that freedom. Nevertheless, all Christians are still
sinners regardless of how mature they are in their faith. The only difference
between Christians and non-Christians with respect to sin is that Christians
will not be condemned on account of their sins at the final judgment while
non-Christians will be. That, however, should never be an excuse for Christians
to continue sinning, or as Paul would say, to live according to the sinful
nature (5:19-21). Instead, according to v.
1, those who live according to the Spirit manifested in the lives of
Christians as love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control (5:22), are to restore those who have sinned. I want you to
note, however, who they are restoring and how they are instructed to restore.
For
whatever reason, some Christians believe it is their duty to correct the sin in
the lives of unbelievers. Nowhere in the gospel will you find this instruction.
Now don’t get me wrong, Christians have a duty to speak out against sin in
general, especially when that sin might hurt another person (i.e. abortion,
greed, sexual exploitation, etc.). Our only duty to unbelievers with respect to
their sins is to love them into the presence of Jesus and then let Jesus deal
with their sin. Paul’s instruction in v.
1 is directed specifically at believers. Believers are to restore believers
who will inevitably stumble over their own sins. Believers speak the same
language—the language of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s why Paul says that we are to
restore each other “gently”—because gentleness is one of the languages of the
Spirit. Generally speaking, confronting another believer about their sin is a
very delicate matter and should only be done, when possible, by a mature
believer who can be discreet and objective and can communicate using the
language of the Spirit. One of the languages of the Spirit is love. Is it
loving to confront someone about their sin?
In
other words, “Should sin be overlooked in the name of love? Should sin be
exposed to everyone? If not, who needs to know, and what should they do about
it? Paul did not recommend ignoring unrepentant sin because, no matter how well
hidden, sin will eventually cause problems in the church. Neither did Paul
recommend a public humiliation of the sinner, for that would not achieve the
objective of restoring the person to the fellowship. Paul recommended action,
but he gave advice as to who should act and how the action should be taken…Paul
clarified what the spiritually mature should do for the one caught in sin:
gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. When leaders
confront a person caught in sin, they should avoid humiliating, punishing, or
using the person as a public example. Instead, the leaders’ purpose should be
to restore the person to the fellowship of believers. Mature believers should help
get the person on the right track, encourage repentance and accountability,
offer assistance if needed, and warmly accept the repentant person back into
the church. All church discipline aims at this goal.
The
church has a duty to help erring believers, but each individual believer must
take responsibility for dealing with sin and temptation. In situations such as
the apostle was describing, those who restore a fallen one could face two
temptations: (1) They might be tempted to have spiritual pride, or (2) they may
fall into the same temptation faced by the one they were trying to correct.”[1]
2Carry each other’s
burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If
anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4Each
one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves
alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5for each one
should carry their own load.
Paul’s
instruction get’s a little confusing when we get to vv. 2-5. There are four separate threads in these verses that don’t
seem to go together but let me see if I can weave them together to form a
tapestry of instruction within the context of our Subject Text. Thread #1:
Carry each other’s burdens. Thread #2:
Having an accurate self-assessment. Thread
#3: Humility. Thread #4:
Personal responsibility. Let’s first remember the instruction from these verses
within the immediate context of what we just covered in v. 1. We are talking about dealing with the sins of believers.
“Burdens” can refer to many things, financial burdens, physical burdens,
emotional burdens, etc. However, sin creates another kind of burden; a burden
that can initiate and perpetuate every other burden—spiritual burden.
Let me try to
explain, as a pastor I have all kinds of people come to me to confess their
sins. Unbelievers come to me because their sin has smashed up their lives and
they’re looking for a better way to do life; they’re looking for Jesus. Their
burden is the burden their sins inflict on their everyday lives—broken
marriages, addictions, etc. Believers often come to me with similar burdens but
carry an additional burden that threatens to crush them—the burden of knowing
that their sins have damage their relationship with Jesus. This is a burden the
unbeliever doesn’t carry because until they become believers, they have no
relationship with Jesus. However, once they become believers, their sins take
on a new dimension. Now their sins hurt the most important relationship in
their lives—their relationship with Jesus. That’s the burden believers can help
other believers carry by listening to confessions of sin with compassion and
gently guiding a repentant sinner back to a restored relationship with Jesus.
That’s the first thread in the tapestry of vv.
2-5.
If
you’ve ever had someone come to you and confess their sins, you know that it
creates a powerful relational dynamic. The person confessing their sin is
probably in one of the most vulnerable positions a person could ever place
themselves in. And the person hearing the confession knows it. I’ll be honest
with you, I have only learned how to deal with this situation appropriately as
I’ve gotten older. When I was a young Christian, when someone came to me to confess
a particular failing in their life, I immediately felt a sense of relief that
it wasn’t my sin. I heard a confession and helped from a position of
superiority. Now that I’m an old pastor, I hear every sin as a sin I’ve either
committed myself or could easily commit given the right environment. Now when
someone tells me their failings, I hear them as a fellow traveller along the
same up and down, rocky path in the life of faith. I have learned that we can
try to push people along the path of faith or we can drag them along the path.
But I believe it is best to simply walk beside them as equals. This is the
second and third thread in the tapestry of vv.
2-5.
If
we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ then we must be willing
to take personal responsibility for our lives and actions—particularly our
sinful actions. Part of that is having the courage to confess our sins to a
trusted Christian. In v. 2 Paul says
that we are to carry one another’s burdens and then in v. 5 he says we should each carry our own load; two verses that
appear to contradict each other. But Paul is really talking about two different
things here. Carrying a burden and carrying a load aren’t necessarily the same
things. A burden implies carrying something that has the capacity to overwhelm
us while carrying a load could simply imply something that is hard to carry. As
previously stated, sin creates a burden in the life of a believer that has the
potential to overwhelm us. However, being a faithful follower of Jesus while
not being a burden is nevertheless hard. It’s hard to love people in a world
filled with so much hate, it’s hard to be gentle in a harsh and brutal world,
it’s hard to be faithful in a world that has no faith, it’s hard to have
self-control in a world that feels out of control, it’s hard to do good When Doing Good Gets Hard. And that is
the fourth thread in the tapestry of vv.
2-5.
The
tapestry that Paul is weaving is that we are to relieve the burden in the lives
of fellow believers caused by the sin in their lives by listening to their
struggle and guiding them back toward a path of reconciliation with God. We
should do so with compassion and humility and with the knowledge that we could
easily fall into the same sins given the right circumstances. And finally we
must be prepared to do the hard work of being faithful followers of Jesus
Christ, taking personal responsibility for how our actions relating to God and
to others. “It is in the paradox of bearing one another’s burdens and bearing
one’s own load that church discipline and Christian service operate. The very
idea of restoring one ‘caught in any kind of wrong-doing’ sounds a bit strange
to modern ears. The current mood is more one of live-and-let-live, of staying
out of other people’s business, of avoiding friends who seem constantly to want
to take care of us. There have been too many in the past who have been only too
eager put us right when we have gone astray. But Paul describes the restoration
as bearing burdens: sharing the pain of failure, assuming a portion of the
guilt and judgment, particularly in the process of making amends. Christians
become so involved in the situation of the neighbor that they must take care
not to be tempted themselves. But this mutuality only happens when those who
help are aware of themselves, their own needs and weaknesses, and have not
forgotten their own accountability. This description of church discipline is a
far cry from the inquisition of yesteryear or the sharp condemnation of moral
magistrates or even the disapproving glares of the self-righteous. The image
‘body of Christ’ connotes this profound mutuality where members have ‘the same
care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member
is honored, all rejoice together’ (1 Cor 12:25-26). It is an example of what it
means to walk by the Spirit.”[2]
6Nevertheless, the one
who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their
instructor.
Lots
of people interpret v. 6 as meaning
that the people who are ministered to should be sure to care for the material needs
of the one who ministers God’s Word to them. While I’m sure it probably
includes that, and Paul is certainly clear about that in his letter to the
church in Corinth (1 Cor 9:11, 14), I think Paul is angling at something more
here given the overall context of our Subject
Text. We haven’t been talking about finances or material possessions to
this point so I’m having a hard time believing that Paul arbitrarily threw that
into the middle of our Subject Text.
Instead, what have we been talking about? Sharing each other’s burdens with
compassion, empathy, and humility and taking responsibility for our own actions
and attitudes. Given that context, what “good thing” would those who receive
instruction be able to share with their instructor? How about affirmation that
those who heard the instruction put it into practice in their lives? Meeting
the physical and financial needs of those in ministry is biblical and certainly
important but money and possessions are no substitute for affirmation that our
efforts are effectively impacting peoples’ lives (Of course affirmations are
somewhat hollow if ministers can’t financially support themselves and their
families). I can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing more
satisfying than when someone sends me a note telling me that they have been
positively impacted by applying one or more of my lessons to their lives. If
you read through Paul’s letters to the various churches, you will find a theme
repeated where Paul is rejoicing because he has received news that a particular
congregation has put his instruction into practice. Look, I’m not so naïve that
I don’t realize that there are some people in ministry who are in it for the
money. However, I truly believe that most people in ministry do it because they
love God and want to be faithful to do what they believe God has called them to
do regardless of the money. Nevertheless, every minister wants to know that
what they are doing is making a difference in peoples’ lives. I know we should
only care about what God thinks because that’s ultimately who we are doing it
for, but it is nevertheless a tremendous encouragement to learn that our
efforts are effectively serving those we believe we have been called to serve.
7Do not be deceived:
God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to
please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to
please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Paul
teaches throughout his letter to the Galatians that we can live life in one of
two ways: Either through acts that reveals we are driven by our sinful nature,
i. e. 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 (5:19-21a). Or through acts
that reveal we are driven by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, i. e. love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
(5:22). We know this intuitively but many people still seem to think they can
live life in a vacuum where their actions have no long-lasting consequences
while others foolishly believe they can live both lives. However, vv. 7-8 make clear that we all live
life in full view of God and there are eternal consequences for the way we
live. There are no gray areas with God. We can’t live a little according to the
sinful nature and a little according to the Holy Spirit. Paul says that the
sinful nature desires that which is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what
is contrary to the sinful nature and that they are in conflict with each other
(5:17). And there are eternal consequences for both. A life lived according to
the sinful nature leads only to a life of eternal hell, while a life lived
according to the Holy Spirit leads only to eternal life in the presence of God.
There is no way to engage in both lives—God does not give us that option. A
life lived to satisfy the sinful nature is a life that is separated from God.
These
verses can be very confusing for people who insist that their salvation is
based strictly on their faith in Jesus alone while vv. 7-8 seem to make salvation contingent on behavior. Let me see
if I can clarify some of the confusion—it has to do with the idea of mocking
God. In this case it means to say one thing and do something else. The Bible is
fond of using marriage to illustrate our relationship with Christ. Specifically
that the Church is the bride and Christ the bridegroom. Let’s just stay with
that metaphor to explain vv. 7-8.
Traditionally, one of the vows made during a wedding ceremony made by both the
bride and the bridegroom is that once they are in a marriage relationship, they
promise to forsake all others and be fully committed only to each other. Now
suppose that a husband makes that promise to his wife yet goes on to sleep with
other women. Would you say that he fulfilled his promise to forsake all others?
What if you confronted him about breaking his marriage vows and he told you that
it shouldn’t matter because he had a marriage certificate; a piece of paper to
prove his faithfulness to his wife. Would you be convinced that he was faithful
to his wedding vows because he waived that piece of paper in your face?
Probably not. Instead, you would probably think that his actions made a
“mockery” of his wedding vows. Well that’s the way it is with our confession of
belief in Jesus. When we believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, Jesus
promised that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is true that we are
saved by grace alone. But that can’t be just empty words. Paul is saying that
if we say we believe in Jesus then our lives should be under the control and
guidance of the Holy Spirit. If, however, our lives continue to be guided by
our sinful nature, then we make a “mockery” out of our relationship with Jesus
in the same way that a husband makes a “mockery” out of his relationship with
his wife if he continues to sleep with other women after they are married.
“Paul
says that God will judge us on the basis
of our life, whether it was ‘in the Spirit’ or ‘in the flesh.’ This
means…that the final judgment, the judgment that will determine our entry into
God’s blessing, is rooted in our works. To be sure—and here I want to emphasize
to the point of being pushy—the basis of our acceptance with God is what Christ
has done on our behalf. But for God to assess whether we are attached to
Christ, he will simply scan the evidence of our lives: Is it one of living “in
the Spirit’ or of living ‘in the flesh’? Those who live ‘in the Spirit’ do so
by faith and obedience, those who live ‘in the flesh’ have sins aplenty to show
for their time on earth.
The
judgment of God, then, is a motivational force for the Christian. Someday we
shall stand, each of us, before God. That realization makes us different and
changes our lives, or it ought to. I do not know how this will happen (and
those who claim they do ‘know too much,’ because they know more than what God
has said), but I do know this much: we must each give an account and “the one
who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction;
the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life’
(v. 8). Let us not garble this
demand of God on our lives by minimizing the judgment; behind the judgment
stands a holy and loving God who will always act in accordance with his love
and his holiness. Judgment is inevitable for such a God.”[3]
9Let us not become
weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all
people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
One
of the hallmarks of being a follower of Jesus is doing good to people. But
there is one group of people in particular that Jesus calls us to be good
to—specifically, people who are not good to us. Jesus always managed to turn
the normal practice of life on its head with some countercultural teaching and
it was no different in this respect when He said:
“But to you who are listening I say:
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to
them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt
from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to
you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If
you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love
those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what
credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom
you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners,
expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and
lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be
great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the
ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Lk
6:27-36).”
As usual,
Jesus expects us to act in a way that contradicts our nature. Well it does—it
contradicts our sinful nature. We don’t love someone who hates us. We don’t
lend to someone who can’t pay us back. We don’t do good to our enemies—we kill
them! But Paul, always the faithful follower of Jesus, tells us the same
thing—that we are to do good to everyone when possible. And he adds something
very important when he says that we must pay extra attention to doing good to
other believers. In truth, this should come natural. Unfortunately, however, I
know it doesn’t. It should come natural if the Church is understood properly as
the Body of Christ. Paul told the Corinthian church:
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the
foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it
would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should
say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for
that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where
would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the
sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one
of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would
the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say
to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t
need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are
indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with
special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special
modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put
the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that
there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal
concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one
part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ,
and each one of you is a part of it (1 Cor 12:14-27).
When Paul
says that we are to take extra care to do good to the family of believers he’s
saying that all parts of the Body of Christ are equally valuable and deserve to
be treated with care. Sadly, it is precisely our fellow believers we have such
a hard time doing good things to or for. It is especially hard when other
Christians treat us in a way we perceive to be unfair or unkind. That’s When Doing Good Gets Hard. It is
interesting to note that Paul does not refer to a group of believers, in vv. 9-10, as the Body of Christ as he
does elsewhere. Instead, he refers to them as a “family of believers” and in
other translations as a “household of believers.” It seems natural that family
or household relationships should be the easiest and most comfortable to
exercise our faith within. But as many of you know, family or household
relationships often prove to be the most difficult and contentious. It was
certainly that way in my family of origin where, as I said before, my father
was an abusive alcoholic. Perhaps you weren’t terrorized by an abusive father,
but maybe your father was absent and neglectful, or maybe your mother was
smothering and controlling, or maybe your sister was spiteful and manipulative,
or your brother was an angry bully. Regardless of your circumstances, families
are often the most difficult environment within which to do good. However, it
is precisely in this environment that we are called to do good and that’s When Doing Good Gets Hard. Paul’s
instruction is clear that no good deed is wasted. Instead, every good deed is
like a seed planted in the heart of the beneficiary of our good deeds.
Eventually those good deeds will produce a harvest if we just don’t give up.
But that’s the hardest part isn’t it? We want to see the results of our good
deeds right away. Unfortunately, the results of our good deeds don’t usually manifest
themselves for a very long time. In fact, we often don’t get the opportunity to
witness the fruits of our good deeds during our lifetimes.
“The wise
farmer can usually depend on the expected timetables of seedtime and harvest.
Not so in the spiritual life. One of the greatest frustrations in the Christian
ministry, and a principal cause for ‘weariness in well doing,’ is the inability
to calculate the spiritual outcome of faithful labors in the work of the Lord.
For this reason we must be cautious in putting too much stock in what we often
call ‘visible results.’ We serve a Sovereign God who has promised that his Word
will not return void. The ultimate harvest is assured, but it will only come
‘at the proper time,’ that is, in God’s own good time...Just as the time of
reaping will come ‘at the proper time,’ so now we must make good use of the
present ‘opportunity’ to sow to the Spirit rather than to the flesh…The freedom
of the Christian is a freedom of service in the moment of opportunity. The life
of every person rushes toward its appointed end. The time for harvest is
irretrievably set in the divine date book. Because this is true, consequently,
therefore as we have opportunity, let us faithfully fulfill the ministry God
has given us to do…
Christian
ethics has a dual focus: one is universal and all-embracing. ‘Let us do good to
all people’; the other is particular and specific, ‘especially to those who
belong to the family of believers.’ Paul’s universalistic appeal was based on
the fact that all persons everywhere are created in the image of God and are thus
infinitely precious in his sight. Whenever Christians have forgotten this
primary datum of biblical revelation, they have inevitably fallen victim to the
blinding sins of racism, sexism, tribalism, classism, and a thousand other
bigotries that have blighted the human community from Adam and Eve to the
present day.”[4]
Application
Theologian
John Brown once wrote,
“Every poor and distressed man had a
claim on me for pity, and, if I can afford it, for active exertion and
pecuniary relief. But a poor Christian has a far stronger claim on my feelings,
my labors, and my property. His is my brother, equally interested as myself in
the blood and love of the Redeemer. I expect to spend an eternity with him in
heaven. He is the representative of my unseen Savior, and he considers
everything done to his poor afflicted as done to himself. For a Christian to be
unkind to a Christian is not only wrong, it is monstrous.”[5]
Nearly 25
years after Brown’s words were published, they proved to be prophetic in the
small African country of Rwanda where an estimated 1,000,000 Rwandans were
slaughtered in a 100-day period between April and July of 1994. Slaughtered “by
friends, neighbors, classmates, and fellow church members—with machetes and
hoes and nail-stubbed clubs. The world watched on television and did nothing.
Over twenty years later Rwanda is still reeling and damaged…There are one
millions orphans in the country. There are thousands of widows, many who were
raped and now have AIDS, as well as raising AIDS-infected children born of
those rapes.
The country
was considered 90 percent Christian at the time of the genocide, and the church
was complicit in the slaughter. Many people fled to the churches for sanctuary
and were massacred within the church walls. Several churches around the country
have been left untouched as memorials to what happened. That means you can go
into these churches, where sunlight comes through broken stained glass and the
Bible sits on the altar, and see the bones of thousands, lying just as they
died—twenty-five hundred in one, four thousand in another, ten thousand in the
third, and so on. Hell not only came to Rwanda; it came to the church…How can
such a thing be? How does a sanctuary of God become the house of death? How do
people who call themselves Christians slaughter neighbors?...Rwandans were fed
a diet of hatred for others—derogatory terms, ridicule, thinking of others as
less than…Some of us know what it is like to think of others in this way—those
who have hurt us, those we hold a grudge against or carry bitterness toward;
those of another economic class; or those of another faith or even
denomination.
Human
beings do not go from dinner with friends to genocide in a day or a week. We
get there little by little; blind, numb, and not noticing until the horrific
seems normal and acceptable.”[6]
We usually don’t resort to extreme measures when we have been wounded in some
way. However, when we are repeatedly wounded the seeds of anger and hatred
begin to take root. That’s why Paul’s instruction to the Galatians, and by
extension to us, is so very important. The best way to avoid being swept up in
the destructive consequences of anger and hatred is doing good to everyone and
especially to other Christians. Hutu Christians of Rwanda called Tutsi
Christians of Rwanda “cockroaches.” The seeds of hatred had taken root in the
hearts and minds of the Hutus. “It is a little-by-little seduction until we
find ourselves thinking of another human being, created in the image of God, as
a nasty, threatening creature that ought to be stamped out.”[7]
Imagine how things would have been different had the church in Rwanda followed
Paul’s instruction to the church in Galatia and instead of calling their fellow
believers cockroaches, they had simply done good to them. A million lives would
have been spared and the local churches would be sanctuaries for the redeemed
instead of sanctuaries of the dead. A million orphans would still have their
families, there would be far fewer widows, and AIDS wouldn’t be a national
epidemic and a perpetuating tragedy. A nation would still be whole, all because
Christians were obedient to do good to all people but especially to other
Christians in their communities. In hindsight the answer seems so simple but I
know from personal experience how hard it can be when you’ve been wounded to do
good the person who has wounded you. But that is the sign of a true disciple of
Jesus Christ. It’s not only to do good to those who treat us well, but
especially to those who don’t treat us well even if they are Christians. This
is what Jesus means when He says that we are to take up our cross daily and
follow Him (Lk 9:23)—doing good to people When
Doing Good Gets Hard.
Lesson Schedule
I will be
spending the next week enjoying the company of my family and friends so the
next lesson will be posted in two week.
[1] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), pp. 792-793.
[2] Charles
B. Cousar, Galatians—Interpretaion: A
Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox
Press, 1982), p. 145.
[3] Scot
McKnight, Galatians—The NIV Application
Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), p. 296.
[4] Timothy
George, Galatians—The New American
Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 1994), pp. 426-428.
[5] John
Brown, An Exposition of the Epistle to
the Galatians, (Shallotte, NC: Sovereign Grace Publications, 1970), p. 348.
[6] Diane
Langberg, Suffering and the Heart of God:
How trauma destroys and Christ restores, (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press,
2015), pp. 11-12.
[7] Ibid.,
pp. 12-13.
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