Introduction
Like
anything that involves dealing closely with people, ministry can be really hard
sometimes. Every day can feel like an uphill climb on a wet, muddy, dirt road.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing I’d rather be doing than giving my life to
the service of God and his Church. Nevertheless, there are times (lots of
times) when giving up would be so much easier; not having to be the one called
on to share in the struggles of others; not having to constantly defend your
teachings; not having to constantly endure complaints and criticisms; praying
for just your own family instead of being compelled to pour over a long list of
prayer requests every week and remembering the pain and suffering of those for
whom you are praying; feeling the pull to sit with the sick and dying and their
families; constantly fighting against a culture ruled and used by Satan to
consume unbelievers and batter believers. If I had to describe how these times can
make me feel using just one word, it would have to be “Weary.” However, there is a significant distance between being Weary and giving up, even if they may
travel along the same road. Let me provide you with a couple of examples to
illustrate. I received news this week of a very prominent ministry that is
nearly 40 years old with a firm biblical foundation for its ministry and
teachings that has closed its doors citing that they have grown Weary with the constant warring against
the culture and have renounced their once biblical worldview and hope to begin
a new ministry that adopts a new, marginally biblical, worldview that embraces
cultural changes—they grew Weary and
gave up. In contrast to this, I have a friend who left a very successful
ministry to take over and help guide a less successful, struggling and
dysfunctional ministry. I know this man very well and he is one of the
godliest, humblest, loving, gracious, self-sacrificing and smartest preachers
I’ve ever known and have had the privilege to call my friend. As far as I’m
concerned, he should be the silver bullet that is the solution to any church’s
problems. I’ve spent time with him in a ministry and non-ministry setting and
if I could ever be half the pastor that he is I would consider myself
fortunate. However, the last time we talked, he shared with me that the church
to which he was called is still struggling in much the same way as it was when
he first arrived years ago. I could hear the pain and disappointment in his
voice. We talked about another ministry opportunity that I had become aware of
that I thought would be absolutely perfect for him because of his expertise and
background. Do you want to know what he said to me? “Thanks for the information
but I’ve been called to this church and God’s not done yet so I’m not leaving.”
Through all the struggle, pain and disappointment, he was Weary but he refused to give up. I got to thinking about these
things this week and I realized that many of you are probably feeling Weary right now as well whether you’re
in ministry or not. Living your life according to the Spirit God has placed
within you as a believer doesn’t magically shield you from becoming Weary. I recognize that as faithful
followers of Jesus Christ, you become Weary
when you are constantly fighting against the forces screaming at you to conform
to the culture; resisting the promises that power will provide the freedom to
do whatever you want; saying no to the seduction of sex without boundaries; denying
the empty pursuit of wealth that seeks only self-satisfaction. It’s always
easier to talk about living obediently according to the Spirit than it is to
actually live that reality and sometimes it just doesn’t seem like it’s worth
it. Well I want to tell you it is
worth it! We may not realize the value in the way we live life according to the
Spirit but there is great value that is growing on our behalf in the spiritual
realm. Nothing we do or say or endure goes unnoticed by God and one day the payoff
will be so overwhelming that it will seem completely disproportionate to
anything we will have endured during the times that we struggled to be faithful
servants of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, I acknowledge that at this particular
point in time, life has brought you to the point where you may just be Weary—but don’t give up! Scripture is
clear that God is not blind to the evil in the world or your faithfulness and
one day he will deal harshly with those who allow sin to reign in their lives
and mercifully and lovingly with those who struggle daily against sin in their
own lives or have been wounded by the sins of others. Paul reminds us in his
letter to the church in Galatia there is great hope that a day will come when
our struggles will be worth it as long as we don’t give up and turn back.
Subject Text
Galatians
6:7-10
7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man
reaps what he sows. 8The 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. 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
Reference is made in our subject
text to a couple of different theological concepts that Paul addresses earlier
that we need to deal with here in order to properly understand our subject
text: Life according to the Spirit vs. Life according to the sinful nature. Understood
in a vacuum, life according to the Spirit represents the life of a believer
while life according to the sinful nature represents the life of unbelievers. I
say in a vacuum because it assumes that when we receive the Holy Spirit as
believers we are no longer sinful but we know intuitively and experientially
that this is not true. We must make the distinction between the two as being a
life that is controlled and guided by the Spirit vs. a life that is controlled
and guided by the sinful nature. For the believer, this is complicated because even
though we “have crucified the sinful nature (Gal 5:24)” when we accepted
Christ, the remnants of the sinful nature, at times, wars with the Spirit. The
unbeliever does not struggle in this way—the unbeliever simply concedes control
of their life to the sinful nature. In the verses leading up to our subject
text, Paul makes a clear distinction between life according to the Spirit and
life according to the sinful nature. Paul describes the latter as being marked by
“Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery [Excessive indulgence in sensual
pleasures]; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,
selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the
like (Gal 5:19b-21).” Paul then goes on to describe the former that “The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23a).” This is the foundation on which
Paul continues to build his teaching to the Galatians in our subject text.
Text Analysis
It is nothing new that humanity has
believed that just because God has not intervened to put an end to evil and
sinful behavior to this point that he never will; that somehow He doesn’t see
everything or know everything. The Psalmist writes: “They [the wicked and
evildoers] encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their
snares; they say, ‘Who will see them?’ They plot injustice and say, ‘We have
devised a perfect plan!’ Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning. (Ps
64:5-6)…They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are
free from the burdens common to man; they are plagued by human ills. Therefore
pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their
callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the
earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They
say, ‘How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?’ (Ps 73:4-11)…They
pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush
your people, O Lord; they oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the
alien; they murder the fatherless. They say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of
Jacob pays no heed’ (Ps 94:4-7).” However, v. 7 of our subject text is a clear
warning for all of us that God sees all things and knows all things and his
inaction against continued sin and evil should be a sign of his mercy and grace
not as a sign of indifference and weakness. “People can’t ignore God and get
away with it. What they sow, they will reap. Sow means ‘spread, utilize, invest.’
Whatever we use as key values determines the course of our life…While believers
have received God’s special blessings and promises, God does not change the
positive and negative of the natural law that people will reap what they sow…From
farming to finances, this saying holds true. A farmer plants corn and grows
corn; he should not expect or desire anything else. Believers must decide what
crop they want and plant accordingly, for what they get back will be directly
related to what they put in.”[1]
V. 8 is the critical point in our
subject text that juxtaposes life according to the sinful nature vs. life
according to the Spirit.
Sinful Nature
The sinful nature is best understood
when we have a clear understanding of the nature of sin. Rather than trying to enumerate
all possible sins specifically, the “nature of sin” allows us to understand sin
more generally. Sins can be categorized as either sins of commission—doing what we should not do and sins of
omission—not doing what we should do. In
order to establish a baseline for sinful behavior, there must be an objective
standard against which behavior is measured. “The ultimate objective standard
is God’s absolute moral perfection, and anything that falls short of it is sin…Since
God’s moral nature is the standard of perfection, it follows that whatever is
imperfect is sinful by nature.”[2]
It is important to understand that sin was not created or planned by God. “The
originally created conditions for and in humankind, designed by God, were
perfect. However, by an illicit usage of free choice, sin made its entrance
into the world, leaving a ghastly marring of God’s unblemished creation. The
subsequent state of human sinfulness left Adam’s race humanly (but not
divinely) irreparable. When this fallen condition is viewed in the light of God’s
absolutely perfect nature—the ultimate standard of purity and holiness—the stark
contrast reveals the horrible picture of human depravity.”[3]
Spirit Life
Once we accept Jesus as our savior,
we receive his promise of the Holy Spirit who resides within each believer. Additionally,
the sinful nature has been crucified so we are to rely on the guidance of the
Holy Spirit in our lives. “The Spirit is given in the place of Christ’s bodily
presence. Before the pivot of history, the Spirit was not yet unreservedly
self-offered as indwelling. Afterward, when the risen Lord ascended, he
promised that the Spirit would come as helper and abiding companion of the
people of God, and that the Spirit would accompany the witnessing community
until he personally returned. The Spirit reproves and challenges the faithful
to accountability to the holy God…the Spirit’s work of grace is amid the most
inward dimensions of human consciousness. There is nothing too subtle or dense
for the Spirit to penetrate or too sinful for the Spirit to cleanse or too
weary for the Spirit to refresh or too dark for the Spirit to understand or too
dead for the Spirit to breathe life into again.”[4]
You can see by this that the Spirit
works in the life of believers to oppose and correct all the dysfunction and damage
caused by the sinful nature. Whereas the sinful nature in unbelievers continues
to control the life of the unbeliever unchecked until they are destroyed. This
is why evil appears to grow and
perpetuate—because it does! That’s why Paul says that the eventual outcome of
sowing to please the sinful nature will result in destruction—there can be no
other end result. However, when the believer acts according to the guidance and
direction of the Spirit, which attempts to reorient the believer back to God’s
original plan for humanity, the natural outcome will be eternal life with God. Perhaps
you are familiar with the old proverb that states: Sow a thought, reap an act;
sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap
a destiny.
Since Paul is speaking within the
context of an agrarian culture, he continues with his farming analogy in v. 9. Farming
is a tough business; it includes long hours of very hard and often monotonous
work of planting seed after seed and row after row. Nevertheless, regardless of
fatigue, the work must be done if the farmer expects to reap a crop during
harvest season. What keeps the farmer going is the belief that there will be a
payoff at some point. In this same way, Paul encourages the Galatians, and by
extension all of us, not to grow Weary
as they continue to strive to do good and thereby sow seeds that please the
Spirit. “Sowing to please the Spirit means ‘serving one another in love’ (Gal
5:13), restoring one who has been caught in sin (Gal 6:1), carrying the burdens
of others (Gal 6:2), giving generously to those who teach in the church (Gal
6:6), and doing good to all (Gal 6:9)…sowing to the Spirit in the context of Paul’s
teaching here involves building love relationships with others…If sowing to the
sinful nature means selfish indulgence, then sowing to the Spirit means
selfless service…Growth in our relationships does not happen automatically,
growth takes effort. Hard work is required if broken relationships are to be
rebuilt…One of the greatest obstacles to rebuilding broken relationships is
simply fatigue. We can easily lose heart and run out of strength when we come
up against the same problems over and over again as we deal with others. Even
Paul sounds discouraged when he talks about his efforts to rebuild his
relationship with the Galatian believers: ‘I fear for you, that somehow I have
wasted my efforts on you’ (Gal 4:11). Paul recognized that fatigue and
discouragement might cause Christians to throw in the servant’s towel and quit.”[5]
Nevertheless, Paul promises them that there will be a payoff [harvest] if they
will refuse to quit. However, the promise only guarantees that there will be
payoff without specificity as to when they can expect the payoff, except that
they can rest in the assurance that the harvest will be “at the proper time” or
according to God’s timing.
When Paul starts off v. 10 with “therefore”
he is saying that armed with the knowledge, confidence and anticipation that
there will be a payoff [harvest] associated with their faithfulness and
obedience, they should exploit every possible opportunity to do good to
everyone generally but to those who belong the family of believers especially. In
v. 9 Paul uses the promise of a payoff to encourage us not to give up and here
in v. 10 he encourages us to continue doing good by reminding us that
especially in the case of believers, we are loving and serving family. “Every
time we have the opportunity to do good, we should do it. The timing for doing
good is always right. The opportunity is not optional. We are to treat it as
strategically placed by God in our path. Our settings my continually change,
but each one will bring a fresh opportunity for helping and serving…When Paul
told individual believers to ‘do good,’ he spoke to their responsibility in the
community as well as in the church. The church is not meant to become merely a
social agency, but individual believers can work together in meeting social
needs, giving time and resources as God calls and enables them. Sowing seeds of
kindness to those in need expresses Christ’s love and prepares hearts to
receive the gospel.”[6]
Application
One of the things I’ve learned being
married, having two children, working full time and going to graduate school
all at the same time is that you are tired all the time! Many of you out there
have your own stories to tell about events in your life that have driven you to
the point of exhaustion when all you can think about is giving up on something
if not everything. If you are anything, you are Weary. We are particularly susceptible to the feelings of fatigue
when we are serving and caring for and ministering to others especially when we
don’t necessarily perceive many if any results related to our efforts. When we
become Weary, we are especially
vulnerable to listening to Satan’s voice suggesting that our lives would be so
much better if we just gave up. I am still learning that when we are Weary, we make very poor decisions. About
three months ago I decided that in addition to my weekly lesson posting, I
would post a daily devotional on a social media site for the benefit of my
friends and family. In and of itself, it wasn’t that difficult but added to
everything else I’ve committed to doing it started to become increasingly
difficult. Coupled with that was the realization that I had no idea if it
really mattered to anyone, and I became Weary
and eventually I allowed Satan to convince me that it was just a waste of time
and that no one really cared anyway—so I gave up. Well you guessed it, I was
wrong. I was at a Seminary alumni event over the weekend and one of my former professors
stopped me and told me how much he enjoyed the daily devotionals I had been
posting and that they really made him think. It would have been less painful if
he had just punched me in the gut! Suffice it to say, I will be posting daily
devotionals once again.
I confess that it’s hard for me to
instruct and guide you in areas that I’m not very good at myself without
sounding like a hypocrite and this is one of those areas. I confess that I
struggle with pouring my heart and energy into people and ministry without
really knowing if it makes any difference to anyone. I don’t doubt that there
are many of you out there who aren’t in ministry that feel exactly the same way
when it comes to the things you pour your heart and soul into; doctors, nurses,
lawyers, teachers, builders, students, mothers, or fathers. Nevertheless, we
must all be committed to the calling God has called us to and to live our lives
according to the Spirit out of obedience to God and love for Jesus Christ so
that our lives will be marked by the fruit derived by the Spirit: Love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Every day of our lives we have countless opportunities to care for, serve and
love those around us; to do good. God promises that there will be a great
harvest resulting from our faithfulness provided we don’t grow Weary along the way and give up.
[1] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 794.
[2] Norman
Geisler, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3,
(Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2004), pp. 106; 110.
[3] Ibid.,
p. 120.
[4] Thomas
C. Oden, Life in the Spirit, (New
York, NY: Harper SanFrancisco, 1992), pp. 49-50; 55.
[5] G.
Walter Hansen, Galatians—The IVP New
Testament Commentary Series, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), pp.
195-196.
[6] Barton,
et al., Life Application New Testament
Commentary, p. 794.
