Galatians 6 - Not Pride, But Humility: What to Do When Sin Happens

Everything Paul has said up to this point has built to a big application in Ch5.

How do we keep the Gospel pure? Not men, but God
Where does strength for Gospel-living come from? Not I, but Christ
How do we experience God’s blessings? Not by the Law, but by faith
How do we relate to the Law? Not bondage, but liberty
How do we walk in love? Not by the flesh, but by the Spirit

All this has lead up to an ideal. If we truly love one another, we will fulfill the Law. If we truly love one another, we won’t sin. If we truly love one another, we won’t even need “laws” to tell us how to behave. Everything hangs on love. Love is the greatest commandment. Love fulfills the Law.

When that kind theology captures our minds and hearts, it’s really liberating. It frees us from unreasonable expectations (both from others and from ourselves). It streamlines our understanding of sanctification. It simplifies our decision-making and interactions. But it’s easy to push back against this ideal as well. We say, “Yes, I see how that would totally work in a setting where everybody understood it and wanted to live it out. But let’s not be naïve - people are a lot worse than this ideal makes it sound. I mean, I wish I could tell my kids that they need to love and stop making rules right there, but that’s not realistic. I wish I could feel like ‘love one another’ is all we need to focus on here at Heritage, but there are probably lots of members who are being selfish and they’ll just walk all over the rest of us. I think I see how boiling it all down to love would be helpful for more mature people, but people will totally take advantage of ‘love’ and get all fuzzy around the edges on real, practical holiness.”

It’s really clever of us to see all those dangers - that makes us so much smarter than Paul, right? Just kidding. Paul saw all those fears. He doesn’t miss a beat - chapter 6 answers the fear, “What happens when we don’t ‘serve one another by love?’” How do we deal with sin happening? The answer: not pride, but patience.

Spiritual Restoration (1-5)

Humble Gentleness: Expect Others to Sin and to Catch You Sinning

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Paul’s opening statement about sin is as broad as it can be: “if anyone is caught in any transgression.” That’s easy to see. What’s harder to notice is that the way he identifies the people who help restore sinners is broad as well. We take the words “you who are spiritual” as though that describes some kind of special Christian upper class. Pastors, elders, maybe even deacons or shepherding group facilitators. To understand what “you who are spiritual” means, we need to look back into Galatians 5. Paul gives an important instruction there: “walk in the Spirit.” That’s not a magic, secret, mystical thing that only the Christian elite ever get to do. It’s what should be the default for Christian life. You don’t need a degree, a certain number of memorized verses, or even a church leadership position to walk in the Spirit.

So then, if anyone can catch anyone else sinning and if anyone can walk in the Spirit, what kind of instruction is the the rest of vs 1? It’s a community guideline. It’s not a leadership principle for certain occasions. It’s how we all treat each other all the time.

Gentle restoration & humble caution. So what does that mean for us? What relationships can we apply this to? How do we actually live out gentleness and humility while we deal with sin?

Humble Responsibility: Accept Help from Others While Pulling Your Own Weight

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

This looks like a contradiction: “bear one another’s burdens” vs. “each will have to bear his own load.” You may have heard it explained that Paul uses two different words here: bear the heavy, overwhelming burdens of others; carry your own personal backpack weight. Absolutely. Paul is calling is to two things: humility and responsibility. Humility to help another (and to accept that help!) and responsibility to be actively involved in your own growth.

Wise Recovery (6-10)

Live like your actions have eternal consequences.

6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The metaphor is pretty obvious here: if you plant corn, the only thing that will grow in that part of the garden is corn (weeds notwithstanding). If you plant tomatoes, you’re only going to pick tomatoes from that plant. If you plant zucchini, I pity you - you’re stuck eating zucchini. If you sow the kind of things that fulfill the lusts of the flesh, you’re going to reap corruption. If you sow the kind of the things that go with walking in the Spirit, you’re going to reap life.

Let’s qualify this with two observations. First, this is not a performance-merit situation: if you behave really good, God will give you blessings. Paul opened this letter with some scathing words for those who would add performance-reward rules to the Gospel. Second, this is not an instant karma “what goes around comes back around” thing either. We all know the stories of wicked people who die happy and Christians who experience incredible trials.

Look at the things reaped: corruption and eternal life. Those aren’t words for rewards at the judgment seat of Jesus. If we start there and work our way back in this paragraph, the understanding we come to is this: the kind of person who consistently sows to is flesh is going to get corruption. In 1Cor 15.50, Paul says, “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” He’s not talking about morality or sin here at all: the word “perishable” is the same word translated “corruption” here in Gal 6. Paul uses this word as to refer to the temporary physical body that’s capable of decay, in contrast to man’s resurrected condition which is able to inherit God’s kingdom forever. With that meaning for “corruption,” Gal 6.8 is saying that if we live like we can just fulfill the anti-Spirit lusts of our flesh, whatever we reap is temporary and prone to decay; if we live as though our choices should be in step with God’s Spirit, our harvest will be eternal.

This isn’t health/wealth. It’s not Christianized karma. It’s not performance-based blessing. This paragraph warns us about wasting our time sowing seeds that produce a worthless harvest.

What kinds of choices are we tempted to make that have short-term, decayable results? How do we balance the wisdom of living with eternal values with enjoyment, leisure, and rest?

Live like the people around you are valuable.

9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Paul jumps right into a fantastic way to sow to the Spirit: do good to people around you. If Paul says sowing to flesh and sowing to the Spirit opposites, and then the prime example of sowing to the Spirit is focusing on others’ needs, what do you think would be the prime example of sowing to the flesh? (Selfishness)

In the places we’re most likely to spend time [family, work, neighborhood, church], what are some specific ways we’re prone to be selfish? How can “doing good to everyone” around us replace that selfishness?

Humble Boasting (11-18)

11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

So if our entire approach to sin and restoration is characterized by humility (whether we’re restoring or being restored), and if the wisest way to live is humble focus on the needs of others, is there any kind of boasting allowed? Paul’s answer: yes - humble boasting!

In this paragraph, he takes one final shot at the false teachers who were forcing external regulations onto the Galatian church: he warns that their motives aren’t pure. They’re not really sinceely planning to keep the Law fully; they just want to control someone’s life as a badge of pride. That’s bad boasting: that you convinced someone to live by rules that you made up simply for the sake of successfully modifying their behavior. On the opposite side of the spectrum is humble boasting. Paul is an example of this. He’s not going to boast in anything he’s done or helped anyone else to do. His only boast is in Jesus’ cross. Nothing else matters: only that the Cross destroys sin and saves sinners.

Let’s go back to that example of negative boasting: the idea that there’s value in forcing someone to live by a manmade rule simply for the sake of obeying. How does that affect parenting goals and methods?