Doing Life Together
Text: Gal. 6:1-10
Introduction
1. Illustration: "Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases."
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
2. One of the great realities of the Christian life is that it was meant to be shared together.
a. Jesus knew that the life he was calling his disciples to would be difficult, and that none of us could do this on our own.
b. So he established his church and designed it to function in community.
c. We would be totally dependent upon Him, but also upon one another.
3. In doing life together we find...
a. Restoring
b. Sharing
c. Continuing
4. Let's stand together as we read Gal. 6:1-10
Proposition: In Christian community we find the encouragement and support to press on the higher calling of Jesus.
Transition: In doing life together we find...
I. Restoring (1-5).
A. Gently and Humbly
1. It is somewhat ironic that Jesus referred to coming to faith in him as being "born again," because in a spiritual sense this is what the Christian life is all about.
a. We are spiritually born, and like a new born baby, we have to learn what to do and what not to do.
b. Along the way we make mistakes, and need to learn from our mistakes.
c. However, in most cases we need the help of our Christian brother and sisters to get us back on the right path.
2. Paul wants the Christians in Galatia to learn this concept, and so he tells them, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself."
a. One problem that sometimes arises for those who live as a community of people who are striving to live in the Spirit is that someone falls into sin or begins to manifest "the works of the flesh."
b. In this situation, the community should take it upon itself to restore such a person because this is one way a family expresses its love.
c. But Paul's emphasis here is not that this restoration should be done but how. His emphasis is on the word "gently" (McKnight, The NIV Application Commentary – Galatians, 284).
d. Gently: gentleness of attitude and behavior, in contrast with harshness in one's dealings with others - (Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains, 88.59-88.65)".
e. In so doing, however, those restoring must watch out for themselves because they "also may be tempted."
f. Paul uses a strong word (skopeō, to observe or consider) in the present tense, which emphasized a continual, diligent attentiveness to their own purity.
g. They, too, could be tempted and even fall into the same sin for which they confronted a brother or sister (MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Galatians, 179).
h. However, I think the temptation here is to pride. While some have argued that the temptation would have been to the specific sin that the erring brother was trapped in, that does not seem as likely as the view I have offered.
i. Regardless, this is the problem Paul is emphasizing; he is not as much concerned here with the sinner as he is with the restorer (McKnight, 284).
3. Paul further emphasizes this when he says, "Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ."
a. Share has the thought of carrying with endurance, and burdens is from baros, which refers to heavy loads that are difficult to lift and carry.
b. Used metaphorically, as here, it represents any difficulty or problem a person has trouble coping with (MacArthur, 180).
c. As used in this verse, troubles and problems refer to the heavy or oppressive burdens that a believer cannot carry alone.
d. It could be financial burdens; it could be burdens of temptation.
e. We must help share the loads that others find too heavy to carry alone.
f. However, we must not regard this load as a burden, but a joy.
g. Like people hiking a trail, we not only shoulder our own backpacks, but we help out with other people’s loads when the trail gets too steep, they get too tired, or their feet get blistered—whenever they need assistance (Barton, Life Application New Testament Commentary, 793).
h. The expression "law of Christ" is surprising in its formulation since Paul has spent a great deal of time dismissing the law as the Christian's guide.
i. Nonetheless, his willingness to say Christians are under the "law of Christ" and not under "the law of Moses" is entirely reasonable, once we understand that "law of Christ" is nothing other than (1) submission to the teachings of Jesus and (2) life in the Spirit, which is essentially love.
j. The Christian's law is following Jesus, that is, living in submission to the Spirit (McKnight, 285).
k. So what is the law of Christ?
l. John 13:34-35 (NLT)
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
m. So the law that we must follow is to love each other as Christ loved us.
4. Unfortunately, all to often, we don't help each other like we should. Paul warns us about this by saying, "If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important."
a. One of the chief reasons many Christians do not bother to help fellow Christians is that they feel superior to sinners and wrongly consider themselves to be spiritually something when the truth is they are really nothing.
b. Conceit can coexist with outward morality, but it cannot coexist with spirituality.
c. In fact, conceit is the ultimate sin, first on the list of things God hates (Prov. 6:16-17).
d. Proverbs 6:16-19 (NLT)
There are six things the LORD hates— no, seven things he detests: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, 18 a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, 19 a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.
e. The Christian who thinks he is something when he is nothing needs help in facing his own sin before he can be qualified to help anyone else out of a sin.
f. He needs first to "take the log out of [his] own eye" (Matt. 7:5).
g. If he refuses to see his own spiritual need, he fools themself and is useless in serving God or in helping fellow believers.
h. The Greek verb behind fooling means "to lead one's mind astray" and relates to subjective fantasies that are self-deceptive (MacArthur, 181).
5. Then Paul says something that might confuse us. He says, "Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct."
a. This is particularly confusing in the KJV, which uses the same word in v. 1 burden as here...burden.
b. So it appears as though Paul in the first verse is saying carry one another's burden's, but here is saying carry your own burden?
c. But he uses a different term here. Phortion (load) refers to anything that is carried, and has no connotation of difficulty.
d. It was often used of the general obligations of life that a person is responsible to bear on his own (MacArthur,181).
e. So the NLT makes this verse much clearer because it say "pay attention to your own work."
f. A believer's first responsibility is to examine himself, to be sure his own attitudes and life are right in the eyes of the Lord before he attempts to give spiritual help to others.
g. Then, and only then, will he have reason for boasting in a proper way. If anything remains for boasting after honest self-examination, it will be that which induces boasting in the Lord
(MacArthur, 181).
h. The issue is not contradictory but two sides of one coin. Christians need to help one another in the struggles of life, but each Christian will also have to answer to God individually.
i. Part of that individual responsibility is carrying the burdens of others. Before God one cannot look around at others and thereby find grounds for justifying oneself (McKnight, 285).
B. Helping Each Other On the Path
1. Illustration: "The Christian, however, must bear the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother. It is only when he is a burden that another person is really a brother and not merely an object to be manipulated. The burden of men was so heavy for God Himself that He had to endure the Cross. God verily bore the burden of men in the body of Jesus Christ. But He bore them as a mother carries her child, as a shepherd enfolds the lost lamb that has been found. God took men upon Himself and they weighted Him to the ground, but God remained with them and they with God. In bearing with men God maintained fellowship with them. It was the law of Christ that was fulfilled in the Cross. And Christians must share in this law."
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
2. Living life together means that we need to help pick up one another when we fall.
a. James 5:19-20 (NLT)
My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, 20 you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
b. What this doesn't mean is that we tear one another down and degrade one another because we are more spiritual.
c. What it does mean is that we gently help one another towards the goal of becoming like Jesus.
d. It means that we help one another with our weaknesses in a way that we would want someone else to help us.
e. We do so in a way that encourages and not discourages.
f. We do so in a way that picks one another up rather than putting one another down.
g. We do so in a way that says, "neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more."
Transition: Furthermore, in addition to restoring, living life together means...
II. Sharing (6-8).
A. Sharing All Good Things
1. One of the most important things we learn about the early church was that they shared...everything!
a. The early church had an all for one, one for all mentality.
b. They shared everything in common, and if we are going to be a New Testament church so should we.
2. According to Paul, a part of that sharing starts with our leaders. He said. "Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them."
a. After describing how the Holy Spirit helps believers in their relationships with others, Paul explained how the Holy Spirit would affect their use of money.
b. Paul’s first admonition prescribed support of Christian teachers (the true teachers as opposed to the false teachers) in the Galatian churches. These teachers were serving full-time in preaching and teaching.
c. The congregations (those who are taught the word of God) should voluntarily and generously provide for the teachers’ needs.
d. This included financial support and sharing material items and services, as well as personal encouragement. While the radical giving and sharing of the early church in Jerusalem (recorded in Acts 2:44-45) was a model, all churches were not required to follow it.
e. Instead, Paul recommended a spirit of giving among the believers in the churches that he had founded, especially regarding their care for those who were devoting their time to ministry (Barton, 793).
f. Share is from koinōneō, which has the basic idea of sharing equally. It is the verb form of the noun commonly translated "fellowship."
g. Paul is talking about mutuality, not of one party serving or providing for the other but of both parties sharing together.
h. The one who is taught the word and the one who teaches have a common fellowship and should share all good things together (MacArthur, 182).
3. Paul then reaffirms the Biblical principle of reaping and sowing. He says, "Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant."
a. This sentence, inserted within Paul’s flow of thought regarding money, gives a general principle about the attitudes of kindness, giving, and sharing.
b. While people can deceive one another, and even themselves, about their motives and attitudes for giving, they cannot deceive God.
c. Paul said that these believers themselves must not be misled. People can’t ignore God and get away with it.
d. What they sow, they will reap. Sow means “spread, utilize, invest.”
e. Whatever we use as key values determines the course of our life. Jesus taught the importance of investing our time and utilizing our resources wisely for the Kingdom.
f. 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.
g. From farming to finances, this saying holds true (Proverbs 22:8). A farmer plants corn and grows corn; he should not expect nor desire anything else.
h. Believers must decide what crop they want and plant accordingly, for what they get back will be directly related to what they put in, as Paul explains in the next verse (Barton, 794).
4. Paul then shows the results of our priorities. He says, "Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit."
a. Believers who use their lives and sow their resources to satisfy their own sinful desires will earn a harvest of decay and death.
b. Those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God (5:21). When we sow to the flesh, we bring these seeds of destruction into our life.
c. Believers who sow their resources and invest their lives to please the Spirit have a far different harvest. They will reap everlasting life.
d. How do we sow “to please the Spirit”? When we use our resources to grow spiritually and to support the Lord’s work so that others can enter the Kingdom and grow spiritually, we are sowing to please the Spirit.
e. Why? Because our harvest results in spiritual growth and souls reached for the Kingdom; thus, our harvest lasts forever.
f. This kind of stewardship of our resources can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit.
g. When the Holy Spirit controls a believer’s life, the results are amazing (Barton , 794).
B. Fellowship
1. Illustration: "We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts."
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
2. Sharing with one another is a spiritual issue.
a. Hosea 10:12 (NLT)
I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’
b. When we share with others we indicate the condition of our hearts.
c. When our hearts are right with God that overflows in our lives and is reflected by our willingness to share with others.
d. When we disregard the needs of others and care only for ourselves it shows that our hearts need to be softened.
3. God blesses us so we can be a blessing to others.
a. Psalm 37:25-26 (NLT)
Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread. 26 The godly always give generous loans to others, and their children are a blessing.
b. God blesses us beyond measure and meets all of our needs.
c. None of us here are without food or clothes.
d. None of us here are living in the streets.
e. We in return are to be a blessing to others.
f. We are to give to those in need.
g. We are to give to others with the measure, which God has blessed us.
Transition: Life together means restoring others, giving to others, and it also means...
III. Continuing (9-10).
A. Let's Not Get Tired Of Doing Good
1. As Christians we must consider that the Christian life is not a sprint but a marathon.
2. Paul makes this clear when he said, "So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up."
a. To continue the analogy of sowing and reaping, a farmer will have no harvest to reap if he becomes too weary to labor in the fields or if he gives up altogether.
b. The harvest will not reap itself. Every aspect of farming, planting, maintaining, and finally the harvesting takes hard work.
c. So, too, believers must not become discouraged and give up when they follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance, grow spiritually, and do good for God’s Kingdom.
d. While it may seem at times like a losing battle, we are assured that we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.
e. What kind of harvest did the apostle have in mind? A Christian will reap a harvest of present blessings: the fruit of the Spirit, well-instructed believers, restored sinners, and mutual support.
f. But ultimately he or she will reap the harvest of eternal life in the Holy Spirit (6:8).
g. Though the appropriate time is the time of God’s own choosing, Paul was most likely referring to the time of the fulfillment of God’s promises at Christ’s second coming (Barton, 794).
3. So what is the secret to running a marathon? The answer is consistency. It doesn't matter if you are leading the race after the first two miles; what matters is who is leading after mile 26. So Paul says, "Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith."
a. Every time we have the opportunity to do good, we should do it.
b. The timing for doing good is always right. The opportunity is not optional.
c. We are to treat it as strategically placed by God in our path.
d. Our settings may continually change, but each one will bring a fresh opportunity for helping and serving.
e. God calls believers to do good to everyone, believers and nonbelievers alike.
f. The fruit of the Holy Spirit must be shared with both the Christian and the non-Christian world.
g. Some fields may be very difficult to “work,” but our purpose should be to sow goodness anyway! (Barton, 794).
B. Don't Give Up
1. Illustration: "The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light it remembers the morning on which death and sin lay prostrate in defeat and new life and salvation were given to mankind"
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
2. No matter what life throws at you...don't give up!
a. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 (NLT)
But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
b. If you feel like giving up, keep moving forward.
c. If you feel like life is against you, keep believing.
d. If feel like no one is listening, keep pressing on.
e. God has promised never to leave you or forsake you.
f. He has promised to give you the victory.
g. Don't give up because God will never give up on you.
Conclusion
1. In doing life together we find...
a. Restoring
b. Sharing
c. Continuing
2. The bottom line is we are in this together, and we are our brothers keeper.
3. We cannot do this alone; we need each other.
4. "A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner."
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community
