Doing Good to All
6 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.
Sin is a reality in every Christian’s life. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” John warns believers. In fact, he goes on to say, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8,10). “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).
If Christians were not subject to sin they would not need “the full armor of God” in order to “stand firm against the schemes of the devil” and “to resist in the evil day” (Eph. 6:11, 13). Nor would they need to heed James’s warning about being tempted and carried away by their own lusts or his admonition to put “aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness” (James 1:14, 21).
James 5:16
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
1 John 1:8-10
98 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Ephesians 6:11, 13
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
James 1:14, 21
14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
…But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.
A story from Pastor Chuck Smith was told of three ministers who got together and decided that they were going to purge them consciences by confessing their sins to each other. First minister said, "Well," he said, "I have a problem with drinking." He said, "Don't anybody know this, but I keep a bottle at home all the time." He said, "I'm just a private drinker, not a social, but I'm a private drinker. And I just have to have my bottle, and every night before I go to bed I have a drink or two."
Next minister said, "Well, my problem is women; I just can't seem to get free from lust. And I just really have a strong lust after women and all. It's just really terrible. I don't know what I'm going to do." And he started telling of some of the women and all.
Third minister said, "Well, my sin is gossip, and I just can't wait to get out of here." You got to be careful of these confession services. You don't know who might have the sin of gossip.
"Confess your faults one to another." I'm at fault. I was wrong. It's good to confess. It's hard. I think those are probably the three hardest words to say, "I was wrong," especially if you're talking to your wife.
2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
It is the responsibility of a spiritual believer who seeks to restore a fallen brother to help hold him up once he is back on his feet. It is not enough simply to help him turn from his sin and then leave him alone. It is immediately after a spiritual victory that Satan often makes his severest attacks on God’s children.
To be freed from a sin is not always to be freed from its temptation. The spiritual believer who truly loves his brother and sincerely wants to restore him to a walk by the Spirit will continue to spend time with him and make himself available for counsel and encouragement. Prayer is the most powerful weapon believers have in conquering sin and opposing Satan, and nothing helps a brother carry his burdens as much as prayer for him and with him.
The brother who has been delivered from a trespass has an obligation to let his spiritual friends help him carry his burdens. It is not spirituality but pride that makes a person want to “go it alone.” James tells believers to “confess [their] sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that [they] may be healed” (James 5:16). God Himself is the believer’s ultimate source of strength, and on Him we are called to cast our burdens (Ps. 5:22) and our cares (1 Pet. 5:7). But He often uses fellow believers as His agents to help carry the burdens of His children.
He bore our burdens for us. "Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7).
When believers bear one another’s burdens, they fulfill the law of Christ. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The law of Christ is the law of love, which fulfills all the rest of God’s law (Gal. 5:14; Rom. 13:8, 10).
John 13:34
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Galatians 5:14
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Romans 13:8 Love Fulfills the Law
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves.
Those sinful attitudes are marks of immature, sinful Christians who place their own interests above the interests of fellow believers. They are characteristics of believers who are not walking by the Spirit but who are in the flesh and are therefore disrupting the body fellowship by producing the deeds of the flesh rather than the fruit of the Spirit.
Philippians 2:1-4 Imitating Christ’s Humility
2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
4 Each one should test (‘prove’ KJV) their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else,
A believer’s first responsibility is to examine (from dokimaz, to approve after testing) 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.
Remember, God does not grade on the curve but by His own absolutes. He does not compare believers to each other but to His divine, perfect standards of righteousness. And if the Lord does not judge a believer by comparing him with other believers, how much less should a believer judge himself in that way? (cf. 2 Cor. 10:12).
2 Corinthians 10:12
12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
If there is reason for a believer’s boasting, or rejoicing, in regard to himself, that is, in regard to what God has done in and through him, it is on the basis of his faithfulness and obedience, not on the basis of what he may have accomplished in regard to, or compared to, another. If he is truly more faithful and useful than some of his fellow believers, that is God’s doing, not his own.
You know when God has revealed some special exciting truth to your heart, so exciting, so new, so novel, so different, and you feel that the whole body needs to share and know this truth that God has revealed to you, please do us the favor of allowing us to observe how this truth has transformed your life more into the image of Jesus Christ. Let us see what it has done in you to make you a better servant of God. And then, when we observe the fruit of this truth in your own life, we'll come to you and ask you about it. But don't come lay your trips on us. Prove, let every man prove himself. Then you'll have something really to glory in. Let it be proved in your own life. Let us see the result as it is worked out in your life. And then you can rejoice in what God has done for you.
5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
This verse at first glance does not seem to fit into what Paul is focusing on in the passage. The seemingly obvious interpretation, and the one that is most common, is that Paul is exhorting congregations to pay their pastors fairly. But although that principle is taught in the New Testament (see, e.g., Luke 10:7; 1 Cor. 9:7-14), it does not seem to be what Paul is teaching here.
The Greek can be translated, “Let him who receives instruction share with him who gives instruction in all good things,” and such a rendering seems appropriate.
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Deceived is from plana, which has the primary meaning of leading astray. In part, the apostle was calling on the misguided Galatians to stop being deceived by others, because many of them had been led astray, or “bewitched” (3:1), by the Judaizers into thinking that obedience to the Mosaic law, represented especially by circumcision, was necessary for receiving and living the Christian life.
The great danger of false teachers is not only in the evil of the teachings themselves but in their being taught as God’s truth. A person who teaches heresy in the name of Satan, or simply on the basis of his own authority, seldom has much influence, especially in the church. It has always been and will continue to be false teachers who claim to teach in God’s name who are the most destructive.
“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect” (Matt. 24:24).
1 John 1:8
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
When believers fail to acknowledge the reality or seriousness of sin in their lives, their hearts are deceived and God is . . . mocked. The second consequence is by far the worse, because it amounts to treating the Lord with contempt.
Mocked is from mukteriz, which literally means to turn up one’s nose, and therefore to scorn or sneer. In the passage cited above from his first letter, John declares that for a Christian to deny his sin is to make God a liar (1 John 1:10) and to mock His absolute holiness. For a believer to sin willingly in any way and to any degree is to deny his Lord. But to sin while thinking he is somehow immune from God’s standard of holiness is to mock the Lord and to mimic the world.
8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
In its literal, physical sense, that rudimentary law of agriculture is self-evident. It is absolutely universal, applying equally to every farmer and gardener in every time and place—to the young and the old, the experienced and the inexperienced, the wise and the foolish, and the saved and the unsaved. It is as impartial, predictable, and immutable as the law of gravity. There are no exceptions, and the person who plants the seed makes no difference at all in the law’s operation. Whatever he sows, this he will also reap. God’s Word is clear. “Those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it” (Job 4:8). The law of sowing and reaping is just as valid in the spiritual as in the physical and moral realms.
The law of sowing and reaping is not contradicted by the gospel of grace. The law of salvation in Jesus Christ is, in fact, the ultimate demonstration of that law Jesus Christ sowed perfect righteousness and reaped eternal life, which He gives to those who trust in His finished work. The believer reaps eternal life because, in faith, he is united with Christ and with what He has sown and reaped on man’s behalf. But the believer is not thereby exempt from all the consequences of his own sowing. He will never reap the ultimate consequences of sin, which are death and judgment, because his Lord already reaped those consequences for him. But he continues to reap the earthly heartaches, wounds, shame, and pain of his sins and foolishness. God’s law of cause and effect still operates in the lives of His children.
MacArthur, John F (1987-11-08). Galatians MacArthur New Testament Commentary continues:
The Christian has only two “fields” in which he can sow, that of his own flesh and that of the Spirit. As has been stated, the flesh refers to the believer’s uncleansed humanness, which awaits the day of glorification (Rom. 8:23). But in the meanwhile it can produce all manner of selfish, fleshly desires that are contrary to God’s will and standards and are expressed in everything from blatant immorality to cold indifference to the things of the Lord. The flesh is the residence of sin that still remains in a believer’s life (Rom. 7:18). The person who sows to his own flesh panders to its evil desires instead of letting the Spirit subdue it. He submits to its passions instead of overcoming it.
The particular sin that Paul addresses so strongly throughout this letter is the sin of legalism, particularly that of the heretical Judaizers, who undermined the gospel of grace by placing human works between Christ’s sacrifice and man’s salvation. Because that sin was so centered in the flesh, it led to countless other sins. It turned believers back to their own resources and power, in which they could do nothing but stumble from one trespass to another, producing only the deeds of the flesh.
Although his trust in Christ saves him from spiritual death, a sinning believer can nevertheless reap corruption, suffering physical death and many other tragic earthly consequences, as did some of the unrepentant Corinthians.
The British evangelical leader John R. W Stott has written, “Every time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fancy, wallow in self-pity, we are sowing to the flesh. Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious influence we know we cannot resist, every time we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying, every time we read pornographic literature, every time we take a risk that strains our self-control we are sowing, sowing, sowing, to the flesh” (The Message of Galatians [London: Inter-Varsity, 1968], p. 170).
The Christian who is preoccupied with the things of God rather than the fleshly things of the world will produce the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-23). To sow to the Spirit is the same as to walk by the Spirit (5:16), to be led by the Spirit (5:18), and to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).
Ephesians5:18 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
It is the same as abiding in Christ and in His Word and having His words abide in us (John 8:31; 15:7).
John 8:31; 15:7 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
It is the same as walking in Christ (Col. 2:6)
Col. 2:6
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
and setting one’s “mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (3:2). It is the same as giving one’s body as “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God,” and not being “conformed to this world, but [being] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2).
Romans 12:1-2
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
It is not that only Spirit-filled believers go to heaven. Every believer goes to heaven because every believer is forever a child of God and a citizen of God’s kingdom.
Throughout Scripture, eternal life refers primarily to quality, not duration. The believer begins participating in eternal life the moment he trusts in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But just as his life does not always perfectly reflect the righteousness he has before God in Christ, neither does it always perfectly reflect the eternal quality of life he has in Him. Because it is external, no sin in a believer’s life can separate him from eternal life, but any sin in his life corrupts his reflection and enjoyment of that eternal life. That is why some Christians are among the most miserable, unhappy, and wretched of people. A persistently sinning believer can sometimes be more miserable than an unbeliever, simply because his sin is in constant conflict with and warring against his new nature in Christ. The sinning Christian has a battle raging within him that an unbeliever never experiences. The believer who sows to his own flesh does not lose the Spirit, but he loses the fruit of the Spirit, among which are love, joy, peace, and patience (5:22). David did not pray, “Restore my salvation to me,” but, “Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation” (Ps. 51:12). John MacAurthur New Testament Commentary
Psalm 51:12
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
That fruit represents all the blessings of a life sown to the Spirit, life that, in faithfulness and obedience, fully enjoys “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” and “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:3, 18).
Ephesians 1:3, 18 Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
the writer of Hebrews said, Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
As in regard to reaping eternal life (v 8), Paul is not talking here about salvation but about blessing, and ultimately eternal reward. He is saying that it is possible to serve God for a long time and then to give up and lose blessing here and reward in glory. The apostle John warned, “Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward” (2 John 8).
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
The phrase while we have does not refer to occasional opportunities that may arise in a believer’s life but to the total opportunity of his present earthly existence. The idea is, while we have opportunity during our life on earth. In other words, a believer’s entire life is his unique but limited opportunity to serve others in the Lord’s name.
Good is from agathos and has a definite article in front of it in the Greek. In other words, Paul is speaking of a particular good, the good. It is the agathos goodness of moral and spiritual excellence that is a fruit of the Spirit (5:22), not simply kalos goodness that is limited to physical and temporal things.
It is also good that is unqualified and unrestricted, to be shown all men, including unbelievers. “For such is the will of God,” Peter said, “that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Pet. 2:15). One of the best ways to thwart criticism of Christianity is for Christians to do good to unbelievers. Hence; Weekend of Service. Loving concern will do more to win a person to Christ than the most carefully articulated argument.
Not Circumcision but the New Creation
Galatians MacArthur New Testament Commentary Except for the closing benediction (v. 18), verses 11 to the end are largely a parting salvo against the Judaizers, whose heretical activities prompted the letter in the first place. They were teaching the spurious, man-made gospel (which was no gospel at all, 1:6-7) of salvation by works and of living under the government of law, in complete contradiction to the divine gospel of salvation by grace and living by the Spirit that Paul had preached when he ministered in Galatia. Those two approaches to salvation are the only two that exist, the only two forms of religion that man has ever known. There is grace/faith/Spirit religion, known as Christianity, and there is law/works/flesh religion, which identifies all the rest. God’s way is the way of grace, working through man’s faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. All other ways, no matter how seemingly different, are an attempt at salvation by fleshly Works of the law. It is as if, on the market shelf of world religions, there are hundreds of attractive packages, with a great range of shapes, sizes, labels, claims, and prices. But inside all of them is the same tasteless, nutritionless sawdust of works righteousness. Standing alone, unattractive and repulsive to the natural man, is the gospel, which alone contains real food. God’s way is the way of divine accomplishment; all other ways rely on human achievement. Those who follow the religion of divine accomplishment say, “I cannot accomplish anything in my own power or goodness, and I throw myself on the mercy of God, trusting in the sufficient sacrifice of His Son on my behalf.” Those who follow the way of human achievement, no matter what its packaging might be, say, “On my own merit and in my own power I can make myself acceptable to God and worthy of a place in heaven.”
11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
Paul’s writing with . . . large letters may have been due to a combination of reasons. The first possibility is that he used large letters because of poor eyesight, an affliction suggested in this letter. Shortly after speaking of having come to Galatia with “a bodily illness” (4:13), the apostle expresses his gratitude to believers there for their willingness to “have plucked out [their] eyes and given them to [him]” (v. 15). If Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7) did involve an eye disease, he understandably wrote in large letters in order to see what he was writing.
Paul may have used the somewhat unsightly lettering as a statement, saying, in effect, “Because of my poor eyesight, you know how hard it is for me to write by my own hand, but what I have to say is so important and urgent that I want you to have this letter in your hands as soon as possible, with as bold lettering as possible. Unlike the Judaizers, I have never tried to impress you with my scholarship, personal skills, or superficial formalities. When I first came to you, you accepted my message with gladness, although my bodily presence was unattractive. This epistle is not written attractively, either, but I hope you will receive its message with the same urgency with which it is sent.”
Perhaps Paul was anxious to get his message to the Galatians but had no scribe available at the time. Or, as already suggested, because of the severity of the message itself, he may have wanted to make the letter more personal by writing it all, even with his limitations, in his own hand.
12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.
First of all the Judaizers were motivated by religious pride, a desire to make a good showing in the flesh. They were not concerned about pleasing God by inward righteousness but about impressing other men by outward legalism. It was in regard to such demonstrations of religious pride that Jesus gave repeated warnings in the Sermon on the Mount. Concerning religious life in general, He said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:1).
The Judaizers not only were proud but cowardly. They advocated legalism to protect their lives and material welfare as well as to feed their fleshly egos. They were not willing to pay the price of persecution in order to be identified with Jesus Christ. They would use His name and attend His church only if there was no offense to those around them.
The book of Galatians has been called “The Crucifixion Epistle,” not only because it directly mentions the cross or crucifixion some seven times (2:20; 3:1; 5:11, 24; 6:12, 14 [twice]) but because God’s redemptive grace, the theme of the epistle, became effective for men only through the cross of Christ. The sign of the cross points to grace.
The Judaizers identified themselves with the church but not with the cross and therefore not truly with Christ. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah and proclaimed allegiance to Him, but they had no part in Him because they refused to receive His finished work on the cross on their behalf.
Their concern was for their safety, not their salvation, and they hoped that adherence to outward forms such as circumcision would minimize the offense to other Jews and to Gentiles and would thereby give them protection from persecution.
14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.
It is the power of the cross that purifies man from his sin and makes him presentable to God. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24).
The power of the cross makes the believer a new creation in Jesus Christ. Jesus told the highly religious and moral Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The old life cannot be remodeled, even by God, because there is nothing good in the flesh (Rom. 7:18) on which to build.
Romans 7:18
18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Man needs an entirely new life, a new birth, a new creation. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17)
16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to[b] the Israel of God.
The Israel of God refers to Jewish believers in Jesus Christ, to those who are spiritual as well as physical descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7)
17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
No doubt many believers in Galatia had witnessed Paul’s receiving some of the brand-marks he bore on his body. At Lystra he was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead (Acts 14:19).
In his closing benediction Paul makes a final declaration of grace over law, faith over works, the internal over the external:
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
In The Holy War, John Bunyan provides a dramatic closing scene between Emmanuel (Christ) and residents of the town of Mansoul (you and me). Emmanuel has helped them beat off the Diabolonians (Satan’s army), and now he stands in the town square telling them how to stay free from Satan’s clutches. Emmanuel says: “I have loved you, Mansoul. I bought you for a price; a price not of corruptible things, as of silver and gold, but a price of blood, my own blood, which I spilled freely to make you mine, and to reconcile you to my father.
“And I stood by you in your backsliding, when you were unfaithful, though you did not know I was there. It was I who made your way dark and bitter. It was I who put Mr. Godly-Fear to work. It was I who stirred up Conscience and Understanding and Will. It was I who made you seek me, and in finding me, find your own health and happiness. “Nothing can hurt you but sin; nothing can grieve me but sin; nothing can make you fall before your foes but sin; beware of sin, my Mansoul. “I have taught you to watch, to fight, to pray, and to make war against your foes; so now I command you to believe that my love is constant to you. “O my Mansoul, how I have set my heart, my love upon you! “Show me your love—and hold fast—until I take you to my father’s kingdom where there is no more sorrow, no grief, no pain. . . . where you shall never be afraid again. . . .” As Emmanuel rides away in his chariot, Conscience, Understanding, and Will discuss the future and how they will have to be alert to keep the Diabolonians at bay. Unless they depend completely on King Shaddai (the Father), Emmanuel (the Son), and the Lord High Secretary (the Holy Spirit) they will fail and fall into enemy hands. “Is this way better than the freedom you had before?” asks Understanding, referring back to days before Emmanuel had come into their lives. “The freedom we had before was like—” Will struggled for words, “like birds flying through broken windows in-and-out of a deserted house—flying aimlessly, going nowhere.” “Do you love him because you have to?” Understanding’s probing was gentle; their talk was to reiterate their faith, and in their talking they strengthened each other. “I do not have to love him,” said Will. “I am free. He has always left me free to do as I please.” “Then?” “I love him because I want to,” Will said simply. “And I can never love him enough.”* That is essentially the message of Paul’s epistle to the Galatian believers and to believers of every age—the message that, because we have trusted in Him, Christ has set us free.
TABLE TALK QUESTIONS
1. Too often Christian Churches and Christians have been guilty of ‘shooting their wounded’. How have you seen that played out? How have you seen a Church properly restore a Brother or Sister?
2. Have you found yourself giving up on a Brother or Sister found in they’re sin? Do you know what the circumstances really were? What was the final outcome?
3. Are you more attracted to ‘doing good’ to the non-believers’ or to Brothers and Sisters in the faith? Do you hesitate more over one than the other?
4. How do you show you’re crucified to the world?
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