Fruit In Action (No Other Gospel #21)

There is a relatively clear breaking point between this section and the previous one, but it's not necessarily a hard and fast distinction. Paul is still talking about the same theme; working out the gospel in our lives; walking in the Spirit rather than in the flesh. But starting with Galatians 5:26 and going into the next chapter, the focus becomes even more practical and deals with just the nuts and bolts of life. Remember that back in verse 13 Paul laid the whole foundation of this: “by love serve one another.” The focus here isn't just about being holy and godly in general but specifically in the way we treat one another--because the way we act and treat others will have an effect. Actions have consequences. We reap what we sow and so must be careful to sow appropriately.

Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 5:26-6:10)

G. K. Chesterton has a passage making fun of people who use long, fine-sounding words as a cover for their own unclear thinking. He said that long words go rattling by like long trains, carrying people who are tired to think for themselves. And the truth is that can happen even with short words. In the last passage, we had the fruit of the Spirit, a list of words. And if we aren't careful, they'll be just that; words which go rattling by without meaning or impact. That's why we have this passage which is more or less a practical application of the exhortation of the last passage. Here Paul takes the abstractions which are the Fruit of the Spirit and puts them in real-life contexts. So that's why I want a take a somewhat different approach to this passage. I want to look at it as it illustrates different parts of the Fruit of the Spirit.

GOODNESS

If you remember from earlier, the word “goodness” has the idea of good as opposed to evil; that which is right, that which is proper. It is goodness at its base moral level; the goodness which divides the good guys from the bad guys. And so while that obviously goes with all these points, I specifically connect it with 6:6: “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.” In other words, if we (as the people of the church) receive something good in being taught by our ministers, it is only good, only right, only just that we, in turn, help support them; that we contribute to the sustenance of our teachers in all good things. This is something simple and self-evident; you don't need a college education to see the point of this. It is good. And part of the fruit of the Spirit is goodness. (I can't help but wonder, in passing, if there was a specific reason for this exhortation. Is it possible the ministers of the Galatian churches were trying to stand against the tide of the Judaizing doctrine and were, in consequence, being starved out by their people? There is no evidence of this, but if it were true, it wouldn't be the only time such things happened in the church.)

FAITH & TEMPERANCE

After stating his basic thesis in verses 7-8--that we will reap what we sow--Paul adds this exhortation: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” The idea here is self-evident. In doing work for God--as in doing any kind of work--there will often be no immediate reward; nearly everything we do in the present is to reap a reward in the future, and so there is always the danger of becoming exhausted and giving in before we reach the consummation. That is why we must make the determination to keep on doing right and not giving in. This is faith--keeping true to our commitments and our promises (to others, to ourselves, and to God). It is easy to start out doing good, but keeping on doing good requires faithfulness.

By the same token, this is also an illustration of temperance or self-control. We defined temperance as doing what is right when it would be easy not to; of discipline our inclinations to the service of right. And that is what we see here: doing what is right even it becomes hard; even when the road is long; even when there is no sign of a reward; we still make the decision to steel our will and keep pressing on. This is temperance.

PEACE & LONGSUFFERING

At the beginning of this section, Paul exhorts the Galatians not to be or not to become “desirous of vain glory”; not to be obsessed with glorying in and boasting in things that don't really matter. This may have been a dig against the Judaizers who prided themselves on their birth and heritage. But in general, human beings have always tended to this fault--this fault of setting up things as important which really aren't. Being vainglorious is thinking that being born of a certain line, living in a certain country, having a certain amount of money, looking a certain way, being in a certain walk of life makes you better than others.

With this, Paul says not to provoke one another or envy one another. The word translated “provoking” means to offer a challenge, as one would give a challenge for a battle or a duel. We all know people who walk around with a metaphorical chip on their shoulder; people who are always looking for a fight--not necessarily a physical fight, but some kind of conflict; people whose very attitude is a sort of challenge. And that is not an attitude a Christian should have. There are things worth arguing about, but there is no virtue in walking about as an argument waiting to happen. And strangely enough, envy sometimes has the same effect. People consumed by envy are not necessarily easy to get along with.

Vaingloriousness, envy, and a provoking attitude are all, in their different ways, fatal to unity. These things can cause strife and conflict; bringing about division, driving people apart. But the Fruit of the Spirit is peace. If we are committed to maintaining peace and concord with other people, then we will not allow our attitude to be one of conflict. Because the fruit of the spirit is peace, those who walk after the spirit will not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

I also see longsuffering here, by implication. There will always be some people who are provoking. In a neighborhood, in a family, in a church, there will always be those people whose attitude is fatal to unity. We cannot necessarily control that, but we can control our own attitude. Some people are provoking, but love is not easily provoked. Long-suffering means dealing with difficult people without losing our patience, willing to bear with the faults and folly of others. As Christians, we shouldn't let the vainglorious, the provoking, and the envious people destroy our own attitude, driving us to rage, to impatience, or bitterness, because the fruit of the spirit is long-suffering.

And this isn't directly related, but I did want to point out something about verse 26. These three things--let us not be desirous of vain glory, not provoking one another, and not envying one another, may just be three unconnected exhortations, but I think they do fit together.  Jamieson-Fausset-Brown pointed out that these two things--provoking and envying--can actually be the result of vaingloriousness. Let's take one specific form--the vaingloriousness of money; the belief that having a lot of money makes one better than everyone else. The effect on the rich is that it makes them think they're better than others; it makes them puffed up and proud and creates a provoking attitude. The rich man who believes that riches make him a better man will walk around with his nose in the air, saying (in effect) to everyone that he is better than them and he can prove it--with his money. Conversely, if a poor man accepts the vaingloriousness of money--if a poor man believes that riches make you a better person, then naturally it will lead to envy. If you give money too great a value then it will lead you to have an inordinate desire to have it. Or, again, there are some who believe in the vaingloriousness of physical strength--that being strong or “tough” makes you better than others. If those who are strong (or think they are) accept this idea, it will lead them to be provoking--they are the ones literally looking for a fight. And if those who accept it are weak, they will give in to envy and bitterness.

I said that faith, as a part of the Fruit of the Spirit, means faithfulness or fidelity. But we also recognize that as Christians we have faith in the sense of believing God and believing his word--and if we live our life with this kind of faith, it will help us see things in their right proportions, not being vainglorious but realizing what is truly important; and when we see what really matters, we will be less likely to provoke one another or envy one another.  That is why we can exercise the virtues of peace and long-suffering because we realize that concord and our relationships with others and with God are far more important than anything we have or possess.

MEEKNESS & GENTLENESS

We, as Wesleyan Methodist, believe that it is possible to live a life of victory over sin--that is it not necessary (as some teach) to sin every day in word, thought, and deed; instead, that it is possible, through the grace and power of God, to live in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives. But though that is true, we also recognize the reality that it is possible for a Christian to give in to temptation and sin. Adam Clarke says that the phrase: “If a man be overtaken in a fault” has the idea of one being caught by surprise or ambushed. The picture is someone who sins in a moment of weakness through the sudden onslaught of temptation. I don't think I need to prove to you that such a thing can happen, even in the church, even to a Christian.

When it happens, what is the proper response of the church? We are speaking of the Fruit of the Spirit; so what should those who are spiritual do in that situation? They don't ignore it; they don't rewrite the discipline to excuse the act; they don't get angry and stomp and holler. They “restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.” The word for restore means to repair or mend; Barclay says that it is used for a surgeon setting a broken bone. The idea is that when something is wrong, you try to set it right. If you break your arm, you don't leave it broken and you don't cut it off--you try to set it right.

But specifically, notice how this is to be done. “In the spirit of meekness.” As we saw before, meekness has the idea of putting aside our own rights and being willing to bear with others. It means not getting impatient; not throwing people aside when they prove difficult to work with. But beyond this, it has the idea of consideration and gentleness; meekness is not being harsh or uncaring towards others. There is a place for sternness is the church, but there is no place for harshness. The spirit of meekness is not proud or censorious; not looking down our noses at people, even those who have sinned; treating even sinners and traitors with kindness. By implication, I would include gentleness here too since the picture is definitely one of dealing with people gently (though firmly).

The word meekness also has the implication of humility. We can treat other people with consideration and kindness because we know we are not better than them. “Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Obviously, no one has to fall to temptation. We should never take sin as inevitable. But we also have to face this reality: we are all tempted. And we all are capable of falling to temptation. We shouldn't; we don't have to. But are capable of it. In other words, when dealing with a sinner, when dealing especially with a Christian who has fallen, we aren't dealing with some other species, some other class of man which is far below us. Sinners are not garbage or terrible human beings. They are people just like us who made the wrong choice. What they have done, we might have done (and what, for that matter, we had done before we became Christians.)  Mantaunus writes: “Either we are, or have been, or may be,  as bad as he whom we condemn.” (Quoted in Clarke, Commentary, Galatians 6:1) This does not excuse sin, but it does mean that in dealing with it we should have an attitude of humility--of meekness and gentleness--and not of pride.

All of this is to say that in our dealing with other people, we should bear one another's burdens, carrying one another's loads. The idea is that we should care about one another and try to help one another in our spiritual life. The journey to Heaven is a team effort. That is why we are meek and gentle in dealing with others and specifically with other Christians because we are all in this together. We are not strangers but family (note the use of brethren in verse 1), and what affects one of us affects us all. A wound in your hand doesn't just affect your hand but your entire body.  We must bear one another's burdens, help in one another's troubles, strengthen one another's weakness. And in so doing, we fulfill the law of Christ which is found in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” This is the law of Christ and we fulfill it by bearing one another's burdens with gentleness, by restoring the fallen with a spirit of meekness.

JOY

This passage has to be kept in context with the one right before it. There Paul was speaking of dealing with those Christians who had fallen into sin and reminding the church to be meek and gentle with them because they might also be tempted. He reiterates that idea here in a different way; warning us of the danger of deceiving ourselves or, literally, leading our own minds astray. (See Robertson's Word Pictures, Galatians 6:3) There are some who think themselves to be something great and grand when reality they are nothing. Clarke comments on this passage: “Those who suppose themselves to excel all others in piety, understanding, &c., while they are harsh, censorious, and overbearing, prove that they have not the charity that thinketh no evil; and in the sight of God are only as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.  There are no people more censorious or uncharitable than those among some religious people who pretend to more light and a deeper communion with God.”

Instead of being puffed up and leading ourselves astray; instead of comparing ourselves with others and looking down on them, every man should prove or test his own work. Everyone should consciously and deliberately examine himself before God and God's word; that is the standard; that is our judge. “And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” He will have something to rejoice about, something to glory in, if God approves him--even if other people and even his own heart condemn him, for God is greater than our hearts and than other people. A clean bill of health from God is something more worth having than all the praises of man or the self-assurances of our own mind. The word for rejoice here is a different word than the one used in the Fruit of the Spirit, but the point holds that the true source of joy is knowing that we are right with God, no matter what others will say. For every man shall bear his own burden. That is, we all will face the consequences of our actions. We have a duty to help one another; to bear one another's burdens--yet in the end, each of us will answer for ourselves. If we sin, we will bear the punishment. And if we are faithful, we will reap the reward. That is why the only foundation for joy is the assurance and acceptance of God on our life because our life and its fruit is a burden we must ourselves bear.

LOVE

In verse 10, finishing off the passage, Paul gives one simple and straightforward piece of advice: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” This doing good may involve material charity--giving help to those in need--or it may be something immaterial; it may be giving comfort or encouragement to those in difficult times; giving a kind word to the hurting; restoring such an one in the spirit of meekness. But whatever exactly the nature of the act, we are to do it when we can. Whenever there is an opportunity to do something good for others, we should do it. This is true of doing good for anyone but especially for others in the church, for those who are of the household of faith. Charity begins at home.

And obviously, the thrust behind this exhortation is love. We should do good to all people because we have love for all people. And we should be especially careful to do good for those in the church because we should especially love those in the church.

In verse 7 Paul states a universal truth: that whatever we sow we will reap. Every cause has an effect. Every action has a reaction. There is no pulling the wool over the eyes of God. We should not be deceived into thinking we can deceive God. We are not saved by works, but our works do have consequences. The attitude “I'm a Christian and living in the spirit, but I'm going to live my life however I want” is deeply flawed. Grace gives us a new life but it does not change the rules of life. And the rule of life is that we reap what we sow. If we sow to the flesh, to the ways of sin, then we will earn the wages of sin which is death. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

That is the thrust of this passage. As Christians, we have been saved by grace. We have been given God's spirit as the active principle of a new life. We have been given the possibility of bringing forth fruit, the Fruit of the Spirit. But we have to act that possibility out; we have to sow that fruit in our daily lives; we have to sow after the spirit if we wish to reap after the Spirit the fruit of life everlasting.