Galatians 6:7-10 – “The Big Picture of Grace”

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷Stop being deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap, ⁸because the one sowing into his own flesh, out of that flesh will reap destruction, but the one sowing into the Spirit, out of that Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹But let us not be desponding doing the beautiful for we will reap in proper season, not giving up. ¹⁰Consequently therefore, as we have season, let us be doing the good toward all, and especially toward the ones belonging to the household of the faith.

As I’ve noted before, verses 1 through 10 in some ways seem at first glance like just an arbitrary jumble of admonitions. However, now having studied, I don’t think that is the case. I would maintain that verse 10 is a summary of it all and actually gives us the thought behind all ten verses.

I translated the beginning of verse 10 as “consequently therefore.” The Greek begins with ara oun, which would translate literally something like my “consequently therefore.” What is important is that ara oun represents a significant conclusion. When a Greek sentence starts with ara oun, it is like a big red flag saying, “OK. Now. To sum up everything I’m saying, or to bring all of this to a conclusion …” That in part leads me to see verse 10 as “wrapping up” the passage and definitely not as just another arbitrary thought thrown into the mix.

Also note that just back in 5:22,23 Paul taught “the fruit of the Spirit is love …” and in 5:25, he admonished us to “keep in step with the Spirit”; then he embarks on 6:1-10, which tells us various ways to “do good to all people, especially to believers.” I would suggest the theme throughout really is love and particularly Paul is offering to the Galatians specific expressions of love which they need to consider in light of their current controversy.

He said back in 5:6, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” To be indwelt by the Spirit empowers me to overcome my pride and selfishness and fear and instead to live a life of love to God and my neighbors.

Into that world, Paul injects this admonition, “Stop being deceived. God is not mocked.” In other words, it is a big deal when professing believers ignore the enormity of grace and just give in and live flesh. The whole plan of salvation in this world is about the blood of Jesus making it possible for us to be indwelt by His Spirit – that we might be genuinely changed to live out His grace and love in our world. Like too many churches, the Galatians think it no big deal to spit in the face of grace and just let themselves act like lost people – giving in to their pride and being hateful and mean-spirited with each other. They’re even deceiving themselves into thinking they’re somehow “defending” the truth. No. What they are doing is mocking God!

Here is a place where I think in part we miss the truth because we are so programmed to assume that “walking in the flesh” means giving in to immorality or drunkenness or the like. “Well,” the Galatians could say, “We certainly aren’t doing that!” But go back to 5:19-21 and read again the works of the flesh. Note again that the list contains not only debauchery but also “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions …” What is going on in the Galatian church is not just a well-meaning debate over truth. What is going on is gross, bald-faced walking in the flesh. It is a grief to the Spirit of God (Eph 4:30) and we need to call it what it is – mocking God(!). Grace is a big deal. When Christians think they can “take it or leave it” they in effect mock God. That certainly is how unbelievers see it. Church fights are a mockery. They are a mockery of everything that church has claimed to believe both in its public teaching and in its very existence in the community.

Is it a big deal? Is it? Is it really that important that we strive to walk in the Spirit and not give in to our flesh? Paul goes on to remind us all of one of the most ancient proverbs of the human race: “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” And in this case, it is a choice to sow either to the Spirit or to our flesh. Just as sure as planting corn seeds will mean you grow corn plants, if you sow to the flesh you’ll reap destruction and if you sow to the Spirit you’ll reap eternal life.

And note again, “sowing to the flesh” here means simply giving in to whatever “comes naturally” to us, whether it be immorality or just plain insensitivity. Our flesh is the natural us. It is the me that naturally wants this and that and naturally will do whatever makes sense to get this or that. Unfortunately, it is the rotten me and regardless of how “right” I may think I am, when it’s me in control, what I’m sowing is my own flesh (Note the “the one sowing into his own flesh”). It takes a deliberate effort to sow instead to the Spirit. Note it’s not “into his own spirit.” That is because my spirit is rotten. That’s the whole point of Spirit-indwelling – I have another Spirit living in me. I can choose to let that Spirit control me. And when I do, I am sowing to the Spirit – and reaping eternal life, the life that really matters, actually real life. God warned Adam “in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” What He said literally was, “in dying you shall die.” To sin is not only to die but to live dying. To walk with God is to live living. Just to know Him is eternal life (John 17:3).

Once again, is it a big deal whether I recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in my heart and yield to His control? The only other option is to “sow to my own flesh.” But to do that is to miss everything that matters and in the end it is to mock God(!). Yes it is a big deal.

And besides pride and “comparing” (vv3-5), what is one of the most likely obstacles I will face if I resolve to walk in the Spirit, to live a life of love? In verse 9 Paul warns us against the same sin we find in Hebrews 12 – getting “weary” and giving up. I would suggest that “giving up” is “the sin which so easily besets us” from Heb 12:1. There is something about a sin-cursed world that just makes a guy tired. It seems like the older I get the more I have to fight weariness. Just physically speaking, it’s hard to get through the day and usually by Friday afternoon at work I am just totally cooked. And that is certainly real, certainly an obstacle to accomplishing much of anything.

But the spiritual weariness is something more. I think sometimes they go hand in hand, physical weariness and spiritual weariness. But still I think they’re different. It’s one thing to be tired. It’s another thing to be “tired of it.” What Paul is saying is that somehow I have to fight exactly that. As I would live a life of love, I have to fight the sense that it is hard. I can’t let myself “grow weary.” And I certainly can’t “give up.” Babe Ruth said, “It’s hard to beat someone who doesn’t give up.”

Can I inject, I think perhaps what is tricky here is that Spirit-life is powered by the Spirit. As I let Him be my spirit, as I sincerely would live love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, sincerely try to “do good” to the world around me, it is His power that “makes things happen.” There is definitely “something going on” that I am very aware is beyond me. In my flesh, I’m essentially trying to control the world, trying to make it come out the way I want. I actually think I can. But in the Spirit, I simply focus on being while I’m doing and leave the power to control and change up to Him. I suspect, in reality, it is that on-going choice to leave the power up to Him – that is where we get weary and lose the battle. Suddenly fear sets in and we get manipulative again. We disregard grace and start pushing and shoving again, not realizing that the battle is already lost, the minute we “let down” and stop deliberately walking in the Spirit. Paul says, “Don’t let that happen. You’ll reap a harvest of life if you just stay on task, if you keep letting the Spirit be your spirit, keep on doing good by being good.”

And so, back again to verse 10, the sum of it all, the big “ara oun” is “do good.” In fact, do good to everyone you can, wherever you have an opportunity. Live love and joy and peace and kindness with every interpersonal exchange as you go through your day – every single person you talk to or interact with. Love people you think are wrong. Watch for the chance, big or small, to put your shoulder to someone else’s load when you see them struggling. Share in the good things of eternal life with those who teach them to you. Basically, resolve to “go about doing good.” Someone else did before you. His name was Jesus. That’s what Spirit-life is all about.

I want to come back and think more about this big “ara oun,” this big “conclusion of it all.” But for now, suffice it to say that I really don’t think Galatians 6:1-10 is just a random collection of admonitions. I think it is all Paul urging these Galatian believers (and us through them) to see the big picture of grace and live it in the real world of our lives.

What if everybody did?

Galatians 6:6 – “Sharing in the Good Things”

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:

⁶And the one being taught the Word should share in all good things with the one teaching.

This has been an interesting passage to study. At first glance it would appear to be simply another passage encouraging people to properly compensate their teachers. In fact, that is pretty much the universally agreed interpretation of the passage. The NIV definitely subscribes to this interpretation: “Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.”

The problem, and some commentators raise serious objection here, is that isn’t exactly what the passage says. The objectors raise two issues. First, the Greek literally reads, “share in all good things.” Note that the NIV leaves out the “in.” One might insist that is not a big difference but, on the other hand, I think honest exegesis has to at least admit that its inclusion does allow for a somewhat broader understanding than just financial support.

The second issue is in the word “share.” We are instructed to “share in all good things” with our teachers. The objectors note that, had Paul been referring to financial compensation, he could have used other more specific verbs than “share.” Certainly in many other passages, he uses clearer terms to say this. Once again, I think honest exegesis has to admit that “share in all good things” does allow for broader understanding than simply to say we should support our pastors and their families.

The objectors would maintain the passage should be understood to refer not to financial compensation but rather to a much broader principle. They would say something like the “all good things” refers to the blessings of knowing and applying the Word, that after a teacher has opened our understanding to some aspect of truth, we should, in effect, join with them in enjoying the application of that truth to our lives. Having proffered this interpretation, they would assert this passage does not address the question of financial support for full-time ministers and should not be used to that end.

What to do? For those who would like to use the passage for ministerial support, there needs to be an honest admission that the objectors have, in fact, raised legitimate exegetical issues. Regardless of our predispositions, we are still to be about the business of “rightly dividing” and that clearly starts with honest exegesis. I think myself while it does seem to teach us to support our teachers, then again, that isn’t exactly what it says, leaving me to look more closely and ask, “So what does it mean?”

For anyone who might stumble across this blog, I would like to offer perhaps a different approach. I think this problem of interpretation arises largely because we’re all still thinking legalistically. In other words, we’re still looking for God to “give us the rules.” We want the passage to read like a rule. “Those who are taught the Word should provide financially for their teachers.” There you go. Now that is a clear rule. If only it read like that, we could be done with our study and move on. But it doesn’t.

“The one being taught the Word should share in all good things with the one teaching.” That doesn’t make for a very good rule. If I’m looking for a rule, I would even say the passage is a little frustrating. “Why couldn’t it have been clearer?” we might ask. “Just give us the rules, make them clear, and we’ll keep them.” Hmmmm. Sounds strangely reminiscent of the foot of Mt. Sinai – “All that the Lord commands us, we will do.” Only they didn’t. Law didn’t work for them and it doesn’t work for us. At this point in the book of Galatians, we should have repented of our love of rules, yet here we are, trying to turn Paul’s concluding admonitions into rules. He’s concluding an entire book on the supremacy of grace over law and we want to turn his words into law! Can I suggest that is the real reason why we’re struggling with this passage to begin with?

I would suggest that, in order to understand what he means here, the first thing we have to do is get off our law-thing. This is Galatians 6, for crying out loud. At this point in the book, we should understand that people who are under grace and indwelt by the Holy Spirit don’t need rules. “Laws are for law-breakers.” By the Spirit, we have the ability to see the bigger picture. We have the ability to see our world through God’s eyes, to have His heart, and then to let that understanding fuel our thinking and our decisions.

I think the passage before us is a classic case. When it comes to the teaching of the Word of God, this passage would call us to realize there is way more going on than just the dissemination and reception of rules, for which we should dutifully support our teachers. “This is eternal life, that they might know Thee.” Instruction in the Word is all about life, it’s about living, it’s about actually having a life worth living, it’s about unfolding before our eyes the enormity of just who God is and what Christ has done for us. When someone opens the Word for us, they in fact invite us into a world of “good things.” They invite us in fact to share with them in this world of “good things.” Teaching and receiving of the Word is all about this sharing of life between the teacher and the taught and everyone with each other.

That is the big picture which this passage (and Paul’s choice of words) would call us to see, not as petty legalists but as big-hearted Spirit-indwelt, born-again God-lovers.

Now, then, as for the interpretations proffered above, let me suggest, contrary to the objectors’ understanding, the matter of financial support for our teachers is, in fact, a completely legitimate application of this passage. They are correct in observing the passage means more than just financial support, but I think they are in error to maintain that it therefore does not refer to financial support and shouldn’t be used to that end.

Here is what I mean: In this world of sharing in “all good things” how could I not want to make sure my teacher is properly supported? If I see this big picture of the Word allowing us all to share in all these “good things,” how could I possibly be content to let my teacher devote his time to the studying of the Word, then be unconcerned that he is thereby unable to provide for his family the way I do for mine? How could I possibly be happy to receive the “good things” of the Word from him, thereby share them with him,  and not in turn want to be sure he and his family are enjoying the good things of life like me and my family?

I would suggest that, under grace, I don’t need a rule to tell me I should support him. Under grace, I can’t not want to support him. I appreciate him. I appreciate someone opening the Word for me and my family. I realize that a man can’t possibly work a full-time job, care for his own family (= take his kids fishing) and his own health,  and then also give himself to the kind of extensive careful exegesis it would take to prepare even one genuinely edifying lesson a week. I have personally been doing my own exegesis for years while I work full-time, but I think I would be hard-pressed to come up with one message a month.  If someone wanted me to teach more than that, it would mean I had to work less, which would mean a cut in my paycheck, which would mean I’ve got to come up with some kind of support from somewhere. A pastor, in particular, is in exactly that position. For him to give his time to the ministry of the Word and prayer, somehow someone is going to have to make up the difference in what it takes to support the man and his family.

Once again, it’s not a matter of a rule, it’s a matter, under grace, of seeing the big picture of what is going on here. But then may I go even further and say too, that same grace-driven thinking gives me a love that goes way beyond just, “Are we paying him enough?” We’re talking about sharing together “in all good things.” Grace makes me want to be sure all his needs are cared for. Under grace we’ll say, “Sure we’re paying him enough, but what more does he need? What more can we do for his family?”

So, yes, the passage does mean more than just financial support, but it is short-sighted to say it doesn’t include it.

One other question Paul’s choice of wording would move us to ask is, “Are we in fact sharing in the good things ourselves?” That is the point – we should share in all good things with our teachers. Am I taking the Word I’m taught and living it myself? Am I in fact sharing in the good things the teacher is sharing with me? Am I myself enjoying that world of “good things?” That is one more way of loving my teacher – by actually living what I’m taught. It is a heartache to Bible teachers when their students don’t put their teaching into practice, when they don’t see them literally sharing in all those good things. And I highly suspect that, along with the blindness of legalism, that is exactly why many people feel no obligation to support their teachers – because the truth is they are not sharing in the good things. The truth bounces off their ears but, since they don’t apply it in their own lives, there’s no profound sense of appreciation for what the teacher shared with them – so why should they share with the teacher? There’s no exchange of good things, no sharing in them. But that is not the teacher’s fault, though he suffers for it.

Back to the positive truth before us, I hope anyone reading this sees what I mean. Under grace there is a much bigger picture going on than just the cataloging of rules, either by our teachers or us. The Spirit wants us all to truly share in all good things.

Once again, Paul is giving us some immediately practical applications of what Spirit-indwelling should mean in our local church setting. Even this one seemingly simple verse is brimming with truth to rock our worlds. Spirit, may we yield to You more and more. Conquer our evil spirits and help us keep You on the throne of our hearts. May we really truly be people who “share in all good things,” and may we truly appreciate and share with those who teach us.

Galatians 6:2-5 – “Really Caring 4”

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²Be bearing the burdens of one another, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ, ³for if one is seeming to be something being nothing, he is deceiving himself. ⁴And each of you should be examining his own work and then the boast will hold only into himself and not into the other, ⁵for each one will bear his own load.

As I have been relating in my last three posts, we have before us what would seem a very simple admonition, “Be bearing the burdens of one another …” Once again, it seems like that shouldn’t be a difficult assignment, but I suspect I’m not nearly as good at it as my sin-blinded heart imagines. In the passage, the first obstacle that Paul warns against is our pride – thinking we’re something when we’re nothing. If I want to really care, if I really want to be a burden-bearer, then I must pray hard against that insidious sin and be ever on the alert to pick up the tell-tale signs of its presence.

Then Paul warns against another problem, or perhaps provides one of the sure symptoms that pride is controlling us – comparing. Comparing ourselves with others. Imagining that somehow it matters if I’m “better” than someone else or someone else is “better” than me.

First of all, I want to say, the wording here to me is a bit cryptic: ^“And each of you should be examining his own work and then the boast will hold only into himself and not into the other, ⁵for each one will bear his own load.” Somehow, the flow of thought or just the wording or something doesn’t easily make sense. However, without laboring over it, it seems like the point is obvious: if I would really care and be a burden-bearer, then I need to move “comparing” high up on my radar screen. It’s a sure sign I’m being proud and likely I won’t care like I should, anytime I catch myself pondering over who or what is better than me.

Had the Pharisee in Luke 18:11 known this, perhaps he’d have caught himself and humbly corrected himself, before his life became a monument to pride. “The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.’” First of all, his heart was full of the sin of pride, even as he was supposedly in the act of praying (!), secondly, in his pride it turns out he was completely wrong about both himself and the other man, and third, obviously he could not possibly have “cared” or had the spiritual insight to see if the man “needed” him. As his prideful heart was busy comparing, it was impossible that anything spiritually good was going to happen.

And so, we must understand, it is with us. It is more than enough for my heart to spend its time holding itself accountable before God. “Each one shall bear his own load.” “So then each of us must stand and give an account of himself to God” (Rom 14:12). “Comparing themselves with themselves, they become unwise” (II Cor 10:12). “Who am I to judge another man’s servant?” (Rom 14:4). We are living, of course, in the age of “self esteem,” where supposedly that is so important. What is needed however is not high self esteem or low self esteem but rather an accurate self-evaluation. The esteem business, I would suggest, is at its very root a “comparing” business. An accurate self-evaluation is simply that – regardless of what anyone else does or thinks, where do I stand before God?

I believe, for a Spirit-led man, an accurate self-evaluation will produce two effects – humility and thankfulness – humility at the honest realization of so much weakness and failure, and thankfulness for the undeserved love of God and family and friends and for grace-enabled victories. But, as we see in the passage before us, another benefit is that it leaves my eyes and my heart open to actually care about others.

This all makes really good sense to me. The Holy Spirit within me would move me to really care about others and be willing, even desirous, to put a shoulder to their loads when I see theirs is too much for them. On the other hand, my sinful pride and a heart caught up with “comparing” will blind me to those needs.

It strikes me that being Spirit-led not only means trying to be sensitive to His heart, but on guard against mine. Lord, help me be mindful of these things as I head out into my day today. There certainly can be no lack of people who need someone to care about them. But it will take a grace-thing to give me the eyes to see it and really care. Against such things there is no law. God may Your Spirit win in my heart today and may that somehow make a difference in someone else’s too.

Galatians 6:2-5 – “Really Caring 3”

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²Be bearing the burdens of one another, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ, ³for if one is seeming to be something being nothing, he is deceiving himself. ⁴And each of you should be examining his own work and then the boast will hold only into himself and not into the other, ⁵for each one will bear his own load.

As I have been relating in my previous two posts, we have before us what would seem a very simple admonition, “Be bearing the burdens of one another …” It makes perfect sense that people indwelt by the very Spirit of Christ, the great Burden-bearer, would be compelled and enabled to see each others’ needs and actually be anxious to do whatever we can to help. My mental conundrum is to ask, “If it is that simple, why does He have to tell us to do it?” Usually when He has to tell us, and our first response is, “Oh, sure. We’ve got that,” it’s a sure sign we don’t. So, in case I’m blind to something, I keep praying and thinking and studying.

What does seem clear to me is that verses 3-5 are, in fact, logically attached to verse 2. One could question whether verses 3-5 are a separate thought in themselves. However, since v5 closes with the same verb “bearing,” and the idea of “bearing a load” compared to the “bearing a burden” of v2, I am strongly inclined to see vv 2-5 as a logical unit. That being said, verses 3-5 would be our divinely inspired explanation for why we might not “bear one another’s burdens.” I think rather than read verse 2 and smugly congratulate ourselves, we should spend some time in verses 3-5 and ask how well I’m staying on top of these things. It is a sure bet, if I’m not on top of my pride and if I’m not on top of the “comparing” game, in all likelihood I’m also not doing a good Spirit-led job of bearing others’ burdens.

In the last post I looked at the pride problem, “seeming to be something, being nothing,” and deceiving ourselves. That one is really scary to me. After all these years of fighting this evil sin, I think I can confidently say it is the sin I fear the most. I feel it is my very skin. I feel like the sin of pride is so much the very fabric of my being it is, in my own power, inescapable. In spite of praying against it and even attempting to be vigilant against it, still it has lurked under the radar of my heart and, in too many ways, ruined everything I ever cared about. So much of my life, I actually thought I was doing well, only to grow older and (perhaps) a little wiser and to look back and see my heart was full of the sin of pride. No wonder things “didn’t work.” “God resists the proud, but gives His grace to the humble.” The self-deception of the sin of pride is the part that scares me the most, that, like the Pharisees of old, I can sincerely believe I’m doing right, and even go so far as to crucify the Messiah(!). Now that’s blindness!

The other reason why pride scares me is because so many of the heroes of faith, at one time or another, went down in pride. David (numbering Israel), Hezekiah, Uzziah, Asa, so many men did so well for a lifetime, but before they were finished, went down hard in the sin of pride. If it happened to men like them, where do I stand?? Yikes. The only answer is to keep on praying hard against it, read the Scriptures attentively and allow them to interrogate my thoughts and my motives, and then just keep getting up and going on  in faith.  I pray that somehow Spirit-indwelling would mean that there would be a significant measure of victory against this ghastly sin, but having said that, still I know it clings to me like my very skin. God deliver me and let me be a Spirit-enabled blessing, not a flesh-driven prideful curse.

Galatians 6:2-5 – “Really Caring 2”

Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²Be bearing the burdens of one another, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ, ³for if one is seeming to be something being nothing, he is deceiving himself. ⁴And each of you should be examining his own work and then the boast will hold only into himself and not into the other, ⁵for each one will bear his own load.

As I related in my last post, the passage before us is of particular significance as Paul is very specifically addressing the matter of how Spirit-indwelt and led believers relate to each other. In the first five chapters he has presented the diametric contrast between law and grace, between, on the one hand, simply “keeping the rules” and, on the other hand, actually being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and living faith from the heart. “I believe I understand it,” we might say, “but how will it make me different? In what ways should I expect it to change me?” In this particular context, Paul is addressing how Spirit-leading affects our relationships in our local church.

I was struck by the simplicity of this admonition, “Be bearing one another’s burdens, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ.” It seems so simple. If the Spirit really controls your hearts, you’ll be sensitive to your fellow believers and do what you can to help them when their own loads get too heavy. Hmmmm. It seems like it would be easy to say, “Oh, sure. We’ve got that one. What else can we do?” But have we “got it?” I’ve usually found when God tells me something and my first response is, “I don’t think I have a problem with that,” – usually that is a sure sign He needs to clobber me with something I’m totally blind to. I’m still praying about this one but so far the freight train hasn’t run over me. Will have to keep praying.

In the meantime, I want to note that this is no new idea in the Bible. Mark 10:42-45 says,

“Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I’ve also always enjoyed Philippians 2:3-5,

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus …”

Clearly, throughout the Bible, to be like Jesus is to care about others, not to be served, but to serve, to look to the interests of others.

One might ask, “Why wouldn’t we?” The ugly answer is probably in the very next line of the passage, “… if one is seeming to be something being nothing, he is deceiving himself.” Pride.  Evil, insidious, self-concealing pride. This is probably precisely why my first response is to think, “I’ve got this.” Pride. Pride, in my opinion, is the absolute worst form of self-deception. “Seeming to be something being nothing.” I have spent so much of my life believing I was doing so well, being so Biblical, and yet now looking back, I realize my heart was consumed with the sin of pride. Yikes!!! We’re so arrogant, we would say, “If I was self-deceived, I would know it.” … Hello? That is precisely the horror of the sin of pride – I can be absolutely consumed with it and be the last one to know it. Interesting the verse says, “he is deceiving himself.” I would suggest that usually the people around us see our pride quite clearly.

While I’m on the subject, could I suggest that is a big reason why the church in America has been so utterly ineffective? While we met together four or five times a week and sang “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” and congratulated ourselves how “right” we were, all the rest of the world could see was our arrogant, offensive pride. At the root of it all is that we have been legalists and, like the Pharisees, that only fed our pride and kept us walking in the flesh, even as we were so impressed with ourselves. Had we been walking in the Spirit, what the world would have seen is love. They would have known we were Christians by our love. The same thing happened to England in the 19^th century. Even while men the likes of Charles Spurgeon and J.C. Ryle preached to them, the country went to hell in a handbasket. They sat under some of the greatest preaching in human history, congratulated themselves on being so right, then fought like cats and dogs, ruled their colonies in unbelievable cruelty, and played right into Satan’s hands turning an entire empire away from Christ. In the 20^th century, the church in America, like Judah of old, only followed her sister in evil and turned legalism into the very warp and woof of what a nation thinks Christianity is all about. So, so sad. Our evil, arrogant legalism has almost completely eclipsed the face of God in people’s hearts. Thinking ourselves to be something being nothing.

I suppose I’m off on a rabbit-trail, but, God help me, I want to be a person who prays hard against the sin of pride. Only God can deliver us from it. It is self-deceiving. That is the very problem – I don’t see it. I desperately need God to open my eyes, to help me to see it, to help me actually repent of it, then to protect me from being proud that I’m so humble(!). God deliver us.

Back to our passage, let us simply write it down that, whether we see it or not, our evil pride will prevent us from “bearing one another’s burdens.” Let us resolve to prayerfully seek to walk in the Spirit, that we might be delivered from our pride, and that we might in fact see clearly to know when others need us and actually lend a shoulder to help.

The passage goes on still, but I think I will end this post here and come back to finish in another. In the meantime, once again, my heart is telling me I don’t “got it” yet. The freight train of this truth still hasn’t rolled over my evil heart. I will continue praying the Lord would open my pride-blinded eyes and see where I can change, see where somehow Spirit-indwelling ought to make me a different person.