FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Galatians 6:1-10

Evaluating Your Work (verses 3-5) – Continued

If a Christian’s careful examination of his life indicates that at least to some extent the love of Christ is being expressed through his actions, then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. At first reading these words seem to contradict what Paul has just said. If he has just warned against the self-deception of pride, how can he now say that a Christian can boast in himself? What Paul is doing here is contrasting two kinds of boasting. These two kinds of boasting are clarified a few verses later where Paul says, “they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:13-14). The teachers of the law were boasting on the basis of comparisons between the circumcised and the uncircumcised. They were the circumcised, the faithful people of God; the uncircumcised Gentile sinners were despised and excluded. But such boasting on the basis of a comparison of national differences or religious practices was all passé. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything” (Galatians 5:6). Paul vows never to boast in his own standing as a pedigreed member of the Jewish nation or in his zealous devotion to the Jewish traditions. But Paul the Christian continues to boast: he boasts in the cross of Christ. That is his boast in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul boasted in the cross because the cross was the ultimate display of the love of God for sinners. When we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection, that love of God for sinners can be expressed through us by the power of the Spirit. That by itself is the reason for Christians to boast!

It is important to stress that the boasting of Christians is not in the “flesh” boasting in racial superiority and religious practices. Such boasting is like that of the Pharisee who said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12). Notice how his boasting is based on the kind of comparison with others which Paul expressly forbids in Galatians 6:4. The boasting of Christians is paradoxical: it is a boasting in something considered shameful by the standards of the world. That the Messiah should suffer on a Roman cross was shameful. But by His cross “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). That Christians should serve each other by carrying each other’s burdens was also considered shameful from the perspective of the world’s values. But when the self-sacrificing love of Christ is seen in the actions of Christians, there is reason for boasting. Christians should celebrate that they can love because of their experience of the cross of Christ and the power of the Spirit.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Galatians 6:1-10

Evaluating Your Work (verses 3-5). Paul turns back again to the need for personal evaluation. Self-evaluation is necessary since there is always the danger of self-deception. Personal evaluation must be made on the basis of a careful examination of one’s own work, not on the basis of comparison with others. Personal evaluation should clarify one’s God-given mission in life.

The warning against self-deception enlarges upon the warning against conceit (Galatians 5:26) and temptation (Galatians 6:1). The most serious spiritual danger of all is the self-delusion of pride: someone who thinks he is something, when he is nothing. In the immediate context, Paul’s rebuke must be aimed at those who thought so highly of their own status that they were unwilling to take the role of servants to carry the burdens of others. The Jewish Christian law teachers were so impressed with the importance of their mission of imposing the Mosaic law on Gentile believers that they had no time or interest to bear the sin-burdens of “Gentile sinners” who had come to Christ. The Gentile Christians were so intent on coming under the yoke of the law to establish their status as full members of the favored Jewish people that they did not lift a finger to help carry the burdens of their fellow Christians.

These zealots’ pride in the law kept them from serving one another in love. And so, thinking themselves to be something, they were in fact nothing. For as Paul says in another letter, “if I . . . have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Instead of loving one another, these zealots for the law were provoking one another (Galatians 5:26). Their arrogance caused them to react in angry condemnation toward those who sinned, rather than to help restore sinners by carrying their burdens. No wonder then that Paul interweaves this warning against the self-delusion of pride with his call to service. Only those who are freed from delusions of their own importance will be able to serve others in love.

The only way to prevent self-deception is to examine the value of one’s own work: let each one test his own work. The term Paul uses for test means to examine for the purpose of determining true worth. As the jeweler examines a precious stone under a magnifying glass in very bright light to determine its worth, so each Christian should scrutinize his or her actions to determine their true worth before God. The standard used for this evaluation is the law of Christ: the love of Christ expressed in His life and death and produced by His Spirit in all who believe in Him. Paul has said that the only thing that counts is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). In other words, to examine one’s work is to evaluate whether one’s faith in Christ is expressing itself in Christlike actions of love.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Galatians 6:1-10

Carrying Burdens (verse 2) – Continued

In contrast to this attitude, Paul says that the law of Christ is fulfilled when His people carry the burdens of sinners! Serving sinners in the church, not separating sinners from the church, is the way to fulfill the law of Christ. The evangelist Vance Havner used to say, “Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints!” This is so very true in the light of Paul’s teaching. There are two striking parallels between this reference to the law of Christ in Galatians 6:2 and the quotation of the love commandment from the law of Moses in Galatians 5:13-14. First, both “laws” are prefaced by parallel references to mutual service: “through love serve one another” and bear one another’s burdens. Second, in both places Paul uses the term fulfill to describe what happens when mutual service is performed: “for the whole law is fulfilled” and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ.

These parallels in Galatians 5:13-14 and Galatians 6:2 indicate that despite the great contrast between keeping the law of Moses and fulfilling the law of Christ, there is also a close connection between Moses’ law and Christ’s law.

The law of Christ is not so much the law taught by Christ, though of course He did teach and apply the love commandment. But when He taught the love commandment, He directed attention to Himself: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). The law of Christ is the love commandment fulfilled, confirmed and heightened in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. He loved sinners and gave Himself for them (Galatians 2:20); on the cross He bore the terrible burden of the law’s curse against them (Galatians 3:13); He set them free from the burden of the yoke of slavery under the law (Galatians 5:1). Hence all who are united with Christ and are led by the Spirit will also fulfill the high standard of love established by the life, death and resurrection of Christ: like Him, they will love sinners and carry their burdens. Serving one another in love in this way expresses Christ’s love and so fulfills Christ’s law.

And here is a delightful surprise: those who have received the Spirit and have been set free from the Mosaic law actually fulfill the requirements of the Mosaic law (see Romans 8:4) summed up in the single command “Love your neighbor as yourself”! Christlike, Spirit-empowered love fulfills the law.

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved

Scripture Reference: Galatians 6:1-10

Carrying Burdens (verse 2). Paul turns again to the corporate responsibility of all Spirit-led Christians: Bear one another’s burdens. “Through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13) means to bear each other’s burdens. After all, bearing burdens is the work of servants. The term burdens may refer to all kinds of physical, emotional, mental, moral or spiritual burdens: for example, financial burdens, the consequences of cancer or the results of divorce. The list of burdens crushing fellow Christians could be extended indefinitely. And no doubt the command to carry each other’s burdens covers every conceivable kind of burden and calls for us to be sensitive enough to perceive even the unseen burdens that our brothers and sisters try to hide.

But in the context the command seems to be directed primarily to the burdens of sin referred to in Galatians 6:1. When we carry each other’s burdens in this way, we will fulfill the law of Christ. Paul’s reference to the law of Christ here establishes a striking contrast between fulfilling the law of Christ and keeping the law of Moses. Keeping the law of Moses was the preoccupation of the teachers of the law and all who followed their message in the Galatian churches. But their focus was on how the observance of the Mosaic law separated God’s people, the Jewish nation, from “Gentile sinners” (Galatians 2:15). Circumcision, purity and dietary laws, and sabbath and festival regulations were boundary markers established by the law of Moses to preserve the unique identity of the Jewish people. Maintaining the ethnic identity of the Jewish people by observing these boundaries was viewed as a fulfillment of the purpose of the law of Moses. All who lived within these boundaries would certainly enjoy the blessing of God; all who lived outside of these boundaries by neglecting to observe them were under God’s curse. The teachers of the law insisted that the Gentile believers had to live within these boundaries to be reckoned among the people of God. Their zeal for the law made them intolerant of all nonconformists to these standards.

Paul knew from his own experience in Judaism before his encounter with Christ how destructive such zeal for the law could be (Galatians 1:13-14). His conflict with “false brothers” in the Jerusalem church (Galatians 2:4-5) and with Peter in the church at Antioch confirmed how quickly zeal for the law could divide the church by classifying Gentile believers as “Gentile sinners” and excluding them from the people of God. And now the zealous teachers of the law are inciting Christians in the Galatian churches to bite, devour, provoke and envy each other. Ironically, their preoccupation with keeping the Mosaic law resulted in breaking the central commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31).

To Be Continued

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved