Dr. Rodney Plunket

Galatians 6

Today we come to the final sermon in our series from Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia.  We will focus on the final chapter in this great letter.

Something dawned on me as I was studying this chapter.  It dawned on me as I reflected upon the very first sentence of this chapter.  Listen to that sentence, “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.”  Paul speaks of the restoration of a transgressor “in a spirit of gentleness.”

However, if you look back at the contents of this letter you observe a radical contrast between what Paul is asking for in Galatians (Gal) 6:1 and what Paul has actually done in the course of this letter.  I want you to feel that contrast, so please open your Bible and follow along as I read from some earlier sections of Galatians.  Let’s begin at Gal 1:8-9.  There Paul says,

if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!  As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

Please look at Gal 2:11:  “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned.”  Look at the first two clauses of Gal 3:1.  There Paul says,  “You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?”  In Gal 3:10 he says, “all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.’”  Gal 5:2 & 4 say,

Listen!  I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you . . . .  You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Paul’s verbiage in Gal 5:12 could hardly be stronger.  He says, “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!”

Do you see the problem that these verses raise?  How can Paul, in Gal 6:1, ask his readers to “restore” a transgressor “in a spirit of gentleness” when he has been anything but gentle with the “transgressors” he has targeted?  Is the apostle holding his readers to a standard that he refuses to adopt?

I think this perceived tension conveys to us a powerful lesson.  And I found it helpful to look back at Gal 5:7-9 in order to see that lesson.  In those verses Paul says, “You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?  Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.  A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.”  The Greek word translated as “yeast” here is the word zymeœ (pronounced zoó-meœ).  Now turn with me to the only other place where Paul uses this Greek word.  Turn to 1 Corinthians (1 Cor) 5 and please follow along as I read verses (vv) 1-8.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife.  And you are arrogant!  Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?

For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing.  When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Your boasting is not a good thing.  Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?  Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened.  For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.  Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

What I hope you see from a comparison of these quite similar passages is that Paul is extremely strong when targeting a person or persons polluting the community of faith.  He is biting and aggressive and anything but gentle when evil “yeast” is infecting the community of faith.  In 1 Corinthians the infection is the sin of incest.  In Galatians the infection is a false teaching that has already separated some of them from the saving and transforming power of Christ.  Infection of the com­munity of faith is not dealt with “in a spirit of gentleness.”  Infection is dealt with by removing the offending party.

So what dawned on me as I read and reflected upon Gal 6:1 in light of the earlier portions of this letter was Paul’s passion for the community of faith.  That is the kind of passion I believe God wants us to have for this body of believers.

What I have come to realize then is that the passion of Paul’s biting indictment of polluters is equaled by Paul’s passion that believers love one another with a Spirit-empowered love.  Remember that Paul is the author of the great love chapter in 1 Cor 13.  Remember that it is Paul in Philippians 2:3 who says, “let each of you regard one another as more important than yourself.”  And in Col. 3:14 it is Paul who says, “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  And it is this same Paul who, in Gal 5:6, says, “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”

In fact, let’s notice that Paul begins explicitly to emphasize care for one another soon after his statement that “the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”  In Gal 5:13 he says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love become slaves to one another.”  In Gal 5:15 he says,  “If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”  And both the works of the flesh list in Gal 5:19-21 and the fruit of the Spirit list in Gal 5:22-24 focus on issues related to love and unity.  Now look down to the final verse of Gal 5.  In Gal 5:26, Paul says, “Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.”

All of these verses in Gal 5 lead naturally and powerfully to Paul’s statements in Gal 6:1-10.  Now let’s notice three of those statements from the first ten verses of Gal 6.  These statements highlight the importance of active love for each member of the community of faith.  Verse 1, as we have already noted, tells us to “restore” the believer who transgresses “in a spirit of gentleness.”  Verse 2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  And notice how Paul concludes this paragraph.  In v 10 he says, “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”

So Paul fights passionately against pollution of the family of believers, because he is so committed to that family.  In Galatians he is fighting a polluted teaching that is turning believers away from true Spirit-empowered transformation.  He is fighting a polluted teaching that is pulling the believers into a religion of external observances, a religion that produces slavery to the dark and sinister “elemental spirits of this world” (Gal 4:3).  He is fighting a polluted teaching that is pulling his readers into the works of the flesh and away from the fruit of the Spirit.  So he fights with vigor.  But he wants the believers to love and care for one other with that same degree of vigor.  Paul wants the church to be filled with love, and he knows that can only happen when the church is filled with the Holy Spirit.  He knows that can only happen when Christians have the power of the indwelling Christ within them (see Gal 2:20).  Paul, in other words, is writing this letter, as he reveals in Gal 4:19, so that Christ might be formed within them.  The result of that forming is a love that will fill and bless the Galatian churches.

The Broadway church is committed to the vision of “Ever Becoming a People of Love.”  Our journey toward a greater and greater realization of that vision is accelerated by this powerful letter from the apostle Paul.  Let’s “restore” those who transgress “in a spirit of gentleness.”  Let’s “bear one another’s burdens.”  Let’s “work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”  And let’s fight “the yeast” that can pollute this community.  Let’s vigorously oppose those who would turn our faith into a religion of external observances.  We will do all of these things and more beside as the indwelling Christ flows through us.  Let’s focus on the indwelling Christ being formed within us.

The remainder of this letter Paul writes with his own hand.  There are clear indications that Paul did not write with his own hand very often.  Paul normally transcribed his letters to someone else (see Romans 16:22).  But in five of his letters he specifically mentions writing a portion near the end with his own hand (see 1 Cor 16:21; Gal 6:11; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17; Philemon 1:19).

Look at Gal 6:11.  There Paul says, “See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!”  This suggests that Paul’s eye problem, alluded to earlier in Gal 4:12-15, affected his vision in such a way that he had to write with large letters in order to see what he was writing.

But I want to draw your attention to only two verses in this section in Paul’s own handwriting.  Please look with me at Gal 6:14-15.

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!

Paul, in these two verses, powerfully focuses upon the cross of Christ and powerfully reveals the impact of that cross.  Paul has been crucified to the world by that cross, and the world has been crucified to him.  That is, he has died to the world.  He has died to the power of that world.

Several scholars connect this statement, near the end of Galatians, to a statement near its beginning.  We have called attention to that earlier statement many times during this series, but I want to do so again.  In Gal 1:3-4 Paul declares that “the Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age.”  Paul seems to be saying the same thing in Gal 6:15 but in a different way.  The believer, Paul reveals, has died to that old power that characterizes the present evil age, that characterizes this world.  The believer has been made alive to a new power––the new power which Paul refers to here as the power of new creation.  That new power is everything.  That new power has come into our lives because of the power of the cross which has broken the chokehold of the world.

Praise God for the cross.  Let’s boast; let’s glory in the cross.  And every time we think of that cross, let’s remember that through it we have been crucfied to the world.  We have the power of new creation.

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