Galatians

Galatians 6:15-18 – For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

In the early church, circumcision was a big point of debate. Today, their debate seems silly to most Christians. And, we need to know that many of the debates we have would seem silly to Christians in the early church.

Do you speak in tongues?

Which Bible translation does your pastor preach from?

How do you educate your children?

Do you drink alcohol or think it’s a sin?

The list goes on and on and on…

What’s amazing is that circumcision, and few, if any, of the secondary issues we debate and discuss counts for anything. These things register zero weight on the scale of God’s justice.

What does count is being a new creation. This means being saved by Jesus’ grace, filled with the Spirit’s power, and living as a new person with a new passion to live by a new power for a new purpose! The rest, as they say, are details but not demanded.

Are you a Christian who has become a new person in Jesus Christ? If not, this needs to be your first priority above all else. If you are a Christian, live in the freedom and joy that God gives and do not let others pressure you do anything that God does not command you to.

Is there anything you cling to as being holy that is really just silly?

Galatians 1:1-2 – Paul, an apostle – not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead – and all the brothers who are with me…

Galatians 6:11 – See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

The first class I ever remember taking on the Bible was a “Bible as Literature” class taught at our public high school. I was not yet a Christian, but I was glad to take an easy elective. I can still remember the teacher saying that the New Testament was written long after the eyewitnesses were gone, and that much of it was a myth. In college, another professor said the exact same thing.

But as we read the Bible, there are times that the author simply tells us who they are. In the opening chapter of Galatians, we meet “Paul” who in the last chapter tells us “I am writing to you with my own hand”. In using “large letters”, it might mean that his penmanship was getting a bit sloppier as his hand was weary from writing so much so fast.

The New Testament has 27 books. At least 13 of those are written by Paul. He may also be the author of Hebrews, but we are unsure, as the author is unnamed. Galatians is the most widely recognized book written by Paul. In fact, many scholars use it as the baseline by which to test the authenticity of other books said to be written by Paul.

Why does this matter? Behind every human author is the Holy Spirit who is the Divine Author. We don’t need to know the human author to learn from the Divine Author. But, sometimes knowing the human author provides great insight. Paul was formerly a devout religious man who persecuted Christians. Then, Jesus saved him by grace. He went forth to preach the grace of God and plant churches, including in Galatia. After he left, religious “false brothers” came in to teach human works instead of God’s grace, encouraging people to adopt the same behaviors that Paul was saved from. This explains his personal and passionate plea for they (and us) to remain in the grace of God.

Have you read the entire New Testament?

Galatians 6:7-10 – Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

When I was a kid, I will never forget the day that one of our teachers taught us about compound interest. They showed how if we would, starting at a young age, regularly set aside some money and invest it wisely, that we’d be rich when we were older. The law of sowing and reaping is a bit like that.

In Galatians 6:7-10, Paul explains that deception is a very real possibility that God’s people must continually guard against because deception results in the mocking of God. People who are deceived commonly fail to live according to the principle of sowing and reaping that God has woven into creation. One of the basic truths of botany is that if you sow/plant a seed (i.e. an apple seed), in time you will reap/harvest a crop that corresponds with the seed that was sown (i.e. apples and not pumpkins).

For a Christian, there are only two seeds that they can sow, namely the sinful passions and desires of the flesh, and the righteous passions and desires of the Spirit. As they continually sow either of these seeds, deception may set in because they do not see any immediate benefit for sowing from the Spirit, or any immediate judgment for sowing from the flesh. But, eventually a harvest of either life or death comes from the seed sown.

The deception that sowing from the flesh does not cause a harvest of sin and death is commonly seen in the lives of people who are astonished when they awaken one day to see that sin has blossomed throughout their life. This is because they were not attentive to the law of sowing and reaping. Examples would include the nagging wives who are astonished when their husbands file for divorce, married men who flirt with other women and seem shocked that they ended up in an adulterous affair, gluttons who are astonished when they their doctor gives them their annual physical, drunkards who are astonished when they are fired from their jobs, etc.

Anyone who evaluates how they sow their time, money, energy, and words each day is confronted with the fact that they are sowing from a source (God or sin) and reaping a harvest (life or death). But this simple fact is often overlooked because of the power of deception, particularly self-deception.

Conversely, those who sow from the Spirit reap a great harvest of eternal life that is both a state of life (life with the eternal God), and a duration of life (without end). Examples would include the people who regularly repent of their sins to God and those they have offended to discover that over time some sins in their life have died altogether, those who regularly learn Scripture to discover that as they need wisdom God brings His Word to their remembrance to guide them, and those who have lovingly served people in the church to discover that in their time of need many friends rally to help them.

Where might there be deception in your life regarding sowing from the flesh instead of the Spirit?

Galatians 6:6 – Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Thank you.

In just over a year, I will turn 50 years of age. That milestone will also mean that I will have been teaching the Bible as a senior pastor for half my life, since I started at age 25.

As a Bible teacher, the older I get, the more grateful I am for the honor it is to help people learn about Jesus Christ. That anyone would invite us into the most private, personal, and practical areas of their life is an incredible kindness.

Who has helped you learn the Bible? A grandparent or parent? A mentor or friend? A pastor or professor? When Paul invites you to give back to your Bible teacher, he is inviting you to participate in the circle of grace. God gives your Bible teacher grace to impart to you from God. When you receive that impartation of grace, you are blessing the Bible teacher. When you respond in some way with grace to your Bible teacher, you are completing the circle of grace. In particular, there are three ways to do this:

1. Find ways to bless your Bible teacher. This can be praying for them, thanking and encouraging them, defending them when religious people come against them, and finding ways to bless them.
2. Find ways to bless your Bible teacher’s spouse. Most ministry spouses live under a high level of scrutiny and are often not as appreciated as they should be. A gift, kind note, act of service, or most anything goes a long way.
3. Find ways to bless your Bible teacher’s children. On many, if not most, Sundays at The Trinity Church, which we planted as a family ministry, people leave kind cards and notes for our five kids on the front row. The people in our church family are a means of grace to our family. Our kids feel incredibly loved and supported by the people in their church as the people are overt and generous with their love.

How can you bless your Bible teacher?

Galatians 6:1-5 – Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

When someone sins against us, it is common for us to want to beat them up in some way. We punish them with consequences, harsh words, letting the world know of their failure, and/or the silent treatment. Whatever the method, the motivation is the same – to beat you up in response to my feelings being hurt by you. This is giving law. Law beats people up.

But, when we sin, we want people to understand our side of things, forgive us, move on, and not make us pay. For Christians, we are even prone to pull out all the Bible verses we can think of to remind that person that you don’t need to be punished because Jesus was already punished in your place for your sin. This is giving grace. Grace builds people up.

When Jesus tell us to treat others as we want to be treated, He is saying what Galatians is echoing. This helps us to understand 3 kinds of relationships:
1. Law for one of us, grace for the other creates an abusive relationship
2. Law for both of us results in lots of critique and conflict
3. Grace for both of us is the kind of relationship that God blesses

Which relationships do you have that fit in each category?

Galatians 6:1 – Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

We recently discovered a small puddle of water underneath our water heater in the garage. Quickly, the water was sucked up into the drywall so that you could see the moisture creeping up the wall. Likely because of the dry climate of the desert which we call home, any moisture was quickly pulled further and further into our home.

By the time a repair company showed up, the small bit of water had infected not only the garage wall, but also the laundry room wall in the house, and was continuing to spread. I asked the contractor what would happen if we had been out of town on vacation for an extended period of time. We were shocked to hear him tell us that the entire house would have been infected with mold and, rather than just replacing a few walls, we’d be moving out of our home for a massive repair project.

Sin is like that water. It seems like even a little bit starts to quickly overtake and infect all of our life. People who are caught in sin are people that God loves and that we should love. To treat them with the loving grace of God, we need to treat people whose life has been overtaken by sin with the same kind of grace that God gives to us through Jesus Christ.

But we also need to be cautious. Otherwise, rather than helping them clean up their life, we can see the same sin move from their life to ours so that we are both in trouble. How does this happen? Sometimes when we know the details of someone’s sin, we feel tempted to join them. What can start with good intentions ends up with bad decisions. Next thing you know, the Christian gal trying to help the struggling guy is dating him and moving into his apartment. Or, the guys night out with good clean fun planned ends up with all the guys getting into trouble as one guy makes a dumb suggestion and the rest of the pack follows their march over the cliff. The key is to be honest about our own weaknesses as sometimes we are not the best person or in the best position to help and need to find someone else who is.

What sin of others is also a potential problem for you as well (e.g. drunkenness, sexual sin, gossip, pride, gluttony, etc.)?

Galatians 6:1 – Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

God’s grace is a bit like a car wash. It is monsoon season in the desert where we live. When the monsoons roll in, they include a downpour of rain and large dust storms. When the monsoons hit, your car gets covered in muddy dust day after day.

So, what is quite popular around the valley, especially with my wife, are the unlimited car washes. For one monthly fee, you can take as many trips through the car wash as you like. I’m certain that there are three kinds of people at our car wash:

1) People who paid the fee but never use the car wash
2) People who paid the fee and use the car wash whenever they need it
3) People who paid the fee and abuse their privileges using the car wash when they don’t need it

In life, we all have monsoon seasons and find ourselves covered in the muddy mess of sin. We always need Jesus’ grace, but especially when we have been spinning our tires in the mud.

God’s grace for dirty sinners is a bit like our car wash. Jesus paid the price for our access to unlimited grace which cleans us up. Sadly, some people keep wearing their sin and shame rather than getting cleaned up. Others abuse God’s grace by sinning over and over without much concern because they know God’s grace will cover it. But, since this grace was purchased by Jesus for us, we should use it, but not abuse it, out of love for Him and longing to become like Him.

Which of the three categories most typifies your life in this season?

Some weeks, before preparing to preach on the great section of the fruit of the Spirit that we covered in the previous devotional from Galatians 5:22-26, I felt impressed in my spirit to pray to the Lord and ask Him to reveal to me anything I might miss in the text. I don’t remember the exact words that came to mind, but I think it was “speak to the crushed”. I had no idea what that meant and did not much think about it for many days. Then, on the night before I was to preach this Scripture out of state, my youngest son and I were hanging out in the hotel room watching SportsCenter and I again felt compelled in my spirit to make a request of the Lord. At that moment, I remembered the word He had spoken to me previously and so, in silent prayer, I asked the Lord what I had missed, and He was trying to teach me about speaking to those Christians who are fruitful but crushed. Then, God brought to mind Jesus’ words in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me…bears much fruit.” The abiding that Jesus invites us to is by the power of the Holy Spirit who connects us to the vine and causes us to become fruitful. This insight was helpful, but still did not resolve my question. Then, the Lord reminded me not only of the words Jesus spoke, but also when His words were spoken. They are part of something called the Upper Room Discourse which is the final moments of Jesus’ life as He is preparing to go to the cross and be “crushed” as Isaiah 53:5 says for our sins.Then it dawned on me, the most fruitful person in world history is Jesus Christ. And, the fruit of His life was crushed for us. Today, we are the “first fruits” of God and give God our “first fruits”. Today, the Church is a new wineskin created by God to house the new wine of the new covenant.The point? Some fruit is harvested to be enjoyed, and other fruit is harvested to be crushed. But the crushed fruit often produces the most amazing newness on the other side of the crushing. Reading this are many people who are not perfect, but they are fruitful. The do walk in the Spirit and show forth the fruit of the Spirit. But they are confused or discouraged because their life is right now one big wine press that is crushing them. I am sorry for your pain, but excited for your future. Who you will be and the blessing you will be will be something as extraordinary as some grapes that are crushed and, over time, turn into a robust and flavorful bottle of fine wine. Where are you being crushed?

Galatians 5:19-21 – Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In full confession, I don’t fish. If you want fish, you have two options. One, you can get up early, drive to the water, drop your boat in, bait your hook, wait a long time, and maybe get a fish. Two, you can sleep in, drive to the store, and immediately get whatever fish you want. I prefer category two over category one every day.

One thing that my friends who fish tell me is that the key to fishing is knowing what bait the fish will like. Despite having a school, fish never seem to learn that behind the bait is always a hook.

The flesh in your life is the hook. Satan’s temptation is the bait.

The flesh is a person minus God. It is the standard, off-the-shelf, fallen sinner bent on folly and ruin. Living in a fallen world where the spiritual gravity only pulls us down toward hell, and this decline can pick up momentum quickly. How do you know if the flesh is ruling you instead of the Spirit filling you? Here’s the checklist for the kinds of bait that various fish like:

Sexual Sins
1. Sexual immorality – porneia (Greek)/pornographic, anything outside of heterosexual marriage
2. Impurity – any moral filth that separates from God and causes ungodly shame
3. Sensuality – lack of restraint or decency so that sexuality becomes a public commodity
Spiritual Sins – ruin relationship with God
4. Idolatry – someone or something other than God is the center of our life
5. Sorcery – spirituality without the Spirit
Social Sins – ruin relationship with others
6. Enmity – hatred and unforgiveness, which creates enemies
7. Strife – conflict and drama that can become exhausting
8. Jealousy – coveting someone else and what they have rather than being content with what you have
9. Fits of anger – emotionally untethered and moody
10. Rivalries – ladder climbing and unholy competing so that we win, and they lose
11. Dissensions – an “us vs them” mentality as people are recruited much like soldiers for a battle
12. Divisions – 2 visions rather than having one vision, God’s vision, for life
13. Envy – passive-aggressive seething
14. Drunkenness – can be any abused substance
15. Orgies – partying/dating, relating, and fornicating
16. And things like these – any other naughtiness that did not make the list as sinners can get creative

Which of these is tempting bait for you? What has the hook been for you?

Galatians 5:16-18 – But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

When I was a little boy, one of my favorite people was my grandpa George. Sadly, he died what I was 10 years old. Gladly, all of my memories with him are fun. My grandfather loved people and loved to tell stories. He also liked to work with his hands, as he was a diesel mechanic, and also taught me how to handle a bandsaw. My grandpa George also liked to eat. He was no little man and, as he grew older, preferred wearing overalls to pants because he could let the straps out after a good meal.

My grandpa was not a big rule maker or rule keeper, so it’s fair to say he leaned rebellious. My grandma, however, thought that rule making and punishing for rule breaking was a spiritual gift, so it’s fair to say she leaned religious.

When I would stay at my grandparents’ home as a boy, when she tucked me in, grandma gave me rules – no getting up, no staying awake, no going outside, etc. Grandpa would then give me a wink.

The wink was a code between my grandpa and me. It meant I should only pretend to be asleep, and once grandma was asleep, me and grandpa could sneak up to eat caramel apples, black licorice, and watch the old school fake “Big Time” wrestling with a bevy of big guys in their underwear pounding on each other. My grandpa loved wrestling, and since I loved my grandpa, I learned to love it too.

All was well, until one fateful night. I was either sick, or ate too much sugar and made myself sick, and felt I was going to throw up. Sensing the eruption, my grandpa told me I could not throw up and make noise or we’d both be busted by grandma.

So, I clenched my throat.

And, I blew all the black licorice out through my nose.

That was, for me, a conversion experience. In that moment, a switch was flipped in my soul. Until that moment, I loved black licorice. Since that moment, I have hated black licorice.

Becoming a Christian is a bit like that. Non-Christians cannot fathom why anyone would want to do the things Christians do – like read the Bible, confess sins, worship God, give a tenth of all we make to ministry, etc. This is because the non-Christian has not yet had the Holy Spirit change their nature, causing them to be born again as a new person who has a new power to live out new desires.

In counseling, you quickly learn that the “want to” must precede the “how to” for any positive life change to occur. The Holy Spirit changes our “want to”. Suddenly, we do not see the Christian life as a series of things we are forced to do because of religious laws. Instead, we see the Christian life as a series of things we get to do, and we want to do, because the Holy Spirit has changed our appetite.