Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to 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 and sisters. Amen.

• Galatians 6:1-18

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Galatians 6:1 ‘overtaken’: “Lit. ‘caught,’ which may imply the person was actually seen committing the sin or that he was caught or snared by the sin itself. you … spiritual. Those believers who are walking in the Spirit (see note on 5:16), filled with the Spirit (see notes on Eph. 5:18-20; Col. 3:16), and evidencing the fruit of the Spirit (see notes on 5:22, 23). restore. Sometimes used metaphorically of settling disputes or arguments, it literally means “to mend” or “repair;’ and was used of setting a broken bone or repairing a dislocated limb (Heb. 12:12, 13; … Rom. 15:1; 1 Thess. 5:14, 15). The basic process of restoration is outlined in Matthew 18:15-20. spirit of gentleness. See …·5:23 (cf. 2 Cor. 2:7; 2 Thess. 3:15). considering. Also ‘looking to, observing.’ The Greek form strongly emphasizes a continual, diligent attentiveness.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 6:2 ‘share each other’s burdens’: “We should carry one another’s spiritual burdens by helping one another in our soul struggles. There should be real fellowship, and we should converse with one another. We who are joyous might often lend some of our sunbeams to those who are in the dark. And we ought to do so. It would be to our own profit as well as to the profit of others.“

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Galatians 6:6 ‘all good things’: “Although this expression could refer to material compensation, the context suggests that Paul is referring to the spiritually and morally excellent things learned from the Word, in which they fellow­ ship together. Paul uses this same term to de­ scribe the gospel (Rom. 10:15; cf. Heb. 9:11).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 6:7-10 ‘The Judgment of the Flesh’: “Three verses focus on one’s personal eschatology.  Prophetically speaking, what one does in the Christian walk will bring on consequences that are just as certain as the fulfillment of other prophecies made in Scripture.
The apostle Paul is very concerned that the child of God may easily ‘be deceived’ in the way he lives out his moral and spiritual life (Galatians 6:7). The Greek word here, planao, means ‘to be led astray, to be led into error.’ This word is used in the present passive sense, warning the believer that such deception could be continually coming upon him and clouding his judgment as to how he lives. Paul also uses the word muktarizo (‘mock’), which means ‘to deride, to sneer at, to turn up the nose.’ If the believer thinks chat he can snub what the Lord has said, he is being led into error, and there will be a price to pay. Paul’s point is that the believer will not get away with sneering at God’s commands. There will be consequences, ‘for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap’ (verse 7).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Galatians 6:7 ‘You reap what you sow’: “Think for a moment of your heart as a greenhouse … And your heart, like a greenhouse, has to be managed.
“Consider for a moment your thoughts as seed. Some thoughts become flowers. Others become weeds. Sow seeds of hope, and enjoy optimism. Sow seeds of doubt, and expect insecurity. …
“The proof is everywhere you look. Ever wonder why some people have the Teflon capacity to resist negativism and remain patient, optimistic, and forgiving? Could it be that they have diligently sown seeds of goodness and are enjoying the harvest?
“Ever wonder why others have such a sour outlook? Such a gloomy attitude? You would, too if your heart were a greenhouse of weeds and thorns.“

• Max Lucado, Just Like Jesus

Galatians 6:9-10 ‘Keep Going’: “The story is told that the great Polish pianist and composer Ignace Paderewski was scheduled to perform in Philadelphia. While the audience was arriving and making their way to their seats, unbeknownst to his mother, a young boy disappeared down the aisle to the foot of the stage.
The spotlights shone on the beautiful piano, positioned center stage for the long­ awaited concert. The young lad was fascinated by the piano, so he climbed onstage and onto the piano bench and, to the shock of everyone in the concert hall, played his own version of “Chopsticks.” Immediately, some shouts started:
“Who is that boy?” “Where are his parents?” “Get him off the stage and away from that piano!”
Offstage, Paderewski had heard the commotion. He walked onstage behind the young boy, and leaning over him, he began to play the most beautiful melody around the simple tune the boy was playing. As he did, Paderewski whispered in the boy’s ear:
“Don’t stop; keep going. Don’t quit; I’ll stay right here by your side.”
That’s what the Master, Jesus Christ, is saying to you as you awake to a brand­ new day in your life. Yes, the day may be weighed down at times with discouragement, disappointment, a sense of defeat, and uncertainties, but listen for Jesus’ promise: ‘Don’t stop; keep going. Don’t quit; I’ll stay right here by your side.’”

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 16 November)

Galatians 6:9 ‘An Attitude of Frogged Persistence’: “One of my favorite scenes in The Muppet Movie is when Kermit the Frog and his friends are stuck in the desert. He has been on a long journey to Hollywood, trying to fulfill a promise to himself and achieve a dream: not to become rich and famous but to “make millions happy.” But when the Studebaker he and his companions are driving breaks down, Kermit gets discouraged. His dream and his promise seem broken. He believes he has let everyone down, including himself, bringing misfortune to his traveling companions: a lady pig, a comedic bear, a piano-playing dog, a quiet chicken, and a thing-whatever Gonzo is. All seems lost.
A second Kermit shows up on the scene–his conscience, perhaps-and helps him. get some perspective. Kermit realizes that his initial promise wasn’t to his friends: it was to himself. He had set out to accomplish something bigger than himself, and the others had joined him because they believed in the dream. His dream-to make millions happy-is still a good one. And if he stays the course, he can still accomplish it. He needs to keep the dream in front of him and persevere. All is not lost.
That’s a pretty good picture of what it’s like to pursue a God-given dream. We often find ourselves stuck in the desert, discouraged when we hit a bump in the road and think we’ve let ourselves or others down. In those moments when our morale is slipping away, our integrity can begin to slip away too. We want to compromise our commitment. And it takes a new perspective to regain the motivation we need to stay the course and fulfill the dream.”

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 4 May)

Galatians 6:11 ‘Paul’s closing’: ”Paul closes his letter to the Galatians with one of the most intensely personal postscripts in the entire New Testament.
Painfully scrawling each letter, hampered by poor eyesight, he says in effect, ‘I do not glory in my flesh like these Judaizers do. They love to compel people to be circumcised. To them, each circumcision performed is another scalp they can hang on their belts as a sign they have done something for God. I don’t glory in works of the flesh. I glory only in the cross of Christ which has crucified the “old man” with all of his arrogance, ambition, and selfishness.’ “

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

Galatians 6:12 ‘good showing’: “The Judaizers were motivated by religious pride and wanted to impress others with their external piety (cf. Matt. 6:1-7). compel you to be circumcised. See … 2:3; 5:2-6. may not suffer persecution. The Judaizers were more concerned about their personal safety than correct doctrine. By adhering more to the Mosaic Law than to the gospel of Jesus, they hoped to avoid social and financial ostracism from other Jews and maintain their protected status as Jews within the Roman Empire.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Galatians 6:14 ‘boast of nothing’: “Among scholars Paul might have taken an eminent position. Yet, though he must have felt a human delight in the talents which God had given him-and must have known that he possessed them-he still says concerning them, ‘I will never boast about anything.’ He seems to take all that he had, all that he did, and all that he was, and put it all away, and come forward with no other theme upon his lips and no greater love in his heart except this-Jesus crucified for the sons of men. Jesus to be great among the nations. Jesus, the slaughtered Lamb, to be made for people their life from the dead, their salvation from going down into the pit.“

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Galatians 6:14 ‘Reflections’: ” ‘By the cross,’ Paul said, ‘I am crucified unto the world’ (see Galatians 6:14). The cross where Jesus died became also the cross where His apostle died. The loss, the rejection, the shame, belong both to Christ and to all who in very truth are His. The cross that saves them also slays them, and anything short of this is a pseudo-faith and not true faith at all. But what are we to say when the great majority of our evangelical leaders walk not as crucified men but as those who accept the world at its own value-rejecting only its grosser elements? How can we face Him who was crucified and slain when we see His followers accepted and praised? Yet they preach the cross and protest loudly that they are true believers. Are there then two crosses? And did Paul mean one thing and they another? I fear that it is so, that there are two crosses, the old cross and the new.
Remembering my own deep imperfections I would think and speak with charity of all who take upon them the worthy Name by which we Christians are called. But if I see aright, the cross of popular evangelicalism is not the cross of the New Testament. It is, rather, a new bright ornament upon the bosom of self-assured and carnal Christianity whose hands are indeed the hands of Abel, but whose voice is the voice of Cain. The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. The old cross brought tears and blood; the new cross brings laughter. The flesh, smiling and confident, preaches and sings about the cross; before the cross it bows and toward the cross it points with carefully staged histrionics, but upon that cross it will not die, and the reproach of that cross it stubbornly refuses to bear.”

• A. W. Tozer, Who Put Jesus on the Cross?

Galatians 6:17 ‘The scars of service’: ”Paul knows that his strong words in this letter will stir up anger and opposition among some in the church, but he is ready for it.
“In other words, ‘If anyone wants to make life hard for me, don’t even think about it! My life as an apostle has been costly for me. I have earned the hatred and persecution of many. I bear in my body the scars of serving the Lord Jesus:’
If you challenge the world and its ways, even if you challenge worldliness in the church-you will be resented, hated, and persecuted. You’ll be shining the light of God’s truth upon those who love darkness, and they will lash back.
“But be of good courage! Follow the example of Paul when he says, in effect, ‘It doesn’t make any difference to me. I am scarred and battered and beaten, but I glory in the Lord Jesus Christ who has taught me what true liberty is. Wherever liberty is not, wherever people are held in bondage and oppression, that’s where I will go-and I’ll point the way to liberty in Christ.’”

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

My Thoughts

Paul lists several “one liners” at the beginning of Galatians 6.  If we catch someone in sin, those who are in the Spirit should gently restore that person.

I have seen failures in that regard.  Two church elders became upset that a third elder had his son go to the Baptist church youth group because he had “a better chance to be saved.”  If you are an elder in the church, why do you not make your church the better place in which to be saved?  But the elders presented their case in a not so gentle fashion and they were asked to leave instead of the other elder.  Some of those wounds have still not been healed decades later.  But in an area of disregard to what Paul said, I was once in a church where the chairman of the board of deacons left his wife and family and moved in with another woman.  The church said nothing at all.  And then the man left that woman for a third woman, all three women still members of the church.  The point in Paul’s suggestion is restoration.  In both of these cases, nothing was restored.

We should carry each other’s burdens, but then we should carry our own load.  The burdens that we share are the difficulties in life, but the load that we carry by ourselves is the daily issues that each of us face.  In other words, we must be responsible for our own daily issues so that when a church member has difficulties we can come to their aid, since our house is already in order.

Between these comments about burdens and loads, Paul asks, “Do you think you are something?”  He suggests that we test what we think we are and if we are what we think, we should be proud of that accomplishment without comparison.  The comparison is where the sin arises.  Thinking that we are better than the other person or coveting the other person because we think we lack what they have.  Either way, strife can result.  But are we a good judge of our own abilities?  When you see the failures on talent searches, those people obviously thought more highly of their abilities than they should have done.  It might become a disaster to volunteer to sing a solo in church without letting the music director hear your voice.  And if you cannot count a column of numbers and get the correct answer, it might be disastrous to volunteer to be the church offering counter.

Then Paul uses the analogy of the sower in that we reap what we sow.  If we sow things of the flesh, we should not be surprised when we get weeds and thorns in our garden.  But if we sow things of the Spirit, we get eternal life.  I like the Max Lucado quote about this verse.  Yet another reason to avoid doubt and worry, we will reap the results.

In Galatians 6:11, Paul speaks of writing in large letters.  Many think that Paul’s thorn in the flesh of 2 Corinthians 12 is poor eyesight.  Many postulating that when Ananias went to Saul (at the time) to be part of the miracle that God performed for Paul’s eyesight to be restored was that it was not a perfect healing.  I bristle at that.  Ananias did not heal Paul, God did.  God does not do things halfway.  But, if we live long enough, most of us will have difficulties in seeing things up close.  Right now, without glasses, having had my cataract surgeries, I can read the computer screen adequately with a zoom of about 120%.  I can read it at 100%, no zoom at all, but I might have a little trouble with some letter recognition.  Without the cataract surgery, I might not be able to read the screen at all.  I have seen fellow workers, back when I was employed, having a zoom of 200% or higher and still complaining about the screen being fuzzy, yet they were too vain to get glasses.

This may not be Paul’s thorn in the flesh, rather the signs that he was getting old, but Paul was letting the Galatians know that he wrote the letter rather than dictating it to John Mark or Luke or another scribe who worked with Paul.  Paul wanted the Galatians to know that he cared enough to write the letter with his own hands.

He finishes with one final plea against anything related to the flesh, not just circumcision.  We are saved by Grace.  That means we can do nothing to obtain what God offers, so why do something?

And as Paul does, by scattering the words around the last few sentences.  I pray that you will have peace, mercy, and grace, and may the Holy Spirit be within you and guide you.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Galatians 6 1. How can you help a friend of yours with a specific burden he or she has?
“2. As you reflect on what you have ‘sown’ this year, what ‘harvest’ are you expecting: Weeds? A bumper crop? Pretty spindly plants? Why? What can you do this week to ‘sow to the Spirit’?
“3. In what ways do people today tamper with the gospel of the cross to make it less ‘offensive’ to others? Have you been tempted to do so? How?
“4. How has coming to Christ changed your attitudes toward the common values and ideas of the world? Where do you find worldly things still pressuring you? What can the group do to help?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Galatians 6 has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.