Final thoughts on Galatians
I'm going to "get 'er done" today. I've got notes stashed in with receipts and bills here in my filing system; as I read through some this morning, I realized that I still had some thoughts on Galatians I never posted.
Here goes: We left off in Gal. 5, with the theme of freedom in the Spirit. Rather than being weighted down with difficult and unnecessary Judaic law, the Galatian believers were set free in Christ. They were redeemed from their sin by His sacrifice, and Paul warned them against being dragged into a "slavery" to law when freedom in Christ was available.
Of course, there will always be people looking for a loophole! My niece Olivia is not quite two years old, and she has cleverly discovered a few tricks: she is not supposed to feed her lunch to the dogs, but if she "drops" her sandwich--whoops!--and then the dogs get it, she doesn't have to eat her sandwich anymore. If she is put down for her nap, but doesn't want to go to sleep, she can claim to have to "go potty" and since we are trying to toilet-train her, it's a sure-fire way to get up out of bed. If a 21-month old child can figure out the loopholes in the rules, anyone can.
Paul knew that some people would say, "Okay, if I'm free in Christ, that means I have no law at all." So he was quick to close the loopholes in verse 16 of chapter 5. "Live by the Spirit." If you are truly being guided by God's Holy Spirit, you won't need a law to tell you what is right or wrong. You won't be indulging in sin, or as Paul says here, gratifying "the desires of a sinful nature."
He contrasts the sinful nature with the Spirit, both in definition and in literal action (or the "fruit" of what is in your heart). The scary part is that the sinful nature doesn't just produce morally shocking deeds like orgies and witchcraft, but the much more common (and often tolerated) sins of jealousy, envy, gossip, back-biting, and even (gulp) selfish ambition. If we feel those things in our heart or do them by our speech and actions, we are indulging that sinful nature. But the fruit of the Spirit (the product of our heart) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law that limits these emotions or actions! There is no restriction to what the Spirit can produce in us.
Paul warns in chapter six that people can become judgmental about everyone else's sinful nature. Verses 1-5 give instruction on caring for sinful brothers without being caught up in sin ourselves. But in verse 7, he goes back to the comparison the sinful and spiritual natures. One of the baldest statements about judgment is contained in this verse: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Reminds me of Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out!") Paul gives the example of sowing seeds either out of our sinful nature (which will produce the fruit previously mentioned in chapter 5) or our spiritual nature.
Have you ever thought that you are constantly sowing seed? I picture a man with two bags slung over his shoulders. He walks along and dips into one bag or the other, choosing which seeds he will sow as he goes. By my speech, by my deeds, by my thoughts, I am choosing to dip into my spiritual nature or my sinful nature and scatter out the results wherever it may land. I would rather sow "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" so that I be sure that is what I will reap back when the harvest comes.
Here goes: We left off in Gal. 5, with the theme of freedom in the Spirit. Rather than being weighted down with difficult and unnecessary Judaic law, the Galatian believers were set free in Christ. They were redeemed from their sin by His sacrifice, and Paul warned them against being dragged into a "slavery" to law when freedom in Christ was available.
Of course, there will always be people looking for a loophole! My niece Olivia is not quite two years old, and she has cleverly discovered a few tricks: she is not supposed to feed her lunch to the dogs, but if she "drops" her sandwich--whoops!--and then the dogs get it, she doesn't have to eat her sandwich anymore. If she is put down for her nap, but doesn't want to go to sleep, she can claim to have to "go potty" and since we are trying to toilet-train her, it's a sure-fire way to get up out of bed. If a 21-month old child can figure out the loopholes in the rules, anyone can.
Paul knew that some people would say, "Okay, if I'm free in Christ, that means I have no law at all." So he was quick to close the loopholes in verse 16 of chapter 5. "Live by the Spirit." If you are truly being guided by God's Holy Spirit, you won't need a law to tell you what is right or wrong. You won't be indulging in sin, or as Paul says here, gratifying "the desires of a sinful nature."
He contrasts the sinful nature with the Spirit, both in definition and in literal action (or the "fruit" of what is in your heart). The scary part is that the sinful nature doesn't just produce morally shocking deeds like orgies and witchcraft, but the much more common (and often tolerated) sins of jealousy, envy, gossip, back-biting, and even (gulp) selfish ambition. If we feel those things in our heart or do them by our speech and actions, we are indulging that sinful nature. But the fruit of the Spirit (the product of our heart) is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law that limits these emotions or actions! There is no restriction to what the Spirit can produce in us.
Paul warns in chapter six that people can become judgmental about everyone else's sinful nature. Verses 1-5 give instruction on caring for sinful brothers without being caught up in sin ourselves. But in verse 7, he goes back to the comparison the sinful and spiritual natures. One of the baldest statements about judgment is contained in this verse: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Reminds me of Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out!") Paul gives the example of sowing seeds either out of our sinful nature (which will produce the fruit previously mentioned in chapter 5) or our spiritual nature.
Have you ever thought that you are constantly sowing seed? I picture a man with two bags slung over his shoulders. He walks along and dips into one bag or the other, choosing which seeds he will sow as he goes. By my speech, by my deeds, by my thoughts, I am choosing to dip into my spiritual nature or my sinful nature and scatter out the results wherever it may land. I would rather sow "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" so that I be sure that is what I will reap back when the harvest comes.