Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
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.
Galatians 5:23-6:10 NIV
My late mother was an artist (you can find some of her work online at daphnemasonart.com). As I have spent more time with art historians, dealers, collectors and curators, the number one thing I have learnt is that, with works of art, context trumps everything else. There is certainly nothing wrong with loving a painting because you like the way it looks, but that isn’t how any of the professionals will see it: they will see it in context, and if they can’t determine the context then they will either lose interest – or go digging to find out more.
The best reason for breaking the Bible up into books, chapters and verses is that we can reference a particular saying very accurately. Isaiah 54:1 may be translated differently in your Bible from mine, but it is still recognisably the same verse.
The worst consequence of breaking the Bible up into books, chapters and verses is that we read it in small chunks and often as if each verse or pair of verses has no connection to the verses which precede or follow it. As a result, we often misread Scripture because we are missing the context. In the book of Proverbs, for example, that is no great problem; proverbs are just that – pithy one-liners which need not connect to those before or after them. In a book like Paul’s letter to the Galatian Church, or in the Gospels, this failure to see the whole robs us of understanding.
So let’s look at this passage from Galatians 5 and 6; on this occasion I won’t burden you by showing all my working in the Greek, but this is how the passage actually flows; and it is a pretty continuous thought:
“Those who belong to Christ crucified (or fenced off) the flesh with its sufferings and yearnings. If we live by the Spirit, let us also form up (in the military marching sense) on the Spirit. Let us not become vainglorious, calling out or challenging one another, bearing malice to one another. But brothers, if a man is detected in some failure or false step, let you who are with the Spirit restore such a one in the gentlest of spirits, keeping watch on yourselves lest you also come under attack. Carry one another’s burdens and thus operate (or satisfy, fulfil) the law of Christ. For if it seems to someone that he is something when he isn’t, he deceives his own heart (or soul – actually, his midriff, the seat of emotions!); so let each assay (test out the value of) his own work, and then to himself alone he has something to boast about – but not to the other person (i.e. including the person you are working to restore); for each person raises his own crop. But let the person being taught the word (i.e. in this case, the person being restored) have a share with the one teaching in all good things. Don’t be led astray; God isn’t fooled (sneered at). For what a man may sow, that is what he will harvest. Because the one who sows to the flesh, from the flesh will harvest a crop; and the one sowing to the Spirit, from the Spirit will harvest eternal life. Let us not behave remissly in doing good, for in the right time we will have our own harvest if we don’t faint or fail. Therefore, as and when we have opportunity, let us work good for everyone, most of all to those of the house of faith.”
(Gal 5:23-6:10, my rendering)
Apologies for the lack of paragraph breaks, but I am making a point. Or rather, Paul is.
This whole passage (and what comes before and after it) is about the difference it makes (or should make) that we live in and by the Spirit; we are formed up on Him, which in turn implies there are lots of us together (who ever saw a military unit of just two people?) which in turn means if someone does make a hash, the rest of the squad can restore him in the gentlest of spirits, while making sure they don’t get attacked themselves; which means not getting too cocky about their own work to others, because there is this balance between, yes, we all raise our own crop, but we also operate in the law of the Kingdom when we help each other carry our load. And so on.
And once we are reading this holistically, we should be able to read Galatians 6:6 correctly, because now it makes sense in the context. Generations of believers have used this verse to say that the person being taught the word should share all the good things he has with the person teaching him. “You teach me, I give you food, lodging, money, whatever.” The only problem is that the Greek is specific and in the opposite direction; let the person being taught the word have a share with the person doing the teaching in all good things.
If that causes you to say “what?”, consider Jesus. You may have locked on to one reference to a group of woman providing for the disciples, and fitted that into your received picture of blessed poverty as the Christian norm. What you are missing is that Jesus provided the fish (repeatedly), the bread (repeatedly), the ocean of wine at Cana, and – as you will know if you have read the Seeing the Kingdom book the house in which they could meet, eat meals with Pharisees and sinners and from which desperate men could remove the roof tiles in order to get their friend to Jesus.
And consider Paul, who most often paid his own way and that of his team, by stitching tents.
And logically, once you understand that the kingdom of this world only provides lack and that all good answers are in the Kingdom of God, then of course, it is the person who can teach the (real) word who has good things to share. And if you are helping restore someone who has blundered and fallen over, you probably need to share good things with them as they get back on their feet.
Does that mean there can’t be a two way flow, between teacher and taught. Of course not. But like Paul you will be able to say, “I rejoice in your gift, not because I needed it, but because it is a mark of what we share and what we have in common, our fellowship in the service of the gospel and in our shared citizenship in His Kingdom.”
Seeing the Kingdom 