Bear One Another's Burdens
Tom Shrader walks through Galatians 6:1-10, emphasizing that spiritually mature believers are called to gently restore those caught in sin, not with superiority or judgment, but with humility and love. He unpacks the distinction between burdens too heavy to carry alone and loads each person must bear individually, grounding both in the law of Christ—to love one another as He has loved us. The passage closes with Paul's warning against self-deception in the principle of sowing and reaping, and an encouragement not to grow weary in doing good.
“Develop the extraordinary skill for detecting the burdens of others and devote yourself daily to making them lighter.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Galatians: Fighting for Grace
Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 54 min
Themes: bearing burdens, restoring others, humility, accountability, sowing and reaping, doing good, love, gentleness, struggling with sin, judging others, mentor, navigating conflict, feeling weary, new believer, small group leader, supporting a struggling friend
Scripture: Galatians 6:1-10, Galatians 5:16-26, Galatians 5:17, Galatians 5:19-21, Galatians 5:22-23, Galatians 5:24, Galatians 3:24, James 3:2, James 3:14-17, 1 John 1:8, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 13:7, Ephesians 6, John 15:12, Psalm 55:22, 1 Peter 5:7, Proverbs 16:18, Jeremiah 17:9, James 1:22, Matthew 18
Theological Themes: sanctification, law of christ, spiritual maturity, galatians, restoration, brotherly love, self-deception, walking in the spirit
Full Transcript
Introduction and Series Overview
Let me invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Galatians. We are in week 11. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand really high and the guys will be around with Bibles. If you get a Bible from us, it's page 633. We are going to look today at Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, and then next week we will look at verses 11 through 18. We will finish the book next week and then move into the new series for Easter.
After Easter, here is the order we are planning. We will do four weeks on the life of Joseph, six weeks on the life of Daniel, and that will get us into July. Then in the fall, the next book we study will be 1 Peter, and we will start that in September. So we are all set, planned out, and looking forward to it.
Recap of the Series So Far
This is week 11 in our study in the book of Galatians, and we have titled the series Fighting for Grace. To this point in the study, we have seen Paul defend his apostleship and defend the gospel. That was very biographical in chapters 1 and 2. Chapters 3 and 4 become very doctrinal.
The essence of it is this: what is the gospel? Paul says the gospel is grace plus nothing. The Judaizers had come in behind him and said no, grace is important, but then there is something you have to do too. Specifically, they were saying that to be a Christian you have to become a Jew also, so circumcision became the issue. We studied that pretty intensely through chapters 3 and 4.
When we get to chapters 5 and 6, it becomes very much application. Especially last week, we looked at verses 16 through 26 — the idea that I am either walking in the flesh or walking in the Spirit. Verse 17 says the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. So that is the battle we are in: I am either going to be led by the flesh, by the world system, by my own sinful desires, or I am going to be led by the Spirit of God.
The Deeds of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit
How will we know if we are being led by the flesh or led by the Spirit? Paul gives us a very clear way to measure it. He says in verse 19 that the deeds of the flesh are evident — they are obvious — and then he lists them. We went through them last week: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, outbursts of anger, jealousy, strife, and things like these. He also says at the end of verse 21, "I have told you before," making clear this is not new territory.
If I am being led by the flesh, that is what I will see in my life. Verse 22 says that if I am being led by the Spirit, I will see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Our call, stated in verse 24, is to crucify the flesh and its passions. If we live by the Spirit, we walk by the Spirit.
The Transition into Chapter 6
Verse 26 serves as a wonderful transition into chapter 6 verse 1. It is worth noting that these letters were not originally written with chapters and verses — those were added afterward — so verse 26 could naturally be placed at the opening of chapter 6. It reads: "Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another."
Paul is saying he does not want believers to be known for bragging, provoking, or envy. Rather, there should be a spirit of love, graciousness, gentleness, helpfulness, and support. And that spirit, even in the midst of confronting sin — which is what we encounter in chapter 6 verse 1 — should be not punishing or punitive, but restoring. He is calling us not to think in a selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed way, but to think about people other than ourselves.
When we fall in love with the Creator God of the universe, His Spirit invades our hearts, opens our eyes, gives us a desire to be with Him and to serve Him, and that then overflows into our relationships with each other.
Reading Galatians 6:1–10
When we get to chapter 6 verse 1, we are struck right away by what Paul says. Someone described this passage as almost like a series of Christian fortune cookies — there is a saying, then another, then another, and a couple that seem a little disjointed — but overall we can see how it comes together.
Here is what he says: "Brethren, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted." That is very clear: here is what needs to be done, here is who does it, and here is how it is to be done. He is continually bringing us back to examine our own lives, and he is suggesting that dealing with one another's sin is part of the Christian life — and that in doing so, we must remain deeply self-aware.
"Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another." Paul wants us to look at our own lives and evaluate them — not by comparing ourselves to each other, but by comparing ourselves to God's standard.
Being Spiritual Means Engaging, Not Withdrawing
You are going to realize that apart from Christ, you are absolutely nothing. Verse six seems to be totally out of context with the rest of this: "The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches." Then verse seven gives us a principle of sowing and reaping: "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows he will 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."
"Let us not lose heart in doing good." I find that a rather alarming statement. I remember the first time I ever read it, I was thinking, really? Why would I get tired of doing good? But now that I have done it for a while, I get it. "For in due time you will reap, if you don't grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are in the household of the faith."
Sin is something that is present in the world, and it is present in the life of the believer as well. James 3:2 tells us, "We all stumble in many ways." First John 1:8 says, "If we say we have not sinned we make God a liar and His word is not in us." When we get to Ephesians chapter six, Paul talks about the armor of God — put on the full armor of God — because we are in a battle against the devil and his schemes. He is crafty. We put it on once and for all and leave it on for all time, 24/7, for the rest of our lives.
We know, then, that as followers of Christ we do not simply cease to sin. In fact, there is almost a sense in which you become more aware of your sin, because you see things that before you dismissed and now you realize are sins you had not even thought about before. Sin is present in our lives as followers of Christ, and it needs to be dealt with.
When we sin, we do not break our union with God, but we jeopardize our communion with Him. We also jeopardize our own usefulness. We jeopardize the body, because when we sin we affect one another. First Corinthians 12 tells us we are one body joined together, and when one sins it affects all of us.
Caught in a Trespass
Paul is saying this is serious business. In the midst of sin, we are going to come in contact with those who are — look at the phrase in verse one — "caught in any trespass." There are two possible ideas here. One is being caught in the act, like the woman who was caught in adultery, right in the middle of it, with eyewitnesses present. The other idea is being caught up in or overtaken by a trespass, meaning one who has missed the mark or is stumbling. Paul is saying there are going to be people involved in sin, and those who are spiritual need to come alongside and deal with it.
I would acknowledge up front that this is not something we do often or do well. We tend to ignore it. And yet Paul says it is absolutely important for the individual and for the body as well. He is not saying we can do this in some cavalier way. He is not appointing us as the sin police, going around inspecting everybody, looking for who is in the midst of some transgression so we can identify them, shine a spotlight on them, punish them, be punitive, perhaps cut them out of the body, or — worse yet, and we will get into this — expose that sin to all sorts of people.
Paul says no. There will be those who are caught in sin, and you need to come alongside them. Going back to verse 26, this must not be done with a spirit of boasting, provoking, or envy, but must be done by those who are spiritual.
What It Means to Be Spiritual
There are all sorts of ideas about what it means to be spiritual. I was reading a story of a man who built a pole with a platform on it in the center of town and went to live up there for six years to remove himself from the earth, from people, and from sin — and somehow that was considered super spiritual. You read about monks or nuns who withdraw into a cloister, and the idea is that withdrawing from the culture is spiritual. We have all sorts of ideas about what spirituality looks like, but here is what God says.
Going back to chapter five, if I am led by the Spirit, if I am walking in the Spirit, my life will be manifesting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Paul could have come in and said, "Here is the fruit of the Spirit," and listed any activity. He does not list any activity. He says, "Here is how I know if I am really being led by the Spirit," and then gives us those nine characteristics. He identifies them in the singular — love is — though there are nine of them. He says these things all come together.
The other thing that struck me as I was putting this together is that at least eight of them require interaction with other people or other circumstances. I do not know if I am loving until I am in contact with those who are unlovable. I do not know if I have joy until I am in difficult circumstances. I do not know if I have peace until I experience the hardship of life. I do not know if I have patience until I am in trying circumstances, or with people who push and push and push right to the edge.
So here are these people who are caught in trespasses. Those who are led by the Spirit need to deal with this, and the purpose is to restore. The word means literally to mend or to repair — like setting a broken bone or putting back in place a dislocated shoulder. One author writes that a Christian who is critical and judgmental as he attempts to help a fallen brother does not show the grace of Christ or help his brother, and instead stumbles him.
Restoring Without Superiority or Inferiority
If you are going to be about this, Paul says, then you need to take a look at your own life and understand that you are not moving out of either superiority or inferiority. Either one of those will distort the way you deal with this person. It is not that you are coming along spiritual while they are not, feeling superior and wanting to flex your spiritual muscle. Nor should you be feeling inferior and thinking you now have an upper hand because you know something about them.
Here is what should be done: a person should be restored, returned to a former condition. One author puts it this way — sometimes Christians notice the broken bone of sin but never get past making a diagnosis. They simply stand around talking about what bad shape the sinner is in: "Would you look at that broken bone? Just look at the way it's sticking out. Boy, am I glad I don't have a fracture like that." Meanwhile, the brother or sister continues in the pain of sin. This kind of treatment is better known as gossip.
Sadly, there are even times when Christians condemn sinners, blaming them or even punishing them for needing to go to spiritual emergency rooms in the first place. People become afraid to talk about their sin because they know the very act of talking about it will result in being put down rather than encouraged and supported. Instead of being met with "I really admire that," they are treated like outcasts, harshly scolded for being spiritually out of joint — while those scolding them apparently forget that they themselves are sinners in need of grace.
The Call to Gentle Restoration
So in the midst of sin, what should be done is to restore people. Who should do it are those who are spiritual, and it should be done — did you catch that word? — in a spirit of gentleness. F.F. Bruce writes, "One test of true spirituality is the readiness to set those who stumble by the wayside on the right road again in a sympathetic spirit." The author then adds: if we cannot do this gently, we had better not do it at all. Let someone else do it — someone spiritual enough to perform the task delicately.
When we think about restoration in terms of setting a bone, we recognize that dealing with sin can be a painful process, and sometimes a long one. This requires humility on both people's parts. It is not just the humility of the one coming forward to say, "I am in the midst of this sin." It must also be done in a spirit of humility by the one responding — not a spirit of spiritual superiority or arrogance or looking down on someone, but an understanding that by the grace of God, there go I.
Here are two paraphrases of verse one. Eugene Peterson writes: "Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's over." J.B. Phillips renders it: "Even if a man should be detected in some sin, my brothers, the spiritual ones among you should quietly set him back on the right path, not with a feeling of superiority, but being ourselves on guard against temptation."
How Restoration Works in Practice
Paul says that in dealing with sin, we should not ignore it — and most often this is not done in some formal way. It is done in the one-on-ones. That is Matthew 18: if a brother sins against you, you do not talk to others about it, you do not put it on Facebook, you do not ask friends to pray about your weak brother or weak sister. You go to that person in private and say, "Here is what happened — let's talk this through."
When we talk about church discipline, we see it happening all the time. Three or four weeks ago someone said to me, "In this situation you did this and you hurt me — you sinned against me." I said, "I'm really sorry. I'm wrong. I see what you're saying." In a sense, that is church discipline. A person sinned, and the responsibility is on the one who was sinned against to go to him. That was addressed and rectified.
Bearing Burdens and Carrying Loads
Now Paul moves to verse 2 and says, "Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." This appears to be in contradiction with verse 5, which says, "For each one will bear his own load." He is actually talking about two different things. The burden in verse 2 is like trying to carry a drum set without disassembling it — I could not possibly carry the drums by myself, so I would need Aaron to help. It is a burden beyond any one person's ability. The load in verse 5, by contrast, is something that is a burden, yes, but one I am capable of carrying on my own.
In both cases, Paul assumes something I love: that in our lives there are burdens, and in our lives there are loads. There are times when you will not be able to carry something on your own, and there are times when you can — so do not bring those manageable things in and disrupt everyone else's life with them. Some things you can handle without anyone's help. And it is not only sin that creates these burdens. The list includes sorrow, worry, doubt, fear, and failure. There are times when you are simply hurting, needy, lonely, ill, abandoned, discouraged, or depressed. The idea in verse 2 is that we are incapable of carrying this load — it is too difficult for us to lift on our own.
Bearing the Burden of Sin and Guilt
This is a very hard thing for us to see, because we can go right to our biggest burden, which is sin and the guilt associated with it, and we know we can't solve that. This whole book has been about the fact that you can't pay the price for your sin. That's the law, that's the flesh — don't even try. If you break the law, you're under condemnation.
For ten weeks, we've been saying roughly the same thing: our problem is that we're separated from God by our sin, and there are essentially two ways of responding to it. One is to self-realign, self-cleanse — to somehow please God by doing good. Paul calls that being under the law, and he said that was never the design from the very beginning.
Chapter 3, verse 24 should be all marked up, circled, and underlined: "The law became our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith." If you feel defeated in trying to be good when you understand that the standard is perfection, that's because you are. That's the whole point — you can't do it. But you can get into right relationship by coming to Christ in repentance and faith.
So there we are, carrying a burden of guilt and sin, and there's nothing we can do about it. We can't fix it. He can. "Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55:22). And First Peter, chapter 5, verse 7: "Casting all your cares on Him, because He cares for you."
Casting Your Cares: The Direct Deposit Illustration
There are two aspects to that verse. The first is simply that God cares. When we pray, the reason we do so is because God cares and we believe He can do something about it. It doesn't mean He has to do what we want Him to do, but He cares. God cares for His people the same way you care for your kids. And so we are to cast — the idea is to deposit.
The last time I taught that verse, I took it to a new level and added the idea of direct deposit. For years, I didn't handle anything at the house as it related to banking or paying bills. Susan handled it all. Then she got very, very sick, and one day I came home and our water had been turned off by the town of Gilbert. There were thousands of dollars in checking, so it wasn't a money problem — it was simply that, in the midst of everything, this had slipped through. That's my fault, not hers.
I went over to the bank and asked the teller, "Who's the most patient person you have here?" They said, "That's Hannah." I waited for Hannah, walked in with a plastic bag from Fry's filled with paperwork, and said, "Hannah, I want to tell you a story." She said, "Okay." I said, "I was married 32 years ago — she's very sick, she did everything, I did nothing, and now I have to figure this out." I spent two and a half hours with Hannah.
She said, "You don't look like you're capable of maintaining this on a monthly basis." I told her I was probably capable, I just didn't have the desire for it. So she said, "Let's put everything on AutoPay, and let's set up direct deposit for your checks from work." For anything we couldn't pay that way, I gave the appropriate people a credit card, and they'd bill it directly — which is also on AutoPay. I barely write a check now.
That's the idea behind "cast your cares on Him." As the cares of the world come in, you direct deposit them onto Him, because they're too big for you. They don't even need to hit your account. There's nothing wrong with admitting, "This is bigger than me. I can't handle this. God, You need to carry this load. You need to give me the grace."
The Law of Christ: Love One Another
So we are to bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? John 15:12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
In the study guide — and I can see people writing in them, so you have them; if you don't, you can download it for free online — under the section for deeper reflection, there is a wonderful two-paragraph article by John Piper called "The Law of Christ." Piper writes: "If a Christian brother or sister is weighed down or menaced by some burden or threat, be alert to that and quickly do something to help. Don't let them be crushed. Don't let them be destroyed. Don't be like the scribes and the Pharisees — Jesus said they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders. Don't increase the burden. Make the load lighter."
Bear One Another's Burdens
Here is a vocation that will bring you more satisfaction than if you became a millionaire ten times over: develop the extraordinary skill for detecting the burdens of others and devote yourself daily to making them lighter. That is the main point of the passage — bear one another's burdens, especially taking the trouble to help people realize their sin and repair it. Paul talks about all the things we worry about: sickness, unemployment, loved ones, all the things we want to come alongside and bear burdens with. He affirms that as great, but says the ultimate problem is sin.
To do this, verse 3 tells us you are going to have to see yourself as you really are. If you think you are really something, you are going to approach this with an air of superiority, and you are not going to help. That self-righteousness will produce in you a punitive, judgmental attitude. What Paul is really striking at there is pride.
The Sin of Pride
Mark Driscoll writes that the sin of pride has been repackaged by clever marketers and academics in our age into much-needed virtue and then sold to an undiscerning culture. Repackaging takes many forms: self-esteem is pride, self-realization is pride, self-image is pride. C.S. Lewis called pride the chief sin, and one of my favorite quotes of his is that pride is ultimately a complete anti-God state of mind. It was through pride that Lucifer became the devil. Lewis also said that pride gets you cuts in the line to hell. Proverbs 16:18 confirms this: "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall."
Verse 4 tells us we should examine our own work and compare it not to one another. So when a person comes along who is trapped or caught in sin, and you see yourself as superior to them, your judgment places you above them. But when you compare yourself to God's standard, you get an accurate view of who you really are.
Returning to 1 Corinthians 13
In my life as a follower of Christ and in teaching, I tend to get onto something and stay on it. It becomes really important to me and I come back to it again and again. Years ago when I taught through 1 Corinthians, I spent a significant amount of time on chapter 13, the love chapter. Paul defines love and gives fifteen characteristics — eight of them negative, seven positive. You know the list: love is patient, love is kind, and so on. The essence of it is that love does not seek its own.
But the verse that has gripped me is 1 Corinthians 13:7, the last verse of that description: "It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, and it endures all things." If you have been around for the last three or four years, you have heard me return to 1 Corinthians 13:7 over and over again. For me, if I am going to really love somebody, I have to have that attitude.
Love is certainly not a topic that has been ignored — everybody has written about it, sung about it, and talked about it. But I think it is going to be something I spend the next year to year and a half on: God's love for me, my love for Him, and then our love for each other. Love seems to be at the center of so much. "For God so loved the world." 2 Corinthians 5:14 says, "Let the love of Christ compel us." As I look at the situation Paul lays out in Galatians 6, I keep coming back to 1 Corinthians 13:7 — love bears all things, love believes all things, love hopes all things, and love endures all things.
Love Bears All Things
I want to read five or six paragraphs from the MacArthur Commentaries — ones I have probably already read to you two or three times this year. You can access everything John MacArthur has written for free at Grace to You online. Go to Bible, click 1 Corinthians, click chapter 13, go to verse 7, and you will find his full comment there. I want you to think about these in the context of ministering to another person, bearing another person's burden, dealing with another person's sin, or any kind of interaction — husband and wife, parent and child, friend to friend, employee to employer. Whatever it is, love is the key to all of it. If you do not have 1 Corinthians 13:7, none of this is ever going to happen.
"Love bears all things." That word translated "bears" means to cover, or to support, and therefore to protect. Love bears all things by protecting others from exposure, ridicule, or harm. Genuine love does not gossip, and it does not listen to gossip. If I am really going to protect another person in the midst of sin or a broken relationship, I am not going to gossip about them.
I was talking to someone the other day who explained that he had been spending time defending me against some rumor — nothing to do with sin or anything diabolical, just so you know. Someone had come to him and repeated this rumor, and the more he talked, the more angry I became with a sense of righteous indignation. I said, you are not helping — why would you even entertain this? The person who came to you with that rumor, who happened to be a pastor, should have been stopped right there.
Love Protects and Believes
Love protects people from exposure, ridicule, and harm. Love believes all things — it is not suspicious or cynical, and when it throws its mantle over a wrong, it believes the best. If there is a doubt about a person's guilt or motivation, love always opts for the most favorable interpretation.
Love hopes. Even when belief in a loved one's goodness or repentance is shattered, love still hopes. When it runs out of faith, it holds onto hope. As long as God's grace is operative, human failure is never final. God did not give up on Israel. Peter was not given up on by Jesus. Paul did not give up on the Corinthians. God does not give up on you.
And love endures. That word is a military term — it is used of an army holding a vital position at all costs. Through every hardship and suffering, love endures. Love holds fast to those it loves.
A Spirit of Love, Not Exposure
If you are going to be engaged in what God says we should be engaged in — being in others' lives, especially to bear burdens, especially spiritual burdens — then you are going to have to do it in a spirit of love. A spirit of love is not to expose. A spirit of love is not punitive.
When somebody starts a sentence with, "I probably shouldn't tell you," the right response is: then don't. If you shouldn't tell me, why are you telling me this? It is so destructive, and it is usually driven by the person telling because they want to demonstrate that they have some inside knowledge. I expect that kind of behavior out in the world, but in the church?
And the justification is often, "The only reason I'm telling you this is so we can pray about it." No — you pray about it. You do not even need to share it. There is no way you are going to live a Christian life in community if you have a spirit of sniping and exposing and not protecting. People will not feel safe with you.
I was talking with someone just a couple of weeks ago, and as he was telling me about a mutual friend's private situation, I was thinking: I would not tell you anything in a million years. That is precisely what love is about. Ultimately, what we want is to restore that person, protect that person, and care for that person within the context of the body of Christ. So I will come back to love over and over again.
Burdens You Can Carry Yourself
Let me return to verse five. Paul is saying there are burdens we carry that we should not let go of — things we do not need to become a burden to others by sharing, because we can handle them ourselves. If it is something you can handle, handle it. But certainly be open and willing to share, to help others, and — and this may be the toughest thing — to be helped yourself.
I will be honest: I tend to be fairly private. When I am in the hospital, I do not particularly want visitors. But the struggle with that posture is that it might deny someone else an opportunity to serve. Even within my own family, Sarah and Haley will say, "Dad, I want to help you," and my instinct is to say I do not need any help.
When the doctor told me we were going to deal with my heart condition primarily through diet and exercise, my first thought was, "What is plan B?" But here is the point: it is a delicate dance, and it requires humility on both parts. There are burdens you are capable of carrying, and it would be unfair to ask others to carry what you do not actually need help with.
Sowing and Reaping
In verse seven, Paul introduces the concept of sowing and reaping. "Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap." That is the basic principle.
One author writes that the universe is under the control of inviolable laws, as scientists and others have learned throughout history.
The Law of Sowing and Reaping
The physical sciences are, in essence, the study of physical laws. Apart from the consistent operation of absolute laws, science as we know it could not exist. You have the law of thermodynamics, you have gravity, and so on. Well, in agriculture, and now in spiritual things, you have the law of sowing and reaping. The law of sowing and reaping says this: you must sow to reap, and what you sow, you will reap.
No one plants corn and expects to get wheat, or plants wheat and expects to get beans, or plants beans and expects to get potatoes. When the boys were little, Hailey was teaching them about planting, growing, waiting, and patience, so they planted sunflower seeds. And just as you would expect, they were out there the next day saying, "Mom, where are the sunflowers?" So they were learning about patience in reaping. It never occurred to either one of them to say, "Mom, where are the roses?" You don't get roses if you don't plant roses.
I may question the size of the harvest, but I never question what I am going to harvest. The principle holds: what you plant is what you reap.
God Will Not Be Mocked
Paul says, "Don't be deceived — God is not mocked." The Message paraphrase puts it this way: "Don't be misled. No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, they will harvest. A person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others, is ignoring God." The Phillips translation renders it: "Don't be under an illusion. You cannot make a fool of God." The word "mocked" literally means to turn your nose up at someone. Don't be deceived — attempting to mock God is a waste of time.
I have an arrangement with my girls that if the University of Iowa ever wins a national football title, I will have the Tigerhawk logo tattooed on a specific part of my body — a part you are highly unlikely to ever see. When I share this with people, they ask if I'm worried. I am not worried about this at all. I don't go to bed at night thinking about whether I'll ever have that tattoo. It would be a waste of mental energy. And though I suppose in theory it could happen, thinking you can deceive God is a far greater waste of time — and that truly cannot happen.
He knows everything. He knows what you say, what you do, and what you think. He knows what you are going to say, what you are going to do, and what you are going to think. He knows what you are doing right now. So don't try to deceive Him. You cannot expect to plant seeds of the flesh and somehow reap the Spirit.
But don't deceive yourself, either. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and it is desperately sick." 1 John 1:8 tells us that if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. And James 1:22 says, "Prove yourselves doers of the word, not merely hearers who delude themselves."
Fruit Is Inevitable
The basic principle Paul lays out is that fruit is inevitable in our lives. Go back to Galatians 5 — we are either producing fruit of the flesh, as listed in verses 19 through 21, or fruit of the Spirit, as listed in verses 22 and 23. If I am being led by the Spirit, I am going to see dominant in my life love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
This brought my mind to the book of James, and I want to go there this week, so keep your finger in Galatians. Turn to James chapter 3, verse 14 — that is page 655 in the Bible we gave you. James has been talking about the tongue, about faith and works, and then he turns to the subject of wisdom — a worldview, a way of thinking. He says there are essentially two kinds of thinking. One belongs to the flesh, and it is earthly, natural, and demonic. The other belongs to the Spirit, and it is heavenly, supernatural, and godly.
So look at your life and ask yourself what you see. Verse 14 asks whether you see jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart. Because if you do, verse 16 tells you that you will see disorder and every evil thing flowing out of that. If you are constantly in tension at work, constantly in tension with your neighbors, constantly in tension across all your relationships, the consistent element in all of those situations is likely you — and the root is probably jealousy and selfish ambition.
On the other hand, if my thinking is supernatural and godly, verse 17 says I am going to see in my life purity, peaceableness, gentleness, and reasonableness, and there will be harmony in my relationships. If Susan and I are married, and my desire is to serve her and her desire is to serve me, it is impossible for that marriage to not work. The fruit of what we sow is inevitable.
The Fruit of the Spirit as a Measuring Stick
We can't stay there all the time — I understand that. But I know when I'm in trouble in a relationship, I guarantee you I will go and look at my heart and I am going to see selfishness and jealousy. That is the problem. I want it my way.
We'll see it all the time in a relationship — we'll see a marriage that's in trouble. I had one a while ago: a guy who for seven years had been unfaithful. All of that had been exposed, and they were going to stay together. He had now been clean and faithful for three months, and he was very frustrated that she wasn't trusting him yet. I said, "Pal, you've got a long hill to climb. And already, all you're doing now is showing me what started all this in the first place." The burden is not on her to accept you — the burden is on you to be faithful.
When I grow impatient, I think of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. When I'm in the flesh, I'm not loving, I'm not patient, I'm not kind, I'm not gentle, I'm not peaceful. James 3 is a beautiful illustration of this fruit, and it says, "The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." There are a whole range of ways of measuring this in a very practical way. The question is simply: what is the fruit — the fruit of the flesh, or the fruit of the Spirit?
The Principle of Sowing and Reaping
Now we'll go back to Galatians 6. I did a series in Priority Living — a study I do during the week. Every resource we have is free; you can go online to prioritylivingaz.org. I did a series called Recovering Our Lost Legacy, and the idea was: what do we pass on to the next generation, beyond inheritance and money and stuff like that? I talked about duty and stewardship.
One of those principles is the principle of consequences, which requires a long-term view — that what I sow today, I'll reap tomorrow or the next day, and that tomorrow may be a long way away. The whole principle is this: my decisions today affect tomorrow. If you talk to someone whose desire is to become a medical doctor, they've got to make all sorts of difficult decisions — investments along the way — and they've got to think long-term. They're not going to have a normal life. They're going to have less free time and they're going to have to be more disciplined. But that's part of what they have to do.
Think about a team going to the Final Four. For a player to compete at that level, there has had to be a lot of discipline, a lot of investment, a lot of hard work. If you decide not to eat well, not to exercise, not to play hard — if you just want to show up on game day — that might get you somewhere if you're talented enough, but it isn't going to get you to the top of the field. You have to think about something big and long-term.
This is what I used to try to tell my girls: life is more like a video or a film or a movie than it is just a snapshot. I've been cleaning the house and I found three or four rolls of film, and I'm curious what's in them. I know I may see a picture at the beach, one in the mountains, one at Christmas, one at Easter — photographs that stand alone. But a film is different: this frame determines this frame determines this frame. That's the way it is with life.
Consequences Come Due
We did a Q&A this week, and one of the questions was about my view on the future of the country. When the dropout rate among high school seniors is 47%, there is a bill coming due on that — those students are not dropping out to go to work at Intel. When people say, "I want what I deserve, I won the lottery but I still want my food stamps" — there's a bill coming due on that. When you think you can ignore your children and then give them a trip to Disneyland and that will make everything okay — there's a bill coming due on that.
When your national debt is $15.2 trillion, there is no way that bill isn't coming due. You know this in your own life: for every dollar you spend, you cannot put forty cents on a credit card and not know there's a day of reckoning coming. It simply involves consequences.
Paul says: forget the national debt for a moment — what about you? What are you sowing, and what are you reaping?
Don't Lose Heart in Doing Good
Then Paul says, "Don't lose heart in doing good." And I'll tell you why he says that — because it is hard work. When you start dealing with people who are engaged in sin and you come into their lives, even when you're invited in, the experience can be deeply discouraging.
I think the elders here would tell you that probably the most discouraging thing we encounter is people we help, and help, and help, who then throw us under the bus on the way out — generally leaving, and in the process saying things that are not true or only half true, and claiming we didn't do enough. We'll have people come in and say they're in financial difficulty, and we'll say we're here to help. We'll ask them to bring in their bills so we can go through them together. And they resent that. You want us to help, but you resent the process of being helped.
Don't Grow Faint
But you don't want any accountability on the other end. "Well, I can handle it." Well, if you could handle it, my friend, you wouldn't be in here. And after a while, you go, "I'm just losing patience with this." But he said, you hang in there. Why? Because your motive is not short term, it's long term. You'll have an opportunity to do good. You'll have an opportunity to be used by God in a significant way. Don't grow faint.
Sometimes you just need to hear this. And sometimes it doesn't even matter what the endeavor is. I was listening to a text Haley sent me this morning. They have a new baby — we'll talk about it more another day — and Yale said to her, "Mom, was this baby made in Japan?" I'm not sure what the thought process was there.
But you just have people all around you, and you're a mom — a stay-at-home mom with four kids, and the oldest is six, two of them less than 14 months apart. Here's what you need to hear sometimes: it's worth it. Hard, but it's worth it. And the same thing is true in the spiritual realm. Things are hard, but they're worth it.
The Cross Bears Our Greatest Burden
God is good. Don't be deceived — God's not mocked. He's faithful. He knows. We said we bear one another's burdens, and we said the biggest burden we have is sin and guilt. And the One who deals with that is Jesus, and that is the cross.
Every Sunday here at Redemption Church, we stop and we go to the communion table. Neil's going to come lead us in communion. If you're over in the conference center, Brian's going to close your time over there as soon as we're done.
Let's pray as the guys come here. Father, thank You for the amazing truth that You give us. Thank You for the fruit that You produce in our life. We pray that we would sow fruit that would bring honor and glory to You. God, we worship You, praise You, and we do that in Christ's name. Amen.