We’re getting into that time of year when you start thinking about the year that is almost past, and you start thinking about the year that is coming up. It’s three weeks today until New Year’s Eve, and 2017 will be behind us, a new year will be opening up before us. And perhaps that makes you think of New Year’s Resolutions.
Maybe you think back to 1st January this year, to see how you got on this year with those resolutions... if you kept them past January, or if you’ve still been keeping them up. So, with January coming, you think to yourself, next year, I’ll give it a go. Next year I’ll make a change. New Year, New Me, and all that.
But you don’t have to wait for the new year to have a new you. You don’t need to have a new calendar or diary to make a change. You can do it today. As Paul closes his letter to the Galatians, he calls us to do good.
But this isn’t the Santa Claus is coming to town kind of command to be good - you know, he’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice... he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake!’ Be good or you won’t get anything. Now it seems it’s the elf on the shelf doing the same job of you better be good...
But as we’ve seen throughout Galatians, we can’t be good without God - it’s only God who gives us the freedom to do good, because we are his.
The Galatians were suffering from false teachers, who were promoting a kind of DIY religion - you can Do It Yourself, by obeying the law and earning your place by your own efforts. But the whole way through the letter, Paul has been showing us that we can’t do it by ourselves. We’ve all broken the law - it only condemns us. We can only be ransomed, freed through the death of Jesus for us, giving us his undeserved grace - received by faith alone in Jesus alone.
But now that we ARE saved, we have the freedom to live by the Spirit. We saw that last week, as the Spirit wants to grow his fruit in us - that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control that only he can bring. It’s as we keep in step with the Spirit that we become more like Jesus. And this morning’s reading shows us how this works out in a church community. How can we, together, live out our freedom by the power of the Spirit? How can we do good?
Church should be the place where we bear one another’s burdens. V1: ‘Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.’
Paul doesn’t say - if someone is caught in a sin, then go and tell everyone about it; gossip it far and wide. No, if (or when!) someone is caught in sin - then we are to restore them gently. Gossiping relentlessly, or gently restoring? And who is to do it? You who are spiritual - those who belong to the Spirit, the Christians. Not just the pastor or elders. We’re to be a community of caring Christians - bearing one another’s burdens - and watching out in case we are tempted in the same way.
Is this a picture of what St Matthew’s is like; or something we need to grow into?
The next verses (3-5) ask us to evaluate ourselves individually - to take a good hard look at ourselves. I was reading recently about Illusory Superiority. What it means is that people tend to think more highly of themselves. So, in an American survey, 93% of people thought they were an above average driver (but only 50% can be above the average...). This effect plays out all the time in surveys where people are asked to rate themselves.
And Paul says it can happen with us as well, in the spiritual realm. ‘If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.’
Paul says we’re deceiving ourselves if we think of ourselves more highly than we should. Rather, we should test our actions. Don’t compare yourself with anyone else - because at the end of the day, you’ll stand before the judge by yourself - carrying your own load.
We’re to share one another’s burdens, but we have to carry our own load (a different word, a different idea). (And therefore not a contradiction!)
As we think about ourselves, our actions, our choices, Paul wants us to consider what it is we’re sowing; what we’re investing in; what we’re working towards. That image of sowing and reaping runs through verses 6-10. The principle is in v7: ‘Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.’
The farmer decides what he wants to harvest, and then has to sow that very thing. It’s no good sowing potatoes if you want to grow carrots. Or planting apple seeds if you want strawberries. Whatever you sow, you will reap. Whatever you invest in is what you will receive in return. ANd it’s no good deciding at the harvest time what you want to get - you’ve already made that decision beforehand.
So if we sow to please our sinful nature - we will reap destruction. But if we sow to please the Spirit - we will reap eternal life.
So what are you sowing towards? How are you investing your time, your money, your talents? When you have a free half hour, what do you turn your mind to? We’re called to sow to please the Spirit, to do good. John Wesley put it like this: Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can.
And yet, sometimes, you can get a bit fed up of doing good. When you give, and give, and give. Or when you’ve given up your time to serve in an organisation so that boys and girls get to hear about Jesus. Or when you see how much easier people without faith seem to have it. So in verse 9 Paul becomes a cheerleader, urging us on, wanting us to keep going, like the people cheering on the marathon runners... ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’ Don’t give up. Don’t become weary. Keep an eye on the harvest to come. And therefore, v 10: ‘Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.’
Our doing good is for all people, everyone, but with a special focus on the family of believers. We have been freed from our sins in order to do good, as we sow to the Spirit. So let’s do it. Let’s share the good news as we do good.
It’s at this point that Paul takes the pen to write a bit himself. Normally there was someone acting as scribe, writing down the letter, but here, Paul writes: ‘See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!’ He’s wanting to emphasise this last bit of the letter. It’s as if we’re using bold type, underlined, font size 50 (this sermon is font size 12).
So how does he close the letter? What is it he wants to leave with us? He returns to circumcision, and to boasting. All the way through the letter, Paul has been warning them about the dangers of being circumcised. And there’s one last warning here. Why did the false teachers want them to be circumcised? So that they wouldn’t be persecuted for the cross, so that they would boast in the Galatians’ flesh.
The false teachers could avoid the persecution from the Jews if they could show that they were obeying the law. In that way, the cross wouldn’t matter to them. The important thing, the thing they would boast in, was their circumcision. The false teachers wanted to boast in the flesh, the skin of the Galatians. That was what they valued above everything else.
But Paul says there’s only one thing to boast in. It’s not our achievements; not our religious observance; not our goodness or our good deeds; it’s simply the cross: ‘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.’
The only thing to boast in; the only place to find our value; the only thing that frees us from our sins, and frees us to live lives of good by the power of the Spirit - it’s the cross. We can’t boast in ourselves, we must boast in Jesus, what he has done for us. Because it’s only his death for us, that makes us a new creation - the only thing that matters.
Circumcision doesn’t matter. uncircumcision means nothing. ‘What counts is a new creation.’ As Paul says elsewhere, ‘if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.’
Have you been made new? Forget about new year’s resolutions, or diets that always start tomorrow. Jesus will make you new. A new creation. A fresh start. It comes as you trust in Jesus. So have you trusted in Christ for your forgiveness and salvation? Then boast only in Christ and his cross. See the whole world as your mission, to live out the life of love that Christ has set you free to live. You’re free to love, free to do good, so don’t be weary. Look to the harvest, and keep going.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 10th December 2017.
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