Well what an encouragement it is to be together on One Sunday, to bring our 8:30 and 11 am congregations together and to remember and celebrate in this very concrete way that we are one church, one community, with one shared mission – “To glorify God by making disciples in our neighborhood, in our communities, and around the world.”
You will remember that our teaching theme this year is “Grace and Glory: The Power and Prospect of the Christian Life.” And as a part of that on Sunday mornings we have been studying the book of Galatians. And so it is fitting that the deacons and our stewardship committee have chosen as our text for this occasion, One Sunday, and our stewardship verse, Galatians 6:10 – “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith.” Remember that a part of the purpose of One Sunday, as we were hearing from Matthew a few moments ago, is to respond to the blessings that God has given to us as one church on mission together by renewing our commitments to the faithful stewardship of our relationships, our ministries, and our resources.
So if you would please take a Bible in your hand and turn with me to our passage for One Sunday. We are going to consider it in its extended context, so let’s look together at Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 through 10. You can find that on page 975 of the church Bibles. And I want you to see as we read through, I want you to see how Paul focuses on what we might call the stewardship not just of our money but actually of three vital areas. First, in verses 1 through 5, he focuses on the church’s members. There is a strong reminder here of our mutual obligations and duties within the fellowship of the church to care for one another and minister to one another, which is very much what One Sunday is focused on. The duty of stewardship among the church’s members between us and toward each other. Then verses 6 through 8, the focus does fall on the stewardship of the church’s money. The church’s members. The church’s money. Notice Paul deals quite straightforwardly with the support and the maintenance of Word ministry there in verse 6. But then he reinforces his teaching, his exhortation, by reminding us about the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping. So the stewardship of our relationships among the church’s members, then the stewardship of our resources and the church’s money, and finally verses 9 and 10, Paul puts all of that into the broadest possible context and exhorts us concerning the stewardship of our reach as the church goes out on mission. And that’s where our stewardship verse is to be found – “Let us do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith.”
And so there’s the outline. I hope you’ve got it. We are dealing with stewardship in relation to the church’s members, money, and mission. Before we unpack those themes, we’ll read the passage. Before we do that, let’s pause again and pray and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us all pray.
O Lord our God, would You now give us the ministry of the Holy Spirit to illuminate this portion of Your Word in our understanding, granting to us faith to receive and rest upon Christ and grace to live in its light for Your honor and glory, obeying its precepts and submitting to its commands that in all things Jesus Christ might have the supremacy. For we ask it in His name, amen.
Galatians chapter 6, beginning at the first verse. This is the Word of God:
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he 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. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Amen.
You will remember that I was a pastor in central London for several years before moving to the United States, and one of the most memorable and least fun aspects of life in London was my daily commute into and back out of the center of the city every day. Each day I would walk to Woodford Green Underground Station and take the 30 minute tube ride on the central line all the way to St. Paul’s. Now the London Underground, understand, the London Underground handles about 5 million passenger journeys a day, and the central line is the second busiest line in the system, which means that especially on my way home, on the weary journeys at the end of the day during rush hour, when the doors open on the underground car, the people are crammed in there like sardines in a can and your only option if you want to get home on time is to sort of push yourself into this wall of human bodies and stand there with your arms pinned to your sides as eight other total strangers press in around you for most of the journey home. It was frankly traumatic. And of course this being a British underground journey, even though all these people were very, very much in each other’s personal space, no one is making eye contact, no one is speaking to anyone, everyone is pretending. The inner monologue is, “This is totally fine. I’m not uncomfortable at all. There is nothing disturbing about this whole episode.”
The Stewardship of our Relationships among the Church’s Members
In Galatians 6:1-4, 1 through 5, Paul is writing to make sure we understand that in the fellowship of the local church we are all intimately joined to one another by the blood of Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God. And he is wanting to make sure as we understand that, that we don’t act like a bunch of emotionally repressed Brits on the Underground – everybody focused only on themselves, ignoring those who have been placed in intimate connection to us. He is calling us to rethink the stewardship of our relationships within the membership of the local church. And it is not at all a comfortable exhortation, is it?
Look at what he says. Verse 1, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” Now that is not our usual MO, is it? Let’s be honest, our preferred response when we see someone else’s sin – what do we do? Well, we talk about it with our friends, don’t we? “Did you see what he did? Isn’t it awful? Can you believe it?” That’s often our instinct. But Paul calls us to a very different pattern here, doesn’t he? If we see someone else ensnared by a transgression, what should we do? Should we shun them, perhaps? Should we denounce them to other people? Gossip about them behind their back? Should we go and tell the pastor so he can go and do something about it? Well what should we do? Paul says the spiritual people in the congregation know exactly what to do. They don’t pass the buck. They don’t grumble and complain or gossip. What do they do? They work with the fallen Christian making every effort to restore him or her. The word Paul uses there, by the way, translated in the English Standard Version, our pew Bible, for “restore,” is used in the gospels of Matthew and Mark to describe fishermen mending their broken nets. So the duty of a faithful Christian to a falling brother or sister within the membership of the church is to do everything we can to mend the sin-broken nets of their Christian lives to restore them, as it were, to full usefulness in the service of Jesus Christ.
And we are to do it – notice what he says – we are to do it in a “spirit of gentleness.” After all, how does Jesus deal with you in your sin? Is He denunciatory? Is He harsh with you and dismissive with you? No, He is gentle and lowly of heart. He is quick to forgive. He abounds in steadfast love and mercy. He is ready to restore you and renew you when you turn to Him. He never quits on you, does He? Even when we are wandering away from Him, He works to restore us and bring us back. Why, then, are we so often like the unforgiving servant in Jesus’ parable? You remember it in Matthew 18. After having all his own debts canceled, nevertheless, he demands in anger and violence from his debtors that they pay everything they owe him. Haven’t we been taught to pray by our Redeemer, “Our Father, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”? Remember the Gospel upon which you daily depend for mercy and in a spirit of Gospel gentleness show mercy. That’s Paul’s point.
And there’s a wise warning following right on the heels of that exhortation that we mustn’t miss. Do you see his warning? Not only are we gently to restore others caught in transgressions, but we are to take special care while we do it lest as we lead them to repentance we ourselves fall into the very same sin. This is a master class in pastoral wisdom, isn’t it? Paul knows our hearts very well. He knows how easily we can focus on the sin of other people even with legitimate mutual love and concern and let our own guard down. “Care for them,” he says, “but keep a close watch on yourself while you do it.”
Misdirection is a basic military tactic. Keep them expecting a frontal assault so that they are completely unprepared for a surprise attack from the rear. And that’s what Paul is warning us against. Sin is a terrible and subtle foe. Yes, be concerned to restore them as they fall into sin, but as you do, as you’re focused over here, beware of a sneak attack from the rear and you fall into sin yourself. Don’t let your guard down, lest you yourself are ensnared by the same temptation.
And he tells us in verse 2 all of that is really just a part of fulfilling the law of Christ. We are to bear one another’s burdens. That’s what this is about. That’s our basic commitment, isn’t it, as members of this church? You’re not just called to show up and receive the ministry, to be a consumer. You are called to show up and engage in ministry. To bear one another’s burdens fulfills the law of Christ. Christ taught us that love fulfills the law. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. This is My commandment, that you love one another.”
And then verses 3 through 5, Paul turns back to the way we think about ourselves. Do you see how he wisely alternates back and forth between a call to care for one another and to pay attention to our own walk with the Lord. He comes back now to exhort us about our own hearts. There is a fundamental connection after all between our ability to serve each other, restore one another, bear one another’s burdens, and our ability rightly to assess ourselves. Humility and ministry go together. Pride and spiritual indifference toward the needs of others also go together like cause and effect, don’t they? We will never steward our relationships till we learn to steward ourselves.
So verse 3, “If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.” Now Paul is not suggesting there that you are now free to make a habit of boasting about yourself. He just said back in chapter 5 verse 26, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.” He’s not talking about being proud of yourself. Verse 3 is not permission for self-aggrandizement. What he’s really saying is that we need a sober, honest assessment of ourselves instead of taking credit for things that really have nothing to do with us because, verse 5, “each will have to bear his own load.” The future tense, “each will have to bear his own load,” the future tense there is really important. It clues us into what Paul is talking about. He isn’t taking back what he just said in verse 2, “bear one another’s burdens,” and then now two verses later all of a sudden he changes his mind and says, “No, now I want you to bear your own load.” That’s not what he’s saying. Rather, he is saying the day is coming when each of us will be held responsible for what we have done. He’s talking about Judgment Day. And when that day dawns, he says, you will have to bear your own load. You will have to answer for your own deeds. As you steward yourself and your relationships within the fellowship of the local church, remember you do it under the gaze of God before whom you will one day have to give an account.
The Stewardship of our Resources and the Church’s Money
So when we talk about stewardship around here, we need to hear more than just a call to dig deep and give big. We need to hear a reminder, a summons to mutual care in the faithful stewardship of ourselves and of our relationships for the good of all within the membership of the local church. That’s what One Sunday is actually all about. But of course it is also, as we have heard, about facing our responsibility to maintain and advance the work and the ministry of the church by making generous financial provision. So look in the second place at verses 6 through 8. Here now is a call to stewardship of our resources and the church’s money. A stewardship of our resources and the church’s money. While he’s talking broadly about mutual care and one another ministry, in general, Paul now highlights one thing in particular, doesn’t he? Verse 6, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.” So provide for the maintenance and the growth of the ministry of the Word through the generous support of those who devote their lives to its proclamation. That much is straightforward and clear right there in the text.
But then, do you see how he reinforces his point by appealing to a spiritual principle? Look at verses 7 and 8. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he 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.” Paul is still talking about financial stewardship. And you will remember the situation in Galatia among the Galatian Christians to whom he is writing this letter. They have had a whole troop of false teachers leading them into legalism, leading them away from the gospel of grace. And so Paul is anxious here to make sure that the Galatians now do what they practically may to fix that and to secure for themselves orthodox instructors and ministers who will guide them back into safe paths. And so he’s telling them to think carefully not just about how much they give but about where they give and to whom. If you sow to your flesh, you will from the flesh reap corruption. That is to say, if you invest in poor leaders and bad theology and weak instruction because it’s easy on the ear, it’s comfortable, it doesn’t unsettle your priorities or challenge your lifestyle, if you sow to the flesh, your investment will go the way of all the flesh in the end. It will reap corruption.
The word “corruption” means “decay, deterioration, disillusion.” Like all material things in the end, this is a call – do you see this now – it is a call to invest in what’s going to last, to invest in eternity. That’s what you are really doing when you prioritize radical, sacrificial generosity in your giving to the faithful ministry of the local church. You are sowing for eternity. Paul wants us to step back a little and ask ourselves a few hard questions about the way we use our money. Questions like, “How much of my expenditure is sowing to the flesh? How much of what I spent my money on will survive into the new creation? How much of what I have invested in will last forever? Am I investing in eternity?” Are you? Sow in the Spirit, Paul says. Sow depending upon Him to sustain you and keep you and to bless what you give and what you have for the extension of the everlasting kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Stewardship of our Reach as the Church goes out on Mission
So there is a call to the stewardship of our relationships as church members. There is a call to the stewardship of our resources and the church’s money. Then finally, verses 9 and 10, there is a call to the faithful stewardship of the reach of our church’s mission. Our church’s mission. Look at the text, verses 9 and 10. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Unwearied well doing is our duty. And Paul again points to the last judgment to help motivate us in face of the temptation to give into weariness. This is actually the third allusion to the last day in these verses. He points to it, remember, back in verse 5. “Each will have to bear his own load.” Each will have to stand under the weight of how he has lived on the final day. He hints at it again in verse 8 when he talks about sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption or sowing to the Spirit and reaping eternal life.
And now here he does it a third time when he reminds us we will reap if we do not give up. We are sometimes really uncomfortable with it, but the New Testament consistently holds out the promise of rewards in heaven as a motivation for unwearied hard work on earth. The rewards, of course, far surpass the value of any work we could ever perform. This is not meritorious works righteousness. It’s not quid pro quo – one good turn deserves another. Far from it. But Paul sees no tension at all between his Gospel of radical free grace that is the heartbeat of the letter of the Galatians and the promise of eternal rewards for unwearied works of obedience and service here. Remember that our best work, if God was to judge it on its own merits alone, even our best work would damn us forever because it is always riddled with self and sin. And yet, God in His wonderful grace works in us to do good works and then promises to reward us for the good works His own grace has produced within us. So that when we cross the finish line on the last day and we stand before the risen Christ in the final judgment and we see clearly in that moment how empty all our vain boasts in our own accomplishments really were, we will then be utterly overcome with wonder, love and praise when the Lord Jesus rewards us for our best efforts in His service nevertheless. We will see them as they are – weak things, slight things, broken and riddled with self and sin, unworthy of anything but God’s disdain. And then Jesus will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
And so, weary Christian, Jesus asks us, “Have you grown tired of your service in My cause? Remember the harvest of glory to come that will reward all your efforts, all of them, how so ever small and slight and weak they may be. None of them will be ignored, none of them overlooked, none will go unrewarded. And so, therefore, press on. Keep going in your service to the Savior. And how wide is the scope of that service to be? Just among the people we like? Just among the people who are like us? What does Paul say? It’s the same question in some ways the young lawyer asks the Lord Jesus in Luke 10:29 – “Who is my neighbor?” Among whom should we be committed in ministry and service? Look how Paul answers. “As opportunity allows,” verse 10, “we are to do good to everyone.” By the way that phrase, “as opportunity allows,” is not your “Get out of jail free” card. What he means is, “Go looking for opportunities to serve as many as you may.” “Do good to everyone, especially to the household of faith.” Our mission is as wide as the world. We are to be good neighbors and Gospel friends to all people.
Serve Day, last Saturday, where we sent teams to do practical ministry with our ministry partners all over the city, was a part of our attempt to be obedient to this command. Our teams that go into the Rankin County jail to share the Gospel every week is another part of that effort. But the question for each of us is “What are we doing? What is your part?” We ourselves are called to do good to all, especially those of the household of faith. That “especially” there is important. The first claim on your time and your resources and your prayers and your labors, beyond your own immediate family, is the household of faith. But the language there is meant to remind us that we are all family. We are family, and family comes first. Does the family of faith come first for you or is it an afterthought, you know, to be fitted into the margins of your time after your pleasures and entertainments have taken their lion’s share? Is that reflected in your relationships, in the way you use your resources in the reach of your mission? “Do good to all, especially those who are of the household of faith.”
So we are called here, aren’t we, to the stewardship of our relationships as church members, to be engaged in one anothering, to bear one another’s burdens, to restore each other as we stumble and fall, all the while keeping a careful watch over our own hearts. We are called to the stewardship of our resources and the church’s money, giving generously to the support and the advance of the ministry of the Gospel. David Felker in Sunday School put it eloquently when he said, “We are much less interested in church growth than we are in Word growth.” The book of Acts speaks about the Word spreading and the Word growing. It’s not numbers that is our focus, but people gripped by the truth of God and brought to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. But for that, to accomplish that, to advance that, Paul calls us here to sow for eternity, to invest generously in ministry that will endure. And finally, we are called to the stewardship of the reach of our church’s mission. Not to keep it close, not to keep it to ourselves, not to keep it to people we like or people who are like us, but to do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith. May God help us then be good stewards to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Let us all pray.
Our God and Father, how we praise You that You are a God of abundant, generous grace, and we are the recipients of that wonderful gift. Help us, having received such a gracious gift, gladly to give. Deliver us from the temptation of sowing to the flesh and reaping corruption. But instead, teach us to sow to the Spirit and reap eternal life. For we ask this that Jesus may have the glory and His kingdom may be advanced among us, between us, and all around us in this great city, for we ask it in His name, amen.