By the Flesh or By the Spirit?
Galatians 5:25-6:10
September 17, 2023 anno Domini
Why would I do what Saint Paul urges me to do?
Why would I care if someone is caught in a sin? Why would I restore them? Why wouldn’t I just let them suffer? Let the punishment fit the crime. If I did help them, why would I do so with gentleness? Gentleness gets you run over.
Why would I carry another person’s burdens? I’ve got enough burdens of my own. Besides that, he brought a lot of those burdens on himself.
Why would I test my own work or examine myself? I do things pretty well as a husband, a father, and in my work. Trust me, I see a lot of people who are worse than me.
This next one I almost hesitate to bring up, but Paul also says you should pay your pastor. One who is taught the word – that would be you – must share all good things with the one who teaches – that would be me. It’s that time of the year when we talk stewardship, when we encourage you to give at least 10 percent of your income to the Lord. Why would you do that? Have you filled up your car lately? Looked at your grocery bill? Besides there are other people in church who can give. I need to save. I need to look after myself.
Lastly Paul says, “Let us not grow weary of doing good” and to that I say, “I’m weary.” What good am I going to do in the world? It’s time to retreat. To keep to myself. The world is messed up and I’m not getting involved in that mess.
Paul gives the reason for doing these works – they reveal who rules you, they show your faith, they confess your Lord and master. To use Paul’s language if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Like Jesus in today’s Gospel reading, Paul throughout Galatians, believes there are two Masters who would rule your life. For Jesus – it is God or money. For Paul it is the flesh or the spirit. How you live reveals who owns you. Yes, that’s the politically incorrect language of slavery. That’s how the Bible describes the status of every human being. You are not your own, either you are the Lord’s and live by the Spirit, or you are the Devil’s and you die by the flesh. One Master gives life and the other death.
Saint Paul illustrates this earlier in Galatians by using the example of the two sons of Abraham and their mothers, Sarah and Hagar.
God made Abraham a promise in his old age that he and Sarah would have a son. This son would be a great blessing, give Abraham many descendants, and through this son the whole world would be blessed. You might remember the problem, however. Abraham and Sarah were old, past the child-bearing years, and Sarah was barren. Even though God appeared in person to Abraham and Sarah and made this promise, Sarah laughed and Abraham doubted. We’re going to have a child, right! In their doubt they took matters into their own flesh. Sarah got tired of waiting on the Lord, so she sent her servant Hagar, a slave woman, to sleep with Abraham. Hagar conceived and gave birth to Ishmael. Abraham and Sarah could have said to the Lord, “There, we’ve helped you out. We figured out a way to get what you promised.” They delivered (pun intended) on God’s promise by the works of their own flesh.
However, the son of the slave woman Hagar was not the son of the promise. Ishmael wasn’t a blessing. He was a wild donkey of a man, stubborn, opposed to others as they were opposed to him. The son of the promise was Isaac, whom God miraculously gave to Sarah and Abraham
Ishmael was born of a slave woman. Isaac was born of a free woman. Ishmael was born according to the flesh. Isaac according to the promise. One son brought violence and death. The other son brought blessings and life.
These are the two Masters that would rule you. The flesh says it’s all up to you. You need to do what is within your power to get what you need. You cannot trust God. You cannot trust anyone else. You need to take what you can get, while you can get it. The flesh says in essence, “You are god” and therefore you must do the work to obtain life. The flesh is a powerful and pleasing tempter because by our sinful nature we all want to be god, masters of our own destiny. We like what the flesh sells, but do you know what the flesh delivers? Slavery to fear and worry, anxiety about tomorrow, because who knows if you can handle tomorrow? Can you deal with cancer? losing your job? a sick child? a recession? death?
Saint Paul urges a different Master on the Galatians, the Spirit. That Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Like God’s miracle in the lives of Sarah and Abraham, Christ does all the work and delivers life as promised. Isaac was a miracle child for Sarah and Jesus was born of a Virgin. Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice when Abraham was tested. Jesus carried the wood of His cross and passed the test trusting His Father even in hell and death. Isaac was spared by a ram caught in the brush. You are spared from sin and death by Jesus your substitute. God delivered a son to Abraham and Sarah and God’s Son delivers you from sin, from death, and every trouble in this broken world.
So who is your Master? You cannot serve two masters. Jesus says so. Is your Master the flesh? Do you believe it is all up to you? Well, then you’d better worry about tomorrow and be anxious about your clothes and your food, because you’re on your own. Or do you live by the Spirit? Do you believe the Son of God became a man for us men and our salvation? Do you believe that He never boasted, was never conceited, and thought of you more than Himself? Do you believe that wherever He went He did good work that only God could do? He restored those caught in sin. He bore the burden of others (including your sins). He never wearied of doing good, even as He breathed His last. If He’s your Master, you are free – free from sin, from death, from worry and anxiety, because He’s got you right where He wants you – forgiven, alive, and looking forward to the resurrection.
If we live by the Spirit (and we do), let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, let us restore gently those caught in transgression, let us bear one another’s burdens, let us give sacrificially to the Lord’s work (it is the only work that lasts), let us not grow weary of doing good. Those works may sound strange to the world, but that’s okay, because we have a strange Master, a Master who rules by serving and giving and loving us and setting us free. We confess Him as our Master when we do the same in the name of Jesus. Amen.