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Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Encouraging Words

God cares about us. He promises in another verse that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear and that He will provide us a way to escape the temptation. Here, He promises that if we are doing His good work, striving to Glorify Him, and that if we do not grow weary doing that work, then in due season, we will reap the fruit of our labor, a labor of love for our God. Glory be to God!

Galatians 6:1-5

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.

Personal Challenge

If we practice our Christianity in a church that has formal traditions and rubrics, it is easy to get caught up in the concept that the more that we do these things, the better a Christian we are. While it is important to participate in the activities of our church, it is also important how we the live out our relationships with others, both inside and outside of the church. Do we strive to restore a brother or sister who has been overtaken in a trespass in a spirit of gentleness? Do we bear one another’s burdens without grumbling and complaining? Do we truly consider ourselves as nothing in the eyes of God and others and humble ourselves? Do we examine our own work to determine our motives in order to keep them pure? This is living the godly, righteous Christian life. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Galatians 5:24-26

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Personal Challenge

It is possible to be very active in our church or parish of choice, following all the traditions, speaking the right language, and appearing to be a devout follower of Christ, and yet not be living in the Spirit. If we are doing all these things on our own power and yet living conceited lives in what we are “doing”, provoking one another for our own preferences, and envying one another, then we have not crucified the flesh of our passions and desires. We are not living and walking in the Spirit. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Personal Challenge

A question that we must ask ourselves as we go through our journey of life is, “Am I seeing this promised fruit of the spirit evidenced in my life?” If the answer is anywhere close to, “No”. then we need to do some real soul searching. Either we have been quenching the spirit or we never really gave our lives over to Him. If Christ is living and growing within us, then we will see these fruit: love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control happening in our lives. This is a promise from our Lord that we will be given this fruit when we receive Him and let His Spirit lead us on our journey. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Galatians 5:16

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Personal Challenge

When the scriptures talk about us being crucified with Christ, they are not talking about us being physically hung on a cross. They are talking about putting our fleshly desires and passions to death on His cross so that we can be free to walk in the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a daily, even moment by moment, action of submitting our will, our desires, our passions, to Him so that He can replace them with godly and righteous thoughts and actions. Lord Jesus Christ son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Galatians 5:13

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Personal challenge

When Christ became incarnate, lived a sinless life, was put to death on the cross, and rose from the grave, He freed us from the grip of sin and called us to a life of liberty. This is not liberty like we see in the Constitution which gives us the pursuit of happiness. This is a liberty to serve one another through love. We are no longer to be focused on our individualism but on the needs of others. This is our call to liberty. Glory be to God!

Galatians 5:1

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Personal Challenge

Jesus has set us free from the bondage of sin. Technically, because of His work and the Holy Spirit that He has given us, we could spend the remainder of our life not committing another sin. However, He has also created us with free will, so we can choose to follow Him and not sin or follow our desires and sin. This is a choice that we must make over and over and over again. This is our battle in this physical and temporal body. When we do choose to sin, we can always run back to Jesus, repenting and seeking His forgiveness, then trying again to avoid sinning. Paul is reminding us in this verse to be careful to not live our lives in a way that leads us back into slavery and bondage to sin. Again, it is about our choices. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy?

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Encouraging Words

“Wait a minute,” you might say, “I am not now, nor have I ever, been a slave!” The truth is that we are born into a world where we are all slaves to sin. This is because the world is still fallen and enmeshed in sin. Because of Jesus and the work that He did, those of us who follow Him have been redeemed from the slavery and set free to be God’s adopted children. What work did Jesus do to do this? He left His throne in heaven to become incarnate as a human being. He became one of us through the same process that we do. He was born of a virgin and lived a life from infancy to adulthood. He loved that life without sin, not because He was fully God, but as a fully human person He chose to not sin. He then gave up His life as a sacrificial lamb, was crucified on a cross, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose from that death and left the grave, fulfilling forever the Law of God. He destroyed the grip that death had on everyone of us and broke the bondage of slavery that it had on us. Through Him we are set free and reunited with God as his adopted children. Glory be to God!

Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Personal Challenge

One of the fall outs of the Western church breaking away from the Eastern church in 1054 and then continuing to splinter and divide since then, is just the opposite of this verse. We have ended up with people, and their churches, who claim to be followers of Christ but point fingers at every other Christian faith practice and proclaiming that they are not Christians. In the early church there was no division, there was no splintering. Slaves and free people were the same, if the proclaimed Christ. Male and female, Jew or Greek, all who proclaimed Christ worshipped together. Glory be to God!