A Call to Faithful Generosity
Galatians 6:6-10
As Paul closes his letter to the churches at Galatia, he shifts gears from correcting the technicalities of a legalistic lifestyle to encouraging a generous lifestyle – from an obsession with earning God’s favor through works to a commitment to invest in the lives of others for their spiritual and material benefit instead of your own.
In this letter, Paul has corrected the problem of legalism, which is a works-based approach to both salvation and the Christian life.
- To correct a works-based approach to salvation, he has insisted that God saves us through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone.
- To correct a works-based approach to Christian living, he has insisted that we depend on the Spirit rather than on our legalistic performance.
Those who have believed on Christ alone for salvation from sin share a special relationship as brothers and sisters in God’s family. This special, spiritual relationship introduces into our lives a new obligation to meet one another’s needs two ways.
- We should meet one another’s spiritual needs (Gal 6:1-5).
- We should meet one another’s material needs (Gal 6:6-10).
In meeting these needs, we should elevate the needs of others over our own selfish wants and aspirations. We should serve one another out of love as a reflection of God’s grace.
Concerning spiritual needs, Paul encourages us to help each other get back on track when we’ve fallen behind into sinful behavior.
- We should practice a gentle, humble approach and be careful not to fall into the same sinful behavior ourselves (Gal 6:1-3).
- At the same time, we should take personal responsibility for our choices and not blame other believes when we face spiritual challenges (Gal 6:4-5).
Christ frees us from legalistic living to be generous in our giving.
Main Thought
After encouraging us to meet one another’s spiritual needs, Paul encourages us to help meet one another’s material needs as well. From these instructions, we learn that Christ frees us from legalistic living to be generous in our giving. Let’s hear what he has to say.
Meeting one another’s material needs is our duty before God. (Gal 6:7)
Paul says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked,” which is a strong way of saying, “Make no mistake about it.” Aul is about to teach us an established fact, something God takes very seriously. If we don’t also take it seriously, then God will not be pleased.
There is also a sense here in which Paul is telling us that we can’t “cheat” God. We may do whatever we want, but God knows everything and is consistent in his response.
If God audited your giving habits today and published the results in the Wall Street Journal, what would his analysis reveal about your generosity? Would it reveal:
- A stingy, legalistic approach as in “I give this much because I have to?”
- An enthusiastic, generous approach, as in “I give as much as I can because I love to?”
Our generosity follows the sowing and reaping principle. (Gal 6:7)
“For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Here Paul connects a law from the physical, material world to our management of the material resources in our care.
- If a gardener plants sunflower seeds in her yard, sunflowers will blossom.
- If a farmer plants soybean seeds in his fields, soybeans will grow.
Neither should expect to get anything but what they planted. The same is true for our financial and material generosity to one another.
There is a sense in which this principle applies to all our choices (good choices produce good results, bad choices produce bad results), but Paul applies it here to our financial, material generosity to one another. We know this because of what his focus the start and end of the section. He tells us to:
- “share in all good things” (Gal 6:6).
- “do good” (Gal 6:10).
Both these statements emphasize financial and material support, as the following statements from the New Testament (NT) show. Notice the use of “share” in these verses:
- “Distributing [sharing] to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality” (Rom 12:13).
- “Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only” (Phil 4:15).
Then notice the use of “good things” in the following two verses:
- “He said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my good [things]” (Luke 12:18).
- “Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things” (Luke 16:25).
“Sharing good things” and “doing good” here refers to being generous with our financial and material resources (our “goods”) for a godly cause.
Paul says that God views our generosity as planting seeds.
- What kind of seeds are you planting?
- What generous investments are you making with your money and resources?
Christ frees us from legalistic living to be generous in our giving
When we give, we reap what we sow. (Gal 6:8)
“For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
Paul teaches that there are two ways to sow or invest our physical resources. We can invest “to our flesh” or we can invest “to the Spirit.” What does this mean?
- “Sowing to the flesh in this paragraph means that one uses one’s worldly goods for one’s own advantage and in accord with selfish desires.”[1]
- Sowing to the Spirit, then, means that one uses one’s worldly goods for the support and advantage of others in accord with godly desires.
When we hoard and squander our resources for selfish, temporal uses or invest in ungodly causes, we diminish our future returns, especially in a spiritual sense. This scenario resembles a person who invests in a Ponzi scheme, believing he will receive a wealthy return, only to find out in the end that his investment is gone and worth nothing.
When we give to spiritual causes which God values, we increase our future returns, esp. in a spiritual sense. “Eternal life” here refers to results and outcomes that have lasting, eternal value and will never go away.
When we contribute to godly, spiritual causes, we not only reap what we sow, but we reap as much as we sow. We reap consistently, but we reap proportionally, too. That’s what Paul says in his letter to the church at Corinth.
“He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Cor 9:6).
It’s the legalist in us that clings to the idea that if we give 10% of our income to the church, then we’re fulfilling our duty to God. But when we study the NT, we see that God values abundant generosity over some legalistic, minimum requirement.
- The more you invest in God’s kingdom, the more everlasting returns in his kingdom you will enjoy for eternity.
- The more you invest in this fallen world, the less everlasting returns in God’s kingdom you will enjoy for eternity.
Knowing this, let’s ask ourselves some questions:
- How much of your financial, material resources are you investing or spending on selfish, temporal things?
- How much are you spending or investing in godly, spiritual causes?
Does your giving towards godly causes reveal a firm belief in the sowing and reaping principle? After all, Christ frees us from legalistic living to be generous in our giving!
When we give, we reap after we sow. (Gal 6:9)
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Paul uses two words to describe what can happen when we live generously over time. The key words here are “over time,” which gives us some crucial perspective because it’s natural for us to expect immediate returns for our investments – even in godly causes.
- To “grow weary” means to “lose heart, lost enthusiasm, or become discouraged.”
- To “lose heart” means to “become extremely weary, to give up.”
It’s one thing to give a one-time, generous gift to the church or a person in need (as with year-end giving, for instance), but it’s another thing to give generously, sacrificially, and repeatedly over time. It can be exciting to give to a special cause in an outburst of love and interest, but our commitment to generosity is proven through faithful, extended habits of giving which can regress into mundane, legalistic behavior if we let them.
Consider how we make regular contributions to long-term investments today.
- We make monthly/annual deposits into savings accounts, mutual funds, and stocks.
- We work for many years at a job waiting for a raise or pension.
- We make regular payments to a mortgage to pay it off in the end.
Playing the lottery or other gambling offers more lucrative, instant results, but the odds are so terrible that we waste our money trying. So, we commit to a long-term strategy knowing that through penny-pinching and careful budgeting, we’ll have more than what we invested in the end, when those who tried the “get rich quick” schemes have nothing.
Major League Baseball players know how this works. They grind away unknown making almost nothing in the minor leagues and working other part-time jobs to make ends meet. They work hard in the gym and on the ballfield until the day arrives when they get called up to the majors and sign their first big-league contract.
When Paul says, “in due season,” he uses the words “in your own time.” He means that regular generosity to godly causes tends to yield few if any immediate results, but at an appropriate time in the future (whether in this life or not, but always in the life to come), we will receive an abundant and fruitful harvest that never goes away.
Generous giving is not like “buying” something, like when we give money and get something back at the store. Godly generosity is more like investing in mutual funds for a long-term goal, which is an investment that benefits from the power of compound interest.
- Have you lost enthusiasm in giving to God and meeting the needs of others?
- Have you stopped generous giving to focus on yourself and temporal pleasures?
Remember – Christ frees us from legalistic living to be generous in our giving!
Paul gives two ways to give generously before God. (Gal 6:6, 10)
Paul starts this section with the first way to live generously: “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.” He tells church members to meet the financial and material needs of their pastor(s) who’ve devoted themselves to informing, serving, and training them with the Word of God.
Paul ends this section with the second way to live generously: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” He tells us to expand our generosity to other people in need, not just pastors.
- “Doing good” refers to “giving money and resources to alleviate the suffering or to meet the needs of others.”[2]
- “To all” refers to any people with genuine needs whom the Lord brings into our sphere of influence and relationship.
- “Especially to those who are of the household of faith” gives an order of priority, placing the needs and opportunities of fellow believers ahead of the needs of nonbelievers.
This prioritization does not mean we should only be generous to believers, but since we have limited resources, we should prioritize church needs over secular needs when faced with a choice. We should prioritize the church as our spiritual family of God.
We should use our resources to help our families first (1 Tim 5:8). “If extra funds are available, they should give to the church. Remaining resources should be given to assist those outside the circle of faith who are in need.”[3] This is generosity triage for Christians.
As a spiritual family, we should “have one another’s back” and share the spiritual and material support we need as we navigate the challenges of following Christ together. Do your giving habits reflect these priorities of the church as your spiritual family? They should because Christ has freed us from legalistic living to be generous in our giving!
A generous church today will enjoy the generous blessings of God in the future.
We can apply this principle together as a church in two specific ways.
First, when a church is faithful to meet the material needs of its pastor(s), that church will reap long-term, future, and eternal blessings from God.
Today more than ever, a healthy church needs a pastor (or pastors) who can wholly devote himself to the careful study and faithful teaching of God’s Word.
“Applying the message of Scripture to the myriad of issues we face today is not an easy task. Therefore, study and diligence are required of those who proclaim the Word. What preachers need, above all, is time to engage in such study and reflection. Hence, the financial assistance of believers in the congregation is of the utmost importance, for it frees pastors to attend to the ministry of the Word and prayer (Acts 6:4).”[4]
A church who values this priority will contribute generously to the needs of its pastor(s). (They will also contribute through faithful participation in worship and teaching gatherings and faithful service in the other ministries of the church.) A church who gives and lives generously this way will enjoy a future that’s blessed by God.
Second, when a church is faithful to meet the material needs of other faithful members who face genuine hardships, that church.
We never seem to have trouble finding money for the things we value. If we want to go out to eat, buy a new phone, take a cruise, get a nice hair and nail treatment, or upgrade our wardrobe, we make it happen – and sometimes spend generously to do so. Meanwhile, other members in the church are barely scraping by.
Sometimes we scrape by because we’re lazy and don’t work or because we spend our resources wastefully and accumulate irresponsible debt. These are consequences of poor stewardship and may often not require generosity from other believers.
Other times, faithful believers work hard but face genuine financial, physical, and vocational setbacks. Sometimes these setbacks are due to their faithfulness to Christ. In such cases, the church should be eager and willing to meet the need when possible, elevating one another’s needs over our own discretionary pleasures.
Both applications of generous giving (to pastors and to members in need) are fulfilled when we support national church planters and missionaries to foreign fields as well. Such believers often fit both kinds of application! A church who is committed to generous giving in this way will enjoy the generous and everlasting blessing of God in the future if they don’t give up.
[1] Schreiner, Galatians, 369.
[2] Schreiner, Galatians, 370.
[3] Schreiner, Galatians, 371.
[4] Schreiner, Galatians, 371-372.
