What's Your Motivation?

Galatians 6:11-18

Like a skillful lawyer, Paul has made a compelling case to the churches in Galatia.

He pushed back against people who were promoting legalism, the belief that observing OT laws earns salvation from God. Church members also face another form of legalism, which is trying to earn favor with God through strict rules and performance.

Paul has also warned strongly against fleshly behavior, which is following the desires of our sinful nature rather than the godly desires of the Holy Spirit within us.

In making his case, Paul has not only spoken like a lawyer, but he has spoken as a loving father, too. He speaks like a father who is concerned that his children are hanging around bad friends and being influenced to make bad choices.

In these final verses which make up the conclusion of his letter, we see this loving touch bleed through – through the ink of a quill pen on the parchment.

Sometimes we need a more personal approach.

See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!

Galatians 6:11

In that first-century world, writing a letter was an important and formal occasion. It often involved some team effort between the person who was sending the letter and a person who wrote it down for them. The person who wrote it down was called an amanuensis. The person sending the letter would speak (or dictate) his thoughts out loud, then the amanuensis would write them down.

That’s how Paul would have prepared this letter, but then he did something special at the end. He took the quill pen into his own hand and wrote the final words.

• The “large letters” may be his way of drawing attention to his own handwriting, which may have featured larger print than the pen strokes of the amanuensis.
• But this probably refers to the length of what he wrote to end the letter because he wrote more than he usually would have done.

Paul did close at least four other letters with a personal signature, yet these entries are relatively short.

• “The salutation with my own hand—Paul’s” (1 Cor 16:21) + 2 more verses
• “This salutation by my own hand—Paul. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen” (Col 4:18)
• “The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle; so I write” (2 Thess 3:17) + 1 more verse

In his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul writes more than usual in his own handwriting. This shows the personal, heartfelt care he hoped to convey to the churches. He was not just writing as a cold-hearted lawyer, but as a warm-hearted father who cared for their spiritual condition.

Legalism is motivated by social pressure from other people.

In Paul’s final, personal words, he shifted his attention away from the message of legalism to the motives of some legalistic teachers. Why were they pressuring followers of Christ to be circumcised and to practice Jewish dietary laws? Paul gives the answer.

These legalistic influencers had two motives, which are actually one motive viewed from two different angles. They wanted to please the nonbelieving Jews in their community.

As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

Galatians 6:12

• On one hand, they wanted to “look good” to their Jewish relatives and neighbors (and esp. to the religious leaders in their local synagogue).
• On the other hand, they wanted to avoid being harassed, litigated against, beaten, imprisoned, or worse by these very same people.

They wanted to be able to say to their Jewish critics, “Don’t worry, we’re making the Gentile believers get circumcised and follow our dietary laws. It’s all good!” They wanted to follow Christ and keep the unbelieving Jews happy at the same time.

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

Galatians 6:13

Here Paul points out the irony of a legalistic lifestyle. People who promote legalistic practices often choose ceremonial, external, technical, and procedural behaviors (like styles of clothing, diet regulations, etc.) because these are easy to measure and enforce. Circumcision was one such  

Paul points out that though these people pressured Gentile believers to be circumcised out of “sensitivity to the law,” this was a very limited perspective because there were other ways that they *did* break the law. What makes circumcision so useful here is that it’s a one-time, external event, so you can do it and feel good for having done so indefinitely.

But most of the OT law pertained to repeated lifestyle issues and – as Christ pointed out – even internal, heart issues. So, these people pushing circumcision were being hypocritical and simply pushed it so that they could brag about getting Gentile believers to come over to their side.

Godly Christian living is motivated by Christ’s death on the cross.

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14

Paul resisted this mindset. He refused to take pride in counting the number of his converts or taking credit for persuading them to follow Christ.

Instead of finding his worth, significance, and security in his ministerial accomplishments, converts, and so on, he found his worth and significance in one thing only – that Christ had died on the cross for him. Since he had trusted in Christ’s death for his salvation rather than his religious accomplishments, he experienced what Christ experienced – he died to this world and the way it measures significance.

When a person dies on a cross, the world shuns them and assigns them a deplorable reputation. But when a person dies on the cross, that person also shuns the world and the things the world values. Though we do not die on crosses, we died on the cross with Christ since he was dying in our place, therefore what the world thinks about us and how the world (even the religious world) measures our worth and significance should no longer matter to us, nor does our following Christ matter to them. We must learn to accept that and stop trying to impress other people with our performance.

Followers of Christ focus on spiritual transformation rather than peripheral issues.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

Galatians 6:15

Religious, technical, external, ceremonial practices like circumcision should no longer be a big deal to believers in the church. What matters is that God has made us a new creation. This “new creation” refers to genuine godliness, the kind we live out from the heart by the power of the Spirit, not the kind we cobble together by obeying OT rules and manmade regulations.

One possible application here is that as believers, we should not make “litmus test” issues of spirituality out of other religious or pseudo-religious matters today, like did you take the vaccine or not? This has become a pseudo-religious matter, unfortunately, with some believing the vaccine is a bad thing to do and refrain from taking it due to their conscience, while others take it because they believe it is a good and Christian thing to do in their conscience. In Christ, neither vaccine nor “no vaccine” impresses God. What pleases God is genuine Christlike behavior.

God enables us to live free from the influence of legalism.

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Galatians 6:16

Here Paul says, “as many who live this way” (“who keep in step with this approach”) with this “circumcision or no circumcision, it doesn’t matter to me” approach – those who deliberately resist the pressure of legalism – he says to them “peace and mercy” be upon them. “This rule” may also be understood as “this principle.”

• Peace refers to a peaceful, tranquil, blessed life from God which includes deliverance from enemies and adversaries.
• Mercy refers to God withholding the judgment that we deserve and treating us with compassion and pity instead.

Paul prays for these blessings for all who live by focusing on genuine Christlike, Spirit-dependence living, not legalistic performance.

• Those who practice legalism should not experience the peace (or mercy) of God and should get what they deserve, for those who live by the law should suffer the consequences which the law prescribes.
• Neither do they experience the peace (or mercy) of God because legalism creates a perpetual feeling of guilt for never being good enough and for always needing to impress other people more than before.

“Even the Israel of God” is a phrase that assures believing Jews in the church that Paul was not opposed to them. He was opposing the problems of legalistic Judaism, not Jewish Christians, for there are Israelites who are not legalistic.

From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Galatians 6:17

Here Paul “signs off” with his ministry credentials. The legalistic teachers pointed to their accreditation by the Jewish rabbis and their superior academic credentials and religious performance as the basis for their religious authority and right to teach. They insisted that Paul was a lone wolf who didn’t deserve a hearing and was disrespecting the law.

Paul pushed back by saying that he had no more time to put up with such accusations. Why? Because he had the credentials that mattered. He had *not* given in to the pressure of the legalizers and Jewish rabbis and instead of saving his skin, he had been beaten, mistreated, and so on because of his loyalty to Christ and to the message of salvation by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone. He had the true credentials of a teacher worth listening to – the scars of suffering for Christ and not being ashamed.

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Galatians 6:18

Paul closes with a final prayer for God’s grace to flow into their lives through their relationship with Christ. He prayed that God’s powerful, abundant grace and goodness which they did not deserve would strengthen and empower them from their inner spirit to live the Christ-like life that God had called them to live. To live free – from the law, from the flesh, and from the pressure of religious leaders and influencers.

Key Takeaway

What motivates your choices and lifestyle as a Christian?

“The law was powerless to change lives. It focused on the externals. The grace of Christ is powerful because it changes us from the inside out.

Every person struggles with selfishness. We get preoccupied with our finances, our families, our loneliness, our time crunches, and our aches and pains. Yet all around us are people sharing the same problems. They are so overcome by difficulties that often they are emotionally and spiritually down. Grace frees us and empowers us by the Holy Spirit to reach out and to love them in word and deed.

• Are you bearing others’ burdens? Do you give to support the work of your church and pastor? …
• When you … serve others, what is your motive? Do you do it, like the Judaizers, to make a good impression? Or do you do it as appreciation for what God has done for you?”[1]

As a church, let’s live free. Let’s be motivated by the cross of Christ to care for one another, serve one another, and point one another to Christ.

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[1] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 81–82.