Download Audio<\/a>\n\tText: Galatians 6:1-10<\/p>\n
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I. One of the issues that has divided brethren is that of doing good.<\/p>\n
A. The question is who is responsible?<\/p>\n B. One side argues that it doesn’t matter, so long as the good is done. The other side\nargues that you cannot give away a responsibility God has given to you.\nII. Before we get into the actual verses, we need to first address the question: Is the church\nmerely a group of Christians?\n A. If it is, then the argument that whatever God commanded of an individual can be\ndone by the group\n
B. There is a distinction in funds – Acts 5:3-4<\/p>\n 1. Notice that while the money are his, he could have done whatever he\nwanted.\n
2. But it was no longer his own, it was given to the church.<\/p>\n
C. There is a distinction in address – Matthew 18:15-18<\/p>\n 1. As a problem is trying to be resolved, it goes first to the individual, then to\na small group of Christians, and finally to the church.\n 2. If the church is merely a collection of individuals, then it could not\nreferred to a separate step\n
D. There is a distinction in environment – I Corinthians 14:34-36<\/p>\n
1. Women are to be silent in church, but may ask questions at home.<\/p>\n
E. There is a distinction in obligation – I Timothy 5:16<\/p>\n 1. The individual had responsibility to care for widows in his own family – I\nTimothy 5:8\n
2. The church was given a restricted set of qualifications – I Timothy 5:9-11<\/p>\n 3. The individual was specifically told not to turn over his responsibility to\nthe church.\n
III. Doing Good – Galatians 6:7-10<\/p>\n
A. In Galatians 6:7-8, who is being addressed?<\/p>\n
1. We see words like “man,” “he,” and “his flesh.”<\/p>\n
2. These are words to the individual.<\/p>\n
3. A church doesn’t have flesh since it is an organization<\/p>\n
B. The point is that a person harvests what he sows.<\/p>\n
1. Good seed will yield a good crop. Bad seed will yield a bad crop.<\/p>\n 2. Hosea 8:7 makes the same point, but also notes you get back more than\nyou plant\n
a. Most don’t count on that. <\/p>\n b. Doing a little bad, doesn’t get you a little bad consequences –\nProverbs 22:8\n
3. So we need to sow righteousness – Proverbs 11:18; Hosea 10:12<\/p>\n
C. “And” – Galatians 6:9 continues the thought<\/p>\n
1. Paul says we are not to give up doing that good<\/p>\n a. Literally the phrase in Greek is “Let us not keep on giving in to evil\nwhile doing the good” (Robertson’s New Testament Word\nPictures).\n 2. Just because the farmer sows seed, does he quit because he got no results\nthe next week? Of course not.\n 3. Do we give up because the results of righteousness don’t come in as quick\nas we had hoped? The answer is the same: Of course not!\n
D. What is meant by switching from the singular third person to plural first person?<\/p>\n 1. While the warning against sowing sin was not directed to any particular\nindividual, the command to not give up is for everyone, including Paul.\n 2. Could it be a shift from the individual to the church? Such doesn’t work\ngrammatically.\n a. If you are talking about the church, it is singular, though it is made\nup of multiple individuals.\n b. If you use the plural for churches, then you are referring to many\ngroups. So if this was addressing the church we went from talking\nabout individuals in the third person to many churches in the first.\nThat is not a natural shift, especially while continuing a point.\n c. “We” includes the speaker. Paul is an individual, he is not a\nchurch.\n 3. It is not a shift of responsibility from the individual to the church. The\nchurch is not even in consideration in these verses.\n
a. Start again in verse 1, “a man,” “you,” “anyone,” “himself,” “he,”<\/p>\n b. Note particularly Galatians 1:4-5 and realize that Paul is not talking\nabout the church, but individual Christians.\n 4. The shift from singular to plural is common in Galatians, often occurring\nwhen Paul summarizes his points. \n
a. For example, see Galatians 5:16-26<\/p>\n b. It means the conclusion drawn is not just for some, but for\neveryone, including Paul.\n
5. The use of “all”<\/p>\n a. When Paul says to do good to all, “all” broadens the target of the\ngood to every example of what is under consideration. \n (1) If Paul was talking to churches, the “all” would refer to all\nchurches.\n (2) But that would not make sense because churches would be\nof the faith by their very nature, so you could not say\nespecially those of the household of faith.\n (3) Besides God’s household is not made up of churches but of\nChristians.\n b. The translators know that Paul is talking about people and add the\nword “men” or “people” to make it explicit.\n c. So “Let us do good to all” is about people doing good to other\npeople, not churches doing good to other churches.\n E. What is our duty? To do good, to not give up, to take advantage of opportunities,\nand to put priority on helping other Christians.\n
IV. Visiting Widows and Orphans – James 1:27<\/p>\n A. After spending so much time on Galatians 6:9-10, James 1:27 should be straight\nforward.\n
B. The context is clear: “Anyone” and “oneself” is not addressed to a church<\/p>\n
1. Churches don’t have a tongue or a heart<\/p>\n
C. Visiting doesn’t mean stopping by for a brief chat or sending a check.<\/p>\n
1. From the Greek word, episkeptomai<\/i><\/p>\n a. Thayer: “to look upon or after, to inspect, examine with the eyes; …\nin order to see how he is, i.e. to visit, go see one. … to look upon in\norder to help or benefit; e.g. to look after, have a care for, provide\nfor …”\n
b. Vine: “to look upon, care for, exercise oversight.”<\/p>\n (1) Note that the word episkeptomai<\/i> is related to the Greek\nword for overseer. The word we derive the office of a\nbishop or elder who oversees the work of a congregation.\n
(2) Here a child or widow is being overseen<\/p>\n
2. Other uses of the word in the New Testament<\/p>\n a. Luke 1:68, 78-79 – Zacharias prophesied that God would visit\nmankind – A prophecy about the coming Messiah.\n (1) Christ did not have brief chat with mankind. He did not\nsend a representative on his behalf. \n (2) Christ’s visit was a direct, personal interaction with\nmankind.\n b. Acts 7:23-24 – Moses’ visit to his brethren involved his taking\npersonal action in their defense.\n c. Acts 15:36 – Paul and Barnabas visited the brethren directly to see\nhow the work was progressing.\n
d. Matthew 25:35-36 – Visiting those in prison<\/p>\n (1) Not by sending gifts, but by directly interacting with those\nin prison\n 3. Vincent’s Word Studies: “James strikes a downright blow here at ministry\nby proxy, or by mere gifts of money. Pure and undefiled religion demands\npersonal contact with the world’s sorrow: to visit the afflicted, and to visit\nthem in their affliction.”\n D. To claim that the church can take care of orphans and widows and that fulfills the\nChristian’s duty is absolutely against what James 1:27 says.\n
V. You and I are responsible<\/p>\n A. The duties of the church and the Christian do overlap, but there are areas of\ndistinction.\n
B. A command to the Christian does not necessarily apply to a church. <\/p>\n C. Even when there is an overlap because both are commanded, one does not relive\nthe other of their responsibility.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: Galatians 6:1-10 I. One of the issues that has divided brethren is that of doing good. A. The question is who is responsible? B. One side argues that it doesn’t matter, so long as the good is done. The other side argues that you cannot give away a responsibility God…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[642,193,1508,192,191,354,153],"class_list":["post-47334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-christianity","tag-individual-vs-church","tag-institutionalism","tag-liberalism","tag-orphans","tag-responsibility","tag-widows"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49441,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-accountable\/","url_meta":{"origin":47334,"position":0},"title":"Who Is Accountable?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andrew Long","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50470,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-responsible-for-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":47334,"position":1},"title":"Who Is Responsible for Sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. 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