What are we doing? Really, church. What are we doing? We are the salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it's lost its savor? Why have we gone back to the snares that God once delivered us from? Why have we turned back to the sin that Jesus already freed us from? We've placed our candles underneath bushels in hopes of avoiding persecution. Our spirit has grown deprived while our flesh is yet to still be satisfied. We've been filled with everything but the Spirit and lulled to sleep in the comfort of our own sin. We are the light of the world, saints. It's time that we start walking in this truth.
Nevertheless the one who receives instruction in
the Word or the Message about JESUS should share
all good things with their instructor or teacher.
Now here is kind of the climax of Paul's case:
Do not be deceived — remember our
working theory— for this practice is it's
deceptive ideas that play to disordered
desires that are normalized in a sinful
society—that is the strategy for ruin in
our soul & in society at large
Hopefully you have that put to memory by now?
Do not be deceived that's like the origin point
right there—in our mind, don't be deceived:
GOD cannot be mocked, a man reaps
what he sows—& so does a woman
whoever sows to please their flesh
meaning whoever does something if
you give into gratify carnal desires—
if you invest your resources of time,
money, effort, energy into your flesh
into following desires of that corner
of your heart from the flesh will reap
destruction from [6:23]
Who will reap to scratch destruction?
Moving on, from who? From the flesh, right?
—not from GOD—it's from the flesh.
Nine times out of ten, the punishment for sin
is the consequences of sin has little to nothing
to do with GOD.
It's just you & I running our own course.
2.1] The Good News
On the other hand, here's the good news whoever
sows to please the SPIRIT—meaning if you sow, or
if you give/invest your resources in following the
SPIRIT of GOD in your heart
—you will reap from GOD eternal life.
Now that phrase eternal life, most of us are familiar
with — but you might not know this: A number of
scholars argue that's not a good English translation
because most of us hear eternal life & we just think
life forever somewhere else up in the sky.
Which is most likely not on Paul's mind right?
Here a number of scholars argue a better English
translation of the Greek or the original language
is the life of the age to come
because it's not just quantity of life that Paul
is writing about—but quality of life. It is not
just life forever, but it's a kind of life in the
here & now, and on into eternity. [7:47]
From the SPIRIT will reap quality & quantity
of the life of the age to come now & forever
Slavery of Freedom E1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 | John Mark Comer [Galatians 6:1-18]
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
(1 Peter 5:8)
Make no mistake about the devil’s intentions. No matter how attractive his temptation, his purpose is to devour a person spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
Resist every temptation to compromise your faith. Prayer for courage and strength.
Sin is not taken in deadly earnest when it is regarded as something that can be radically overcome by the enthusiasm of "good intentions," and then, by and by, can be removed by practical activity. You may cure a wound by such treatment but you cannot restore a dead man to life.
Karl Barth, The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life, p. 23.
