The duty of supporting the ministry.
"But let him who is being instructed in the Word communicate with him that teacheth in all good things." The apostle bad spoken of burdens, but he did not mean to exempt the Galatians from the burden of supporting their teachers. Perhaps they were niggardly—for Gaulish avarice was a proverb—and it was necessary to teach them their duty.
I. THIS PASSAGE IMPLIES THAT THERE IS AN ORDER OF MINISTERS IN THE CHURCH. If the ministry was common to all Christians, why should there have been provision made for the support of a particular class?
1. It is implied that the ministers were teachers, not mere celebrants of ritualistic devotion or spectacle. They taught orally, as the word signifies. It was thus that the early disciples were "nourished up in the words of good doctrine."
2. It is implied that the Word of God was their text-book. The early Christians were "taught in the Word." They had the Scriptures in their own tongue, and were in a position to test the teaching of their guides as well as "to try the spirits" generally.
3. It is implied that the teachers relented to devoted themselves entirely to the work of ministry. They had isolated themselves from secular employments, else why should it be necessary to provide them with an independent support?
II. THIS PASSAGE TEACHES THAT MINISTERS ARE TO RECEIVE AN ADEQUATE MAINTENANCE. They are to share "in all good things;" not as a gift or dole, but as a right; for Christ said, "The labourer is worthy of his hire." If inspired teachers like the apostles and prophets deserved this consideration, is it not much more needed for a class of teachers who spend much time and thought in preparation for their work? The duty is clearly set forth by the apostle. (1 Thessalonians 2:6, 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Corinthians 9:1-15.; Philippians 4:10; 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Timothy 5:18). Luther says, "Whosoever will not give the Lord God a penny gets his due when he is forced to give the devil a dollar." Calvin suggests that "it is one of the tricks of Satan to defraud godly ministers of support that the Church may be deprived of their services."
The two sowings and the two reapings.
The Galatians were probably disposed to find excuses for avoiding the responsibility of supporting their religious teachers. The apostle warns them of the danger of self-deception, and, above all, of the danger of imagining that a man may sow to the flesh and yet expect to reap the fruits of the Spirit. Mark—
I. THE SOLEMN WARNING AGAINST SELF-DECEPTION. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked." Whether the self-deception arise from pride or corruption of heart, or from the perversions of false teachers, some might imagine that there would be no harvest after the present life; others might suppose that they would not reap the same sort of seed they were sowing; others, that the harvest would have no relation to the degree or proportion of the goodness or badness of the seed. They are sternly warned not to deceive themselves. They might impose upon themselves. That is all they can do. God is not mocked, either by a presumptuous neglect of a Divine command or with services that are pretended and not real.
II. THERE IS A NECESSARY CONNECTION BETWEEN THE SOWING AND THE REAPING. It is impossible for men to break the Divine order established in the nature of things. There is a sowing-time; there will be a reaping-time. The reaping will be as the sowing. He that sows wheat will reap wheat; he that sows cockle will reap cockle. Nobody expects, after sowing wheat, to have a crop of thistles. So it is in the acts of human life. If a man sow the seeds of charity, the harvest will be answerable both in kind and in degree. The actions of this life are as seed sown for the life to come. The tare-sower cannot expect wheat; for "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
III. THE TWO SOWINGS AND THE TWO REAPINGS. "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." The flesh and the Spirit represent, as it were, two corn-fields, in which different kinds of seed are sown. The future and the present here stand in the strictest connection.
1. The sowing to the flesh. The flesh is the unregenerate nature. Every act of life has a distinct relation to the gratification of that nature. The idea of the apostle is elsewhere represented in vivid phrase. The man who "sows to the flesh" is he who "walks after the flesh" (Romans 8:4), who "minds the things of the flesh" (Romans 8:5), who is "in the flesh" (Romans 8:5), who "lives after the flesh," who "minds earthly things," who "fulfils the desires of the flesh and of the mind," who "presents his members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness" (Romans 6:13).
2. The terrible reaping. We see part of the harvest in this life. We see drunkenness dogged by disease, idleness with rags, pride with scorn, and the rejection of God by the belief of a lie. But the passage clearly points to the harvest at the end of the world, when the seed germinates into corruption. This is moral death (2 Peter 2:12; 1 Corinthians 3:17). "To be carnally minded is death." Great in consequence will be the misery of man upon him.
3. The sowing to the Spirit. All the acts of the believer have relation to the life of grace: he lays up treasure in heaven; the life created by the Spirit can have no pause—it renounces self and lives to God.
4. The blessed reaping. The harvest is everlasting life. The connection between the reaping and the sowing in the first case is that of desert; the connection in this case is established by grace; for, while "the wages of sin is death," "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Though the harvest is everlasting life to all sowers to the Spirit, it will not be the same to all; for "every one is to receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad."
IV. CONCLUSIONS. The passage suggests.
1. That we ought to have a due consideration to the importance of our present conduct,
2. That the hypocrite is a fool who imagines that he can sow to the flesh and yet reap "life everlasting."
3. That it is only by faith in Jesus Christ we shall ever be brought to cease sowing to the flesh and begin sowing to the Spirit.