Stop condemning people with Galatians 6:7-8

The Apostle Paul did not advocate condemning people

That’s not the subject of the letter to the Galatians. It is inconceivable that the Apostle Paul would throw in a verse that justifies hatefully condemning anyone in the final paragraph of a letter arguing against the false law-keeping doctrine of the Judaizers. Consider this brief outline of the Letter to the Galatians…

1. Introduction (Galatians 1:1-10)
2. Personal: Defense of Paul’s Apostleship (Galatians 1:11-2:21)
3. Doctrinal: Defense of Justification by Faith
   1. Vindication of Justification by Faith (Galatians 3:1-18)
   2. Purpose of the Law (Galatians 3:19-4:7)
   3. Appeal Concerning Justification by Faith (Galatians 4:8-31)
4. Practical: Defense of Christian Liberty
   1. Liberty Vs. Law (Galatians 5:1-12)
   2. Liberty Vs. License (Galatians 5:13-26)
   3. Liberty to Love (Galatians 6:1-10)
      Brethren, if any man be fallen by chance into any fault: ye which are spiritual, help to amend him, in the spirit of meekness: considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burden: and so fulfil the law of Christ. If a man seem to himself that he is somewhat when indeed he is nothing, the same deceiveth himself in his imagination. Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in his own self, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. (Galatians 6:1-5 TNT)
      Let him that is taught in the word, minister unto him that teacheth him in all good things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap. He that soweth in his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth in the spirit shall, of the spirit reap life everlasting. Let us do good, and let us not faint. For when the time is come we shall reap without weariness. While we have therefore time let us do good unto all men, and specially, unto them which are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:6-10 TNT)
5. Conclusion (Galatians 6:11-18)

The Apostle Paul contrasted religious works versus spiritual faith

The Apostle Paul spent 5 chapters teaching the Galatians about the difference between the liberty of justification by faith, which is the law of Christ, and curse of  justification by works, which is the ten commandment law. Why would he introduce a new topic in the last paragraph? It makes much more sense for this to be a continuation of the same topic as the rest of the letter: justification by faith versus the curse of law keeping. A modernized English paraphrase might be…

• If you sow with the human flesh of law keeping, you are under the curse of the law and will reap the eternal damnation of the law.
• If you sow with the Holy Spirit in justification by faith, which is the law of Christ, you will reap eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Let me speak frankly. If you think there is any righteous work you can sow to reap everlasting life, you don’t understand the gospel. If you think there is any sin an unbeliever can sow to reap corruption, you don’t understand the controversy of sin. If you think there is any sin that a believer can commit to reap corruption, you don’t understand the security of the believer.

1 Listen to this, all you people!
Pay attention, everyone in the world!

6 They trust in their wealth
and boast of great riches.
7 Yet they cannot redeem themselves from death
by paying a ransom to God.

15 But as for me, God will redeem my life.
He will snatch me from the power of the grave.

20 People who boast of their wealth don’t understand;
they will die, just like animals. (Psalm 49)

Contrast the “condemning” interpretation of Galatians 6:7-8 with the Apostle Paul’s mission…

• Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation.
• The old way of living has disappeared.
• A new way of living has come into existence.
• God has done all this.
• He has restored our relationship with him through Christ,
• and has given us this ministry of restoring relationships.
• In other words, God was using Christ to restore his relationship with humanity.
• He didn’t hold people’s faults against them,
• and he has given us this message of restored relationships to tell others. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19 NLT with my emphasis)

The terrible state of unrepentant, unsaved, and unredeemed sinners is much more abundantly portrayed in other verses…

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:18-21)

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:18-20)

But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:13-17)

The blessed state of repentant, saved, and redeemed believers is much more abundantly portrayed in other verses…

But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone. (Titus 3:4-8)

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

For deeper study:

• The shocking war between the good intentions of the flesh and the spirit — Do you think this means living the pious life of a religious zealot versus the wild partying life of a drunken sinner? Shockingly, that’s wrong!
• Living by the rule of the Holy Spirit — The more someone yields to the Holy Spirit in their life, the more their life will be characterized by the “Fruit of the Spirit.” The more someone works to establish their own religious righteousness, the more their life will be characterized by the “Works of the Flesh.”
• What about self-righteousness? — Few claim their opinion is better than God, their judgment is greater than God, their wisdom is higher than God, their righteousness exceeds God, But…
• The believer is a new creation — If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you have been born again, you are a new creation, you are a new creature. You have been changed to be like you never sinned.
• What defiles a person? — This is one of the most important questions for a Christian or anyone to understand. About 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ addressed the crowds on this very topic because even then it was a problem between the Pharisees and other Jews.