Introduction
What does true Christian spirituality look like? True and proper worship. What are some of the defining marks of those who are united to Jesus Christ and have his Spirit dwelling within them?
Historically, as well as in our day and age, deep spirituality is often connected with some kind of special experience or solitude, like time alone with God high up on a mountain—separation from community life so that you are at a distance from common temptations. In our church history there is a famous example of Antony the monk. He turned his back on riches and his family to go and live in a cave where he pursued various spiritual disciplines. There was a lot of prayer, and a lot of meditation and self-denial. He was celebrated as being a godly example, someone who can be doubly sure of his salvation, someone who was sowing to the Spirit.
Whether it is circumcision or a special experience, it is very easy to connect godliness with something that we do for ourselves—something divorced from community living.
The apostle Paul corrects this kind of thinking. As we also saw in Galatians 5:26–6:5, he has taught us that life in step with the Spirit is a life where we love our neighbours as ourselves. It is a life of concrete and practical acts of service toward others—not vague virtues but actions.
Specifically, when it comes to the church community, we must be ready to bear each other’s burdens. We are not competitors fighting for a prize, but teammates, family members working together in service to God. Everyone is prone to temptation. Everyone is at a different level of maturity. Financially and emotionally, we must be there for each other.
Burden bearing is our response to the grace that God has shown us in Christ. It is the proper exercise of Christian freedom. Today we will continue to learn about life in the Spirit, with a focus on our responsibility to those who teach God’s Word and more generally to our neighbour.
Provision for those who are called to teach:
Explain: why does Paul talk about providing for pastors?
Explain: why should pastors be provided for? What are they meant to focus their time and energy on?
Explain: what will tend to happen if our pastors neglect study and prayer? How will this influence their preaching?
Explain/Apply: explain how giving works in the church where you have been called to minister. Encourage God’s people to give in proportion to their income. Explain what is done to make sure that money given by church members is used only to support ministry of the Word and not wasted on other things.
Explain/Apply: explain that there is no fixed rule in Scripture for how much a minister must be compensated. The only principle is that it must be sufficient to provide for him and his family, and to allow him to live in the area where the church is meeting so that he can be part of the local community.
Doing good in response to God’s grace:
Explain: what does it mean to do good?
Explain: should we do good also to our enemies?
Explain: how should we prioritize our limited resources?
Explain: why do we want to do good? How does our doing good relate to the work of Christ and the promise of a reward?
Explain/Apply: what are some of the things that discourage us from doing good? What must we remember at these times?
Concluding prayer
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for calling and sending men to faithfully proclaim your gospel, so that we can benefit from their work, and so that they could be used to tell us of your Son so that your Spirit can work a true faith in our hearts.
Thank you for making us part of your church, for giving us brothers and sisters who are eager to look out for us and help us in the faith.
We confess, Lord, that we are quick to find excuses for giving to support the ministry of your Word or doing the good that you have prepared for us to walk in. We are prone to selfishness and prone to laziness, Lord. Please forgive us for the sake of Christ, and please change us by your Spirit so that we will desire more and more to do what is right.
In particular we ask that you would help us to personally reflect on our giving, and to open our eyes to see where we can be of greater service to our neighbour.
We ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.