‘Now let the one being taught within the word, share the teaching within all goodness, 7 not leading astray. God is absolutely not ridiculed, because whatever a man is sowing, this also he will harvest. 8 Because sowing towards his flesh, from the flesh he will reap decay from within. But sowing towards the Breath, away from the Breath he will reap perpetual life’, (Galatians 6 v 6 – 8).
The Judaizers had come in to the Galatian assemblies with teaching. They were assertively teaching, instructing and exhorting that Christians had to follow Sinai Covenant law as the means of obtaining and maintaining divine judicial approval. So Paul goes ‘back to basics’ and says that Christians who have been taught within the word and who are sharing teaching should do so ‘within all goodness, not leading astray’. Such an individual should share the teaching honestly and faithfully. They should not twist the teaching in order to gain a good reputation, or to gain the advantages of status, material wealth or comfort.
Paul says, ‘Make no mistake. God is not ridiculed’. Why? ‘Because whatever a man is sowing, this also he will harvest’. Those who teach using malicious, deceitful motives are described as ‘sowing towards their flesh’, and the result of this is that ‘from the flesh he will reap decay from within’. Elsewhere Paul describes the physical body and a ‘body of death’. This is because the impulses and raw passions inherent in our flesh are in opposition to God, and following these impulses – such as twisting the gospel message to obtain a good reputation – leads to withering away, to insensitivity and unresponsiveness to God and ultimately to divine disapproval and judicial condemnation.
This is contrasted with the teacher who shares the word and the teaching accurately and faithfully. ‘… sowing towards the Breath, away from the Breath he will reap perpetual life’. The opposite of ruin, loss, withering away and death is ‘life’ – abundant life, life with a capital ‘L’, perpetual life.
