One of the things that this passage talks about is not giving up. Getting up the next morning. When you don’t want to. Sticking to your diet. Doing your exercise: doing your work. Cleaning the house. Feeding the poor. Reading and meditating on the word, Praying for others and oneself, and doing some good today.
It is winter now, and all of the above is getting harder: the term is ending at university and will soon end at school, and one’s thoughts turn to the Pacific Islands. Where it is warm and sunlit. But that is immaterial, as is the fact that we have half the hospital shut with an infectious virus, complete with superinfections (No I don’t work on that ward, but when one ward closes the patients have to go somewhere).
There is no retirement for the Christian. While we are alive, we work, and for much of that time it will feel like a daily struggle. Hard work. What I call “grinding” — working hard at a problem and overcoming it by sheer effort. Reading something five times until you understand it. Doing the extra yards in the gym. Because you lack talent, so you add more sweat.
25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
1My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. 4All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. 5For all must carry their own loads.
6Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.
7Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. 10So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
Briefly, on the coffee issue: you grind your beans before making the brew. Every darn time. Coffee making is a competitive business in this part of the world, and the gratuitous shot of the black liquid was taken at a gardening supply store . This is what we call basic coffee, and why I dislike Tim Horton’s. And Startbux, which I refuse to even link to.
Now, consider for a second the passge. The church is not a competition, it is a team: our leaders should not Lord over us, but coach us. We should submit and obey, and do good. We should not be involved in power struggles. Often the statement “be not a doormat” is code for “be conceited” and we are commanded that this should not be.
We need to consider ourselves and our faults. This should, if we have a conscience, lead us to our knees, in humility, confessing and begging forgiveness, for today we will screw up, probably in the same way we did yesterday. it is only by the grace of God that we develop the capacity to do good in the first place.
And yes, it is difficult. I was in a difficult marriage for years: it was hard. I have now been a solo Dad for some years, it is not that more peaceful (the children have a mother and I have a duty to interact with her about decisions in their growing up) and it is equally hard and less financially comfortable. [And no, I don’t pay her alimony: she is a fellow medico].
But regardless of our infirmities, our illnesses, our weakness, the immoral habits this therapeutic society call “addictions”, we have a duty to shun that which is evil and do good. For we will reap what we sow, mostly, just as water flows downhill, mostly. And as it takes considerable energy and some good plumbing to get water to flow uphill (or into that coffee machine) so it takes the energy of the Holy Spirit to keep us working.
But we need to allow the spirit to work. Going back to the addictions comment, I get these referrals about gambling, or the abuse of THC, or whatever. And part of what we have to tell people is to stop doing that. It’s seen as part of therapy. And if secular mental health services, which are politically correct to the point of nausea, can do this, so should the church, which is not trammelled down by the regulations of our green, parasitical elite, should also be able to speak plain and correct.
For, and finally, to leave a brother and sister is not being loving nor it is working for good. It is being a coward. It is being slothful. And if this is happening, it should cause us to re experience shame.
