Fake Fellowships and Caring Congregations
Galatians 6:1, 5

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.

Do you know what the difference is between a fake fellowship and a caring congregation? One is based on pride, and the other is based on Jesus Christ.

Take a moment and think about the United States’ Marines. These men are trained to carry their own loads. After all, you cannot have a weak link on the battlefield. When the Marines land on a beachhead, they can’t afford to have one person’s weapon malfunction because he forgot to clean it properly. They can’t afford to have one soldier slow them down because he is not in shape to carry his equipment. Each man has to carry his own load. At the same time, these men will cover one another and go back for one another and even carry one another. If a man goes down, other men will protect him and, if necessary, even pick him up and carry him. After all, the mission is not accomplished by a bunch of super-strong individuals. The mission is accomplished by a team. St. Paul encourages the same kind of thinking in the church. “Bear one another’s burdens. . . . For each will have to bear his own load” (Galatians 6:2, 5 ESV). Put these two sentences next to one another, and it looks like you’ve got a contradiction. I’m to bear the other person’s burden, but I’m also supposed to carry my own? That hardly seems fair! But take a moment and think about what happens when we erase the first verse. If each one has to bear his own load, and that’s the end of the story, then church is for those super-talented, spiritually strong individuals who don’t need any help in life. I don’t know about you, but that pretty much rules me out! All of a sudden, no one is watching my back. All of a sudden, no one is watching out for me. All of a sudden, we don’t have a caring congregation. Instead we have a fellowship based on pride. Instead, we have a fake fellowship. Therefore, “Bear one another’s burdens. . . . For each will have to bear his own load” (Galatians 6:2, 5 ESV).

The context for these verses is, of course, the debate between Paul and the false teachers in the churches of Galatia, the area of modern day Turkey. Paul had planted these churches, but then false teachers came and said, “You are not pleasing to God simply through faith in Jesus because of his death on the cross; you’ve also got to keep the Old Testament laws, especially the law about circumcision.” Paul has pleaded with the Galatians to stop listening to the false teachers, pointing out that God promised salvation 430 years before he gave what we call the Old Testament law. Saying we have to be circumcised to be saved is like saying we are saved by what we do or do not do. But Paul says, “Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Galatians 6:15 ESV). In other words, it is not what we do that saves us, and it is not what we don’t do that saves us. What saves us is God’s work in our lives—forgiving our sins for the sake of Jesus and making us into new creations by the power of the Holy Spirit. You are not saved by keeping the law, for “if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2:21 ESV).

Yet here in chapter 6 of Galatians, Paul is showing us how false doctrine leads to fake fellowships and how true doctrine leads to caring congregations. If salvation comes through keeping the law—if salvation comes through what you do or do not do—then the church is made up of standout Christians, super spiritual people. If you are spiritual enough to be saved, if you are spiritual enough to take pride in what you do and what you don’t do, then you are high enough up on a pedestal to look down on the poor saps around you who haven’t yet mustered the will power to please God by doing what he requires. You have no reason to help them. You will have pride in what you do and don’t do, and you will not have much patience for people who are not at the same level of spiritual maturity as you are. Have you ever met a woman who is divorced and wondered to yourself, “I wonder what he or she did wrong?” Have you ever driven by a big trailer park and thought to yourself how glad you are that you pursued your education? Have you ever sounded like the Pharisee in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12 ESV)? As soon as you hit that point, your false doctrine has taken you into a fake fellowship. After all, if you should stumble, it will only prove that you were weak too, and those with whom you shared how good you are will now look down their noses at you. You will have no support, no one to lift you up, no one to help restore you. Yet what does Paul say? “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1 ESV). If you are part of a fellowship with people who can’t lower themselves to help restore a fallen brother or sister, then you are part of a fake fellowship based on false doctrine.

Episode II of the Star Wars saga has a scene in which Anakin Skywalker and his teacher Obi Wan Kenobi confront a powerful bad guy. Anakin has already complained to his girlfriend that his teacher is holding him back. He has told all about how powerful he really is and how much stronger he will be than any other Jedi Knights. So when his teacher says, “We’ll take the bad guy together,” Anakin simply charges forward on his own. His pride gets him into trouble—the bad guy quickly knocks him out of the way, and when he comes to a little later and jumps in to save his teacher, he ends up getting his arm cut off. Bad deal. His pride caused him to face the enemy alone, and it cost him dearly. Marines understand his mistake. They understand that each must be ready to fight alone if necessary, but that they can only take on the enemy if they fight together. Pride in all their training and strength gives way to working together to defeat the enemy. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I are in a war as well. “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Galatians 5:13 ESV). The Greek word for opportunity is normally used to describe a military base, a forward operating post. When you take pride in what you do and don’t do, when you try to face the enemy alone, you are letting sin and the devil open up a forward operating base in your own heart, and from there it won’t be long before you pay dearly for trying to face the enemy alone. You can’t do it. Yet false doctrine and fake fellowship take you down that road.

That is why true doctrine is so important. The true doctrine says, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV). You and I stood under the curse of law, because nothing we do is good enough for God. You and I were facing eternity in hell, because we cannot do enough for God. Not a single one of us is spiritual enough to be saved, and not a single one of us is strong enough to fight sin alone. God therefore did what we cannot do. He redeemed us from the curse of the law by sending Jesus, who “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV). He rescued you from hell and gave you heaven through the blood which Jesus shed on the cross for you. You have no reason to believe that you are better than the next person; in fact, you are just as capable of falling into temptation as anyone else. “Keep watch on yourself, lest too you be tempted,” Paul writes (Galatians 6:1 ESV). This is the true doctrine, and the true doctrine—that you are saved by God’s grace through faith which the Spirit works for the sake of Jesus Christ—this true doctrine gives you the humility to look out for those who are wandering away or erring. It gives you the humility to look around this congregation and see people who have the same struggles you do—and who have the same Savior you do. It gives you the humility to carry your load like a true soldier of the cross, and it gives you the humility to carry your brother or sister in Christ when he or she comes under fire or—God forbid—falls in the battle. True doctrine points to Jesus Christ crucified, so that we with St. Paul cry out, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14 ESV). Faith in Jesus Christ gives you humility, and humility takes us otherwise prideful people and turns us into a caring congregation.

Now you understand why right doctrine is so important for Paul. False doctrine—any teaching that gives us a role in our salvation—causes us to consider our own works, and as a result we all too easily begin to look down on others. Pride leads to lovelessness, and without love, you can have only a fake fellowship. Right doctrine, on the other hand—that is, the teaching that we are each one of us sinful, each one of us easily tempted, and each one of us saved through the blood of Jesus—this doctrine makes us humble. It teaches us to watch our own lives, and it teaches us humbly to watch out for our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well. It teaches us, “Bear one another’s burdens. . . . For each will have to bear his own load” (Galatians 6:2, 5 ESV). In other words, right doctrine is what makes a truly caring congregation. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.