Giving as Shared Suffering

Giving as Shared Suffering

Please go ahead and turn to Galatians 6 for our preaching text this morning, or this afternoon, excuse me. So Pastor Josh and I were talking recently about money and how there hasn't been a sermon on giving in here in quite a while.

I know a lot of pastors get really nervous about preaching on giving because they'll think that people will think they're trying to get their money, but I'm not worried because I received no paycheck from this church.

And on top of that, giving is something that I have found a great blessing. I really do believe what she has said, that it is greater to give than to receive, and this is a virtue that my parents instilled in me at an early age, and so I love talking about giving.

And this verse came to mind, and I'd like to share it with you. I'd like to give you a new way of thinking about giving. Let's go to—not a—I don't think I'm introducing a new way, but it might be a way that you have not considered.

The Burden of Supporting Teachers in Galatians 6

All right, let's read Galatians 6 verses 1 through 10. Please stand for the reading of God's word. And so fulfill the law of Christ. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that this afternoon you would bless the reading and preaching of your word, that you would help us to be right givers with good hearts who are giving sincerely as unto you, because giving to your ministry is to you.

I pray that you would assist us as we consider these words, that you would open our hearts and minds, that we might understand your truth and be changed by it. In Jesus' name, amen. So as I said, you know, giving is something I care a lot about.

I recently spent four years, you know, studying giving and writing a book on giving. And when I was a little kid, my parents emphasized giving a lot so that I was very excited. And the denomination I grew up in, there'd be these little yellow barrels with these orange lids that you would fill up with with coins to—the kids would fill up with coins to prepare for Sunday.

And I loved trying to get that as full as I could, because it was taught to me at an early age that God richly rewarded giving. I was never deceived into thinking that I would necessarily receive those rewards in this life, but I knew that it was a great opportunity to give and that God rewards those who seek after him and those who labor for his kingdom.

And so I want to share some of that love for giving with you today, and I want to give you a way you may not have thought about giving before that might help you. And that is that giving, you know, when we're talking about giving to a minister or to ministry, is shared suffering.

Giving is shared suffering. Now that might not sound like something that would get you excited about giving. Why would I be excited to suffer? But I think that, you know, as you consider it, you know, it might open your mind to think more fully, see the bigger biblical picture about giving.

And Lord willing, as you're enlightened, it will encourage your heart to enjoy giving more. So this verse that I want to talk to you about, Galatians 6 .6, let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

This is very clearly a passage about making sure that teachers in the church are well supported. The one who teaches, obviously a pastor or someone else who is laboring in the ministry of the word, and the one who is taught the word being the one who is, you know, sitting under the teaching.

He should share all good things. All good things referring to anything, you know, could be to encouragement, prayer, but especially in mind here is material possessions. Now this, this is all in a context of bearing each other's burdens.

You know, in verse two it says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. How do you bear a teacher's burdens? Well, you help them by sharing of your good things. You help them by sharing of your material possessions.

Now a lot of people read this and they don't see that there's a connection between that first part that's talking about bearing one another's burdens and the second part, but there's a word that's left off in most translations.

It's the Greek word de, which just means but, and it doesn't always mean but in the way that we think of that conjunction. And so it's just left off here because it doesn't necessarily add anything to the meaning of the text to add it that way.

But I want you to know that that word signifies that what happens in verse six is connected to what came before it. So while I don't take issue with the way translators have translated it, the Bible lets us know in the original Greek text that this section comes, it necessarily follows what happened before, that this is not starting some new idea.

This is talking more about bearing one another's burdens. So we bear one another's burdens by sharing all good things with the one who teaches. Now that's very simple. It's very simply right there in that passage, but I'd like to go ahead and back up and look at a lot of other verses that explain this more fully.

So first of all, it should be apparent that labor is a kind of suffering, right? Burden, you know, the Bible talks about bearing each other's burdens. A burden is a kind of suffering, and labor is a suffering.

You know, Paul lists it. When he lists all his different persecutions and things that he endured, he talks about his suffering. Go ahead and turn to 1 Corinthians 4, and I'm going to go through several passages, so if you're not able to keep up, that's okay.

But I would like to go through a lot of these passages about Paul's sufferings, and as he talks in 1 and 2 Corinthians about his sufferings, he always includes, you know, in addition to being put near death, that he also had to work with his hands.

So in 1 Corinthians 4 .11, he says,. So there he talks about being hungry and thirsty for Christ's sake as he's going out and sharing the gospel. He talks about being poorly dressed, buffeted, homeless, and then he adds he has to labor, working with his own hands.

This is one of the sufferings, one of the persecutions that he endures. Now, if you skip ahead to 1 Corinthians 6, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 6, he says something very similar. In 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 4, he says,.

So here, once again, listing all these different these different difficulties and trials he has to endure for the sake of Christ, and right there in the middle of all of them, he talks about his labors, having to work with his hands.

You know, what a lot of people refer to as tent making, because Paul made tents to be able to support his own ministry, so they have the money to travel around and to be able to support himself as he shared the gospel.

In 2 Corinthians 11, he once again says something similar. In verse 23, So here he talks about toil, and before that he talks about his labor, right? And so all these go side by side with being shipwrecked.

You know, all these sacrifices, all these persecutions he makes, he puts manual labor right there side by side with all the things that we typically think of as persecution. Right? We typically think of, you know, getting beat for the sake of the gospel, or getting shipwrecked for the sake of the gospel.

These things are persecutions for the sake of Christ. But here we have, he had to work with his hands. Now, we don't normally think that way of working as being suffering, but Paul puts it right there as being one of the things that he endures for the sake of Christ.

And so Paul engages in suffering. Now, there's a lot of books written these days and pastors who talk about a theology of work, because there are a lot of people who, you know, have difficulty wondering about if their work is worthwhile.

And while work is dignifying and God has given it to us, a lot of people miss the picture of the fall. Right? The fall has come, and it has changed what work is. Right? Work used to be this very creative thing where Adam was, you know, doing the earth and advancing things forward.

And Adam got to name the animals, you know, doing very creative things. But then after the curse, he had to labor by the sweat of his brow just to exist. So some work is that creative kind of work where we're subduing the earth, getting to be creative, using the skills that God has given us to do fascinating things.

But other aspects of work are just manual labor in order to survive. Now, the one who focuses on just that first kind of work, that pre-fall kind of work, and says that that's what's valuable, and that's what's glorifying to God, and misses the fact that, well, you know, if you're not laboring in order to survive, if you're not taking care of your family and yourself so that you're not dependent on others, that also glorifies God to do those things.

You end up with people who have this mixed picture of what makes work valuable. You know, I encounter a lot of people in my industry in software engineering who are Christians, and they want to serve God with what they do.

And since they're in a creative field, they feel that in order to really serve God, they have to be working on something that's pushing the kingdom forward somehow. Maybe it's access to the internet, and they think that that will give people more access to the gospel.

Or maybe it's some kind of charity program, you know, something that has to do with supporting charity organizations. And when they're not working on doing that, when they end up having to work in the billing department or some other aspect of the industry that's not so obviously connected to the advancement of God's kingdom, they feel that they're not doing God's work anymore, and they're not pleasing God.

I have known people who have personally quit their jobs and gone off into the mission field in no way really prepared for missions, you know, in no way educated in a way that they'd be able to educate others because they don't think that they're doing God's work well enough because of the particular job that they had.

But that's not the case. You know, Paul counts labor with his own hands as being something that pleases God if it's for the sake of something that God desires. And here it's for the sake of the gospel.

If you are laboring so that you have money to not be dependent on others, that is excellent. If you're laboring so that you're able to support your family, that is excellent. And so, you know, when I—a lot of people talk about how, you know, their work is part of their ministry and that, you know, it's a mission field.

Well, I applaud that, but when I tell them the primary reason that I work is to support myself and my family, a lot of times Christians who have over-spiritualized work, you know, say that they think that that sounds very unbiblical of me to think that that's the primary reason I should be working.

But here we see a good example of just laboring with your hands in order to support someone is valuable in itself. So that first kind of work, the pre-fall work, creative things, those are all good, but that's icing on the cake.

The meat of the cake while we're here on this earth awaiting the redemption of this creation so that it's made new, the meat of that cake—that's not really the right way of saying it—but the cake of that cake, that is just hard work so that you're not dependent on others and you're able to support others.

And the icing is getting to participate in those pre-fall aspects of work of being creative. So labor is a kind of suffering, but labor is also shared suffering. If you turn to—and I would like you to actually turn to this one—Hebrews 11, or excuse me, Hebrews 10.

Well, I think it's Paul, but whoever the author of Hebrews is, he talks about persecution and what persecution entails. He doesn't use the word persecution. You know, that's never translated that way here, but it's very clear that he's talking about a people who have undergone persecution and what does persecution look like.

So he says in Hebrews 10, So here, some of the people have been put in prison. Some of the people have compassion on those put in prison. Some of them have been plundered. Some of them are sharing what they have with those who are plundered.

And the author of Hebrews is putting those side by side as people who have suffered for the sake of the gospel, as people who have bared each other's burdens and suffered together. So you see, the one who gives to another who is directly suffering for the sake of the gospel is himself joining in that suffering, joining in that persecution, and being a full participant in it.

When we give to ministry, we are a full partner in ministry. You know, you might think, well, you know, God hasn't especially gifted me to be a teacher. God hasn't especially gifted me to be a missionary.

How can I, you know, and I know God rewards faithfulness. How can I be a greater part of his kingdom? How can I really invest in order to, you know, on that last day when he says, well done good and faithful servant, you know, have a lot of oomph in that well done good and faithful servant?

Well, here's your answer. You don't have to go out into the mission field. You don't have to be yourself a proclaimer of the gospel in some kind of formal capacity. All you have to do is be a partner with the one who is doing that, and you are going hand in hand with them for a good work.

There is, you know, any kind of investment. You know, in the world, you've got businesses that do things, and they've got financial people who come beside them and give them money in order to do that work.

And what are they called? They're called partners, right? This is real partnership. God's economy doesn't work any differently. You know, a lot of times, if you're familiar with Kickstarter or Patreon or things like that, there's a lot of ways to give to a particular project, and once you've given to it, you know, when the credits roll at the end of this movie or whatever you funded, you know, your name will be listed in the credits.

There's a member of this church who funded a printing of John Gill's commentary on the whole Bible. This is back before Kickstarter and Patreon, and you know, his name is in the back of the book as being a partner who has helped doing this labor.

So when we give to ministry, it is though we are directly engaged in that ministry ourselves, even if we don't have those particular gifts, when we come side by side with the minister so that he does not have to engage in that suffering of labor, so that he is free of manual labor, so that he is free to do the teaching and engage in another kind of suffering, then you have two suffering servants together doing this work of ministry, two who will both reap the rewards and the blessings of God as he rewards those who seek him.

The Gospel as Shared Suffering and Freedom from Fear

And so this, in the end, this is the heart of the gospel, this idea of shared suffering. Jesus Christ became a man, a man with weakness. He shared with us in our suffering and has us sharing his suffering and sharing the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

He wants us to share in suffering. He has made us into one body, and this is what we are to do. And this is good news because what he has done is not given us this new rule to follow, well, now you have to, you know, before you didn't have to give, now you've got to give.

What he has done is made us free from death, knowing that we will have eternal life, so that we do not have to live this life latching on to every last thing as though, you know, we'll die and that's the end and try to somehow maintain what we cannot maintain.

He has freed us so that we can give freely without any fear of loss in the end because we know that we are just stewards of these things. We know they will all be lost in a temporary perspective, and the only thing is to be gained is to make eternal investments with what is only temporary.

So I hope you can see why thinking of giving as a shared suffering is of great value because it frees us. It frees us to recognize that we can give to ministry and be full partners in that ministry. And even though we don't have the gifts that some others may have, we are able to partner with them and work with them in such a way that God is pleased as though we are taking part in that very work.

I hope you find this encouraging. I hope you consider this and enjoy giving all the more as you know that you are working fully in this work, that you are sharing in sufferings with the body of Christ.

There's, you know, the First Corinthians talks about, you know, if one part of the body is hurting, you know, the whole body hurts. You participate in that. You bear some of that load by giving. And there are many promises that come with this.

There are many promises. First, and these promises, they are—let me state it this way—they are not causal, but they are conditional. What I mean is that they do not—these verses do not mean that because you give, you will be saved as though giving causes salvation, but they are conditional in that one who is saved is one who gives, one who shares in sufferings.

Let me give you an example. Romans 8, 16 through 17. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and of children than heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

You know, what is necessary in order to be a co-heir with Christ? We have to suffer with him in order that we might be co-heirs with him. You know, you will not be a co-heir with him if you are not willing to suffer with him, if you're not willing to suffer with his body.

There's also Second Corinthians 7, where Paul is talking about—he's talking about comfort and suffering, and he says, "'Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.'".

As the Corinthians pray for Paul, as they assist Paul and support Paul, they share in his sufferings. And he is certain that as they share in his sufferings, that as they share in his sufferings, they will also share in his comfort, that at the end of days, when he is comforted, they will be comforted as well.

And then you have the very passage we started out on, Galatians 6. Galatians 6 continues on after verse 6. Well, I'll go ahead and read verse 6. "'Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are the household of faith.'".

So let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. God is not mocked. Someone who invests all their money into themselves and into their own pleasures, he does not reward that.

He rewards those who sow, those who sow well, those who sow to the Spirit rather than to the flesh, those who sow to the work of God, becoming partners, bearing one another's burdens, sharing that suffering of ministry with ministers.

And so we can rest in that hope that as he has freed us to be good stewards, he will richly reward those who freely are good stewards. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, once again I ask that you would help us to think about giving rightly, and that as we consider it as a shared suffering, that we would be excited for this opportunity, this opportunity to have battle scars on this earth where we have fought and suffered for your name rather than just investing into ourselves.

And I pray that on that last day, as we are with each other, that we would be able to glory in what you have done through us, pointing not to any physical scars that we have on our bodies, but pointing to what you have done in us and pointing to those sufferings that you brought us through for the glory of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

In his name we pray, amen.