Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour podcast. And everybody's got their Achilles heel. I mean, I suppose everybody's got a whole stack of problems, but it seems like everybody's got that Achilles heel thing. That one thing, this kind of eats your lunch. It's like the one customized weakness that is built into the personality of every person or group can have this as well. Sometimes a group, a social circle, an institution will take on these kind of characteristics. And as we're looking at the book of Galatians this season, what it seems like the deal is is that we got a group of people here in these churches in Galatia who had, you know, a variety of stuff that could trip their trigger that could tangle them up a little bit. But in particular, it seems like they could get after each other pretty well. And some pressure got inflicted on this church by some outsiders who came with some weird foreign teaching, and stuff turned really mean. And so the the really obvious thing over the course of this season on Galatians that we've noticed that Paul, the author of the book we're looking at here, is contending with is destructive stuff about bad theology, getting it wrong and misunderstanding the relationship between the flesh, which is dead, and life that comes only from God, and thinking that it's a viable option or alternative to just believing in Jesus to instead be like, I'm just going to be incredibly good and well disciplined and I will earn God's favor. We've looked at so much of that theology problem that this group has, but is that really the Achilles heel, the great secret weakness, the kryptonite of the Galatians as individuals and collectively as a group? No, I don't think it is, based on what we're seeing here in the book of Galatians. I think the thing that really got them, that really bit them in the butt is that when the pressure got ratcheted up, they turned nasty with each other. I think this is a problem that probably predated them becoming a church. I think this is a problem that clearly didn't get resolved when they did become a church, even though clearly they actually did receive the Holy Spirit. Paul makes that clear. I mean, you guys are actually Christians. You actually saw the miraculous power of God. Yet somehow, in the middle of all of that, they could still act like jerks and be mean and say cruel things. And to use Paul's language, they could bite and devour each other, which could eventually lead to them even destroying each other. If you look at the lists of the acts of the flesh or the sinful nature that Paul points out here in Galatians 5, a whole bunch of it is just nastiness. It's just mean relational cruelty, mean-spirited gossipiness, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy. I mean, you kind of get hung up on the sex stuff on that list because it has sex in the name. I mean, just sex. I mean, it really jumps off the page at you there. But most of the list of the screwed-up, very bad stuff that Paul talks about here would point to the Galatians, Achilles heel being the when the pressure gets turned up, they turn cruel and bitter and nasty with each other. So, big picture in Galatians, we have an obvious problem. It's a theology problem. But the Achilles heel of the Galatians would seem to be, or the thing that Paul is really focusing on, is that they don't treat each other very well and that they aren't demonstrating the fruit of the spirit in that regard. They aren't demonstrating things that are relationally beautiful, like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So reading it in that context and remembering that here in Galatians 5, 12, Paul pivots away from the outsiders who brought the theology confusion into the equation. And now he's pivoting like a grandfather, a spiritual mentor. He's pivoting back to these Christians who were struggling. And he's taking a very patient tone with them and he's warning them and he's encouraging them with practical teaching, with big picture theology. He's informing their sense of identity and who they are. He's trying to get that back on track. In doing all of this, he it's like he's holding out two hands to them. He's like, guys, this is the stuff that's screwed up. This is what you get from doing flesh stuff. And honestly, my friends, you struggle with this a little bit, particularly in how you treat each other. And then he holds out his other hand and he's like, but on the other hand, the fruit of the spirit is that's what you really want. I mean, the very thing that causes you to think God is beautiful and worthy of worship is the stuff that you should be, that you should be demonstrating. And that can happen when you walk in step with the spirit. So we get all of that. And then he says, Look, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. It's Galatians 5.24. Then he says, Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other. And the people who put the chapter breaks in the Bible, they were like, you know what? We've looked at this very closely. This would be a great place for a chapter break. And I think they nailed it on this one because it does feel like Paul is winding down his point right there. The occasion or the reason that Paul wrote this beautiful little bit, the second half of Galatians chapter five, isn't just because he wanted to give us a list of the fruit of the spirit and he thought of a cool analogy. I mean, really, the bookends of this are you guys are being jerks. This always seems to be your problem. You can't do that. Eventually it's going to catch up with you. It'll just break the whole thing. So here's how to get it right. And it's not even totally getting it right. It's being right. It's walking in step with the spirit. And then he bookends it again, coming back to the initial idea of this section that starts in Galatians 5.13 by just simply winding it all down and being like, hey, let's not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. All right. That's a really thorough but also very gentle way to call out their Achilles heel, their big weakness. Well, anytime you get told not to do something, it's always very helpful when the next thing is what to do. Something constructive. And indeed, we get a constructive proposal from Paul next here in Galatians 6:1. Brothers, if someone's caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. Oh, it's kind of like you know, sometimes the best teaching is where you say what needs to be done, but also how you say what you're teaching is modeling the teaching. Paul is doing that here. He's a master. He's saying they gently restore people, kind of like I'm doing with you right now as you read this letter, whether you're reading it right now as it's just being delivered, or a year from now when you have different questions floating around in your head. There's a gentleness to this, and it's not to be lost on you and I that he literally just said a fruit of the spirit here in Galatians 6:1. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. Wait, you mean like the fruit of the spirit where one of them is gentleness? Bingo, kid. Exactly like that. Now you're getting it. And then he rounds out the phrase and the verse here saying, But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. So, as we've talked about the last couple of days, the idea here is that the Bible again anticipates that Christians who still have flesh and still live in a world informed by the fall. And even if your behavior is very, very good, you still have the weaknesses and frailties of the flesh. Again, remember, including forgetfulness. Did you remember that? Because forgetfulness, it can it can be a problem. I don't know if you saw what I did there or not, but I just I did a thing. I thought it was kind of fun. Never mind. It's not a big deal. The point is, we still have bodies. We are still on a timeline. Frailty, entropy, the second law of thermodynamics. This is all we know. We can't really even picture something beyond this. I mean, a thing even beyond that, let alone us living outside of that just seemingly immutable context. Everything's always breaking down, time is always passing. These are the truest things of just about anything we know from this physical world, and we are part of it. It works on us, and we help make it what it is. It corrupts us, and also we help corrupt it. Sin is a real problem. That's why the whole Bible is about God solving that very real problem. So Christians still have flesh, so there will still be sin. If someone's caught in a sin, okay, we're not gonna panic and lose our minds here. It's just whoever in the circle here is getting it right, restore him gently. Let's get him back on track. The point isn't so much to be punitive as it is to fix it, let's glorify God with our lives. Let's walk in step with the spirit and do it gently. So there's even an opportunity in that correction to model the values of the kingdom, even in some of the more difficult conversations that happen within the manifestation of the kingdom and the world, the church. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. It could be that he's talking about you might be tempted by whatever got them tangled up in the first place because you, you know, you get proximity to it when you go and try to deal with the problem. Or it could be that pride becomes a temptation. Anytime you go and wade into other people's messes, it's easy to imagine yourself to be the great hero. I'm gonna solve this thing. I know what that feels like. And so there's a temptation there as well. And the idea is, hey, when you do this, it's a pretty noble calling, it's a pretty big deal. Like, you know, keep your head about you, walk and step with the spirit, even as you do this stuff. More on Galatians 6 and how all of this Christians and the fruit of the spirit and walking by the spirit and the reality of the flesh and the existence of sin, how all of that fits together as we're getting into the constructive proposal closing moments of Galatians here in chapter six. Did it seem like I was in kind of a hurry today? I don't know what that was about, but I'm getting to the end here. I'm like, it just feels like we were flying, and I'm only at 11 minutes on my little clock. So I mean, I don't know, just business, business, business today. Weird way. I don't know. I'm Matt. This is the 10 minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.