ing frequency. In the papacy I saw the people give
generously for the erection and maintenance of luxurious church
buildings and for the sustenance of men appointed to the idolatrous
service of Rome. I saw bishops and priests grow rich until they
possessed the choicest real estate. I thought then that Paul's
admonitions were overdone. I thought he should have requested the
people to curtail their contributions. I saw how the generosity of the
people of the Church was encouraging covetousness on the part of the
clergy. I know better now.

As often as I read the admonitions of the Apostle to the effect that
the churches should support their pastors and raise funds for the
relief of impoverished Christians I am half ashamed to think that the
great Apostle Paul had to touch upon this subject so frequently. In
writing to the Corinthians he needed two chapters to impress this
matter upon them. I would not want to discredit Wittenberg as Paul
discredited the Corinthians by urging them at such length to contribute
to the relief of the poor. It seems to be a by-product of the Gospel
that nobody wants to contribute to the maintenance of the Gospel
ministry. When the doctrine of the devil is preached people are
prodigal in their willing support of those who deceive them.

We have come to understand why it is so necessary to repeat the
admonition of this verse. When Satan cannot suppress the preaching of
the Gospel by force he tries to accomplish his purpose by striking the
ministers of the Gospel with poverty. He curtails their income to such
an extent that they are forced out of the ministry because they cannot
live by the Gospel. Without ministers to proclaim the Word of God the
people go wild like savage beasts.

Paul's admonition that the hearers of the Gospel share all good things
with their pastors and teachers is certainly in order. To the
Corinthians he wrote: "If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it
a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" (I Cor. 9:11.) In
the old days when the Pope reigned supreme everybody paid plenty for
masses. The begging friars brought in their share. Commercial priests
counted the daily offerings. From these extortions our countrymen are
now delivered by the Gospel. You would think they would be grateful for
their emancipation and give generously for the support of the ministry
of the Gospel and the relief of impoverished Christians. Instead, they
rob Christ. When the members of a Christian congregation permit their
pastor to struggle along in penury, they are worse than heathen.

Before very long they are going to suffer for their ingratitude. They
will lose their temporal and spiritual possessions. This sin merits the
severest punishment. The reason why the churches of Galatia, Corinth,
and other places were troubled by false apostles was this, that they
had so little regard for their faithful ministers. You cannot refuse to
give a penny who gives you all good things, even life eternal, and turn
around and give the devil, the giver of all evil and death eternal,
pieces of gold, and not be punished for it.

The words "in all good things": are not to be understood to mean that
people are to give all they have to their ministers, but that they
should support them liberally and give them enough to live well.

VERSE 7. Be not deceived; God is not mocked.

The Apostle is so worked up over this matter that he is not content
with a mere admonition. He utters the threatening words, "God is not
mocked." Our countrymen think it good sport to despise the ministry.
They like to treat the ministers like servants and slaves. "Be not
deceived," warns the Apostle, "God is not mocked." God will not be
mocked in His ministers. Christ said: "He that despiseth you, despiseth
me." (Luke 10:16.) To Samuel God said: "They have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected me." (I Sam. 8:7.) Be careful, you scoffers. God
may postpone His punishment for a time, but He will find you out in
time, and punish you for despising His servants. You cannot laugh at
God. Maybe the people are little impressed by the threats of God, but
in the hour of their death they shall know whom they have mocked. God
is not ever going to let His ministers starve. When the rich suffer the
pangs of hunger God will feed His own servants. "In the days of famine
they shall be satisfied." (Ps. 37:19.)

VERSE 7. For whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

These passages are all meant to benefit us ministers. I must say I do
not find much pleasure in explaining these verses. I am made to appear
as if I am speaking for my own benefit. If a minister preaches on money
he is likely to be accused of covetousness. Still people must be told
these things that they may know their duty over against their pastors.
Our Savior says: "Eating and drinking such things as they give; for the
laborer is worthy of his hire." (Luke 10:7.) And Paul says elsewhere:
"Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the
things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers
with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach
the gospel should live of the gospel." (I Cor. 9:13, 14.)

VERSE 8. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
everlasting life.

This simile of sowing and reaping also refers to the proper support of
ministers. "He that soweth to the Spirit," i.e., he that honors the
ministers of God is doing a spiritual thing and will reap everlasting
life. "He that soweth to the flesh," i.e., he that has nothing left for
the ministers of God, but only thinks of himself, that person will reap
of the flesh corruption, not only in this life but also in the life to
come. The Apostle wants to stir up his readers to be generous to their
pastors.

That the ministers of the Church need support any man with common sense
can see. Though this support is something physical the Apostle does not
hesitate to call it sowing to the Spirit. When people scrape up
everything they can lay their hands on and keep everything for
themselves the Apostle calls it a sowing to the flesh. He pronounces
those who sow to the Spirit blessed for this life and the life to come,
while those who sow to the flesh are accursed now and forever.

VERSE 9. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we
shall reap, if we faint not.

The Apostle intends soon to close his Epistle and therefore repeats
once more the general exhortation unto good deeds. He means to say "Let
us do good not only to the ministers of the Gospel, but to everybody,
and let us do it without weariness." It is easy enough to do good once
or twice, but to keep on doing good without getting disgusted with the
ingratitude of those whom we have benefited, that is not so easy.
Therefore the Apostle does not only admonish us to do good, but to do
good untiringly. For our encouragement he adds the promise: "For in due
season we shall reap, if we faint not." "Wait for the harvest and then
you will reap the reward of your sowing to the Spirit. Think of that
when you do good and the ingratitude of men will not stop you from
doing good."

VERSE 10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all
men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

In this verse the Apostle summarizes his instructions on the proper
support of the ministers and of the poor. He paraphrases the words of
Christ: "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day:
the night cometh, when no man can work." (John 9:4.) Our good deeds are
to be directed primarily at those who share the Christian faith with
us, "the household of faith," as Paul calls them, among whom the
ministers rank first as objects of our well doing.

VERSE 11. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine
own hand.

With these words the Apostle intends to draw the Galatians on. "I
never," he says, "wrote such a long letter with my own hand to any of
the other churches." His other epistles he dictated, and only
subscribed his greetings and his signature with his own hand.

VERSE 12. As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they
constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ.

Paul once more scores the false apostles in an effort to draw the
Galatians away from their false doctrine. "The teachers you have now do
not seek the glory of Christ and the salvation of your souls, but only
their own glory. They avoid the Cross. They do not understand what they
teach."

These three counts against the false apostles are of so serious a
nature that no Christian could have fellowship with them. But not all
the Galatians obeyed the warning of Paul.

The Apostle's attack upon the false apostles was not unjustified.
Neither are our attacks upon the papacy. When we call the Pope the
Antichrist and his minions an evil brood, we do not slander them. We
merely judge them by the touchstone of God's Word recorded in the first
chapter of this Epistle: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you,
let him be accursed."

VERSE 13. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law;
but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.

In other words: "I shall tell you what kind of teachers you have now.
They avoid the Cross, they teach no certain truths. They think they are
performing the Law, but they are not. They have not the Holy Spirit and
without Him nobody can keep the Law." Where the Holy Ghost does not
dwell in men there dwells an unclean spirit, a spirit that despises God
and turns every effort at keeping the Law into a double sin.

Mark what the Apostle is saying: Those who are circumcised do not
fulfill the Law. No self-righteous person ever does. To work, pray, or
suffer apart from Christ is to work, pray, and to suffer in vain, "for
whatsoever is not of faith is sin." It does a person no good to be
circumcised, to fast, to pray, or to do anything, if in his heart he
despises Christ.

"Why do the false apostles insist that you should be circumcised? Not
for the sake of your righteousness," although they give that
impression, but "that they may glory in your flesh." Now what sort of
an ambition is that? Worst of all, they force circumcision upon you for
no other reason than the satisfaction they get out of your submission.

VERSE 14. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ.

"God forbid," says the Apostle, "that I should glory in anything as
dangerous as the false apostles glory in because what they glory in is
a poison that destroys many souls, and I wish it were buried in hell.
Let them glory in the flesh if they wish and let them perish in their
glory. As for me I glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." He
expresses the same sentiment in the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans, where he says: "We glory in tribulations"; and in the twelfth
chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: "Most gladly,
therefore, will l rather glory in my infirmities." According to these
expressions the glory of a Christian consists in tribulations,
reproaches, and infirmities.

And this is our glory today with the Pope and the whole world
persecuting us and trying to kill us. We know that we suffer these
things not because we are thieves and murderers, but for Christ's sake
whose Gospel we proclaim. We have no reason to complain. The world, of
course, looks upon us as unhappy and accursed creatures, but Christ for
whose sake we suffer pronounces us blessed and bids us to rejoice.
"Blessed are ye," says He, "when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad." (Matt. 5:11, 12.)

By the Cross of Christ is not to be understood here the two pieces of
wood to which He was nailed, but all the afflictions of the believers
whose sufferings are Christ's sufferings. Elsewhere Paul writes: "Who
now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind
of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is
the church." (Col. 1:24.)

It is good for us to know this lest we sink into despair when our
opponents persecute us. Let us bear the cross for Christ's sake. It
will ease our sufferings and make them light as Christ says, Matthew
11:30, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

VERSE 14. By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

"The world is crucified unto me," means that I condemn the world. "I am
crucified unto the world," means that the world in turn condemns me. I
detest the doctrine, the self-righteousness, and the works of the
world. The world in turn detests my doctrine and condemns me as a
revolutionary heretic. Thus the world is crucified unto us and we unto
the world.

The monks imagined the world was crucified unto them when they entered
the monastery. Not the world, but Christ, is crucified in the
monasteries.

In this verse Paul expresses his hatred of the world. The hatred was
mutual. As Paul, so we are to despise the world and the devil. With
Christ on our side we can defy him and say: "Satan, the more you hurt
me, the more I oppose you."

VERSE 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Since circumcision and uncircumcision are contrary matters we would
expect the Apostle to say that one or the other might accomplish some
good. But he denies that either of them do any good. Both are of no
value because in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
avail anything.

Reason fails to understand this, "for the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God." (I Cor. 2:14.) It therefore seeks
righteousness in externals. However, we learn from the Word of God that
there is nothing under the sun that can make us righteous before God
and a new creature except Christ Jesus.

A new creature is one in whom the image of God has been renewed. Such a
creature cannot be brought into life by good works, but by Christ
alone. Good works may improve the outward appearance, but they cannot
produce a new creature. A new creature is the work of the Holy Ghost,
who imbues our hearts with faith, love, and other Christian virtues,
grants us the strength to subdue the flesh and to reject the
righteousness of the world.

VERSE 16. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them,
and mercy.

This is the rule by which we ought to live, "that ye put on the new
man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
(Eph. 4:24.) Those who walk after this rule enjoy the favor of God, the
forgiveness of their sins, and peace of conscience. Should they ever be
overtaken by any sin, the mercy of God supports them.

VERSE 17. From henceforth let no man trouble me.

The Apostle speaks these words with a certain amount of indignation. "I
have preached the Gospel to you in conformity with the revelation which
I received from Jesus Christ. If you do not care for it, very well.
Trouble me no more. Trouble me no more."

VERSE 17. For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

"The marks on my body indicate whose servant I am. If I was anxious to
please men, if I approved of circumcision and good works as factors in
our salvation, if I would take delight in your flesh as the false
apostles do, I would not have these marks on my body. But because I am
the servant of Jesus Christ and publicly declare that no person can
obtain the sal