Today Lloyd-Jones highlights another cause of spiritual depression: the faith-life midlife crisis. This happens, we read, to people who “just become weary and tired, while still going in the right direction”. The danger of our spiritual midlife is that we have accepted and affirmed the truths of God in Jesus, yet we have not yet reached the steady, immovable stance of a senior saint. The initial feelings of discovering the truth about life, about God, and about ourselves have gone and we can be left feeling weary in doing good: spiritually depressed (Galatians 6.9).
Having given the Galatians the command to share all good things with those that teach (6.6), Paul then fleshes this out and says that, simply, God will not be made a fool (6.7). He knows your attitude to supporting His church and those around you (specifically here for the Galatians the called and installed leaders), and if you consistently and persistently choose to invest your resources into yourself (sows to his own flesh) you will eventually harvest the rewards of that (corruption from the flesh): spiritual depression (6.8a).
On the other hand, God through Paul says that if you are investing your time, your talents, and your tithes and treasures in the works of the Spirit (the church, the teaching of the Word, the family of faith) then you will reap eternal life (6.8b).
We need to be careful that we don’t fall into a legalistic mindset here, the very thing Paul was most concerned about for the Galatians. Tithing and giving financially to care for the church, its people, and the teachers of the Word in your life is not a fast-pass to eternal life, nor is it a guarantee of avoiding spiritual depression. Rather, it shows that you understand the life God wants for you well enough and have accepted His Lordship over your life once the initial feelings of faith have faded.
Back in Galatians Paul then opens up and says, do you know what,
…whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.
When you have opportunity then, don’t be weary about [doing] good to all people. Yes, start with the family of faith, but don’t forget those in your wider circle, don’t forget the community in which your church family is based.
Passages like this can be hard to read, can’t they? I’d suggest they’re hard to read because most of us could do better here.
Most of us could support more the one who teaches.
Most of us could sow to the Spirit more consistently and with more dedication.
Most of us could sow to our own flesh a little less.
Most of us could take advantage of the opportunities we have to do good to all people…especially those who belong to the family of faith.
Most of us could do better in sharing all that God has blessed us with, in not [growing] weary, and in doing so move ourselves away from spiritual depression.
For more on Galatians try our Day by Day book:
James Travis 