Galatians 6:10

Gal_6:10

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.

Opportunity, mans treasure

If time be as the grass, fading and fleeting, opportunity is as the flower of the grass, more fading, as it is more beautiful and valuable. In the ordinary transactions and affairs of life, as well as in natural things, of how much importance is that juncture of concurrent circumstances which we style opportunity. Opportunity, even in natural things, when once lost, can never be recalled. The spark, that one single drop would have quenched in the outset, may, if neglected, spread fire around till it wraps a whole city in one wasting conflagration. The garment, spotted with the plague, that might have been destroyed with the least possible effort, may, if it lie unheeded and neglected, communicate the fearful infection, and the pestilence may spread its frightful ravages far and wide through a desolated nation. In the course of nature, God has been pleased to furnish opportunity to every man, to awake the diligence and keep alive the watchfulness of His dependent creatures. If the husbandman passes by the season of spring, that precious season returns not again to him; and if he delay but a little space, watching the wind and waiting for the clouds, he shall not reap. And in the ordinary transactions of mankind one with another, how much depends upon seizing the passing and present opportunity! Many a man, by missing the tide in the affairs of life, has missed the highroad to fame and fortune, and whatever this world could give to make him illustrious and distinguished. How many gray-headed and aged men look back upon the squandered opportunities of early life with bitter regret and unavailing sighs? They can now see where they turned down the wrong pathway, and where they missed the golden and precious season, which, had they employed it well, would have brought them to far different results. (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)

Universal beneficence the duty of Christians

The law of Jesus Christ lays Christians under obligations to the whole human race. This is at once its triumph and its difficulty: its triumph as it stands contrasted with moral codes of narrower scope, whether national or religious; its difficulty, when we look upon it as having to be put in practice. While we have time, let us do good unto all men. The race which our Lord and Redeemer has honoured by taking its nature upon Him appeals to the thought and energies of all the redeemed. Whether civilized or barbarous, whether European or African, whether Christian or pagan, man, as man, has claims upon the servants of Christ; it is their business and their privilege to do him any good they can: the highest good, before all else--the communication of the True Faith, the bringing him into living contact with the Divine Redeemer, His Person, His Cross, His Spirit, His Word, His Sacraments; and then lesser forms of good, all that we commonly mean by civilization and useful knowledge--alms, advice, medicine, service, means of education, helps to material happiness and progress, as opportunities for doing so may present themselves. (Canon Liddon.)

Benevolence never kills

Said a speaker at a missionary meeting: I have often heard of congregations starving through niggardliness, but never of one laid on its deathbed through benevolence. If I could find one that had thus suffered by overgiving, I would make a pilgrimage to that church, and pronounce over it this requiem, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.

The beauty of beneficence

An Eastern legend tells us how Abraham wore round his neck a jewel whose light healed the sick and raised up those who were bowed down, and that when he died it was placed amongst the stars. You may see it now among the stars in all holy lives; but, more than that, if such be your desire, your Saviour will grant it to you also, to wear it. No diamond can shine so gloriously on the white neck of beauty, no order blaze so worthily on the breast of noble manhood. It becomes even the sceptred monarch better than his crown. It is the diamond of pure sympathy with your fellow-men. In one word, it is charity. Usually she is painted as nursing young children, and giving dolls to paupers, but with a far greater insight Giotto represents her as a fair matron with her eyes uplifted, trampling on bags of gold, while coming out of heaven an angel from the Lord Christ gives her human heart. Yes, it is the human heart by which we live--the heart at leisure with itself to soothe and sympathize; the heart which can be as hard as adamant against vice and corruption, but as tender as a mother towards all that suffers and can be healed. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Opportunity

A sculptor once showed a visitor his studio. It was full of gods. One was very curious. The face was concealed by being covered with hair, and there were wings to each foot. What is its name? asked the spectator. Opportunity, was the reply. Why is his face hidden? Because men seldom know him when he comes to them. Why has he wings upon his feet? Because he is soon gone, and once gone he cannot be overtaken.

Transient nature of opportunity

Opportunity is like a favouring breeze springing up around a sailing-vessel. If the sails be all set, the ship is wafted onwards to its port; if the sailors are asleep or ashore, the breeze may die again, and when they would go on they cannot: their vessel stands as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. (Union Magazine.)

Opportunity is like a strip of sand which stretches around a seaside cove. The greedy tide is lapping up the sand. The narrow strip will quickly become impassable; and then how sad the fate of the thoughtless children who are now playing and gathering shells and seaweed inside the cove! (Union Magazine.)

Seizing opportunities

Coming once down the Ohio River when the water was low, we saw just before us several small boats aground on a sandbar. We knew the channel was where they were not, and, shaping our course accordingly, we went safely by. They saw our intention; and, taking advantage of the light swell we created in passing them, the nearest ones crowded on all steam, and were lifted off the bar. Now, when in lifes stream you are stranded on some bar of temptation, no matter what it is that makes a swell, if it is only an inch under your keel, put on all steam, and swing off into the current. (H. W. Beecher.)

Prepare for opportunities

Once upon a time, a wild boar of a jungle was whetting his tusks against the trunk of a tree. A fox passing by, asked him why he did this, seeing that neither hunter nor hound was near. True, said the boar, but when danger does arise, I shall have something else to do than to sharpen my weapons!

The more limited sphere of beneficence

Humanitarian aspirations, as they are termed, are exhilarating, especially to noble matures: but we cannot all of us do everything. And there is some danger in dreaming of doing it; the danger of ending by doing nothing, on the ground that to do everything is plainly impossible. Schemes which embrace the human race are apt to fade away into vague unattainable outlines, instead of leading to practical and specific results. And, therefore, while our duties towards humanity at large are to be kept in view, as the real measure of our obligation, and as a valuable incentive to generous efforts, our actual enterprises are necessarily restricted to this or that portion of the great human family, Which, for us, and for the time being, represents the whole. Hence it is that St. Paul adds to his general exhortation to do good unto all men a specific limitation, especially unto them that are of the household of faith. The household of faith! There is no doubt as to the sense of the expression. As the whole human race is one vast family banded together by the indestructable tie of blood, so within this family the possession of a common faith creates another and a selected household, whose members are bound to each other by a yet closer and more sacred bond. Of the natural human family Adam is the departed head and father: the family of faith is grouped around the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, as its ever-living and present Parent. To all members of this family He has given a new and common nature; He has clothed each and all in that sacred Manhood which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness, whether that precious gift have been forfeited or not. By faith each member of the family understands his relationship, first to the common life-giving Parent, and next to those who are his brethren in virtue of this new and sacred tie. (Calvin Liddon.)

Doing good in trifles

There is a story of a man living on the borders of an African desert, who carried daily a pitcher of cold water to the dusty thoroughfare, and left it for any thirsty traveller who might pass that way.

Doing good by a child

Children, I want each of you to bring a new scholar to the school with you next Sunday, said the superintendent of a Sunday-school to his scholars one day. I cant get any new scholars, said several of the children to themselves. Ill try what I can do, was the whispered response of a few others. One of the latter class went home to his father, and said, Father, will you go to the Sunday-school with me? I cant read, my son, replied the father, with a look of shame. Our teacher will teach you, answered the boy, with respect and feeling in his tones. Well, Ill go, said the father. He went, learned to read, sought and found the Saviour, and at length became a colporteur. Years passed on, and that man had established four hundred Sunday-schools, into which thirty-five thousand children were gathered! Thus you see what trying did. That boys effort was like a tiny rill, which soon swells into a brook, and at length becomes a river. His efforts, by Gods grace, saved his father, and his father, being saved, led thirty-five thousand children to the Sunday-school.

Doing good by little means

See that well on the mountain-side--a small, rude, rocky cup full of crystal water, and that tiny rill flowing through a breach in its brim. The vessel is so diminutive that it could not contain a supply of water for a single family in a single day. But, ever getting through secret channels, and ever giving by an open overflow, day and night, summer and winter, from year to year, it discharges in the aggregate a volume to which its own capacity bears no appreciable proportion. The flow from that diminutive cup might, in a drought or war, become life to all the inhabitants of a city. It is thus that a Christian, if he is full of mercy and good fruits, is a greater blessing to the world than either himself or his neighbours deem. Let no disciple of Christ either think himself excused, or permit himself to be discouraged from doing good, because his talents and opportunities are few. Your capacity is small, it is true, but if you are in Christ it is the capacity of a well. Although it does not contain much at any moment, so as to attract attention to you for your gifts, it will give forth a great deal in a lifetime, and many will be refreshed. (W. Arnot, M. A.)

The Christians duty

Now let us consider--

1. The solemn exhortation or advice given here by the apostle, that is, Let us do good. Notwithstanding all the sin and misery that are to be found in the world, yet the world would not be so bad after all, were it not for our own selves. That is, it is we, through our conceit, pride, and unfriendly behaviour to one another, that really constitute and render this world so unpleasant as it is! And if you admit the truth of this statement, then it is obvious that it is the duty of all of us, as true Christians, to endeavour to reform ourselves in the first place, and then try to spread this reformation amongst others by our own good examples. There are some people to be found who will only do good at times, and upon some extraordinary occasions, and then only when they are really ashamed to withhold their hands.

2. The extent of this duty, Unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith! You may recollect that when Joseph made himself known unto his brethren in Egypt, and entertained them at a sumptuous dinner, that Benjamins mess was five times as much as any of the others; and do you recollect the reason of that strange proceeding of his? I will tell you, Joseph and Benjamin were the only sons of Rachel by Jacob, their father, and so they were two brothers by the same father and the same mother, and therefore were more nearly allied to one another than all the rest. And we read that when Joseph first saw his brother Benjamin, his bowels did yearn upon him, and he sought where to weep. And so I would have you, my brethren, to follow Josephs good example, if ever you shall meet with any member of the household of faith, who in this transitory life is in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity; then give him more readily and more abundantly than to any one else, for he is more nearly related to you by the Spirit, if not by the flesh, for he is a member of the same Catholic Church as yourself.

3. The time that we are to attend to this most important duty--As we have an opportunity, or, whilst we have the opportunity of this life and as occasions present themselves. No one offers a word of advice, nor an alms, nor a dose of physic, nor anything else to a dead man. Oh, no! for the time for these things and the like is gone by for ever with regard to him. And so I would have you to bear in mind that it is not after a poor fellow-creature has been left to starve to death with cold and hunger; that it is not after a long hope deferred had broken his tender heart in twain, and caused it to cease to beat for ever, that you are to take pity and compassion upon him. Oh, no! but you should do so now while you have him with you, while you can relieve him, and while he can appreciate your good attention, your sympathy and kindness. Some are in the habit of putting poor people off indefinitely when they ask assistance, though perhaps the favour they ask for will be hardly worth receiving, and so the time is lost when it can be of any value to the recipient. For my own part, if I do not get a favour when I beg for it and when I want it, I would not care for it, if the opportunity, or the time of need is gone. (H. H. Davies, M. A.)

The Church household an especial scene of kind deeds

Every one entering a Church has a right to feel that he is going into a higher atmosphere than that in which he has been accustomed to move. Every one has a right to feel that when he goes into the Church of Christ he goes into an association, a brotherhood, where the principle of gentleness and kindness is carried on to a higher degree than it is outside the Church. I know that it is not so. I know that the Church is keyed, often, very low in the matter of sympathy. I know that too frequently persons who go into the Church are like those who go at night to a hotel. Each lodger has his own room, and calls for what he himself needs, and does not feel bound to take care of any of the other lodgers. And a Church, frequently, is nothing but a spiritual boarding-house, where the members are not acquainted with each other, and where there is but very little sympathy. Now, every Church should be under the inspiration of such large sympathy and benevolence as to make every one of its members the object of kindly thought and feeling. There should be a public sentiment and an atmosphere of brotherhood in every Church. (H. W. Beecher.)

Kind deeds to go beyond the Church

And here I may say, in carrying out this work, beware, while you do not neglect home, that you do not confine the disclosure of yourself to your own household. It is right for a bird to make herself a nest, and put the finest moss and softest feathers in that nest, and it is right that she should sit upon it. It is right that she should have but one chamber--for birds never build for more than themselves and their own. But they are only bird, and do not know any better. It is for us to build a broad nest. To build it so that nobody can get into it but ourselves, to line it with our own prosperity, and so selfishly fill it with everything that is sweet and soft--that is not right. I think that a mans house ought to be a magazine of kindness. Its windows ought to send out light. I like, when I go by a house at night, to see the window-shutters open, so that the light shines forth from inside. A person says, I will put this clump of flowers under the parlour window. No, no; put them by the gate. A thousand will see them there, where one would see them in that other place. A person says, I will put this plant where nobody can reach it. Well, do; but put two close to the fence, where they can be reached. I like to see little hands go through the pickets and pluck off flowers. And if you say, That is stealing, then let it be understood through all the neighbourhood that it is not stealing. There are some who seem to have such a sense of property that if they had a hundred magnolia trees in full blossom on their premises, they would want the wind to blow from the north, and south, and east, and west, so that all the fragrance would come into their own house; whereas the true spirit would be a desire that a thousand others should be blessed by these bounties as well as themselves. Make your dwelling beautiful; but not for your own eyes alone. Fill it sumptuously, if you have the grace to rightly use that sumptuosity. Let the feet of the poor step on your plushy carpet. Let their eyes behold the rich furniture of your apartments. Would it make their home less to them? Not necessarily. If you take a child by the hand--you, whose name is great in the town; you, who tower up in power above all your neighbours; if you lay your hand on his head, and call him Sonny; if you bring him into your house; if you go to the cupboard and take out the unfamiliar cake, or what not, that children so much like (for the senses must be appealed to in childhood before the spirit can be reached; and by feeding the mouth of a child you come to his affections and feelings); if you show him your rooms, and give him something in his pocket to carry home and show his aunt or sister, do you suppose that child ever thinks you are stuck up, or looks on you with an unkindly eye? When he comes into the neighbourhood again, and your house dawns upon him, he remembers, the moment he sees it, how happy you made him there. And that house of yours can be made to bless generation after generation. (H. W. Beecher.)

Doing good according to opportunity

I. There is good which Christians can do. This is a common thing to notice, and you may think it is not likely to be overlooked. Perhaps not, as far as the eyes are concerned, but certainly liable to be overlooked so far as the heart and the hand are concerned. To do good (as we all should say if we were asked to define it), is to secure by our own efforts the welfare of others. The doing good to human nature, as it is made up of body and spirit, is required of us by our God, but beside this we are all required to do good to others in all the variety of condition in which they are found. Hence we have such particular directions as, to doing good to them that hate us, giving meat and drink and raiment to the poor, visiting the sick and the prisoner, the widow and the fatherless, holding forth the word of life, and distributing to the necessity of saints. What a wide and life-long service do these two words cover, As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good.

II. To do good there must be both intention and exertion, aim and effort. Benefits sometimes accrue to men from their fellow-men without any intention or effort on the part of those who are the channels of good; but being the channel of good or the occasion of doing good, and the willing and active agent, are widely different things. It is one thing to lose a piece of money, which is picked up by a beggar, and by which he supplies his wants, and another thing to give that beggar money for the purchase of food. The man is fed in both eases, but the ministering is only in the one case. It is one thing to utter words at random by which bystanders are instructed, and another thing to endeavour, as in the case of our devoted Sabbath school and ragged school teachers, steadily and perseveringly to impart instruction to the ignorant. The difference here is as broad and as clear and as palpable as that between the stone head of a fountain through which the water flows, and from which you drink, and the loving hand which brings you a cup of water that has been intentionally, thoughtfully, and sympathetically filled for you at that fountain. Doing good partially, if self-originated and self-willed, is easy; but to do good fully we must overcome much within ourselves. Then we must do it as servants--not when and as we like, but when and as the great Master bids us.. Moreover, real good is not done except by labour of some sort. In the sweat of the brow we not only eat bread, but we cast bread on the waters.

III. The kind of good done and the amount must both be governed by what Paul here calls opportunity. Circumstances being suitable for a particular ministration, we must minister; and circumstances fix the time and place, and the means, and the powers of the individual. They say to him, Thou art the man to do this thing here, and to do this thing now. Opportunity is that season in which we can minister to the benefit of others. Our opportunities test us. You will always see that a man is just what he is to his opportunities. You will find this in every walk of life. Opportunities test us Christians. Some opportunities are rare, ethers are common; some are fleeting, others abide. The poor, said Jesus, are always with you, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good; here is the permanent, abiding opportunity. But Me ye have not always; here is the fleeting, passing opportunity. Doing good, dear brethren, if men be faithful to their trust, never can be monotonous. (S. Martin.)

On doing good

I. Illustrate the duty in the text,

1. The duty inculcated is goodness. Now this necessarily supposes that we are renewed in our mind. In our natural state, we cannot do good. We must first be made partakers of Divine goodness before we can diffuse it abroad. The Christian may do good--

(1) By the exhibition of a pious example. Thus to be monitors to those around.

(2) By imparting spiritual instruction.

(3) By our prayers and supplications (See 1Ti_2:1).

(4) By imparting of our substance to the poor and necessitous.

2. The extent of the goodness we are to exercise--To all men.

3. The seasonableness and constancy of our goodness--As we have opportunity.

4. The preference appointed--Especially to those who are of the household of faith.

II. Enforce the duty is the text.

1. The commands of God require it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, etc., (Psa_37:3; 1Ti_6:18).

2. Our resemblance to God requires it. If we are His spiritual offspring, then we must be followers of God as dear children.

3. The example of Christ requires it. He went about doing good.

4. The Spirit of God within us requires it. The fruit of the Spirit is … goodness.

5. Our own happiness requires it. It enlarges the mind, expands the heart, elevates to the most heavenly dignities and enjoyments.

6. Our acquittal at the last day requires it (Mat_25:34, etc.).

Application:

1. Does not the subject condemn most of the professed disciples of Christ? How few have their hearts set upon doing good! How few do all the good they can!

2. Let it lead us to a closer acquaintance with the Lords will, and provoke us to love and good works.

3. A religion without goodness is not of God, and shall not receive a reward at the last day. (J. Burns, D. D.)

The witness to the ennobling principle

Life is a work. The best efforts of the human spirit spring from the energy of an artist toiling at himself. And just as Van Eyck, or Metaling, or Durer, each possessed the sacred science of colour, each noted faithfully the teachings of experience, each rose into some vision of a better country, drew down the results of that vision to the practical purposes of daily life; and neither neglected the claims of the present nor forgot the solemn certainties of another world; so the human spirit, alive to its responsibility, and therefore to the need of sorrowful toil here, without the reminding of the preacher, hears voices like passing bells, now loud, now dying; sounds tossed up in sorrowing cadence, surging and solemn, mystical and threatening, like the roll of the Atlantic in the caves of Cornwall; or tender and saddening, like the water of the spreading surf on the sands of the Adrian Sea; and the voices, whether loud or soft, whether threatening or tender, are chanting an unchanging story: Death is coming, diligence and fortitude; life is passing, use it while you may. Listening to these the human spirit works in the vision, with the sense of eternity; unites the ideal and the practical, strives to make idealism into realised result, does not merely travel a destitute journey, nor work a work fruitless to others as well as self, but exercises in the highest of a!l subjects, with the possibility of the most lasting results, exercises an artists powers.

I. Let us note swiftly some of the characteristic features of the self-sacrificing temper, the productive principle of a noble life.

1. First we may note what is negative. In a really self-sacrificing temper there is the absence of that miserable taint and bane of rich and gifted natures which the Greeks would describe as a withering ὕβρις--an insolent scorn. The self sacrificing spirit, believe me, will not lose faith in human nature; will learn for itself simple-hearted sincerity; will not demand too much from others; will possess itself in patience, and thus lay a stern arrest upon the too natural encroachments of ὕβρις--of insolent scorn.

2. Another mark of a self-sacrificing temper is a sincere, a supernatural, a gentle yet chastened sorrow. Sorrow! you say; why, that is nothing so strikingly exceptional. A short experience of the most shallow observer says there is plenty of sorrow! It requires no special gaze on eternity, it demands no yearning desire for a higher life, to find ones self plunged in the mystery of sorrow. Quite so; but stay. There are violets and violets. The violet of the bleak hedge-side on the edge of the windy common, cramped with the crisping frost and shrivelled by the withering storm, is generically the same, but in individual fact how different from those rich masses of unfathomable colour which carpet the ruined pavement of Hadrians Villa. So there is sorrow and sorrow. There is the sorrow of a broken life, the sorrow of a greedy, unsatisfied desire, the sorrow of a degraded moral purpose, and the sorrow of a brave and tender soul, which sees the beauty of the ideal and the sadness of partial failure, and yet, though sorrowing, does not faint or grow weary; which realizes the possibility of human progress, and is heartstricken at the spectacle of men with gifts of noble nature living for the changeful and passing, when they might live for what can never die. This sorrow is an outcome of the self-sacrificing temper. Is it yours? Are you sorry when wrong is done? sorry at the record of wretchedness and the chronicle of crime; sorry at lives with possibilities of glory falling into the depths, missing the standard, the example of Christ? Is yours such sorrow as stimulates you to read and obey the secret of this unearthly loveliness? Is your souls life touched into activity by the tragedy of human misery and the tragedy of the cross? Blessed are ye if it be so. Then it is the principal anxiety of your life to enrich the lives of others. This is the witness of self-sacrifice.

3. And a third feature of such a temper is.a sunny earnestness. What is earnestness? It is not gloom, it is not grim determination, it is not dogged persistence, it is not revolting narrowness, or wearying one-sidedness, or stupid and tormenting fanaticism. What is earnestness? Earnestness is that temper of mind, that habit of thought which comes of taking, of habitually taking, the truths of eternity as realities, as in fact they are.

II. Let us ask, then, what ground can be shown for cultivating a spirit of self-sacrifice?

1. My brothers, first, unquestionably first, a loving gratitude. Christ died for you. If you have a grain of gratitude in you for the highest blessings, act by grace towards Him in the spirit in which He has acted towards you.

2. And another ground is a wise and gracious estimate of the dignity of man. Man is an animal; yes, but man is also a spirit; mysterious instincts within him--despite the passing crotchets of sciolists and dreamers--witness to him his immortality.

III. And now for the result. Self-sacrifice is the ennobling principle. It ennobles the world; it fertilizes the soul. How? For all man it leaves behind rich memories and great examples; it shows thus what man can, and therefore what man ought, to do, and encourages to use the strength God gives to do it. And again, it enriches the individual soul. It is strange, yet it is true, that to give in love increases the store of love within us; strange, but true, that self-love weakens the moral fibre and impoverishes life; strange, but true, that self-sacrifice stores moral treasures, and produces moral power.

IV. While we have time let us do good. What is life then but a severe probation to test the metal of our souls, and prove their value? While we have time let us do good. Nay, what is life then but a careful education, wherein stern circumstances and trials--the calls of duty, and the sharp assaults of sorrow combine, or may combine with inward principle, to train the soul, to try us and turn us forth sufficiently impressed. While we have time. Nay, what is life but a great opportunity, though an opportunity not perhaps to leave behind the rich results of patient and daring investigation, or the astounding stores of accumulated knowledge, yet something better? While you have time! The days are travelling on, the night is coming, let us bestir ourselves to assist in the triumph of goodness, let us act in self-sacrifice, and so let us advance--oh! blessed opportunity--advance the kingdom of Christ. (Canon Knox-Little.)

Christian beneficence

I. The principle of Christian beneficence. The excellence of any action in the sight of a heart-searching and holy God, depends entirely on the motive from whence it proceeds, and on the spirit with which it is performed. Christian beneficence is founded in the noblest of principles--love to our God and Redeemer.

II. The objects of Christian beneficence. True believers are united to each other by the most sacred and indissoluble bonds.

III. The qualities of Christian beneficence.

1. Active in its nature.

2. Constant and unwearied in its operations.

IV. The value of Christian beneficence. (John Hunter, D. D.)

Doing good

I. The nature.

1. Preserving goodness.

2. Uniting goodness.

3. Communicating goodness.

II. The rules. We must do good--

1. With that which is our own (1Ch_21:24).

2. With cheerfulness and alacrity (2Co_9:1-15.).

3. So that we do not disable ourselves from doing good (Psa_90:14; Psa_112:5; 2Co_3:1-18; 2Co_8:13).

III. The reasons.

1. From the grounds of love and beneficence, which are in all men.

2. From the example of God Himself (Mat_5:44-45).

3. The testimony of Christ (Act_20:35). (R. Cudworth.)

I. God made all things to do good.

II. Christ saves men in order that they may do good.

III. Do good because--

1. God commands it.

2. It will overcome evil.

3. It will make you happy.

4. It will make others happy.

5. Others will then do good to us. (W. Newton.)

The occasion for the injunction

The admonition is thrown into a general form, but it has evidently a special application in the apostles own mind (see 1Co_16:1). He had solicited their alms for the suffering brethren of Judaea. The messenger who had brought him word of the spread of Judaism among the Galatians had also, I suppose, reported unfavourably of their liberality. They had not responded heartily to the appeal. He reproves them in consequence for their backwardness; but he wishes to give them more time, and therefore refrains from prejudging the case. (Bp. Lightfoot.)

Beneficence

Give what you have. To some it may be better than you dare to think. (Longfellow.)

There may be a furlough from our customary work; there can be none from doing good. There may be change of scene and place and fellowship; there must be none in the spirit of self-sacrificing beneficence. (A. L. Stone.)

The danger of selfishness

Let us proportion our alms to our ability, lest we provoke God to proportion His blessings to our alms. (Bp. Beveridge.)

Seizing opportunities

A lady once writing to a young man in the navy, who was almost a stranger, thought, Shall I close this as anybody would, or shall I say a word for my Master? and lifting up her heart for a moment, she wrote, telling him that his constant change of scene and place was an apt illustration of the word, Here we have no continuing city, and asked if he could say, I seek one to come. Trembling she folded it, and sent it off. Back came the answer: Thank you so much for those kind words. I am an orphan, and no one has spoken to me like that since my mother died, long years ago. The arrow, shot at a venture, hit home, and the young man shortly afterward rejoiced in the fulness of the gospel of peace. How often do we, as Christians, close a letter to those we know have no hope as anybody would, when we might say a word for Jesus! Shall we not embrace each opportunity in the future?

Do good to all men

Some years ago a society was formed in London which called itself the Titus Society. It took its name from Titus, the Roman Emperor, who counted a day lost in which he had not done some act for the good of others. The members of this society bound themselves to act on this benevolent principle. In this they did well; but their obligation lay back of their pledge, inasmuch as the voice of God in Scripture and in the love He pours into every regenerate heart is constantly saying, Do good! Do good! There is no need of looking far to find the opportunity, since sorrow, suffering, ignorance, poverty, and sin are everywhere. No one who walks the streets with his eyes open can fail to find some one to whom a kind word, a pleasant smile, a small gift, a few words of instruction or of exhortation, or even a cordial grasp of the hand, would be a benediction. To encourage such effort the God of love has ordained that the satisfaction of doing good is greater than that of receiving a favour. In the laws of the kingdom of Christ, is it not written that it is more blessed to give than to receive?

American. Lost opportunities

A poor fellow in connection with a Liverpool mission lay dying the other day, and, as his mother stood by his side, he said, Mother, I shall soon be with Christ, but it makes me miserable to think that I have never done aught for Him. Yes, it will make you miserable when you come to die, if you have done nothing for Christ. I charge you to go away and consecrate yourselves to this work. Listen to the cries of the heathen world--What must we do to be saved?

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Galatians

DOING GOOD TO ALL

Gal 6:10

‘As we have therefore’--that points a finger backwards to what has gone before. The Apostle has been exhorting to unwearied well-doing, on the ground of the certain coming of the harvest season. Now, there is a double link of connection between the preceding words and our text; for ‘do good’ looks back to ‘well-doing,’ and the word rendered ‘opportunity’ is the same as that rendered ‘season.’ So, then, two thoughts arise--’well-doing’ includes doing good to others, and is not complete unless it does. The future, on the whole, is the season of reaping; the present life on the whole is the season of sowing; and while life as a whole is the seed-time, in detail it is full of opportunities, openings which make certain good deeds possible, and which therefore impose upon us the obligation to do them. If we were in the habit of looking on life mainly as a series of opportunities for well-doing, how different it would be; and how different we should be!

Now, this injunction is seen to be reasonable by every man, whether he obeys it or not. It is a commonplace of morality, which finds assent in all consciences, however little it may mould lives. But I wish to give it a particular application, and to try to enforce its bearing upon Christian missionary work. And the thought that I would suggest is just this, that no Christian man discharges that elementary obligation of plain morality, if he is indifferent to this great enterprise. ‘As we have an opportunity, let us do good to all.’ That is the broad principle, and one application is the duty of Christian men to diffuse the Gospel throughout the world.

I. Let me ask you to look at the obligation that is thus suggested.

As I have said, well-doing is the wider, and doing good to others the narrower, expression. The one covers the whole ground of virtue, the other declares that virtue which is self-regarding, the culture which is mainly occupied with self, is lame and imperfect, and there is a great gap in it, as if some cantle had been cut out of the silver disc of the moon. It is only full-orbed when in well-doing, and as a very large constituent element of it, there is included the doing good to others. That is too plain to need to be stated. We hear a great deal to-day about altruism. Well, Christianity preaches that more emphatically than any other system of thought, morals, or religion does. And Christianity brings the mightiest motives for it, and imparts the power by which obedience to that great law that every man’s conscience responds to is made possible.

But whilst thus we recognise as a dictate of elementary morality that well-doing must necessarily include doing good to others, and feel, as I suppose we all do feel, when we are true to our deepest convictions, that possessions of all sorts, material, mental, and all others, are given to us in stewardship, and not in absolute ownership, in order that God’s grace in its various forms may fructify through us to all, my present point is that, if that is recognised as being what it is, an elementary dictate of morality enforced by men’s relationships to one another, and sealed by their own consciences, there is no getting away from the obligation upon all Christian men which it draws after it, of each taking his share in the great work of imparting the gospel to the whole world.

For that gospel is our highest good, the best thing that we can carry to anybody. We many of us recognise the obligation that is devolved upon us by the possession of wealth, to use it for others as well as for ourselves. We recognise, many of us, the obligation that is devolved upon us by the possession of knowledge, to impart it to others as well as ourselves. We are willing to give of our substance, of our time, of our effort, to impart much that we have. But some of us seem to draw a line at the highest good that we have, and whilst responding to all sorts of charitable and beneficent appeals made to us, and using our faculties often for the good of other people, we take no share and no interest in communicating the highest of all goods, the good which comes to the man in whose heart Christ rests. It is our highest good, because it deals with our deepest needs, and lifts us to the loftiest position. The gospel brings our highest good, because it brings eternal good, whilst all other benefits fade and pass, and are left behind with life and the dead flesh. It is our highest good, because if that great message of salvation is received into a heart, or moulds the life of a nation, it will bring after it, as its ministers and results, all manner of material and lesser benefit. And so, giving Christ we give _our_ best, and giving Christ we give the highest gift that a weary world can receive.

Remember, too, that the impartation of this highest good is one of the main reasons why we ourselves possess it. Jesus Christ can redeem the world alone, but it cannot become a redeemed world without the help of His servants. He needs us in order to carry into all humanity the energies that He brought into the midst of mankind by His Incarnation and Sacrifice; and the cradle of Bethlehem and the Cross of Cavalry are not sufficient for the accomplishment of the purpose for which they respectively came to pass, without the intervention and ministry of Christian people. It was for this end amongst others, that each of us who have received that great gift into our hearts have been enriched by it. The river is fed from the fountains of the hills, in order that it may carry verdure and life whithersoever it goes. And you and I have been brought to the Cross of Christ, and made His disciples, not only in order that we ourselves might be blessed and quickened by the gift unspeakable, but in order that through us it may be communicated, just as each particle when leavened in the mass of the dough communicates its energy to its adjacent particle until the whole is leavened.

I am afraid that indifference to the communication of the highest good, which marks sadly too many Christian professors in all ages, and in this age, is a suspicious indication of a very slight realisation of the good for themselves. Luther said that justification was the article of a standing or a falling church. That may be true in the region of theology, but in the region of practical life I do not know that you will find a test more reliable and more easy of application than this, Does a man care for spreading amongst his fellows the gospel that he himself has received? If he does not, let him ask himself whether, in any real sense, he has it. ‘Well-doing’ includes doing good to others, and the possession of Christ will make it certain that we shall impart Him.

II. Notice the bearing of this elementary injunction upon the scope of the obligation.

‘Let us do good to all men.’ It was Christianity that invented the word ‘humanity’; either in its meaning of the aggregate of men or its meaning of a gracious attitude towards them. And it invented the word because it revealed the thing on which it rests. ‘Brotherhood’ is the sequel of ‘Fatherhood,’ and the conception of mankind, beneath all diversities of race and culture and the like, as being an organic whole, knit together by a thousand mystical bands, and each atom of which has connection with, and obligations to, every other--that is a product of Christianity, however it may have been in subsequent ages divorced from a recognition of its source. So, then, the gospel rises above all the narrow distinctions which call themselves patriotism and are parochial, and it says that there is ‘neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,’ but all are one. Get high enough up upon the hill, and the hedges between the fields are barely perceptible. Live on the elevation to which the Gospel of Jesus Christ lifts men, and you look down upon a great prairie, without a fence or a ditch or a division. So my text comes with profound significance, ‘Let us do good to all,’ because all are included in the sweep of that great purpose of love, and in the redeeming possibilities of that great death on the Cross. Christ has swept the compass, if I may say so, of His love and work all round humanity; and are we to extend our sympathies or our efforts less widely? The circle includes the world; our sympathies should be as wide as the circle that Christ has drawn.

Let me remind you, too, that only such a world-wide communication of the highest good that has blessed ourselves will correspond to the proved power of that Gospel which treats as of no moment diversities that are superficial, and can grapple with and overcome, and bind to itself as a crown of glory, every variety of character, of culture, of circumstance, claiming for its own all races, and proving itself able to lift them all. ‘The Bread of God which came down from heaven’ is an exotic everywhere, because it came down from heaven, but it can grow in all soils, and it can bring forth fruit unto eternal life everywhere amongst mankind. So ‘let us do good to all.’

And then we are met by the old objection, ‘The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. Keep your work for home, that wants it.’ Well! I am perfectly ready to admit that in Christian work, as in all others there must be division of labour, and that one man’s tastes and inclinations will lead him to one sphere and one form of it; and another man’s to another; and I am quite ready, not to admit, but strongly to insist, that, whatever happens, home is not to be neglected. ‘All men’ includes the slums in England as well as the savages in Africa, and it is no excuse for neglecting either of these departments that we are trying to do something in the other. But it is not uncharitable to say that the objection to which I am referring is most often made by one or other of two classes, either by people who do not care about the Gospel, nor recognise the ‘good’ of it at all, or by people who are ingenious in finding excuses for not doing the duty to which they are at the moment summoned. The people that do the one are the people that do the other. Where do you get your money from for home work? Mainly from the Christian Churches. Who is it that keeps up missionary work abroad? Mainly the Christian Churches. There is a vast deal of unreality in that objection. Just think of the disproportion between the embarrassment of riches in our Christian appliances here in England and the destitution in these distant lands. Here the ships are crammed into a dock, close up against one another, rubbing their yards upon each other; and away out yonder on the waters there are leagues of loneliness, where never a sail is seen. Here, at home, we are drenched with Christian teaching, and the Churches are competing with each other, often like rival tradespeople for their customers; and away out yonder a man to half a million is considered a fair allowance. ‘Let us do good to all.’

III. Lastly, note the bearing of this elementary precept on the occasions that rise for the discharge of the duty.

‘As we have opportunity.’ As I have already said, the Christian way to look at our circumstances is to regard them as openings for the exercise of Christian virtue, and therefore summonses to its discharge. And if we regarded our own position individually, so we should find that there were many, many doors that had long been opened, into which we had been too blind or too lazy, or too selfishly absorbed in our own concerns, to enter. The neglected opportunities, the beckoning doors whose thresholds we have never crossed, the good that we might have done and have not done--these are as weighty to sink us as the positive sins, the opportunities for which have appealed to our worse selves.

But I desire to say a word, not only about the opportunities offered to us individually, but about those offered to England for this great enterprise. The prophet of old represented the proud Assyrian conqueror as boasting, ‘My hand hath gathered as a nest the riches of the peoples . . . and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.’ It might be the motto of England to-day. It is not for nothing that we and our brethren across the Atlantic, the inheritors of the same faith and morals and literature, and speaking the same tongue, have had given to us the wide dominion that we possess, I know that England has not climbed to her place without many a crime, and that in her ‘skirts is found the blood of poor innocents,’ but yet we have that connection, for good or for evil, with subject races all over the earth. And I ask whether or not that is an opportunity that the Christian Church is bound to make use of. What have we been intrusted with it for? Commerce, dominion, the impartation of Western knowledge, literature, laws? Yes! Is that all? Are you to send shirting and not the Gospel? Are you to send muskets that will burst, and gin that is poison, and not Christianity? Are you to send Shakespeare, and Milton, and modern science, and Herbert Spencer, and not Evangelists and the Gospels? Are you to send the code of English law and not Christ’s law of love? Are you to send godless Englishmen, ‘through whom the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles,’ and are you not to send missionaries of the Cross? A Brahmin once said to a missionary, ‘Look here! Your Book is a good Book. If you were as good as your Book you would make India Christian in ten years.’

Brethren! the European world to-day is fighting and scrambling over what it calls the unclaimed corners of the world; looking upon all lands that are uncivilised by Western civilisation either as markets, or as parts of their empire. Is there no other way of looking at the heathen world than that? How did Christ look at it? He was moved when He saw the multitudes as ‘sheep having no shepherd.’ Oh! if Christian men, as members of this nation, would rise to the height of Christ’s place of vision, and would look at the world with His eyes, what a difference it would make! I appeal to you, Christian men and women, as members of this nation, and therefore responsible, though it may be infinitesimally, for what this nation is doing in the distant corners of the world, and urge on you that you are bound, so far as your influence goes, to protest against the way of looking at these heathen lands as existing to be exploited for the material benefit of these Western Powers. You are bound to lend your voice, however weak it may be, to the protests against the savage treatment of native races--against the drenching of China with narcotics, and Africa with rum; to try to look at the world as Christ looked at it, to rise to the height of that great vision which regards all men as having been in His heart when He died on the Cross, and refuses to recognise in this great work ‘Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free.’ We have awful responsibilities; the world is open to us. We have the highest good. How shall we obey this elementary principle of our text, unless we help as we can in spreading Christ’s reign? Blessed shall we be if, and only if, we fill the seed-time with delightful work, and remember that well-doing is imperfect unless it includes doing good to others, and that the best good we can do is to impart the Unspeakable Gift to the men that need it.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6:10 Therefore: This statement forms an inclusio (bookends) for the section (5:13–6:10) by stating the same theme as 5:13: Freedom in the Spirit compels us to do good to others in love. • Doing good to those in the family of faith demonstrates God’s faithfulness to his children: He provides for all their needs.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal 6:10. Ὡς) as, as far as, at whatsoever time, in whatever manner and place. Comp. Ecc 9:10, בכהך, LXX. ὡς ἡ δύναμίς σου, as thou art able, whilst thou art able.—καιρὸν) time, viz. that of the whole life, and in it the more convenient part of that time. So καιρὸν ἔχοντες, 1Ma 15:34.—ἔχομεν, we have) For we shall not always have it. Satan is sharpened to greater zeal in injuring us by the shortness of the time; Rev 12:12. Let us be sharpened to zeal in well-doing.—τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως, the household of faith) Every man does good to his relatives; believers do good to their relations in the faith, especially to those, who are entirely devoted to the propagation of the faith, Gal 6:6. So the apostle commends faith itself in this passage, which forms the end of the discussion.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_6:10. Concluding exhortation of the section of the epistle which began at Gal_6:6, inferred from the preceding καιρῷ γὰρ ἰδίῳ θερίσομεν μὴ ἐκλ. (ἄρα οὖν). The specialty of this exhortation lies in ὡς καιρὸν ἔχομεν, which is therefore emphatically prefixed: as we have a season suitable thereto (for instances of καιρὸν ἔχειν, opportunum tempus habere, see Wetstein). This seasonable time will have elapsed, when the παρουσία sets in; we must therefore utilize it as ours by the ἐργάζεσθαι τὸ ἀγαθόν. The same idea as the ἐξαγοράζεσθαι τ. καιρόν in Eph_5:16; Col_4:5. Hofmann introduces the idea, that there will come for the Christians, even before the παρουσία, an hour of temptation, in which they can only (?) withstand evil, but not bestow good one on another. This idea is in opposition to the context in Gal_6:9, and is nowhere else expressed; and its introduction rests on the incorrect explanation of ἐργάζ. τὸ ἀγαθόν as referring to beneficence, and on the wrong idea that the doing good will become impossible.

ὡς is the usual as, that is, as corresponds with and is suitable to this circumstance, that we καιρὸν ἔχομεν. Comp. Luk_12:58; Joh_12:35; Clement, 2 Corinthians 9 : ὡς ἔχομεν καιρὸν τοῦ ἰαθῆναι, ἐπιδῶμεν ἑαυτοὺς τῷ θεραπεύοντι Θεῷ. Others, likewise retaining the signification as, interpret: prout habemus opportunitatem, that is, when and how we have opportunity. Thus Knatchbull, Homberg, Wolf, Zachariae, Hilgenfeld. For this, indeed, no conditional ἄν would be necessary; but how weak and lax would be the injunction! Besides, καιρόν has obtained, by means of Gal_6:9, its quite definite reference. Others take ὡς as causal (Heindorf, ad Gorg. p. 113; Matthiae, p. 1511). So Koppe, Paulus, Usteri (because we have time and opportunity), de Wette; also Winer, who, however, does not decide between quoniam and prout. But ὡς, in the sense of because, is nowhere to be found in Pauls writings (not even in 2Ti_1:3). Most expositors explain it as so long as (so Flatt, Rückert, Matthies, Schott, Olshausen), which, however, it never means, not even in Luk_12:58.

τὸ ἀγαθόν] the morally good, not the useful (Olshausen). Not merely the article, but also the use of the expression by Paul, in definite connection with ἐργάζεσθαι, as applying to morality active in works (Rom_2:10; Eph_4:28), ought to have prevented the interpretation of τὸ ἀγαθόν, at variance with the context, as benefits (Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Estius, and many others, including Schott, de Wette, and Wieseler). Hofmanns interpretation (do good towards others), in more general terms evading the definite idea, amounts to the same thing. The ἀγαθόν in this passage is the same as τὸ καλόν in Gal_6:9. That which is good is also that which is morally beautiful. Comp. especially Rom_7:18 f.

πρός] in relation to, in intercourse with. see Winer, p. 378 f. [E. T. 505]; Sturz, Lex. Xen. III. p. 698; Bernhardy, p. 265.

τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως] the associates in the faith, believers. οἰκεῖος, primarily inmate of the house, comes to be used generally in the sense of special appertaining to (comp. LXX. Isa_58:7), without further reference to the idea of a house. So with the genitive of an abstract noun, as οἰκεῖοι φιλοσοφίας (Strabo, I. p. 13 B), γεωγραφίας (Strabo, I. p. 25 A.), ὀλιγαρχίας (Diod. Sic. xiii. 91), and the like in Wetstein, p. 236; Schweigh. Lex Polyb. p. 401. Comp. τὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς οἰκεῖα, 2Ma_15:12; τὰ τῆς φύσεως οἰκεῖα, Dem. 1117. 25. The πίστις is the Christian faith; those who belong to it are the πιστεύοντες. The opposite would be: τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους τῆς πιστ. The idea that the church is the οἶκος Θεοῦ (1Ti_3:15; Heb_3:2; Heb_5:6; Heb_10:21; 1Pe_4:17) is improperly introduced here, in order to obtain the sense: qui per fidem sunt in eadem atque nos familia Domini (Beza; comp. Estius, Michaelis, and others, also Schott and Olshausen, Wieseler, and Ewald, who limits the idea to the same church). For τῆς πίστεως conveys the complete definition of τοὺς οἰκείους; and the sense mentioned above must have been expressed by some such form as τοὺς ἡμῶν οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως (comp. Php_2:30, et al.; Winer, p. 180, rem. 3 [E. T. 239]). Paul might also simply have written πρὸς τοῦς πιστεύοντας; but the expression οἰκείους τ. π. suggests a stronger motive. Among the πᾶσι, in relation to whom we have to put into operation the morally good, those who belong to the faith have the chief claimsbecause these claims are based on the special sacred duty of fellowship which it involvesin preference to those who are strangers to the faith, although in respect even to the latter that conduct is to be observed which is required in Col_4:5, 1Th_4:12.

Note.

If the reading ἐργαζόμεθα (see the critical notes), which is followed by Ewald, were the original one, the indicative would not (with Winer in his Commentary, but not in his Gramm. p. 267 [E. T. 355]) have to be taken as a stronger and more definite expression instead of the hortative subjunctive (do we therefore the good), since this use of the present indicative (Jacobs, ad Ach. Tat. p. 559, ad Delect. epigr. p. 228; Heindorf, ad Gorg. p. 109; Bernhardy, p. 396) in non-interrogative language (Joh_11:47) is foreign to the N.T., although opportunities for it often presented themselves. The interpretation of the whole sentence as an interrogation has been rightly given up by Lachmann (also at Rom_14:19), because so complete an interruption by a question does not occur elsewhere in Pauls writings, and the addition μάλιστα δέ πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως indicates that the passage is of the nature of an assertion, and not of a question. ἐργάζομεθα τὸ ἀγαθόν would rather represent the matter as actually taking place (we do it, we hold it so, it is our maxim), and would thus belong to the ideal delineation of Christian life common with the apostle; which might indeed be highly appropriate in its place at the conclusion of a discourse as a note of triumph, but here, in immediate connection with mere exhortations and injunctions, would be somewhat out of place.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 6:10 . καιρὸν . The last verse affirmed that there is a due season for the spiritual harvest as well as the earthly; the same analogy suggests the existence of a spiritual seedtime also, which we are bound to utilise. τὸ ἀγαθὸν . This word varies widely in meaning, like good in English; it is applied both to the intrinsic goodness of God Himself (Mat 19:17 ), and to the mere manifestation of a kindly temper towards others. So also its compounds ἀγαθοποιεῖν , ἀγαθουργεῖν . The clause πρὸς πάντας attaches to it here the latter force: so that the goodness spoken of is goodness to others. τ . οἰκείους . Christians are here designated as the household of the faith , and in Eph 2:19 as the household of God .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They that are of the household of faith, that is, such as are joined with us in the profession of one selfsame religion, ought to be preferred before all others, yet so notwithstanding that our liberality extends to all.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Translate, "So then, according as (that is, in proportion as) we have season (that is, opportunity), let us work (a distinct Greek verb from that for "do," in Gal 6:9) that which is (in each case) good." As thou art able, and while thou art able, and when thou art able (Ecc 9:10). We have now the "season" for sowing, as also there will be hereafter the "due season" (Gal 6:9) for reaping. The whole life is, in one sense, the "seasonable opportunity" to us: and, in a narrower sense, there occur in it more especially convenient seasons. The latter are sometimes lost in looking for still more convenient seasons (Act 24:25). We shall not always have the opportunity "we have" now. Satan is sharpened to the greater zeal in injuring us, by the shortness of his time (Rev 12:12). Let us be sharpened to the greater zeal in well-doing by the shortness of ours.

them who are of the household--Every right-minded man does well to the members of his own family (Ti1 5:8); so believers are to do to those of the household of faith, that is, those whom faith has made members of "the household of God" (Eph 2:19): "the house of God" (Ti1 3:15; Pe1 4:17).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. As we have - opportunity] While it is the time of sowing let us sow the good seed; and let our love be, as the love of Christ is, free, manifested to all. Let us help all who need help according to the uttermost of our power; but let the first objects of our regards be those who are of the household of faith-the members of the Church of Christ, who form one family, of which Jesus Christ is the head. Those have the first claims on our attention , but all others have their claims also, and therefore we should do good unto all.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. While we have opportunity. The metaphor is still pursued. Every season is not adapted to tillage and sowing. Active and prudent husbandmen will observe the proper season, and will not indolently allow it to pass unimproved. Since, therefore, God has set apart the whole of the present life for ploughing and sowing, let us avail ourselves of the season, lest, through our negligence, it may be taken out of our power. Beginning with liberality to ministers of the gospel, Paul now makes a wider application of his doctrine, and exhorts us to do good to all men, but recommends to our particular regard the household of faith, or believers, because they belong to the same family with ourselves. This similitude is intended to excite us to that kind of communication which ought to be maintained among the members of one family. There are duties which we owe to all men arising out of a common nature; but the tie of a more sacred relationship, established by God himself, binds us to believers.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) As we have therefore opportunity.—“Therefore” is emphatic, and should come first. It introduces a summary conclusion from the preceding argument. Therefore (or, so then), as we have opportunity; wherever an opportunity offers.

Them who are of the household of faith.—It would seem, on the whole, that this translation might stand. It is true that the Greek word, meaning originally a “member of a household,” came to mean simply “acquainted with,” or “belonging to,” the idea of a “household” being dropped; still, in view more especially of Eph_2:19—”Fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”—where there seems to be a play upon the words “city” and “house,” it would appear as if it ought in the present phrase to be retained. The Church is represented as a household in 1Ti_3:15; Heb_3:6; 1Pe_2:5; 1Pe_4:17.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. A noble practical conclusion from what precedes.

The time of reaping is ‘God’s own’—the season of sowing, ours. But that season is presented to us as ‘opportunity.’ If we ask how we are to recognise and so improve it, the answer is given by St Paul (2Ti_4:2) ‘In season, out of season’—not waiting for occasions, but making them.

As we have] This may be rendered with equal correctness, ‘while, so long as, we have.’ It is so rendered in the Offertory sentence in the Book of Common Prayer, ‘while we have time.’ But the A.V. gives a good sense—‘according as we have opportunity.’

unto all men] Though in the immediately preceding context St Paul has been enjoining liberality towards teachers, he feels that his premisses are wide enough to bear this conclusion. He here passes from inculcating charity towards all men to a special regard for members of the family of God. St Peter adopts the reverse order, when he exhorts Christians to add to ‘brotherly kindness, love.’ 2Pe_1:7.

of the household of faith] As the Church is frequently designated the house or family of God (1Ti_3:15; 1Pe_2:5; Heb_3:6), so in Eph_2:19 believers are spoken of as the members of the household of God. Here the form of the expression is varied. ‘The faith’ is rightly explained by Bp Lightfoot to be here nearly equivalent to ‘the Gospel.’ The bond of a common faith constitutes a new family tie. It united, and still unites men to one another, as children of the same Father, with a common home.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ye see how large a letter,.... Whether it be read as imperative, "see ye", observe, take notice; or as indicative, "ye see", ye do see, or you may see with your own eyes, it is of no great consequence: "how large a letter", or "with what letters"; which some understand of the largeness of the characters he wrote in; others of the deformity of them, he not writing a good hand, being an Hebrew, and not used to writing Greek; others of the grand and sublime matter which it contained; though neither of these seem to be the apostle's meaning; but he intends the length of the epistle, the prolixity of his writing; and which he mentions, as an instance and expression of his love to then, care of them, and concern for them: inasmuch as he took so much pains to write so long a letter to them, in order to set things right in their view, and recover them from error: not but that he had sent as long, or longer letters to other churches, as to the Romans, the Corinthians, and Hebrews: but then it is to be observed what follows,

I have written unto you with my own hand. The epistle to the Romans was written by Tertius, though dictated by the apostle, Rom 16:22 as very likely the others were by Timothy, or some other amanuensis. The apostle only put his name, and wrote his salutation, which was his token, in all his epistles, of the truth and genuineness of them; Th2 3:17, but this was not only dictated by him, but wrote with his hand, which very probably the Galatians knew; and since it was not usual for him to do so, it was the greater proof of his affection for them; that amidst so much work, and such labours as he was employed in, he should sit down and write so long an epistle to them with his own hand, in order to expose the errors of the false teachers, and reclaim them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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

Ver. 10. As we have therefore opportunity] Catch at it, as the echo catcheth the voice. Joseph took the nick of time to gain Egypt to the king, by feeding the hungry; so may we to get heaven. I read of a Roman emperor who when he heard of a neighbour death, he asked, And what did I for him before he died? Let us ask ourselves the same and the like questions.

Who are of the household] Of the family of faith, God’s household servants. That was a desperate resolve of Aigoland, king of Arragon, who coming to the French court to be baptized, and asking who those lazars {a} and poor people were that waited for alms from the Emperor Charlemagne’s table? When one answered him that they were the messengers and servants of God; I will never serve that God, said he, that can keep his servants no better. (Turpine.)

{a} A poor and diseased person, usually one afflicted with a loathsome disease; esp. a leper. ŒD

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men - This is the true rule about doing good. “The opportunity to do good,” said Cotton Mather, “imposes the obligation to do it.” The simple rule is, that we are favored with the opportunity, and that we have the power. It is not that we are to do it when it is convenient; or when it will advance the interest of a party; or when it may contribute to our fame; the rule is, that we are to do it when we have the opportunity. No matter how often that occurs; no matter how many objects of benevolence are presented - the more the better; no matter how much self-denial it may cost us; no matter how little fame we may get by it; still, if we have the opportunity to do good, we are to do it, and should be thankful for the privilege. And it is to be done to all people. Not to our family only; not to our party; not to our neighbors; not to those of our own color; not to those who live in the same land with us, but to all mankind. If we can reach and benefit a man who lives on the other side of the globe, whom we have never seen, and shall never see in this world or in the world to come, still we are to do him good. Such is Christianity. And in this, as in all other respects, it differs from the narrow and selfish spirit of clanship which prevails all over the world.

Especially - On the same principle that a man is bound particularly to benefit his own family and friends. In his large and expansive zeal for the world at large, he is not to forget or neglect them. He is to feel that they have special claims on him. They are near him. They are bound to him by tender ties. They may be particularly dependent on him. Christianity does not relax the ties which bind us to our country, our family, and our friends. It makes them more close and tender, and excites us more faithfully to discharge the duties which grow out of these relations. But, in addition to that, it excites us to do good to all people, and to bless the stranger as well as the friend; the man who has a different color from our own, as well as he who has the same; the man who lives in another clime, as well as he who was born in the same country in which we live.

Of the household of faith - Christians are distinguished from other people primarily by their believing the gospel, and by its influence on their lives.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The household of the faith: those who profess the same true faith. (Witham) --- We are more bound to assist Christians than Jews; Catholics than heretics. (St. Jerome, q. 1. ad Hedibim.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

As we have therefore opportunity; as we have objects before us, or as God gives us time and ability.

Let us do good unto all men; let it be our business to harm none, but to supply the necessities of all men; either with our spiritual advice and counsels, with all the assistance we can give them that may any way be of spiritual profit or advantage to them; or with our worldly goods, ministering to their necessities.

Especially unto them who are of the household of faith; but all in an order, preferring Christians before others; those that belong to the church, (which is called the house of God, 1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 4:17, and the household of God, Eph 2:19), before such as have no such relation to the church.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. St. Paul now reverts back to the precept of Gal_6:6, in enforcement of which the deep warning of 7-9 was interposed.

Opportunity—Improving every opening.

Do good—Rather, Let us work, το αγαθον, the good, the true, the highest good.

Especially—Inasmuch as they are often excluded from many worldly modes of gain, and are impoverished by persecution.

Household—Belonging to the great family of which God is Father, and Christ the older Brother. With this solemn and urgent paragraph our epistle comes to its essential close.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As we have therefore opportunity (ara oun wJv kairon ecimen); so then, while (or, as) we have a season for so doing.

Ara oun: this combination of particles is frequently found in St. Paul"s writings, being so far as appears (cf. Winer, "Gram. N.T.," 8 a) peculiar to him (1Th_5:6; 2Th_2:15; Rom_5:18 Rom_7:3, 25 8:12 9:16, 18 14:12, 19; Eph_2:19) In every instance it marks a certain pause after a statement of premisses; in several, following a citation from the Old Testament; the writer, after waiting, so to speak, for the reader duly to Lake into his mind what has been already said, proceeds to draw his inference. The ara seems to point backward to the premisses; the oun to introduce the inference. "Well, then," or "so, then," appears a fairly equivalent rendering. in 1Th_5:6 and Rom_14:19 ara oun introduces a cohortative verb, as here; in 2Th_2:15, an imperative. The words Which follow seem to be commonly understood as meaning "whenever opportunity offers." But this fails short of recognizing the solemn consideration of the proprieties of the present sowing-time, which the previous context prepares us to expect to find here; the term "season," as Meyer remarks, having its proper reference already fixed by the antithetical season of reaping referred to in ver. 9. Moreover, instead of for, would not the apostle, if he had meant "whenever," have used the intensified form kaqwv? Chrysostom gives the sense well thus: "As it is not always in our power to sow, so neither is it to show mercy; when we have been borne hence, though we may desire it a thousand times, we shall be able to effect nothing." Indeed it is questionable whether the sense now pleaded for is not that which was intended by the rendering in the Authorized Version. The particle wv probably means "while," as it does in Luk_12:58 and in Joh_12:35, Joh_12:36, where it should replace the ewv of the Textus Receptus; but this needs not to be insisted upon. Anyway, we are reminded of the uncertain tenure by which we hold the season for doing that which, if done, will have so blessed a consequence. Let us do good unto all men (ejrgazwmeqa to ajgaqon prontav); let us be workers of that which is good towards all men. The verbs ejrgazomai and poiw appear used inter-changeably in Col_3:23 and rgon, 3Jn_1:5; but the former seems to suggest, more vividly than the other, either the concrete action, the e) which is wrought; or else the part enacted by the agent as being a worker of such or such a description as if, here, it were "let us be benefactors." The adjective "good" (ajgaqov) is often, perhaps most commonly, used to designate what is morally excellent in general; thus, e.g. , in Rom_2:10, "the worker of that which is good" is contrasted with "the worker-out of that which is evil," as a description of a man"s moral character in general. But on the other hand, this adjective frequently takes the sense of "benevolent," "beneficent;" as e.g. in Mat_20:15, "Is thine eye evil, because I am good?" 1Pe_2:18, "masters, not only the good and gentle, but also the froward;" Tit_2:5; 1Th_3:6; 1Ti_6:18; Rom_12:21. In the remarkable contrast between the righteous man and the good man in Rom_5:7 (see Dr. Gifford"s note on the passage, "Speaker"s Commentary," p. 123), the latter term appears distinctly intended in the conception of virtuousness to make especially prominent the idea of beneficence. Naturally, this sense attaches to it, when it describes an action done to another, as the opposite to the "working ill to one"s neighbour," mentioned in Rom_13:10; "good" in such a relation, denoting what is beneficent in effect, denotes what is also benevolent in intention. (see 1Th_5:15) Indeed, that the present clause points to works of beneficence" is made certain by that which is added, "and especially," etc.; for our behaviour should be in no greater degree marked by general moral excellence in dealing with one class of men than in dealing with any others; though one particular branch of virtuous action may be called into varying degrees of activity in different relations of human intercourse. "Towards all men;" prov, towards, as in 1Th_5:14; Eph_6:9. The spirit of universal philanthropy which the apostle inculcates here as in other passages, as e.g. 1Th_5:15, is one which flows naturally from the proper influence upon the mind of the great facts stated in 1Ti_2:3-7, as also it was a spirit which in a most eminent degree animated the apostle"s own life. Witness that noble outburst of universal benevolence which we read of in Act_26:29. Such an escape from bigotry and particularism was quite novel to the Gentile world, and scarcely heard of in the Jewish, though beautifully pointed forward to in the teaching of the Book of Jonah (see Introduction to the Book of Jonah, in "Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 6. p. 576). Espescially unto them who are of the household of faith (malista de prov tououv thv pistewv); but especially towards them that are of the household of faith. The adjective oijkeiov occurs in the New Testament only in St. Paul"s Epistles twice besides here, namely, in of Eph_2:19, "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household (oijkeioi God;" and in wn)." 1Ti_5:8, "if any provideth not for his own, and specially his own household (oijkei) In the last-cited passage, the adjective, denoting as it plainly is meant to do, a closer relation than "his own (ijdiwn)" must mean members of his household or family; and we can hardly err in supposing that in Eph_2:19 likewise the phrase, oijkeioi tou Qeou denotes those whom God has admitted into his family as children. So the word also signifies in the Septuagint of Isa_3:5 Isa_58:7; and stewv Rev_18:6, Rev_18:12, Rev_18:13. It is, therefore, an unnecessary dilution of its force here to render it, "those who belong to the faith," though such a rendering of it might be justified if found in an ordinary Greek author. The meaning of thv pi is illustrated by the strong personification used before by the apostle in Gal_3:23, Gal_3:25, "before faith came;" "shut up for the faith which was yet to be revealed;" "now that faith is come." The apostle surely here is not thinking of "the Christian doctrine," but of that principle of believing acceptance of God"s promises which he has been insisting upon all through the Epistle. This principle, again personified, is here the patron or guardian of God"s people afore-time under a pedagogue: "of the household of faith," not "of the faith." The apostle is thinking of those who sympathized with the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ without legal observances; and very possibly is glancing in particular at the teachers under whose care the apostle had left the Galatian Churches. At first, we may believe, the Galatian Churchmen, in the fervour of their affection to the apostle himself, had been willing enough to help those teachers in every way. But when relaxing their hold upon the fundamental principles of the gospel, they had also declined in their affectionate maintenance of the teachers who upheld those doctrines. He now commends these, belonging to faith"s own household, to their especial regard. (comp. Php_3:17) "Especially;" this qualification in an intensified form of the precept of universal beneficence, is the outcome of no cold calculation of relative duties, but of fervent love towards those who are truly brethren in Christ. That to these an especial affection is due above all others is a sentiment commended and inculcated in almost all St. Paul"s Epistles; as it is also by St. Peter, as e.g. ina" 1Pe_1:22, etc.; and again by St. John. With all, "love of brethren (filadelfi) is a different sentiment from that sentiment of charity which is due to all fellow-men; that is, it is an intensified form of this latter, exalted into a peculiar tenderness of regard by the admixture of higher relations than those which antecedently connect true Christians with all members of the human family. Christ has himself (Mat_25:31-46) taught his disciples that he deems a peculiar regard to be due from them to those "his brethren" who at that day shall be on his right hand; meaning, evidently, by "these my brethren," not suffering men, women, or children as such, but sufferers peculiarly belonging to himself. (comp. Mat_10:42 Mat_18:5, Mat_18:6) Thus we see that, after all, there is a particularism properly characteristic of Christian sentiment; only, not such a particularism as a Gentile, and too often a Jew likewise, would have formulated thus: "Thou shalt love thine own people and hate the alien;" but one which may be formulated thus: "Thou shalt love every man, but especially thy fellow-believer in Christ." The reader will, perhaps, scarcely need to be reminded of Keble"s exquisite piece on the Second Sunday after Trinity in the "Christian Year.

The sphere of beneficence.

This verse sums up the ideas of the previous verses, which spoke of beneficence in general, by setting forth its objects and occasions.

I THE DUTY COMMANDED. "Let us do good." Christian life is not a mere easy and decent inoffensiveness. A man is not harmless who does no good. The barren tree is hurtful, because it cumbers the ground and draws to itself the fertilizing qualities of the earth, which would make a better tree more fruitful. It brings forth no bad fruit; yet it is cast into the fire. Therefore we must not only "cease to do evil," but" learn to do well." "To do good and to communicate forget not". (Heb_13:16)

II THE DUTY BOUNDED BY OPPORTUNITY. "As we have therefore opportunity." Cotton Mather says, "The opportunity to do good imposes the obligation to do it." It is not when our inclination or our self-interest or the thirst for fame or gratitude dispose us that we are to do good, but at every opportunity that opens on our path. These opportunities are constantly around us in the common intercourse of life, but they specially arise in connection with suffering and distress. Therefore "in the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.

III THE SPHERE OF BENEVOLENCE. There is a wider sphere, and a narrower within it: "Do good unto all men, and especially to them who are of the household of faith." There are distinctions even in the wider sphere. We recognize them in the obligations of family life. "If any man provide not for his own, he is worse than an infidel;" we recognize the claims of friendship and of gratitude; yet our beneficence is to extend to all men within the range of opportunity. It is a significant fact that the Apostle Peter, in naming the successive graces of life that are essential to our partaking of the Divine nature, says, "Add to your brotherly kindness charity." There may be a selfish or sectarian feeling that leads us to forget the wider relations in which we stand in the scheme of Divine providence. Yet the brotherly kindness stands first. We are to do good, "especially to them who are of the household of faith;" on the same principle as we are bound to remember first the wants of our family or our friends. The spirit of the Rousseau philanthropy would not tolerate any distinctions of this sort. The household in question, which includes the whole collective body of Christians, is a large, a growing, a loving household, and, in early times, sorely scattered by persecution. There was, therefore, a special need to show kindness to its members. The" collection for the saints" (1Co_16:1, 1Co_16:2) is a practical illustration of this nearer relationship.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore as we have opportunity - At whatever time or place, and in whatever manner we can. The opportunity in general is our lifetime; but there are also many particular opportunities. Satan is quickened in doing hurt, by the shortness of the time, Rev. xii, 12. By the same consideration let us be quickened in doing good. Let us do good - In every possible kind, and in every possible degree. Unto all men - neighbours or strangers, good or evil, friends or enemies. But especially to them who are of the household of faith. For all believers are but one family.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

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." (Joh 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.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith . [And let us who are sowing in this latter manner not grow weary in the good work, for in due season we shall reap ( Jam_5:7-8 ) if we do not grow disheartened and quit. And because we are then sure to reap, let us sow our harvest of good deeds as often as we have opportunity to sow, and let us do good toward all men, especially toward all our brethren in God's household of believers.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. As we have therefore opportunity. Doing good is well doing, i. e., sowing to the Spirit. The Christian rule is to do good, but above all others to love, cherish and help the brethren.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

10. ἔχωμεν אB* 17. ἔχομεν, Text. Rec. with nearly all other authorities. So even in ἐργαζώμεθα, the next word, AB3LP read -ο-. So also Gal 6:12 διώκονται is read by ACGKLP.

10. ἄρα οὖν, “accordingly therefore”; the “weaker ratiocinative force of ἄρα being supported by the collective power of οὖν” (Ellicott). In the N.T. the combination is found in St Paul’s writings only, and eight times out of twelve in Romans.

ὡς καιρὸν ἔχωμεν. See notes on Textual Criticism. “While we have time,” i.e. ὡς in the sense of ἕως, Joh 12:35-36. The subjunctive, making the statement indefinite, is found with ὡς here only without ἄν, so that possibly the ω of א*B is a mere error for ο. But see Thackeray, Grammar of O.T. Greek, § 6. 28. See Blass, Gram. § 78. 3. Win.-Schm. § 5. 19. Cf. 2 “Clem. Rom.” 8. ὡς οὖν ἐσμὲν ἐπὶ γῆς, μετανοήσωμεν. ὡς ἂν would be “when,” Rom 15:24; 1Co 11:34, and, Field thinks (Notes on the Translation of the N.T.), is required if we are to obtain the translation “as we have opportunity.” καιρὸν = a, seasonable time for sowing, cf. Gal 6:9.

ἐργαζώμεθα (Col 3:23 note). τὸ ἀγαθὸν. More ethical than τὸ καλόν Gal 6:9, and suggesting kindness.

πρὸς πάντας. For Christian love knows no limitation of object.

μάλιστα δὲ πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους. So of members of an earthly household, 1Ti 5:8. Here of the heavenly as in Eph 2:19.

τῆς πίστεως. It is questionable whether the R.V. “toward them that are of the household of the faith “does not say more to English ears than the Greek intended. For “the faith” suggests “the doctrine” about Christ etc. But St Paul may well have meant “faith “generally speaking, τῆς being in reality due to the preceding τοὺς: “unto the members of the household that is characterized by faith.” Faith in God, not “the faith” as a synonym for the Gospel, marks this household; see Luk 18:8, and probably even 2Th 3:2. Faith is represented not as the master, nor as the material, of the house, but as a characteristic common to the members. For a somewhat similar genitive see Gal 2:7.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10.] ἄρα οὖν, so then: “the proper meaning of ἄρα, ‘rebus ita comparatis,’ is here distinctly apparent: its weaker ratiocinative force being supported by the collective power of οὖν.” Ellic.

ὡς] not ‘while’ (Olsh., al.), nor, ‘according as,’ i.e. ‘quotiescunque,’ nor, ‘since,’ causal (De W., Winer, al.),—but as, i.e. in proportion as: let our beneficence be in proportion to our καιρός—let the seed-time have its καιρὸς ἴδιος, as well as the harvest, ver. 9. Thus καιρός is a common term between the two verses.

τὸ ἀγ.] the good thing: as we say, ‘he did the right thing:’ that which is (in each case) good.

τ. οἰκείους τ. πίστ.] those who belong to the faith: there does not seem to be any allusion to a household, as in E. V. In Isa 58:7 ‘thy fellow-men’ are called οἱ οἰκεῖοι τοῦ σπέρματός σου: so also in the examples from the later classics in Wetst., οἰκεῖοι φιλοσοφίας,—γεωγραφίας,—ὀλιγαρχίας, τυραννίδος,—τρυφῆς.

11-end.] Postscript and benediction.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. Ἄρα οὗν ὡς καιρὸν ἔχωμεν, ἐργαζώμεθα τὸ ἀγαθὸν πρὸς πάντας, μάλιστα δὲ πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως. “As therefore we have opportunity, let us do that which is good towards all, but especially towards those who are of the household of the faith.” With this v. the exhortations of the paragraph reach the utmost point of generality. Because of the certainty of the result of their efforts (v. 9 b), therefore (ἄρα οὖν), the Galatians are exhorted, whenever they have opportunity, to do good to their fellow men in general, but with special care for the welfare of their fellow-Christians.

אB* 31, 33, 102, al. read ἔχωμεν; AB3CDFGKLP al. pler. read ἔχομεν. The rarity of ὡς with the subjunctive without ἄν probably led to the change to the easier indicative. Transcriptional probability and the high authority of אB therefore both point to the subjunctive as the original.

Ἐργαζώμεθα is the reading of אBCDFG al.; AB3LP 31, 104, 234, 326, 1908, al. read —ομεθα. Intrinsic probability favours the subjunctive following the subjunctive in v. 9. The weight of documentary authority is on the same side. Transcriptional probability, though on the side of the indicative, is not strong enough to outweigh the contrary evidence, especially in view of the frequency of itacistic changes. Cf. on θερίσομεν in v. 9.

Ὡς ἔχωμεν is a conditional relative clause, ἄν being omitted as in a few other cases; BMT 307. On τὸ ἀγαθόν cf. on τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς v. 6, but for τὸ ἀγαθόν, meaning “that which is advantageous,” see Rom 7:13, Rom 15:2. Cf. on ἀγαθωσύνη, 5:23. The expression is not quite identical with τὸ καλόν, v. 2, signifying, rather, what is beneficial to another than what is morally right. There is no decisive reason to limit the expression to either the spiritually or the materially beneficial; so far at least as concerns the principal statement ending with πάντας the language seems to be wholly general; on its use in relation to the phrase μάλιστα etc., see below. πρὸς πάντας may be taken as limiting either ἀγαθόν, and meaning “in respect to” (cf. Eph 4:29) or the whole expression ἐργαζώμεθα τὸ ἀγαθόν and meaning “towards,” as in 1Th 5:14, Eph 6:9 (Ell).

Though οἰκεῖοι (from Hesiod down; in N. T. in Eph 2:19, 1Ti 5:8 et h.l.) was apparently used in later Greek without distinct suggestion of a household in the strict sense, yet in view of Paul’s conception of the intimate unity of all believers (cf. 1Co 3:16, 1Co 3:17, 1Co 3:12:12ff.) and the expression of this idea in terms borrowed from the idea of the house (1Co 3:9 cf. also Eph 2:19, 1Ti 3:15) it is most probable that οἰκείους is here used with intention to characterise those to whom it refers as members of a household, though, of course, in a metaphorical sense. τῆς πίστεως denotes the (active) Christian faith, faith in Jesus Christ. Cf. on 1:23 and detached note on Πίστις, Πιστεύω, p. 483. The genitive is a genitive of characteristic and the whole expression means “those who are members of that household, the distinguishing characteristic of which is the faith in Jesus Christ.”

The qualification of the exhortation to do good to all men by μάλιστα … πίστεως, if intended as a general principle, represents a lapse from the universalistic principle of 5:13, which really underlies the whole gospel of the apostle as against the particularism which the epistle opposes. To promote the spiritual welfare, e. g., of those who have faith in preference to that of those who have not, is indefensible from the general point of view of the apostle. If, however, the apostle has specially in mind the physical needs of the Christian communities, such an exhortation might be judged to be consistent with or demanded by the general principle of love to one’s neighbour. In time of famine or other general distress, the members of a Christian church composed of those who had recently come out of heathenism would, because of religious prejudice, be unlikely to receive any help at the hands of their non-Christian neighbours. Unless, therefore, their distress were relieved by their fellow-Christians, they would fare worse than the non-Christians. As the most needy, therefore, they would have a first claim. Moreover, the non-Christian members of the community would naturally expect the Christians most surely to manifest their love to one another. If, therefore, a Christian were left in distress this would be even more to the discredit of the new religion than if a non-Christian went hungry.

V. CONCLUSION OF THE LETTER (6:11-18)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As we have opportunity [ως καιρον εχωμεν] . As there is a proper season for reaping, there is likewise a proper season for sowing. As this season comes to us, let us sow to the Spirit by doing good. Comp. Eph 5:16; Col 4:5.

Let us do good [εργαζωμεθα το αγαθον] . Let us work the good. For the distinctive force of ejrgazesqai see on 3Jo 1:5; and for poiein to do, on Joh 3:21. Comp. Col 3:23 where both verbs occur. To ajgaqon is, of course, the morally good as distinguished from what is merely useful or profitable, but includes what is beneficent or kindly. See Phl 1:14; Eph 4:28; 1Th 3:6; Rom 5:7. Here, in a general sense, embracing all that is specified in vv. 1, 2, 3, 10.

Unto them who are of the household of faith [προς τους οικειους της πιστεως] . Prov combines with the sense of direction that of active relation with. Comp. Mt 13:56; Mr 9:16; Joh 1:1; Act 3:25; Act 28:25; 1Th 4:12; Heb 9:20. Frequently in Class. of all kinds of personal intercourse. See Hom. Od. 14 331; 19 288; Thucyd. 2 59; 4 15; 7 82; Hdt 1:61. Oikeioi of the household, rare in N. T. See Eph 2:19; 1Ti 5:8. Quite often in LXX of kinsmen. It is unnecessary to introduce the idea of a household here, as A. V., since the word acquired the general sense of pertaining or belonging to. Thus oijkeioi filosofiav or gewgrafiav belonging to philosophy or geography, philosophers, geographers. So here, belonging to the faith, believers.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.