Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 2 Study # 1
October 6, 2013
Dayton, Texas
(298)
1769 Translation:
6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all
men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
1901 ASV Translation:
6 But let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.
9 And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
10 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.
- I. The Issue: "Doing Good".
- A. This paragraph begins with "doing good to those who teach" and ends with "doing good to all men".
- 1. This text assumes that all believers have the wherewithal to impart "good" to others, whether they have any material "goods" to share, or not.
- 2. It will take a relatively large "revamping" of our values to actually begin to understand what "doing good to all men" means.
- B. The inner issue: the Law of the Harvest in application to "doing good".
- II. The Nature of the "Good".
- A. The selected verb is one found in eight contexts in the New Testament and typically indicates "a substantial participation" between multiple persons (like pall bearers all sharing the load of the casket, or individual team members working together to compete, or letters working together to form the words of a sentence, paragraph, chapter, etc.).
- B. The "classic" metaphor of the New Testament for "koinonia" is the body wherein multiple parts "share" in the reality and each contributes its particular function so that the whole can be healthy and capable.
- C. At issue in this text is the "teacher's" ability to participate with the "taught" in the same level of "good things".
- 1. The term used for "those taught" and "he that teacheth" is a word in Greek that has resulted, by way of transliteration, in the English word "catechist/catechism/catechumen".
- 2. Luke used this term in the Acts to refer to something as simple as "passing on information" (Acts 21:21 and 21:24), but others used it to refer to "communicating information that has its roots in a desire to address the issues of 'love' and 'faith'". So it has a relatively elastic meaning.
- 3. It is clear from Paul's "those being 'catechized' in the Word" that he is not simply about "passing on information". Thus, we conclude that the goal of the one doing the work is the alteration of the values and beliefs of those on the receiving end of that labor.
- 4. The strong implication is that the "teacher" is somehow not having "the good" that is his/her due and should be "brought up to equality" by those he/she is "teaching". This is a key observation that overshadows all of the paragraph: there are those in "need" (those who teach) and those who have the ability to meet that need (those who are taught) are supposed to do so.
- D. This raises this question: what does Paul consider "all good things"?
- 1. Because of man's potent penchant for calling "white" black and "black" white, this is no small question.
- 2. There is a strong link in the minds of many "interpreters" of this text to "all good things" being "material things", but that link does not seem to top the agenda in the apostle's mind, nor does the notion that Paul sought "equality" of material wealth among the saints.
- a. Paul deliberately called "material" things "carnal" in both Romans 15.:27 and 1 Corinthians 9:11. This is not a particularly good choice of words if he intended his readers to exalt their material possessions into the realm of "the good".
- 1) Clearly, in these two texts, the "good" is the "spiritual" stuff and the material stuff is that which is "carnal".
- 2) These two texts are dealing with people being given "spiritual" benefits and being asked to share "carnal" ones.
- b. Paul did not consider the material world to have any direct capacity to enhance a person's experience of the blessedness of the Joy of LIfe. This is his point in 1 Timothy 6:17. His thesis is that the "rich of this world" have completely missed the point of the Root of the Joy of Life. This is also his thesis in the previous verse (1 Timothy 6:8) wherein he exhorted Timothy to be "contented" with the provision of food and raiment.
- c. Paul also has already addressed what he considers the "fruit" of a person's "life-content" who is "spiritual" and there is not one mention in his "Fruit of the Spirit" of anything that even remotely smacks of "materialism".
- 1) The immediate context calls for a heavy investment in "seeds of the Spirit" so that one can "sow to the Spirit".
- 2) This linkage forces us back to the "fruit of the Spirit" in the previous chapter and, again, there is nothing "material" there.
- d. Another apostle actually claimed (along with Paul in another context) that his greatest "joy" was seeing/hearing that his "little children" were walking in the Truth (3 John 1:4). Thus, it appears that the greatest "good thing" that the "taught" can "communicate" to the "teacher" is actual "faith" in the content of the teaching so that the life of the taught is manifestly "good".