Galatians 6:9

And let us not be weary in well doing.

Perserverance in religious duties

The path of duty is often found to be the path of difficulty and discouragement. Efforts to do good are often misunderstood and ill-requited; benevolent plans are ridiculed, motives misrepresented, kindness of heart abused, hopes of success treated as visionary and absurd. Still the conscientious, right-minded, true servant of God is a man of determination; he acts from principle, not impulse; his heart is in the work, therefore he proceeds in it, doing his utmost to discharge the duties God has laid on him.

I. The duty. To do what is just and approved in God’s sight. This refers--

1. To ourselves.

(1) Starting in the heavenly course.

(2) Persevering therein.

2. To our fellow-men.

(1) Their bodies (James 1:27; Matthew 25:35).

(2) Their souls. More valuable than body, so ought to be more regarded. Sympathy. A word in season. Consideration and regard for other’s feelings and prejudices.

II. The manner of performing it. Unweariedly. Much need for this admonition. We often feel our unfitness and unworthiness to be employed in doing good. Let us take heed lest our supposed humility and self-depreciation proceed really from coldness of heart, apathy, selfishness, deadness of spirit. Great need for diligence, patience, and heartfelt earnestness.

III. The motive. “In due season we shall reap,” etc. Encouraging to know this. God’s service is not labour without return. He gives to every man according to his work--exactly what he deserves. (George Weight, M. A.)

The importance of well-doing

The interest of this world arises from the fact that here we lay the foundation of our character for eternity.

I. Consider the Christian man’s vocation in the present world. “Well-doing.” While other men are setting before themselves, as objects of ultimate attainment, the possession of wealth, of worldly aggrandisement, of luxurious ease, he is to be emulating the example of Him of whom it was said, “He went about doing good.”

1. This life is not merely for contemplation.

2. Nor is it merely for projecting schemes--religious castle-building. We are placed here to do, not to plan or talk.

3. The believer is endowed by God with the capacity for imparting blessing to his fellow-men.

II. An incentive to perseverance.

1. The fulfilment of the Christian vocation is connected with certain reward in the future. All works done for God are the sowing of seed, the fruits of which will be reaped another day. The earnest prayer, the sympathizing or reproving word, the self-denying and laborious effort--little accounted of here, and perhaps unassociated with any thought of future recompense--are all helping to form the material out of which will be woven the robe of unfading brightness and beauty which the Lord Himself shall cast upon His own, in the great harvest-time to come.

2. This reward will be bestowed at an appropriate period. “In due season.” God does not act without a deliberate plan of His own, and amid all the apparent conflict and confusion of human events, that plan is being wrought out, and at the proper time appointed by Him will be accomplished. This intimation is admirably calculated to correct our misapprehensions, and evoke our confidence.

3. The assurance of certain reward is a sufficient motive to perseverance under every temptation to weariness. Just as, under the influence of some mighty exciting cause, the human frame can bear an amount of toil, or lift burdens, under which at ordinary times it would utterly bow down; so we, inspirited by the prospect of our glorious future, animated by foretastes of heavenly joy, would be transformed, each one into a spiritual Hercules, equal to all toil, affrighted at no difficulties, ready for all labours, exultant over all opposition. (C. M. Merry.)

Exhortation and assistance

Our great want is confessedly staying power. Impulse and spasm are common; not so permanence in character and conduct. The wheels of Christian energy begin rolling gaily enough; but are soon checked by weariness, depression, disappointment; and the result, too often, is failure. Against this weariness St. Paul here warns us, and he unfolds his thought in a parable. The husbandman sows his seed, which, in the act of sowing, passes out of sight. He waits with long patience for it to sprout and come forth; but he faints not, knowing that harvest as well as seed-time is an ordinance of God and cannot fail. So, after we have sown the seeds of effort and endeavour, we must not faint if the harvest does not follow on the heel of seed-time.

I. The admonition.

1. We are sowers.

2. In our sowing, an absence of apparent results will beget weariness. Even Christ grew weary in His work, never of His work. Let us take care that our weariness is like His.

3. Our weariness, unlike Christ’s, may arise from misunderstanding of the ways of God. His ways are hidden. Results do not appear at once. Slowly He works, but surely, and fast enough. Let us not be in greater haste.

II. The assurance. “Due season” is God’s time, not ours. For us, it may not even be in this world at all; we may be only sowers here; still we shall reap one day--Christ will be no man’s debtor. (William Scott.)

The commandment against weariness

Why is weariness deprecated?

1. It invites failure. The task set us is listlessly performed; interest flags; no great results are expected; mechanical routine gradually steals into the holiest service. Our attitude conveys no inspiration, but rather depresses,

2. It may forfeit the reward. Only by waiting and persevering to the end does the toiler secure his harvest.

3. It dishonours Christ. (St. John A. Frere, M. A.)

Well-doing

Paul himself often weary (2 Corinthians 11:23), but he never loses heart. As a minister of the glad tidings, he maintains a cheerful serenity amid discouragements, and exhorts his converts to cultivate the same spirit.

I. The Christian’s duty. “Well-doing.” Practical religion. Sin is wrong-doing. The faith that saves impels to the opposite.

1. Duty to God.

2. Duty to self.

3. Duty to one’s neighbour.

II. The Christian’s danger in duty. Weariness of spirit may arise from--

1. Physical exhaustion.

2. Spiritual exhaustion--worry.

3. Fruitless toil.

4. Opposition from those who should help.

5. Oppression from the sense of responsibility.

III. The Christian’s encouragement in duty.

1. The present is sowing-time.

2. The time of reaping is certain.

3. There is a right time for such reaping; “in due season.”

4. Each shall gather for himself of his own sowing. (J. E. Flower, M. A.)

Reward of perseverance

A German musician whose sense of sound was remarkably acute, tells us that a day or two after he landed, he entered one of our churches. The music happened to be most discordant, and his first impulse was to rush out again. “But this,” said he, “I feared to do, lest offence might be given; so I resolved to endure the torture with the best fortitude I could assume, when lo! I distinguished, amid the din, the soft, clear voice of a woman, singing in perfect tune. She made no effort to drown the voice of her companions, neither was she disturbed by their noisy discord; but patiently and sweetly she sang in full rich tones; one after another yielded to the gentle influence, and before the tune was finished all were in perfect harmony.” I have often thought of this story, as conveying an instructive lesson to the Christian. The spirit that can thus sing patiently and sweetly in a world of discord, must, indeed, be of the purest kind. The Christian sometimes scarce can hear his own voice amid the multitude; and ever and anon comes the temptation to sing louder than they, and drown the voices that cannot be forced into perfect tune. But the melodious tones, cracked into shrillness, would only increase the tumult. And more frequently comes the temptation to stop singing, and let discord do its own wild work. But blessed are they that endure to the end--singing patiently and sweetly, till all join in with loving acquiescence, and universal harmony prevails without forcing into submission the free discord of a single voice. (Illustrations of Truth.)

The way to success

It is the old route of labour, along which are many landmarks and many wrecks. It is lesson after lesson with the scholar, blow after blow with the labourer, crop after crop with the farmer, picture after picture with the painter, step after step, and mile after mile with the traveller, that secures what all desire--success. Alexander desired his preceptor to prepare for him some easier and shorter way to learn geometey; but he was told that he must be content to travel the same road as others.

Encouragement to steadfastness in religious duties

1. The way of duty is difficult; that of sin easy.

2. After we have received grace, we are still prone to depart from God.

3. The prospect of a happy issue of our labours is a strong support.

4. The gospel encourages us to expect a certain and seasonable recompense.

I. When we may be said to be weary in well-doing.

1. Well-doing respects every part of a Christian’s duty.

2. We may apprehend ourselves weary in it when we are not really so.

(1) We are not necessarily so because our affections are not so lively as they once were. This may arise from age and infirmity, or an enlarged view of our own depravity.

(2) Nor because our corruptions appear to have increased. The more we know of our hearts, the more hideous will they seem.

(3) Nor because we do not find enlargement in prayer. Excess of trouble may for a time distract.

3. But we have reason to apprehend that we are weary in well-doing.

(1) When we do not make progress m our religious course. No standing still; if we are not advancing, we must be falling back.

(2) When we are habitually formal in our religious duties.

(3) When we do not carry religion into our worldly business.

(4) When our consciences are not tender. We cannot be too much on our guard against such a state.

II. The argument used to dissuade us from it.

1. The hope only of a harvest is enough to stimulate the husbandman to his labours. But the Christian is sure of a harvest in due time if he faint not.

2. Let this consideration animate us.to steadfastness. The harvest will amply repay the labour. (C. Simeon, M. A.)

Necessity of perseverance

In the heathery turf you will often find a plant chiefly remarkable for its peculiar roots; from the main stem down to the minutest fibre, you will find them all abruptly terminate, as if shorn or bitten off, and the quaint superstition of the country people alleges, that once on a time it was a plant of singular potency for healing all sorts of maladies, and therefore the great enemy of man in his malignity bit off the roots, in which its virtues resided. The plant with this odd history, is a very good emblem of many well.meaning but little-effecting people. They might be defined as radicibus praemorsis, or rather inceptis succisis. The efficacy of every good work lies in its completion, and all their good works terminate abruptly, and are left off unfinished. The devil frustrates their efficacy by cutting off their ends; their unprofitable history is made up of plans and projects, schemes of usefulness that were never gone about, and magnificent undertakings that were never carried forward; societies that were set ageing, then left to shift for themselves, and forlorn beings who for a time were taken up and instructed, and just when they were beginning to show symptoms of improvement were cast on the world again. (James Hamilton, D. D.)

Reward of perseverance

An old man in Walton, whom Mr. Thornton had in vain urged to come to church, was taken ill and confined to his bed. Mr. Thornton went to the cottage, and asked to see him. The old man, hearing his voice below, answered in no very courteous tone, “I don’t want you here; you may go away.” The following day he returned to the charge. “Well, my friend, may I come up to-day and sit beside you?” Again he received the same reply, “I don’t want you here.” Twenty-one days successively Mr. Thornton paid his visit to thee cottage, and on the twenty-second his perseverance was rewarded. He was permitted to enter the room of the aged sufferer, to read the Bible, and pray by his bedside. The poor man recovered and became one of the most regular attendants at the House of God.

Little efforts, if continuous, produce great results

A poor woman had a supply of coal laid at her door by a charitable neighbour. A very little girl came out with a small fire-shovel, and began to take up a shovelful at a time, and carry it to a sort of bin in the cellar. I said to the child, “Do you expect to get all that coal in with that little shovel?” She was quite confused at my question, but her answer was very striking: “Yes, sir, if I work long enough.” So it is with everything in life. Humble worker, make up for your want of ability by continuous effort, and your lifework will not be trivial.

Sowing and reaping

Mr. Garrison’s last recorded public utterances in England closed with these memorable words:--“I began my advocacy of the anti-slavery cause in the Northern States of America, in the midst of brickbats and rotten eggs, and ended it on the soil of South Carolina, almost literally buried beneath the wreaths and flowers which were heaped upon me by her liberated bondmen.”

Reaping in due season

We must not look to sow and to reap in a day, as he saith of the people far north that they sow shortly after the sun rises with them, and reap before it sets, that is, because the whole half year is one continued day with them. (Trapp.)

The harvest delayed, but sure

Many years ago, in England, a lad heard Mr. Flavel preach from the text: “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.” Years passed on. The lad became a man. He came to this country. He lived to be a hundred years old and yet had not found the Lord. Standing at that age in the field one day, he bethought himself of a sermon which he had heard eighty-five years before, and of the fact that when Mr. Flavel had finished the discourse and came to the close of the service, he said, “I shall not pronounce the benediction. I cannot pronounce it when there may be in this audience those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ and are anathema maranatha.” The memory of that old scene came over him, and then and there he gave his heart to God--the old sermon eighty-five years before preached coming to resurrection in the man’s salvation. Would God that those of us who now preach the gospel of Jesus Christ might utter some word that will resound in helpfulness and in redemption long after we are dead! (Dr. Talmage.)

We’ll doing, good doing

But more than this. I must be “well-doing.” The Greek word expresses beauty, and this enters into the apostolic thought. True piety is lovely. Just so far as it comes short in the beautiful, it becomes monstrous. But as used by Paul it goes far beyond this, and signifies all moral excellence. Activity is not enough; for activity the intensest may be evil. Lucifer is as active, as constantly and earnestly, as Gabriel. But the one is a fiend and the other a seraph. Any activity that is not good is a curse always and only. Better be dead, inert matter--a stone, a clod--than a stinging reptile, or a destroying demon. And herein lies the great practical change in regeneration. It transforms the mere doer into a well-doer. It is not so much a change in the energy as in the direction. “We must be doing good.” (C. Wadsworth, D. D.)

Constancy in well-doing

I. The engagement referred to. “Well-doing.” What is well-doing?

(1) It cannot be confounded with evil doing.

(2) Resolving is not doing.

(3) Professing is not doing.

(4) Feeling is not doing.

1. Well-doing must respect ourselves. And this supposes that we have been converted from the evil of our ways, for we cannot do well in the ways of depravity and practical evil.

2. Well-doing must respect the Church. Our first concern must be our personal salvation and happiness, then the mystical body of Christ, the Church. We must be eyes to see, ears to harken, mouths to plead, hands to labour, feet to walk, or shoulders to bear for the body the Church (1 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:11).

3. Well-doing must respect the world. Believers are not of it, or conformed to it; but they are in it, and they must live to promote its welfare.

II. The exhortation given.

1. The text supposes that there is danger of wearying. This may arise from various causes.

(1) Some are constitutionally wavering and unsettled.

(2) Doing implies toil, and human nature is fond of ease.

(3) Often difficulties in the way of well-doing, and resolution is indispensable.

(4) Well-doing requires sacrifices, and we are prone to selfishness.

(5) Satan and the world will be against us, so that we must fight and wrestle even in doing good.

(6) Often our labours appear useless, and we are in danger of being discouraged.

2. Constancy and perseverance.

(1) Because God has formed us especially for well-doing.

(2) Because this is the great end of our regeneration, that we may live to God.

(3) Because well-doing is inseparably connected with our safety.

(4) Because it is always identified with our happiness.

(5) Because it associates us with the highest orders of beings. All holy men have been acquainted practically with well-doing. Angels are always engaged in well-doing. But there is another consideration, which is--

III. The motive the text assigns. “We shall reap if we faint not.” “We shall reap.”

1. The first-fruits here. In doing good we obtain good.

2. The full harvest hereafter. “In due season.”

(1) Be graciously abundant.

(2) Be proportionate to our well-doing.

(3) Our reaping is absolutely certain.

Application:

1. Evil-doers shall also reap--wretchedness and anxiety here, and eternal woe hereafter.

2. Those who cease well-doing cannot obtain the promised reward. (J. Burns, D. D.)

Weariness in well-doing

Well-doing may be of two kinds--subjective, the doing well to ourselves simply; objective, the doing well towards others. It is quite true that we cannot very well separate these, for, as Seneca says, “He that does good to another man does good also unto himself, not only in the consequences, but in the very act of doing it, for the conscience of well-doing is an ample reward.” If a man should set himself to improve his mind and manners simply out of a desire to be something better than he had been, he would still, in the doing, be helping others, for he would become a more valuable member of society. And, on the other hand, no man can set himself to do good to others without receiving good himself. Hence, it must appear to us that God, in His providence, has so ordered it that well-doing is neeessary to well-being. It is assumed, however, that there is a strong temptation to grow weary in well-doing, to cease from good activities. And this for three reasons.

1. On account of the indolence of our nature.

2. On account of not seeing adequate results to our efforts. We are constantly hearing of the disappointments which come to all Christian workers; indeed of the discouragements which come to all benevolent helpers of all kinds. I grant you that large results are often given. But the word “results” is a very indefinite kind of word. It may be that the results which God can give are not the results which you mean. “Only one soul brought to Christ by all my efforts,” says a discouraged Sunday School teacher. Let us look at that expression a moment. Supposing that Sunday School teacher had built the pyramids, it would have been undeniably a great result of persistent labour, but it would have been such labour as would last at the longest for a limited time, and its use would be problematical, for we are not very sure why and for what the pyramids were built. Supposing one soul is brought to Christ, and permanently united to Christ by the love and faith of the heart, so united that that soul becomes a faithful Christian soul, living a life of love and faith, doing good to others, and those others doing good to a wider circle still, and so from generation to generation the influence broadens, how can you calculate the result?

3. And this brings me to a third source of weariness and discouragement in well-doing--our narrow and inadequate views of life. We constantly forget that this life of ours is, as to everything mental and spiritual, the sowing time, not the time of reaping. “For, in due season, ye shall reap if ye faint not.” And as the farmer has long patience, so ought we to have long patience. Our narrow views of life account for much of our weariness in well-doing. Practically, we plan for this life and this only. Our sentiments may embrace the beyond, our opinions, actions, plans, purposes are too much controlled by the example set us by the men whose creed is “let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” And so we sow only that which we can reap now--or that which the children in our households can reap here on earth. Not entirely of course, but too much. I might appeal on the ground of self-interest--only in well-doing can we develop our own natures into the fulness of their powers. To enkindle the mind, to enlarge the heart, to awake the imagination, these will be spiritual results to ourselves, worth while surely. Even here on earth, says Lord Jeffrey, “he will always see the most beauty in things whose affections are warmest and most exercised, whose imagination is the most powerful, and who has most accustomed himself to attend to the objects by which he is surrounded.” How are we to get that competence to feel the invisible in the visible which a Wordsworth possessed so royally, which makes Ruskin the high-priest of the beautiful to the age in which he lives? Only by well-doing, not spasmodically and occasionally, but of set intent and purpose. We may, like the caterpillar, spin a very beautiful cocoon and call it our home, but even the caterpillar will teach us, if we will listen, that if he were to remain satisfied in that silken ball which he has woven, it would become not his home, but his tomb. Forcing a way through it, and not resting in it, he finds sunshine and air and life more abundantly. Man says--here will I rest. I will make my home in these pleasant surroundings. I will shut out the sob of sorrow, the wail of the woe-worn, the sigh of the suffering, the baying and babblement of the crowd; here, spending my sympathies on myself, I will enjoy all that is enjoyable. Ah! that silken cocoon!--fastened in it you are dead while you live. No, says God, that is not what I mean for you. And He calls to His aid His angels, clothes them in funeral robes, and they call themselves Pain, Disease, Death; and they stir up the intellect, the heart, the imagination, compel men to think and to feel about eternity, and then, when it is all over, these disguised angels throw aside the masks they have worn and strip off the sable garb, and lo! underneath is the pure white of immortality. We are sowers of seed here. Let us not forget that “he that soweth to the flesh,” etc. And, “let us not be weary,” etc. (Reuen Thomas.)

The reward of unwearied diligence in the work of the Lord

1. The first principle of stedfast and abounding righteousness is a constant sense of the obligation of the Divine law. Thus, the Christian, in all his conduct, acts agreeably to the dictates of religion.

2. The second principle of standing fast and growing in righteousness, so as not to weary in well-doing, is that of love. Love is the sovereign attribute of God in relation to man. Was it not love, to fill the universe with animated beings, and to pour the riches of beauty and happiness over creation? Was it not love, to form man after the image of God, and to breathe into him a thinking, reasonable, immortal spirit? And is it not love, that at this moment we think, and feel, and hear, and see, amidst the enjoyment of the light of the sun, all the means of temporal being, and everything that sweetens life? Now, from the sense of all this goodness, will not the man, who is not dead to every generous feeling in human nature, love the Lord his Maker and Saviour with all his heart, and soul, and strength? Will not the love of Christ constrain him?

3. The third principle of unwearied stedfastness and increase in the work of the Lord, is a conviction of the evil of sin. In this respect a good man partakes of the Spirit of that holy and righteous Being who hateth the workers of iniquity, and with whom evil cannot dwell. He despises what is mean, and abhors what is impure, with every false and wicked way. The sentiment we describe is, moreover, quickened by fellow-feeling with the Saviour of man, who, laying aside the form of God, gave Himself up to sorrow, and suffering, and death, for sin. Now in all cases sympathy is a powerful spring of action; it interests the heart and raises every power of the soul.

4. Another principle of unwearied well-doing and increasing righteousness, is the conviction that holiness is necessary as a qualification of the Christian fellowship. The great law of communion with Christ is that of light, purity, and righteousness, in opposition to the spiritual darkness of corruption and sin. If, then, we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, that is sin, “we deceive ourselves,” says the apostle. But if we walk in light, or righteousness, then we have communion with the Father and His Son; and, cherished by the rays of Divine light from the Sun of Righteousness, graces spring up, and virtues flourish in our lives, as the tender herb with the fostering warmth and dew of heaven.

5. The last principle of holding fast our integrity, so as not to weary in well-doing, is a firm confidence in the declaration that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord; that if we faint not in well-doing, we shall reap through Jesus Christ the fruit of eternal life and peace. It is the prospect of this that purifies the heart, and exalts the affections beyond the earth to things above. How animating the motive to perseverance and progress in grace, that the fruit of these things shall be peace and joy unspeakable for evermore! (R. Macknight, D. D.)

A caution against declension in the ways of practical piety

I. Let us inquire, what is the nature of the evil against which we are guarded in the text. “Be not weary in well-doing.” And for this purpose it is not improper we should briefly touch upon the nature of the well-doing here intended, that we may be enabled the more easily to understand what it is to be weary of it. By well-doing here we are to understand, in general, the duties we owe to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. These are of great extent; they are many in number, and important in their nature. There is not a single relation we sustain to God, or to each other, but what is fruitful of a variety of these duties. They include all that the sacred oracles mean by piety towards God; by justice, benevolence and humanity towards our neighbour, and by sobriety and temperance in our conduce towards ourselves. These duties are called well-doing, because in a conscientious observance of them we do well; we comply with the approving will of God. The weariness in well-doing, against which we are here guarded, ordinarily begins in the less of that relish for Divine things, and that pleasure in the ways of God, which the person may have had in days past.

II. Why we should guard against being thus weary in well-doing, and pursue the contrary line of conduct.

1. Because this evil, as described, is a fatal symtom of an unregenerate state. True grace is a living principle, and wherever it is found in the heart, it always tends towards perfection.

2. Those who grow weary in well-doing, so as to forsake the ways of practical godliness, lose all their former labour and pains in religion. It is not enough that we being in the ways of God, that we set out in the paths of piety, but we must persevere in them; we must endure to the end; for he alone “that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.”

3. We ought not to grow weary in well-doing, for God is not weary in doing good to us. He not only gave us our being, but He holds our souls in life. By His visitation alone we are preserved.

4. We have many bright examples of patience and perseverence in well-doing, to encourage us not to be weary in it.

5. There is a glorious reward before us, if we do not grow weary in well-doing. This is the argument urged by the apostle in our text: “for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Again: It will be a full reward. Never did the most plenteous harvest reward the labours of the husbandman more certainly or fully, than the joys and glories of the future world shall reward the faithful, persevering, and diligent disciples of Jesus. They shall enter into the joy of their Lord. Once more: This reward will bear some proportion to our faithfulness and diligence in our Lord’s service here.

Concluding admonitions:

1. As ever you would desire not to be weary in well-doing, beware of sloth in the ways of God. This is a sin natural to us; but there are few greater enemies to vital godliness than it is.

2. Beware of venturing on known sin, especially the sin to which you are most inclined. (John Rodgers, D. D.)

A dissuasive from weariness in well-doing

I. Well-doing is an important feature of the Christian character. If it be a true and an approved maxim in common things--to be ever active in laudable pursuits is the distinguishing characteristic of a man of merit--in a high and peculiar sense may it be asserted of real Christians, that they “cease from evil, and learn to do well.”

II. The evil to which the Christian is exposed, and against which he is cautioned--weariness in well-doing.

III. The powerful antidote to the threatening evil--“for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” In conclusion:

1. It may perhaps be thought necessary that some guard be put to the doctrine, lest grace be dishonoured, and the worthless idol of human merit be exalted. Be it then observed, as Scripture teacheth, that the work is of grace, and the reward of grace. In every duty done for God, grace calls to the work, aids in the discharge of it, makes meet for and finally bestows the promised inheritance.

2. It must be remembered, that celestial honours await only the faithful unto death. Death alone must terminate exertion and fidelity.

3. What encouragement does the service of God yield, to make us valiant for the truth and patient in well-doing? “The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.” Polycarp could say, when commanded to deny Christ, “I have served Him these six and eighty years, and He has never hurt me, and shall I deny Him now?” Go and do likewise. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

Perseverence in well-doing--

I. Our duty. There are two things in connection with duty which it will be well for us to remember--well-doing, and constancy in well-doing. Action is at once the destiny and the lot of man. All the conditions of his existence are training for his activity. The text contains special exhortation to constancy in well-doing. He was thinking not only of the fickleness of the Galatian Church, but upon the general possibility of paralysis common to the whole family of man. The wants of the world and the wants of the Church demand action. The same motives enforce constancy. If we weary in well-doing, we shall be the only recreants from duty. Does the Spirit tire of striving? Is there any pause in the intercession of the Son? Are the ranks of evil weary? Does not death still stalk, sword in hand, over the great battle-field of life?

II. The special encouragement which the apostle presents. There is a reward promised by Him who cannot lie, and preserved by Him who cannot be turned from His purpose. The moral harvest comes all to perfection; not a grain is lost. Surely you will not be weary, when your salvation is so much nearer than when you first believed? (W. M. Punshon, D. D.)

Be not weary

I. The causes of weariness in well-doing.

1. The difficulty of the work. Well-doing from right motives is the most difficult of all works. It is purely a spiritual work; and no man can enter upon it, and do it aright, unless he be a spiritual man. When a Christian first enters upon this work, he thinks that all is easy; that to convert souls is no great difficulty: to draw other minds into the state in which he is, is but simply a pleasant exercise. And sometimes God favours those, who thus enter upon the work zealously and affectionately, in their first efforts, with remarkable success. But after a little while, difficulties begin to spring up, which they had never before seen; difficulties, which appear to them to be insurmountable. For see what the individual who has to instruct the human mind, has to contend with. First there are the strongholds of prejudice, which guard all the avenues to that mind; and these are found in the child often, as well as in the man. Then there are the gates of unbelief, thicker and stronger than the gates of Gaza; which only the spiritual Samson can carry away. Then there is the ancient wall of old educational prejudices and feelings, against submission to Christ and His gospel, which has to be thrown down, before you can go up and take the city. No doubt the work is hard; yet you should not despair. Every good work is difficult; never was there a good work very easily done. It is always associated with great difficulty. And difficulties always rouse a generous mind. The soldier--it is natural to him to be amongst bullets, and to mount up cliffs, in order to plant his standard upon castles and difficult places. The sailor thinks it a tame voyage if he never has a storm; it is the storm that rouses him to action; and the battle that brings out the soldier’s energies. Besides, difficulties are just nothing to Omnipotence. It is nothing for Him to speak to that child that you cannot affect, and the work is done. You are but a channel; His is the power; and that power can be communicated through you.

2. Then, secondly, this weariness often arises from a sense of our own insufficiency. As, when God called Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, he said--“O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue;” just so does a Sunday School teacher often speak. “Send any one to this work,” says Moses, “only send not me.” And the teacher, when he sees, as he carries on this work, his own knowledge so imperfect, his own faith so weak, his own love so cold, his own zeal so dying, exclaims--“What can I do?” And then Satan rushes in, while the mind is thus exercised; and he says--“What can such a wretch as you effect? how can you expect to be blessed? Go, learn yourself, before you teach others; how can you place yourself in such a position, to teach others the way to heaven?” Sometimes, to humble the individual, and to show that individual that the work is wholly of God, He lets us see how helpless and how weak we are. But this, instead of discouraging us, should only make us cling closer to Him.

3. Then, thirdly, this weariness springs from the trials, to which “well-doing” frequently exposes individuals.

4. Another cause of this weariness is the want of success.

5. The want of love to Christ.

6. The want of spirituality of mind.

7. The want of faith.

II. The necessity of perseverance in well-doing. Should it not excite us to perseverance, when we think that Christ our Master has entrusted His cause in our hands? Who are we, that the Lord of all should let us labour for Him? Then the brevity of our time is another reason for perseverance. “Brethren, the time is short.” Opportunities are few; and if we would do good, they must be seized. The waterman seizes the tide, the moment it turns; the sailor seizes the breeze, the moment it springs up; Christ, the day in which the Father sent Him to execute His will. “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work/’ So said He, who could do more work in a minute, than we can do in a whole life. Then there is another reason which ought to excite us to perseverance: the account we must render. “Give an account of thy stewardship: for thou mayest be no longer steward.”

III. The certainty of success in well-doing. “We shall reap.” About that there is no doubt. God has by this promise connected our diligence in well-doing with a harvest of blessedness and of honour. Do you ask me, then, what kind of reaping you shall have? Think of these three things. First, you shall reap spiritual advantage. “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” And it is no small mercy, to reap a lively heart, and a generous soul, and an affectionate spirit, and a willingness to labour in Christ’s cause, as a reward for any little acts we perform for Him. Relative usefulness shall be another portion of your reaping: “we shall reap, if we faint not.” “Everything is beautiful in its season.” Good harvest time, then, has not yet arrived. Some are later, too, than others; but the promise is sure, stable as the everlasting hills; sowing the seed, which “is the Word,” will naturally produce all its legitimate effects. Then I add, you shall reap Divine approbation. And surely that is not a small thing. Oh I to hear my Master “say in that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” And to address it to me, who felt so often tired, and yet by His grace was enabled to persevere! To see Him rise from His seat, and stretch out His hand, and say, “Come, thou blessed child of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (James Sherman.)

The weary well-doers

In such a complicated social state as ours, those who do not know how to do good probably outnumber those who do not care. The weary and hopeless outnumber the careless, if one may judge by the eager throng which presses into the field when some direct, immediate good is set before them as capable of being done. The difficulty of the problem depresses and disheartens us.

I. Well-doing is is the broad evidence of the Christian calling. The word here employed does not bear on beneficence exclusively. Love of truth, honour, goodness, are contained in it, as well as (v. 10) help to humanity around. I do not say that this help is the one evidence of a Christian calling, but it is essential, and never more so than in these days. In a broad view of the Christian profession, it is a volunteer service for the help of Christ in lifting the burden of the sin and misery of mankind. The Church is His body; His eye to see, His voice to cheer, His hand to lift and to heal the weakness and the misery of mankind. It is not only for Christ’s sake that it toils, but in Christ’s spirit. It has learnt from Christ the lesson, caught the habit. To the perfect Christian, Christ is not so much the motive as the spring: a fountain springing up to all beautiful, joyful, and blessed work for mankind.

II. Be not weary in well-doing.

1. The causes of weariness.

(1) The weight of the flesh. “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The great battle of life is with this heavy, weard, languid flesh, that ties us to the dust. Weariness in well-doing is part of the universal weariness; the slow movement of the flesh under high compulsions; the deadness of the soul itself to truth, and Christ, and the eternal world.

(2) The largeness of the problem. I can hardly wonder that the best stand appalled before the mass of the misery and sin of society. Could we get it all in a small compass, as Job had it (Job 29:11), we could put our hands to it with some hope of success. It is like pumping a sinking ship. We may wear our hearts out, and in the end all will go down.

(3) The immense difficulty and intricacy of the work, and the evil it brings in its train. Many say, if I were but sure of doing good, God knows I would try. But who can be sure? Does not every effort to help on the one hand, depress and deprave on the other?

(4) The measure in which the sorrow is mixed with sin.

(5) It is thankless work.

2. The reasons which should move us to endure.

(1) Because such words as these are written in the Bible (Matthew 18:21). I pray you read them.

(2) Because these words are sustained and enforced by the infinite patience and mercy of God. If God does this, despite our sin, it is our honour, and shall be our life, to stir ourselves to do likewise; for it is the human dignity and bliss to think, feel, and live like God.

(3) This endurance is life’s grand lesson. Spasmodic virtue and charity are easy enough and cheap enough. It is a poor life that never treads a mountain summit, and flings an eagle glance over a promised land. But to stay on the level, to live in the clear upper air, to soar untiring as an angel, to work unresting as Christ, this is the strain of life. It is learned only by intense effort, by sorrowful failures, by many steps on the brink of despair. But work at it and work on. Renew the fight, endure the strain. The lesson of constant, patient, Christlike effort, learnt once, is learnt for eternity.

(4) Because there is an end which will fulfil all our hope for humanity in sight. Not in your sight nor in mine, but in Christ’s. He sees the triumph of all that you struggle for, the defeat of all that you hate. Work on, work ever. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)

Soul culture

I. Is well-doing.

1. It is something more than attention to our personal condition.

2. The man who labours most for the good of others is most effectively employed in training his own soul.

3. Well-doing is not the doing of the superstitious, the formalist, the exclusive, the recluse, nor the training of any peculiar faculty of the soul, but the training of the entire man under the master impulse of love. This work is well-doing, because--

(1) It is in accordance with the will of God.

(2) It is indispensable to the well-being of mankind.

II. Has its difficulties.

1. These should not dishearten.

2. Everything worth having requires a struggle.

III. Will meet with its reward.

1. The conditions.

2. The certainty.

3. The seasonableness of the reward. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

I. There is well-doing or goodness that is incumbent on us, viz., sowing to the Spirit. In order to do this--

1. I must deny myself.

2. Bow to a higher will.

3. Live in unseen communings.

II. Well-doing implies fixedness of will and character. This is needed--

1. To form new habits.

2. To restrain natural passions and propensities.

3. To resist the evil world.

III. Well-doing is possible through aids offered in the gospel. Christ has become the power of God to us.

1. By his conquest of temptation.

2. By receiving the residue of the Spirit.

3. By bearing the Cross.

IV. True well-doing brings with it appropriate results.

1. In growth of character.

2. In usefulness to others.

3. In acceptance with God.

V. The result of well-doing will come in the proper time.

1. Not ours, but

2. God’s. (J. F. Stevenson.)

I. Well-doing. In order to do good it is necessary--

1. To have generous minds.

2. To fully realize our obligation to do good.

II. Unweariness in well-doing.

1. There is much need of untiring effort to do good.

2. There are abundant opportunities for everybody.

3. The necessary power Will be given to all who attempt it.

III. A motive to well-doing. Good accomplished--

1. Increases our power for well-doing.

2. Strengthens our faith in the power of well-doing.

3. Is a source of genuine joy. (D. Rhys Jenkins.)

Weariness

I. Its nature.

1. Simple fatigue.

2. Discouragement.

3. Disgust.

II. Its spheres.

1. Such necessary business in life as does not minister pleasure.

2. The struggle after a better Christian life.

3. Social duties and relationships.

4. The promotion of the public good in Sunday Schools, mission work, etc.

5. Early pastoral experiences.

III. Its occasions.

1. In judicious labour.

2. Attempts to do too much.

3. Unreasonable expectations of an immediate harvest.

4. Diverse dispositions in those with and for whom we work.

5. Working from wrong impulses.

(1) Praise.

(2) Pride.

(3) Mere duty.

These will engender disappointment and therefore weariness.

IV. Its cure.

1. Take the most disagreeable task first: don’t leave it until it becomes more burdensome than it is.

2. Cultivate the grace of forbearance.

3. Remember the evil one never gets discouraged or weary.

4. Recollect that the time is short, and that you cannot afford to be weary.

5. Recollect that you are working together with a God who is unweariable.

6. Reflect that the work and weariness will soon be over in that land of rest where we shall be burdened no more. (H. W. Beecher.)

The cause and cure of weariness in Sabbath School teacher

s:--

I. Your work is well described in the text.

1. Sunday School teaching is well-doing, because--

1. It is an act of obedience.

2. It brings glory to God.

3. It is well-doing towards man.

(a) Highest form of charity is to teach the gospel.

(b) Particularly to children, for prevention is better than cure.

(c) You strike at the root of sin in seeking the regeneration of a child.

2. Sunday School teaching is sowing.

(1) The seed you sow is the truth.

(2) If you don’t sow the devil will.

(3) Reaping is your reward, but sowing is your work.

II. You will meet with evils in your service, and be liable to weariness and faintness.

1. You will be tempted to grow weary.

(1) Some by constitution are inapt.

(2) The work lasts on year after year.

2. But don’t be “disheartened” (see Greek).

(1) Some think their work less important than at first.

(2) Others fear that it will prove a failure.

(3) Want of order and discipline in the school.

3. The text speaks of “fainting.” The original means “loosened.” Some teachers get unstrung, and thus get into a slip-shod way.

(1) The flesh cries out for ease.

(2) Grace perhaps is at a low ebb.

(3) Fellow Christians are cold and indifferent.

(4) The want of appreciation.

(5) The difficulty of the work.

III. We have abundant encouragement in the prospect of reward.

1. The reaping time will come.

2. We, not our successors, will reap.

3. The harvest will come in due season.

4. When it comes it will abundantly repay us.

The present reward is--

(1) The conversion of the children.

(2) The rearing of a generation of worship-loving people.

(3) The training of real home missionaries.

(4) Saturating the whole population with religious truth. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The difficulty of well-doing

When I dug my well, I knew that there were rocks below, and when I had thrust down the pick and spade through the easily yielding earth until they struck the rock I found no water. It was necessary to drill and blast a foot, two feet, six, ten, eighteen, twenty feet, and then I struck a spring. While I was doing it it was not pleasant, but after I had got through it was permanent refreshment. It is hard to deal with hard cases; but when we have struck the water of life in any one, after that we have overflowing remuneration even here. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christian endurance

In the earlier days of Christianity, when it had to contend against the prejudices and intolerance of ages; when the bigotry of the Jew fiercely opposed it, and the philosophy of the Greek and Roman despised it, and when the bitterness of persecution grew up into greater fierceness, it was then that the earlier and devoted Christians, exposed to all manner of trial and death on all sides, had need of encouragement.

I. The charge of the apostle,.

1. The apostle means by this charge that we are not to allow any kind of weariness in right doing to arrest us in the discharge of duty, or to force us away from its path. Weariness of mind and of body is common to most men. The traveller gets weary on his journey, whether by sea or land; the student bending over his studies through a long period, cannot escape that fatigue which attends a close and intense application of thought; the labourer, when his day’s work is done, often turns to his home with a tired look and a faltering step; the sick man upon his couch feels the passing hours to be weary as they creep through the darkness of the night or the light of day, bringing no ease to his pains nor strength to his weakness; the watcher by the bedside grows faint with watching, and the overtasked eyes grapple with the slumber that steals upon them in vain. No; weariness in some form or other is the result of our infirmities, and as long as human nature remains what it is, the mind and the body will sink under its pressure. What, however, we have to do is to be faithful, to endure patiently our burdens, and to press onward in the strength of faith and hope.

2. Now, the duty of “well-doing” embraces much of inner thought and of outward action; it embraces every Christian virtue that can be mentioned--every good work that is worthy of the name; and among the many good things it includes, it most assuredly numbers among them the duty of supporting, of advancing the interests of “the house of God,” as a means to an end, as an agency which the Almighty is pleased to adopt for the accomplishment of His own Divine ends, whether in the way of His Spirit or of His providence. His house is not confined to any one particular spot; it may be found on the broad ocean, in the midst of the desert waters, where the ship is turned into a sanctuary, and the incense of prayer and praise be made to ascend from her cabin or her decks. It may be found in the wide waste of sands, in the vast wilderness, where the tent of the pilgrims is erected, and from beneath the spread of its canvas may be heard the earnest breathings of a humble and contrite spirit. It may be found upon the mountain’s top, amid the sweep of winds and the wrapt curtain of clouds; where two or three are met together in the name of Christ to worship God, and to believe in the work of His redemption. It may be found in the depths of the valley, amid streams and rocks, or in the city, amid lofty towers, temples, and palaces, where the “Te Deums” of thankful hearts may meet and swell into one of earth’s loudest anthems before the throne of heaven.

3. One of the great objects of religious buildings is, that we should gather together within their walls for public worship; that on the Sabbath, as a day of rest from the toils of labour, the mind should seek for strength and solace in the ministrations of united devotion and of Christian fellowship.

II. The encouraging prospect annexed to the charge--“For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” True, the prospect may appear to us far off, though to some it may be nearer than they think. (W. D. Horwood.)

Against weariness in well-doing

It is the part of religion to teach man to do well. Do--he must and will. He does not always, alas, do right; but it is the object of religion--of revelation--to induce him to do so. Weariness. How much is there to induce this spirit, and to render the exhortation against it appropriate. How soon does a spirit of weariness creep over us in our spiritual career. Does any one ask, “Why is this--what are its causes?” I reply--something is to be attributed in this tendency to the love which the human mind has for novelty. We all desire change, Monotony is irksome. The absence of variety is painful, and transforms the period over which it extends into a desert--a sandy plain; while, were there to be the entire negation of variety, life would be insupportable, and, like solitary confinement would soon become the harbinger of death. God knows this tendency of man’s mind, and has provided for it--for what is there that does not change? The seasons revolve, and each appears clad in a different garb. Man’s life progresses, and each age has its character. Not only is a desire for novelty sometimes the occasion of weariness in well-doing--something is to be attributed to the influence of sloth. An active creature as man is, there is still in him a love of ease, of repose, of luxurious rest. Nor is this all--there is the spirit of self-complacency. I have done so much that at least I may be satisfied. One more occasion of inconstancy in well.doing may be adverted to, and that is the most powerful of all--the natural disinclination of the mind to doing well at any time.

1. “Be not weary,” for the motives to continuance in the right course are as powerful as the motives to commencement. I say there is no change in the motives to diligence and duty, which abide as at first; and if, after having gone a little way, or a long way, in the course of well-doing, whatever its peculiar form, you have become weary, it is you who have altered, and not the course. The path is as much the king’s highway as ever; its banks as green, its turns as beautiful, its trees as picturesque: but you have become weary, and your footsteps have flagged. What you want is, to get fresh impulse by a reconsideration of the motives by which at first you were impelled.

2. Let me say to you, “Be not weary in well-doing,” because you have the most noble examples to constancy and diligence. Study the history of Jesus of Nazareth. Place yourself amid its events. Observe the spirit by which those events were vitalized. Seek to understand the hidden laws of that outward and inward life. Was there any symptom of yielding, of inconstancy there?

3. “Be not weary in well-doing,” because an unfinished enterprise, or a work incomplete through inconstancy is both a distress and a disgrace. There may be, of course, work left unfinished through necessity. The sculptor may die, and his bust half finished be his most significant monument. The painter may be paralyzed, and his unfinished canvas be the best expositor of his malady. In these cases there is distress, indeed, but no disgrace; pity, but not scorn: but let a work be begun, and left through vacillation of purpose--a great work be undertaken, and be unfulfilled through childish waywardness, and no wonder if they that go by “begin to mock,” while the artificer is ashamed and distressed. And surely there is disgrace. Do the men of the world even respect a backslider? Then I might urge the exhortation by a reference to the self-discipline which is secured by perseverence--especially perseverence in a course of self-denial.

4. Direct you to the motive adverted to by the apostle. The prospect of reward. “In due season ye shall reap if ye faint not.” The bestowment of rewards is a feature of God’s government, as the doctrine which teaches it is a doctrine both of Scripture and of providence. (J. Viney, D. D.)

The danger signal

I. Some places where we are liable to grow weary.

1. We grow weary when the work seems too large and we try to take it all in at once. One morning a man found the snow all piled up before his door. He began to shovel it away, but there seemed to be such a mountain of it he threw down his shovel in despair saying: “I can never clear away all that snow.” Then he picked up his shovel, and marked off a square, and began to see how long it would take him to cast that aside; then another and another, until the whole was cleared away. So the girl looks at that great pile of music, as she begins her first lessons, and says: “Oh, I can never learn all that music.” And the boy looks from the beginning of his arithmetic through to the last page, and says: “I shall never get through that.”

2. We become discouraged and weary when we do not see immediate fruits of our labour. My little nephew was out in the garden one evening with his father sowing peas; next morning he took a basket and was going out to gather the crop, and was greatly disappointed when told the peas were not yet grown. Sunday-school teachers may appropriate this.

3. Ye grow weary and give up sometimes on the eve of reaping, and lose the harvest. Two men were digging for gold in California once. They toiled a good while and got nothing. At last one threw down his tools and said: “I will leave here before we starve,” and he did leave. The next day his comrade that remained found a nugget of gold that supported him until he made a fortune. One of my Sunday-school teachers came to me to resign her class, because she said she was doing them no good. They were less thoughtful than when she took charge of them. I encouraged her to “labour and to wait.” Only a few weeks elapsed when ten of the twelve young ladies openly professed faith in Christ.

4. We grow languid sometimes in prosperity. Christian slept in the arbour after ascending the hill Difficulty.

II. How to prevent weariness in well-doing.

1. Keep near to the Master. It was when Peter followed from afar that he denied Him. Keep Christ in full view. It was when Peter looked on the waves that he began to sink.

2. Have strong faith in the promises: “My word shall not return unto Me void--it shall prosper” (Isaiah 55:11). “We shall reap,” and reap in the best time, God’s time, “in due season.” Perseverence will bring success, success will inspire courage, courage will bring victory, and victory will be followed by glory.

3. Often pray to God. “Even the youths shall faint and be weary--but they that wait on God shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31).

4. Help others. This is the health-lift of the soul. Two travellers crossing the Alps were freezing to death. One lay down to die; the ether, seeing his awful condition, began to rub, chafe, and rouse him. He suc-ceeded, and the exertion of helping to save his friend, kindled a glow of warmth in himself. They started off arm in arm, and were saved. (George H. Smyth.)

Perseverance in well-doing

I. I will call your attention, in the first place, to the speaker, or rather the writer. The language was written, as we find, under inspiration, by Paul to the Church at Galatia. It is very important when we hear an exhortation to consider the character of the person who gives it. And here we see the importance, if we first consider what was the issue of the apostle’s labours. What was the issue of his labours amongst the Gentiles and Jews? Yet he was not weary in well-doing.

II. As to the “well-doings” of the apostle, scarcely any doubt can be left on the mind with reference to these, if we attentively peruse the records of his commission. His well-doings were not to make himself a name or a praise in the earth; he was no mountebank, who for a season sought to attract the gaze and admiration of men, in order that upon the pinnacle they should raise for him he might stand and enjoy his transient life of honour and worldly reputation. No; his desire was to do that which Christ did; he desired so to follow Christ as he himself exhorts others to follow Christ.

III. What the apostle means by his expression, “due season.” It is evident the apostle referred not first to his labours. The apostle doubtless understood that while the end is the first in God’s purpose, it is the last in manifestation. He could see that his own season might not be God’s season. And therefore he was content to say, “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” The expression “due season,” then, I conceive refers to a time which is known only to the Father, who hath put the times and seasons in His own power. The expression “due,” is a word which is elsewhere translated “own.” It is a pronominal adjective, which signifies possession; which signifies a peculiar appropriateness when it is joined with any particular substantive. To give you an instance of the use which is always made of it, I may mention the place where we are told that the Jews found fault with Christ because He made Himself equal with God, saying that God was His Father: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” The expression there is the same that is found here; His own Father; God was His own Father. So in His “own season”--that is, the season which is peculiarly adapted for the purpose; the season which God knows to be the most appropriate; the season that shall best fit in to all the other declarations which God shall make of His majesty, His justice, and His power, as well as His love, His mercy, and His grace: at that time “we shall reap, if we faint not.” That season may not be ours, as, doubtless, many times it is not: that season may not be ours, not the one which we, in our fleshly wisdom, should choose; but it is the season which God chooses, the season which is best adapted, which is most peculiarly suited for the purpose of mercy and truth meeting together, and righteousness and peace kissing each other. Paul was thus content to look forward to the time when he should reap the reward of his labours, The husbandman was first to endure toil, that afterwards he might receive the joy of the harvest. (J. L. Galton, M. A.)

Unweariedness in well-doing

Let us not be weary in well-doing in consequence of--

I. The rivalry of other workers.

II. The mighty name by which we are called.

III. The insidious character of our temptations to weariness.

IV. The reward promised to patient labour. First, the rivalry of other workers forbids weariness.

1. The undying activity of the world. In this busy working world, the inactive, the disappointed, the weary, are soon trodden down and destroyed.

2. If we turn from the unwearying work of the busy world to contemplate the great power of evil, if we try to realize its presence, to separate it in thought from the world which it defiles and seeks to ruin, we are appalled by its ceaseless efforts to accomplish its deadly purpose. Whatever power can afford to rest, the power of evil never grows weary.

3. The energies of goodness never rest nor take their ease.

II. The mighty name of “Christian” combines many of the strongest arguments to unwearying service.

1. The Christian owes his own salvation to unwearied love and infinite sacrifice.

2. Christians are the pledged disciples of the Great Worker in this field of holy exertion. “I must work, said Jesus, the works of Him that sent Me while it is day. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”

3. Christ Himself lives and works within the Christian by the power of His Spirit.

III. Further incentives to perseverance may be found in the peculiar and insidious character of the temptations to which well-doing is exposed.

1. The man who is resolved to ruin himself has the evil propensities of his fallen nature to help him. On the other hand, “well-doing” exacts a perpetual conflict with the evil tendencies of our nature. The Christian has a persevering enemy to slay.

2. Another of the hindrances to which “well-doing” of this kind is exposed, is the tendency of our machinery to wear out, and our own disposition not unfrequently to hurry it off the field. Our ways of doing good may often be antiquated and cumbrous. A mass of useless lumber, in the shape of old instruments, may infest the Church of God, and we perhaps often feel that nothing can be done without removing such incumbrances.

3. There is temptation to weariness in “well-doing” from the very number of methods by which it may be persued.

IV. Let us, in conclusion, consider the reason which the apostle urges for our observance of this injunction. In all the well-doing of the Christian, in all the toil of the earnest worker for God, there is alliance with the power of the Holy Spirit, and with the purposes of God; and it would seem that the sovereignty of God has included the labours of man in its own far-reaching penetration. The months before the ingathering may often seem long and wearisome, and verily be heart-breaking things, but God’s “seasons” are not always measurable by our forecastings, even though the harvest is pledged by His oath and His promise. We shall reap the growth effectuated by His Holy Spirit, though we may not always understand the nature of the gracious sheaves that we are bringing in our bosom. We cannot calculate the hour nor the nature of our triumph, but we know that the Word of God standeth sure, and that the due season draweth nigh. (H. R. Reynolds, B. A.)

Unwearied in error

Consider the victims of falsehood and idolatry. Learn from the devotee of many a false god; from the worshipper of Siva, who, drunk with opium, swings on the flesh-hook at some horrid festival, or prostrates himself before the advancing car of Juggernaut, making this revolting self-sacrifice to pacify the raging of a guilty conscience, or to gain the ephemeral applause of an ignorant mob; even he is not weary with his work. (H. R. Reynolds, B. A.)

Perseverence in religious duties enforced

I. In the first place, your duty is, to be engaged “in well-doing;” that is to say, in doing well, in doing good, in doing that which is just and approved in the sight of God. But this is not the meaning of the word in the common and popular sense of it. If you say a man is doing well, you mean to say that a man is increasing in his wealth, his influence, or his connections. Brethren, it is true with regard to the world, “so long as thou doest well to thyself, men will speak good of thee;” it is true with regard to God, so long as you do well in His sight, shall you have His sanction and His smile.

1. In the first place, it refers individually to ourselves--doing well, or doing good, with regard to ourselves. Now mark, brethren, what the text says,--“Let us not be weary in well-doing.” Then the assumption is, that we have begun “well-doing,” because he who has not begun to do well, can never be said to be in any risk or danger of being weary in it.

2. Having, then, assumed this, that we have learned to care for our own souls, and to regard our own immortal interests, the next point to be considered is, that we are bound to engage in “well-doing” for our fellow-creatures; for it is especially to this that the text refers.

(1) And in the first place, we are bound to regard the bodies of our fellow-creatures. The human body is, as well as the soul, the purchase of the blood of Christ. The human body, therefore, must be regarded. It is the casket which contains the most precious of all jewels.

(2) But we must not exclude man as a responsible and immortal being. To be engaged in doing good is to sympathize with the feelings, and to imitate the conduct of all God’s saints on earth. Listen to what Job says: “When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

II. The second thing to regard is, the manner in which this duty is to be performed; that is to say, unweariedly: “Let us not be weary in well-doing.” There is good and solid reason why we should be so admonished. We often feel our unfitness and our unworthiness to be employed in doing good. We are too ready to suppose that our exertions for the present and future benefit of our fellow-creatures are utterly without success, because we do not see the success. Zeal is sometimes without knowledge, and zeal is often without patience; we look for the oak, without giving the acorn time to germinate; we desire to gather the cool and delicious fruit, forgetful of the preliminary processes of vegetation. We are too ready to be “weary in well-doing,” because we observe the apathy, the obstinacy, the carelessness, the ingratitude of those whom we seek to benefit.

III. In the third place, the text furnishes us with most encouraging motives for perseverence: “In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” We know from experience, that perseverance, either with respect to earthly or heavenly things, is scarcely ever without success. Patience, industry, and perseverance: are the three great elements of success in life. We find Jacob wrestling with the wondrous angel of God’s covenant through the entire night, and prevailing not till the morning began to break. We find St. Paul praying thrice that the thorn in the flesh might be extracted, before he received that answer which caused his soul to thrill with holy joy. We find Daniel, in the reign of Cyrus, saying--“In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks; I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.” At length his faith, his patience, and his submission received their rich reward: “behold, a certain man clothed in linen” appeared to him and said.

“Fear not, Daniel; for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard.” Again: unwearied continuance in “well-doing” has the distinct promise of success. (G. Weight, M. A.)

Be not weary

I. The Christian man’s vocation in the present world, II, the motive to perseverance in it, arising from the assurance of final reward.

I. The text may be regarded, in the first place, as marking out the Christian man’s vocation in the present world. It is well-doing. This is what he is specially called to--the business of his life--his “being’s end and aim.”

1. The first thought which claims our attention here, is this: That the present life is not designed to be a merely contemplative thing.

2. A second thought which the text suggests is that the Christian vocation comprehends something more than the mere purpose, or project of good. You must observe that it does not enjoin upon us well-scheming, but well-doing--not the design, but the deed. A day is hastening on, when works, and not wishes, or projects, will determine your eternal reward. In that day, the least thing done will secure you a revenue of unspeakable glory; whilst the greatest thing talked of and planned only will bring you nought but disappointment and shame.

3. A third thought suggested by the view given us in the text of the Christian’s vocation is--that the believer is endowed, by God, with the capacity for imparting blessing to his fellow-men. “Do well,” is the command; and the command obviously implies that those to whom it is addressed have the power to do well--are, in other words, invested with an ability to benefit and bless others. There is infinite goodness in this arrangement, inasmuch as it opens to us one of the richest sources of happiness; for what joy is comparable to that of bringing joy to others?

II. Let us consider it, secondly, As urging him to perseverance in that vocation by the promise of ultimate reward. “Let us not be weary--for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Now there seem to be three important particulars suggested to us here.

1. First, that the fulfilment of the Christian vocation is connected with certain reward in the future. “We shall reap, if we faint not.”

2. And this brings me to the second thought suggested by this part of our text, namely: That the reward connected with the fulfilment of the Christian vocation awaits its bestowment at an appropriate period. “In due season, we shall reap if we faint not.” God acts not without a plan.

3. And now let me request your attention to the last suggestion derivable from this text: That the assurance of certain reward, in connection with the fulfilment of the Christian vocation, is a sufficient motive to perseverance therein under every temptation to weariness. (C. M. Merry.)

The beauty of a Christian is to hold on in piety

It is a beautiful sight to see silver hairs crowned with golden virtue. The beauty of a thing is when it comes to be finished; the beauty of a picture is, when it is drawn out in its full lineaments, and laid in its orient colours; the beauty of a Christian is, when he hath finished his faith. (T. Watson.)

Motives to perseverance

It is a strange sight, to see a busy devil, and an idle Christian.

2. If we would not grow weary, let us pray for persevering grace. It was David’s prayer, “hold Thou me up and I shall be safe;” and it was Beza’s prayer, “Lord, perfect what Thou hast begun in me.” That we may hold on a Christian course, let us labour for three persevering graces. Faith keeps from fainting; faith gives a substance to things not seen, and makes them to be as it were present, As a perspective glass makes those things which are at a distance near to the eye, so doth faith: heaven and glory seem near. A Christian will not be weary of service, that hath the crown in his eye. The second persevering grace is hope. Hope animates the spirits: it is to the soul as cork to the net, which keeps it from sinking. Hope breeds patience, and patience breeds perseverance. The third persevering grace is love. Love makes a man that he is never weary. Love may be compared to the rod of myrtle in the traveller’s hand, which refresheth him, and keeps him from being weary in his journey. He who loves the world, is never weary of following the world; he who loves God will never be weary of serving Him” that is the reason why the saints and angels in heaven are never weary of praising and worshipping God; because their love to God is perfect, and love turns service into delight. Get the love of God in your hearts, and you will run in His ways, and not be weary. (T. Watson.)

Reaping in due season

The husbandman doth not desire to reap till the season; he will not reap his corn while it is green, but when it is ripe; so we shall reap the reward of glory in due season; when our work is done, when our sins are purged out, when our graces are come to their full growth; then is the season of reaping; therefore let us not be weary of well-doing, but hold on in prayer, reading, and all the exercises of religion; we shall “reap in due season, if we faint not.” (T. Watson.)