Dear Salt&Light,

I have trouble with Galatians 6:10, which states: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Should Christians show preferential treatment to fellow Christian workers? 

Lee YK, 37, Procurement officer 

To understand Galatians 6:10, let’s remind ourselves of the context of the letter.

The Apostle Paul is writing to a church being torn apart by disagreements over whether the Law of Moses (“Torah”) applies to non-Jewish Christians.

Some false teachers had come to the Galatian church and argued that, for these Christians to be truly accepted by God, they must observe all the requirements of the Torah – including circumcision and food laws.

Paul countered by pointing out that the Torah was never meant to impart life. Rather, it was by faith in Jesus Christ that Christians enter a right relationship with God and receive the promise of the Spirit (Galatians 3:10-14).

However, since the Torah also contained moral and ethical rules, wouldn’t such freedom from the Torah lead to moral confusion?

No, Paul says. Christians should rightly stand firm in their freedom from the Torah (Galatians 5:1).

Freedom to love and serve

Nevertheless, such freedom is not a licence for sin, but an opportunity for love and service (Galatians 5:13-14) – we see this especially through: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

This life of freedom is life in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26). In chapter 6, Paul goes on to give what Scot McKnight says are some “concrete illustrations of what it means to live as a Christian individual within a community when that community is guided by freedom in the Spirit”.

These illustrations include bearing one another’s burdens, sharing with one’s teacher, sowing and reaping in the Spirit, and doing good.

For Paul, “doing good” (Galatians 6:9-10) means “to please the Spirit” (Galatians 6:8).

Christians are to persistently “sow” actions and attitudes that demonstrate their status as a people who will “reap” the reward of eternal life.

These actions and attitudes include expressing the love of Christ, the grace of God, and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Galatians 5:14) when the opportunity arises.

Doing good to all

Doing good is to be directed at “all people” with whom they come into contact, regardless of culture, nation, or sex, and especially to those who are of the “household of faith” – fellow believers (Galatians 6:10).

However, this is not to be read as preferential treatment for fellow Christians, nor even as “as a narrowing of the general obligation, but as the most immediate way of giving it effect”, according to theologian James D G  Dunn’s commentary. 

Paul knows that “doing good” can only begin in the immediate, personal and relational realities of life – people whom Christians most often rub shoulders with. These are their fellow believers in church.

Otherwise, this call to “do good” or “love others as yourself” can easily be abstracted into what the author Eugene Peterson calls “godtalk”: Generalities that sound holy or spiritual, but are disconnected to the concrete realities of life.

To put it another way, it’s easy to escape into talk about “doing good” to everyone, without actually doing anything.

We must begin with the costly and messy work of doing good to this particular Joe from our cell group, and loving that particular Mary sitting in the neighbouring pew like we love ourselves. 

To apply Galatians 6:9-10 to our everyday work setting would see us persist in doing good.

Having started and practised with our fellow believers in church, we can now love our colleagues, superiors, subordinates, vendors and clients, as ourselves.

Expressing the fruit of the Spirit, we are to treat them with respect, integrity, fairness and courtesy, and not to shortchange or exploit them.

Paul does have things to say about showing preferential treatment or favouritism, and they are negative.

If we paraphrase Colossians 3:22-4:1 into a modern idiom, Paul is instructing the Christian employee that anyone who does wrong should be disciplined, and should not expect preferential treatment.

Conversely, the Christian employer should treat his employees rightly and fairly.

This negative assessment of preferential treatment is also found in James 2:1-9. Showing “partiality” is actually a sin against the “royal law” of “loving your neighbour as yourself”.

Here, James is warning against showing favouritism to the rich and powerful. This is because, unlike the poor, the rich and powerful are in a position to benefit us.

If that is our true motivation for favouring some people, then we are actually loving and serving ourselves rather than others.

It is my prayer that all Christians are led by the Spirit to lives of personal responsibility and mutual accountability, to express neighbourly love in the immediate, personal and relational realities of life, both in the church and also in the workplace.