Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Galatians 6
Key Verse
Galatians 6:10 — “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
Devotional Thought
Paul closes his letter to the churches of Galatia with a series of practical instructions that strike at the heart of how we treat one another in the body of Christ. He begins with a scenario every congregation knows too well: a brother or sister “overtaken in a fault.” The word suggests someone caught off guard, tripped up by sin rather than defiantly marching into it. Paul’s prescription is not public shaming or cold avoidance but restoration — and restoration “in the spirit of meekness,” with the restorer keeping watch on his own heart, “lest thou also be tempted.” The spiritual man is not the one who stands farthest from the fallen; he is the one who stoops lowest to lift them.
From there Paul moves to the mutual care that marks a healthy church: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Yet in the very next breath he insists that “every man shall bear his own burden.” These are not contradictions but two sides of discipleship. We carry one another’s crushing loads, and we also give an honest account of our own work before God, refusing the self-deception of verse 3, where a man “thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing.” In mid-February, when winter’s gray has worn thin and Lent’s approach stirs the conscience, these words land with peculiar weight. The sowing and reaping of verses 7 and 8 are not abstract theology; they describe the quiet arithmetic of our days — what we plant in secret, we harvest in public.
Paul then turns to the false teachers who wanted the Galatians circumcised so they could “glory in your flesh.” Against their fleshly boasting, Paul sets his own boast: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” What matters is not outward marks but the “new creature” — and, as he says, the “marks of the Lord Jesus” he bears in his own body, the scars of persecution suffered for the gospel. The letter ends not with rebuke but with a benediction: “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
This is a chapter for ordinary Tuesdays. It asks us to restore gently, to carry patiently, to sow deliberately, and to refuse weariness in doing good — “for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” The harvest is coming. Sow today.
Reflection
- Is there someone overtaken in a fault whom you have avoided rather than restored — and if so, what would it look like to go to them this week in genuine meekness, examining your own heart first?
- What are you actually sowing right now, in your habits, words, and hidden choices — and does the harvest you are tending match the harvest you claim to want?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only ground of our boasting. Forgive us for the times we have looked down on the fallen instead of restoring them in meekness, and for the self-deception that makes us think ourselves something when we are nothing. Teach us to bear one another’s burdens, to do good as we have opportunity, and to sow to the Spirit even when the harvest seems far off. Keep us from weariness in well doing. Let Your grace be with our spirit, and make us new creatures in Christ. Amen.