What's the Use?

It's easy to become discouraged - either by circumstances in our own lives - or from what we see going on in this fallen world. Many of our friends report being shocked and saddened by recent events in Aurora, Colorado - and rightly so. We struggle every day to follow God's commands in thought, word and deed - to love God and love our neighbor. But, sometimes I wonder, 'What's the point? What good is it when the horrors of sin seem to prevail on every side. Brother John Calvin is usually pretty level headed, so when this verse came to mind earlier this morning, I thought I'd see what he has to say on the subject.


 Calvin on Galations 6:9. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.. 

"Let us not be weary in well-doing. Well-doing (kalo men. We are instructed not to be weary in assisting our neighbours, in performing good offices, and in exercising generosity. This precept is highly necessary; for we are naturally reluctant to discharge the duties of brotherly love, and many unpleasant occurrences arise by which the ardor of the best disposed persons is apt to be cooled. We meet with many unworthy and many ungrateful persons. The vast number of necessitous cases overwhelms us, and the applications which crowd upon us from every quarter exhaust our patience. Our warmth is abated by the coolness of other men. In short, the world presents innumerable hinderances, which tend to lead us aside from the right path. Most properly, therefore, does Paul admonish us not to relax through weariness.
If we faint not. That is, we shall reap the fruit which God promises, if we "persevere to the end." (Matthew 10:22.) Those who do not persevere resemble indolent husbandmen, who, after ploughing and sowing, leave the work unfinished, and neglect to take the necessary precautions for protecting the seed from being devoured by birds, or scorched by the sun, or destroyed by cold. It is to no purpose that we begin to do good, if we do not press forward to the goal.
In due season. 2 Let no man, from a wish to gather the fruit in this life, or before its proper time, deprive himself of the spiritual harvest. The desires of believers must be both supported and restrained by the exercise of hope and patience."