Galatians 6:7 :

Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Context is always important in the Bible. Paul has been discussing how to deal with someone who is caught in a fault. It appears that, in context, Paul is trying to encourage the spiritual people to do the difficult duty of restoring the ones that were sinning. This had been a pretty harsh letter and, it would make sense that even though Paul couldn’t be there, he wanted those who were responsible to continue to work with those who were in the wrong. In this light, it is very likely that Paul is talking to the spiritual brother, about the unspiritual one. This gets more important as we continue. Notice how he uses the words “a man” here instead of “you.” He used “you” in verse one and there were other implied “you’s” in other verses. Because of this, I believe this is a part of the passage in which Paul is focused on the unspiritual man. This is not to say that the principle of reaping what we sow is not true for spiritual believers, it’s just that, as we will see, it has bad implications for those who are living in sin.

So, to the spiritual believers, Paul would be saying that it is a very serious thing for Christians to live sinful lives. We should not let them stay that way, but should realize that if they keep going, it will ruin their lives. Paul has asked that they help them even if it is a burden to them. You could imagine how difficult this probably was for Paul, being so far away yet knowing that something had to be done. This is like parents who had gone out for a special night alone, leaving their older children in charge for the first time. Later, when calling to check on them, they find out something is going wrong. This part of the letter reminds me of that parent trying to tell the older children how to take care of the problem over the phone.

It’s as if Paul is saying: It’s going to be very hard, but here’s what I want you to do, I want you to help them because if no one does, they could end up getting what they deserve instead of what God could give them.