6:9,10
Now living by faith does not mean we just sit back and wait for the Spirit to do something! So Paul immediately urges them to continue doing good, not to weary in doing good. It can seem for a time as if it is not getting us anywhere, and in the context of this letter it can seem as if our old nature is still alive and kicking! But Paul assures us that “at the proper time” we will reap a good harvest.
So we should take every opportunity to do good to one another. “Especially to those who belong to the family of believers”. Paul is not trying to change the church into a cosy club looking after itself. Rather, he is countering the back-biting that was at risk of arising in Galatia (Gal 5:15). Instead of seeking how we can get one over each other, we should put our efforts into seeing how we can help each other.
6:11
Paul now draws his letter to a close, and he wants to make sure that they know it was Paul who wrote this letter, or dictated it. There was a tendency for letters to be forged, and Paul wanted to guard against any accusations that the letter was not really from him. It also counts against those who claim other Pauline letters were written by others pretending to be Paul to add some sort of supposed authority to their letters. Forging letters were looked down upon in the church and they would not have allowed a pseudographic letter to get through.
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