Sunday, May 19, 2013
Galatians 6:1-5
Matt Rawlings
Example: Imagine that you are on a hike in the Appalachian Mountains.
And as you look down over a cliff, you see someone who has obviously slipped
over the edge and fallen and now they are injured and unconscious, caught in a
crevasse in the rock. They would need help and you would surely do what you
could to get them out. You would probably begin looking for a rope or something
you could lower down and pull them up. But because they were injured, you would
need to be careful about the way that you took hold of them and brought them
up. You would want to rescue them quickly and you would need to be strong. Your
grip would need to be firm and yet you would need to be gentle if they were to
be rescued and restored to health. All the while, you would need to be careful
and make sure that you too didn’t fall.
This is something like what we are called to do in the
church. You see, the church is full of people who have gotten caught and many
of them don’t even know it. Some of your brothers and sisters have been
overtaken by sin, slipped over the edge and some are caught in sin.
·
Perhaps Students are cheating on tests because
it seems like the only way to pass.
·
Maybe a wife is bad-mouthing her husband.
·
Maybe a husband is belittling his wife.
·
Maybe someone is being unkind to their roommate and being
selfish in their habits.
·
Maybe there is a pattern of rebellion and disobedience in
someone’s life.
·
Perhaps there is a guy who is lazy and isn’t taking
responsibility for what God has called him to.
·
Maybe there is someone who is complaining constantly and
is bitter and angry.
·
Or possibly there is someone who is being unkind in their
speech.
·
Maybe someone else is bitter and angry and harboring
unforgiveness.
·
There may be someone who has committed some grievous sin
that is hard to understand and tempting to be angry about.
What should you do if you aren’t caught in that sin and
you can see that they are? More importantly, what does God call you to do? And
how do you do it? You see the church is full of imperfect and flawed people who
will from time to time get caught in sin and be overtaken by sin – and we may
not be aware of it. As Brothers and Sisters, we are called to have compassion
and do something about it and not just stand idly by.
Really, the main idea of this passage could be put simply. One way of stating the main idea of this
scripture is that...
Main Idea: We are called to help restore our
fellow brothers and sisters, knowing we need help too.
Paul is speaking to Christians here in these verses and
the assumption is not that someone is not a Christian if they are caught in
sin. Being caught in sin doesn’t disqualify someone from the Christian
community but it does mean that the Christian community needs to help those who
are caught in sin, in order to restore them.
In saying “if anyone”,
it is also implied that anyone is capable of being caught in sin. Anyone is
susceptible to being caught in sin. It is possible for any Christian to be
overtaken with sin. And the kind of sin it is possible for anyone to be
overtaken in or caught in isn’t specified – it is any transgression.
·
So, maybe someone had lied on their taxes or someone
committed fraud and is milking the government and owes a lot of money now. · Or maybe someone is caught up in lust.
·
Or someone is caught up in telling lies to others in the
church.
·
Or maybe someone is gossiping or slandering other people.
The kind of transgression isn’t specified – it is any
transgression. Brothers and sisters, anyone can be caught in any transgression.
At the outset of this verse, this should temper the way that we view people
sinning. Sin isn’t unexpected and sin isn’t surprising and in fact, anyone can
be caught in sin. This should help us guard against self-righteousness and from
thinking that we aren’t susceptible, that it isn’t possible for us to be caught
in sin. It is possible for anyone to be caught in any transgression and the
body of Christ is meant to be a place of grace, where we respond to those
brothers and sisters who are overtaken and help them.
The second half of the verse helps us know what to do
when we encounter a fellow Christian caught in sin. The scripture says, "you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of
gentleness." What we are called to do when we encounter another
Christian who is caught in sin is clear in the first two verses, and it is the
first point I want to draw your attention to. Through these verses, God is
telling us to...
1. Restore your fellow sinner and bear their
burdens
“you who
are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”
You who are spiritual. Now what does that mean? Does that
mean that only the top ten percent of the church – the super spiritual are
called to deal with people overtaken or caught in sin? Does it mean that only
if you are really spiritual can you restore someone? No, it just means you who
belong to the Holy Spirit, or you who have the Holy Spirit. This is anyone who
has placed their faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and
been born again – you who belong to the Spirit of God and have been made into
His spiritual people.
So, what should you do when you encounter someone who is
caught up in sin?
·
Should you go to your small group leader or your best
friend and get advice?
·
Should you ask for prayer for that person the next time
you pray with other Christians?
·
Should you tell your pastor?
·
Should you write about it on a blog?
·
Should you write them an anonymous letter and leave it on
their car windshield or in their door, saying “I know what you did – stop it!”?
No, we are to go to that person. We are to go individually, face to face
and talk to them about their sin. It will require confronting them and it will
require boldness and courage. It is easier to talk to people about other
things. It is easier to talk about sports or kids or food and keep things
light. All of you, should restore the one caught up or taken up in sin.
[Illustration of restoring old mahogany furniture – the
restoration process may require removing some layers of paint and sanding – but
the goal is to make it new, to bring it back into shape, to make it beautiful
again.]
The word restore, was used in Matthew 4, when Jesus
called his disciples, and it says that they were mending or restoring their
nets. They were in the process of repairing their nets, making them strong once
more, making their nets useful again, so that they could catch fish as they
were designed to do. Christians, you are to approach those who are caught in
sin, in order to repair, to mend, to strengthen them – to restore them to
usefulness and to a right relationship with God.
We have this mistaken notion that to love someone else is
to only say nice and comfortable things to them. Now, we SHOULD say things
nicely and we should be kind and gentle and merciful – but living in community
and actually loving each other will require that we say hard things – that we
say things that might be difficult and that might hurt because we love our
brother and sister. The scripture doesn’t say when you discover someone caught
in sin, you belittle them or mock them or punish them harshly – it says the
goal is restoration – so that your fellow brother or sister may be made right
with God and brought back into fellowship once more.
And we are not to restore someone harshly. We are to
restore them in a spirit of gentleness. The apostle kindly tells us to restore
one another with gentleness. And then he warns us immediately afterwards. Have
you ever read this verse and wondered why? Why in the world would he warn us
immediately after telling us to restore one another with gentleness? I think it
is because we are tempted to correct people harshly. This is convicting –
especially when it comes to my family. I am tempted to correct my wife and children
harshly. But most often, when there is harshness involved in correcting someone
sinning, it is because there is self-righteousness. When we are impatient and
intolerant of other people’s sin and we are indignant that someone else is
caught in sin, it is often because we don’t think we would have sinned. Or, we
think that they should know better and do better because we know better and do
better. But very frequently, what is behind our thinking we know better and we
would have done better is self-righteous pride. At other times, we can be harsh
because we are lazy and someone else’s sin interferes with our plans or our
agenda and it is taking effort and we get annoyed that we have to make an
effort.
"And
the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone,
able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with
gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the
truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by
him to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:24-26)
We are to restore others, knowing that we too were caught
in sin. God sent His Son to deliver us and gave us the Holy Spirit to bring the
gift of conviction and rescue us from death, deliver us from our blindness, and
Jesus brings us to God the Father. We don’t come to God as those who are
perfect – but we come through the perfect One, who is in the process of making
us all into His image. But we aren’t done yet – none of us has arrived and we
may be caught in sin sometime and need to be restored too. So we are to restore
each other in a spirit of gentleness. And we are warned, “keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted”.
2. We must watch out for pride and
self-righteousness when we help
We may be tempted to pride. We may be tempted to self
righteousness. We even may be tempted to think about the sin we are helping
others with so much that we are tempted ourselves. So, let’s make sure we don’t
engage in sin and don’t stay focused on sin – stay focused on strengthening,
repairing and restoring each other to God and His Word, to fellowship and
prayer, to a right relationship with Jesus, through repentance and faith in
Him.
Scripture goes on to tell us to, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ." The goal is restoring someone who is caught in sin
and we are to do so in a spirit of gentleness. And this requires bearing one another’s
burdens. It is not easy to confront and help someone who is caught in sin but
we are called to bear one another’s burdens in this way and in a whole host of
ways, precisely because Jesus Christ has loved us when we didn’t deserve it. God
had mercy on us when we didn’t deserve it. We are all undeserving sinners,
until God makes us deserving as we trust in the life that Jesus lived in our
place and trust that God has credited all of the good deeds of Jesus and all of
the law-keeping of Jesus to our account. This kind of caring – this kind or
burden-bearing – this kind of loving, it is only possible because of the love
the Jesus has loved us with.
But what about the second part of verse two? What in the
world is the law of Christ? "I thought that Galatians is all about grace
and how we are to live not according to the law but according to grace." But
I believe what the apostle Paul means is the law of love. Jesus came to fulfill
the law, so that we don’t have to and yes, Jesus came to do away with the curse
of the law. In Galatians 5:14, it says, "For
the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.'"
The whole law is
fulfilled in this one command – “love
your neighbor as yourself.” It is through
loving our neighbor that our love for God is revealed and carried out. Jesus
said in John 13:34, “A new commandment I
give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are
to love one another." What Paul is saying – what he Holy Spirit is
saying through this Scripture is that it is as we restore one another in a
spirit of gentleness and as we bear one another’s burdens, that we will fulfill
this commandment of Jesus Christ to love one another as we have been loved. He
bore all of our burdens and so we love one another as He did by bearing one another’s
burdens. Seeing someone sin and then confronting them and mercifully, gently
restoring them is loving.
"For
if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
Verse three tells us, “for” or “because” if anyone thinks
he is something when he is nothing, he deceived himself. The New Revised
Standard explains the gist of this verse right when it says, “for if those who
ARE nothing think they ARE something, they deceive themselves." So, what
it is saying is that none of us are anything on our own. None of us had any
intrinsic worth before God on our own. None of us were morally anything. It
isn’t saying that we aren’t really here. It isn’t saying that we are physically
nothing. It is saying, “if anyone does think himself to be something – being
nothing – he deceives himself.
On our own we are nothing – but Jesus Christ came to make
us valuable in Him. He came to give us worth and value and to make us
significant but we didn’t do this ourselves. And keeping this mindset enables
us to guard against being self-righteous and proud when we need to confront and
help restore someone to Jesus. That person who is sinning is in need like you
and I were in need and like we are in need.
Go humbly. Don’t provoke or discourage. Remember you sin too
and you will be tempted to sin and fail. You may be the one helping today but
you will need help tomorrow. The person who is caught in sin, is in need of finding
and experiencing God’s grace and forgiveness and they are in need of repentance
so that they can be made right with God.
The great reformer Martin Luther got some things right. He
didn’t get everything right – none of us do, but he got a whole lot of things
right. And one of the things he got right was the very scriptural idea that
none of us has any merit before God on our own. Martin Luther understood
Galatians well and he very helpfully once said, “God receives none but those who
are forsaken, restores health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to
none but the blind, and life to none but the dead. He does not give saintliness
to any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short: He has mercy on none
but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace. Therefore
no arrogant saint, or just or wise man can be material for God, neither can he
do the work of God, but he remains confined within his own work and makes of
himself a fictitious, ostensible, false, and deceitful saint, that is, a
hypocrite.”
(Luther W.A. 1.183ff)
We are deceived if we think that God got a good catch
when He found us. If you think that you’ve never done anything bad or wrong and
that you are mostly a good person and that of course God saved you – because
after all, He should have, then you are deceived. If you think you are not
forsaken without Him, you are deceived. If you think you were not spiritually
sick and blind, and dead in sin, you are deceived. Listen to Luther again, “He does not give saintliness to
any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short: He has mercy on none
but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace.
Therefore no arrogant saint, or just or wise man can be material for God,
neither can he do the work of God, but he remains confined within his own work
and makes of himself a fictitious, ostensible, false, and deceitful saint, that
is, a hypocrite.” Let us all keep watch on ourselves so
that we are not tempted to think this way and let us keep watch on ourselves so
that we are not deceived into thinking we are something in ourselves.
"But let each one test his own work, and then his reason
to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor."
You see, Paul has just warned us against pride in
verse 1 and 3 and now, he seems to be saying that we are to boast in ourselves.
What is going on? Is Paul schizophrenic? Is this verse contradicting the other
one – we are morally nothing but we have reason to boast in ourselves alone? No.
Paul isn’t confused and he isn’t contradicting himself. Instead of looking at
someone else’s work and comparing ourselves to them, we are to look at
ourselves. Put a different way, the third thing we can see from these verses is
that...
3. We have our own stuff to look after
We won’t give an account for how someone else
lived, we will give an account for ourselves alone. Notice it says that
the reason to boast “will be”? This
is a future that is being referenced. When we stand before God, we will each
give an account before God on our own. We won’t be evaluated for how someone
else lived. We will be evaluated for how we live. This should make us grateful
but this should also keep us humble.
This verse is helping us guard against comparing
ourselves to others and thinking that we are better than them. Because
inevitably, when we are looking to justify ourselves and justify our behavior,
we will always find someone who seems worse off than us or seems to be a worse
sinner than us. We will find people who are struggling in sin, who are caught
in sin in ways that we are not and we will be tempted to think that we have reason
to boast, because we are better than them.
But, don’t get this verse out of context of these 5
verses and the whole letter to the Galatians itself. Remember – “in
ourselves we are nothing, so don’t think you are something and be deceived.” Earlier in
Galatians 2:20-21, Paul said, “I have
been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in
me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if
justification were through the law, then Christ died for no
purpose.” We have no merit on our own. It is like we have been crucified
with Christ and the life that we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God
who loved us and gave Himself for us. There is nothing that Paul or you or I
can or could ever earn. And if we can be justified or acceptable to God on the
basis of our works then Christ died for no purpose!
Then, Paul writes the strongest words to any church in
Galatians 3:1 and he calls them fools. He says, "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your
eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only
this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are
you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by
the flesh?" We aren’t to take sinful pride in our works – it is
Christ Jesus who justifies us and He is the One who enables us to live for Him and we are called to a life of
faith in Jesus, trusting in Him to obey Him.
So, NO, Paul is not encouraging us to be proud of how
good we are on the basis of our own works. In fact he says that those who have
been made righteous live by faith in the Son of God. So, all of the glory goes
to Jesus – all of the boasting is about how Jesus was at work in us. And the
context seems to indicate not a present boasting but a future boasting.
Look ahead at verse 5, it says “for each will have to
bear his own load.” It is speaking about how each one of us will be accountable
before God – each one of us has to bear our own load on the day of judgment. But
on the day of Judgment, we can boast in Jesus and we can boast in the works
that we did through trusting in Him and as we were enabled by Him. And the good
news is that Jesus told us in Matthew 6:18, “And
your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
"But
love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to
the ungrateful and the evil."
(Luke
6:35)
"For each will have to bear his own load." Guard
against pride – don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t go thinking you are
better than others. Remember that you will have to bear your own load and you
need help with your load too. All of us are responsible for our own behavior. This
protects us from the victim mentality as well – we alone are responsible for
our own load. Even though we are called to restore each other and to bear each
other’s burdens, we cannot claim that we are victims if others don’t seem to be
doing this for us. After all, we are the ones accountable for our own works and
we all have to bear our own load. So help bear someone else’s burdens because
they will give an account on the final day and you will give an account and
have to bear your own load. You also cannot take credit for someone else’s
growth.
“Life in the spirit is community life”- Tom Shreiner
A fruitful Christian life is not a self-focused life but a
life that is devoted to loving Jesus and loving others
