“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.” (Galatians 6:1-5 ESV)
Sadly, we live in a “Christian” culture here in America where this is not only not being put into practice, as a general rule, but where it is being frowned upon and called “judgmental” and “legalistic” and “intolerant,” etc. For the big push right now is to say only what is positive and what feels good and what makes other people feel good, even to those who are living in gross immorality against the Lord and against their spouses. And so we are told to “stay in your own lane,” which means to “mind your own business.”
But this word “restore” means to “bring into its proper condition,” to “adjust to be in good working order.” It is a medical term used for “setting dislocated limbs.” And how do they do that? They'll carefully push and pull on the dislocated joint to move it back into alignment. So this is not painless. But the most important treatment for a dislocation is putting your joint back in its correct place. And that is the entire object of restoring a Christian who has fallen back into sin back to being in good working order spiritually.
And, according to 1 Corinthians 5, this applies, as well, to those who call themselves Christians and who are those who are part of the gatherings of the church (or of what is falsely being called “church”). Church discipline must be exercised in such cases for the sole purpose to bring the person who is living in sin, particularly in sexual immorality, back to (or to for the first time), proper spiritual working order that should be for the one who professes the name of Jesus and who claims heaven as his eternal destiny.
Now the same discipline would not be required of a Christian who fell back into sin but then repented, in truth, and returned to walking in fellowship with the Lord, as would be applied to the professing Christian who is living in deliberate and habitual sin (including sexual immorality), and is part of the gatherings of the church, but who has not repented, in truth, but who is continuing in his sinful practices. But to put a bone out of joint back into place is not generally a quick and easy fix. And it is not without pain.
Now those who are to be like the doctor putting the joint back in place are those who are spiritual, i.e. those who are walking in obedience to the Lord, in practice, and who are living godly and holy and morally pure and upright lives in the power of God. They should not be the spiritually immature, and especially they should not be those who barely have escaped sin’s deceitfulness themselves and who may be tempted to return to that sin if they are trying to help a brother or a sister in Christ to be restored.
And those who are the ones to help restore a fallen Christian back to his proper working order as a child of God are to do so with gentleness (meekness, humility). But meekness is not weakness, and so it is not so gentle that it does not truly help the fallen one to come back into proper working order spiritually. For Jesus was meek but he was not weak in calling sin what it is and in telling us what we need to do about it, and in warning us of the consequences if we remain in that sin and do not turn and follow him.
So, another term for this gentleness (meekness) is “gentle-force.” And I picture a doctor trying to put a dislocated limb back into place using such “gentle-force,” too. So it is not painless, and there is force involved, but it is a force accompanied with humility and compassion, but not so much compassion that you are afraid to do what is necessary to get that bone out of joint back in its proper working order. Can you picture this with me? If we are too soft on sin, the fallen one may continue in his sin without change.
So, this involves what we call “tough love.” It is definitely love, for it has the best in mind for the person being helped, but it is not afraid to cause more pain in order to correct the problem and to restore the fallen one back to proper working order, spiritually speaking. So this is also what it means to speak the truth in love to one another which is what we are commanded to do in the Scriptures, and to exhort one another, so that none of us are led astray, and so none of us are hardened by sin, but so we follow Jesus.
And going right along with all of that is that we are to bear one another’s burdens, and this does not mean to placate sin or to give the addict a pass, but it means to feel deeply and to express deeply our love and our concern for those who are still living in deliberate and habitual sin, or who have fallen back into sin, and we are to care enough about them to pray for them and to speak the truth in love to them, and to do what is necessary to get them in proper working condition, spiritually, because we care deeply about them.
[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]
But we must all test ourselves and examine our own hearts and motives and processes to make certain that we are in line with the word of God and that we have a fair and honest assessment of our own lives and how we are living so that we are not being hypocritical, and so that we do not try to take the speck out of someone else’s eye while we have a log in our own that needs to be removed first. For we are not to think of ourselves as something if we are nothing. So we should first judge our own hearts.
And no matter the outcome, whether the person we speak to – who we are trying to help get back in (or in for the first time) proper spiritual working order – accepts our help or rejects it, we can rest assured that if we followed the counsel of the Lord and the truth of what the Scriptures teach that we have fulfilled our biblical responsibility to a brother or to a sister in Christ. And then we need to place that individual in the hands of the Lord and trust the Lord to work in his or her heart.
Now, several times lately the Lord has put in my mind this secular song which I believe I am to see more in a spiritual light than what the author intended. And I am to replace “Sun” with “Son” and trust the Lord that everything is going to be alright, even if it doesn’t look that way right now. And that doesn’t mean that all is going to be good and that evil is going to disappear. In fact, it is going to get much worse. But, regardless of what is happening all around me, I need to hear the Lord say, “It’s alright.”
Here Comes the Sun
By George Harrison
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright
Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here
Little darlin', the smile's returning to their faces
Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been here
Little darlin', I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKLV8GCrveQ
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