As we live in the world, we fall in the trap of Sin. The deception from Satan makes us believe that we live a holy life and starts to compare others as Sin tainted or Sinful people or Blooded hands full of wrong doing and make us believe there is no sin in us and what we do is always correct. I have experienced this myself in many occasion's, this deceptive walls are broken down only when we walk with Christ
Paul teaches on how we should deal this in when he speaks to the Church of Galatians as many started to back slide to the sinful ways and gives a lot of spiritual advice to the believers on how fellow believers should handle a set of people who have fallen off.
'Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ' Galatians 6:1
Brotherly Love
Paul starts with the word “Brothers and sisters” this indicates the brotherly love, what is brotherly love ? it’s the “feelings of humanity and compassion towards one's fellow humans”, compassion to your husband, compassion to your wife, compassion to you fellow family member, compassion to your friend or co-worker, when they fall on the trap of Sin. It can be any type of Sin, be it religious Sin or rebellious Sin.
There are three things to see in the passage
'Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit ..' Galatians 6:1
“if” - The word “if” means it’s a situation that has happened or probably will happen. Galatians have already fallen into sin, and I think what Paul is saying here is, this is probably not going to be the first time. Now, when they do, and when you do, how do you handle when somebody who has fallen into sin?
someone is caught in sin - You see, before we became believers we lived for ourselves. We chased after what “ourselves”, we pleased “ourselves”, We chased after sin. But once you become a believer (Follower of Christ Jesus) you don’t chase after sin any more. You pursue Christ; however, sin chases after you and sometimes overtakes you. At a certain time he is overtaken by the sin. Not only has he been overtaken by a sin and he’s fallen into its trap, but the other truth is that he’s been caught in his sin by somebody
“you who live by the Spirit” -
There are many of us who think we live by spirit, but live a double standard of life immediately say, “How could he do that?” “I can’t believe that happened.” “Why, I would never do that myself.” Now, this is how we ridicule the person who is caught on Sin. We forget that the flesh, my flesh, is just as wicked as the other person.
Only the Holy Spirit can produce the kind of love that would actually be sensitive to the needs of one who has been caught in sin. It is supernatural to be sensitive to someone when you know that he has sinned. It’s supernatural; this is not a natural tendency. This is that love of Christ being manifests in our lives. Flesh condemns and wants to carry out the sentence, but the Spirit seeks to restore.
Spirit of Gentleness
you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. Galatians 6:1
What Paul’s talking about is these Galatians, they sinned, but I guess they weren’t good enough at covering it up, and now they’re caught. That’s the problem. He illustrates the problem. Now what do you do? Now what? Now that you’ve caught your brother in a sin, now what do you do? What, the second thing he does here is the procedure we follow when a fellow believer has been caught in a sin, not just overtaken, but caught? What’s the responsibility of one who has caught his brother? Well, “you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently”
Spiritual Person
He says, “you who live by the Spirit ” Now he’s talking to a particular group in that people that he’s writing to, he’s singling out several ones that walk side by side with those who are not walking in the Spirit. AMP Version of Bible refers this as “spiritual” - it’s the believer who is enjoying the influences, the graces and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s somebody that the Spirit of God is producing His love within them. That’s who he’s talking to.
The spirit of Gentleness
It’s explained by Paul in Ephesians - 'Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ' Ephesians 4:2
The following are the qualities of Gentleness, this comes only when Christ is there in us and when we walk with him every day.
Humble - it will be humble to deal the issue with the help of Christ instead of the flesh taking control to vilify the sin of the other person.
Patient - It will be patient not to allow the sin to continue, at the same time change the person to move away from the Sin. This will happen only with Christ guiding us, as humans when we see our beloved Sin, we want them out immediate. But Christ’s spirit produces the patients to wait on Christ to act to change the loved one, instead of us depending on our own.
bearing with one another in love - the love of Christ will not allow the brother or sister to ruin the persons reputation. The love will bring a forgiving love in Christ, the forgiving love will tend to restore the relationship as Christ does to restore us to his love. The Love will not condemn - spirit of Condemnation comes from Satan, not from Christ.
Paul also gives another view of the Spirit of Gentleness in same chapter 'Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ' Galatians 6:9
Continue to do Good, don’t do anything wrong
Let us not become weary - As you do Good and other person continues to Sin, you get weary, he says lets not become weary - at the proper time you will see the reward of your patience
Many time we do Good only for a short time, Paul asks us to be persistent and do good long run, here he says two things
at the proper time we will reap a harvest - At the time what Jesus feels its the right time, remember this is not the time we desire, its the time when Jesus feels is the right time.
if we do not give up. - This is the perseverance of doing good for more prolonged time
Restore
But the word “restore” refers to that which may be painful at first. It’s not only a process, but it’s painful at first. Sometimes it’s painful for a while. Let’s just meditate on that for a second. You’ve just broken your arm and you go to the doctor. Guess what he’s going to have to do? He’s going to have to hurt you in order for you to heal. And so the pain is automatically implied. So the very term restoring a brother, restoration, has implied within it there’s pain. There’s going to be some pain to it. The act of restoring someone is very painful. 'He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 'Psalms 147:3
You see, when we’re filled with the Spirit of Christ we have a sensitivity to others. Nobody can explain this, because most of the time they’re the very people that are unloving. They’re intolerant. They’re difficult people to start with. But God gives us that sensitivity to love them beyond them, in spite of them. The Christ in us gives us also the resiliency to endure the pain with them because they’re going to go through some painful times and then the joy one day of watching them come back and be able to stand on their feet once again. But it’s all about restoration, restoration. When we were going to discipline somebody, we never mentioned the name and we never called their sin ever in public.
Warning
We do have responsibility to one another, but only when we’re living filled with God’s Spirit can we ever see that responsibility carried out. So Paul illustrates the problem. He describes the procedure. He warns of a possibility.
But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1
Temptation - We may be tempted to fall to the trap of the Sin, that the other brother who is trapped. So watch yourself
Pride - There is pride that may come and say, I am “Mr Clean” while the other person is corrected as well. This is caused by the deception from Satan this is what Paul explains 'If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 'Galatians 6:3
How to measure yourself - Paul gives a good advice to measure ourself without comparing to other 'Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, ' Galatians 6:4
Test your Own Actions - It says test your own action its not written to test other people, your own self. How will you behave in that Sin if you are caught with or struggling with the Sin ?, Put yourself in the brother or sisters shoes and test yourself, this will get you the spirit of humility - if you deep understand this well, it will take you back Ephesians 4:2 on the spirit of gentleness.
take pride only when not comparing your sin “without comparing themselves to someone else”
Actions you can take
I am not sure what situation you are going thru right now in your life,
Pray to Jesus to show the brotherly love to your fellow beloved
Pray to Jesus to show the spirit of Gentleness
Pray to Jesus to restore you in God’s way
Pray to Jesus to warn you and keep away from Pride and temptation
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