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Past Ponderings

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Do You Love Enough To Restore? (Galatians 6:1)

 VIDEO

Do You Love Enough To Restore? (Galatians 6:1)

GIST: Christians should be ready to restore with compassion. (Family will stumble and be broken, so guard your heart, view brokenness with compassion, and care enough to restore.)

   

Hey guys, we’re officially in the last chapter of Galatians! As we introduced last week, the context of this final application portion of the letter is living out lives that have been rescued by grace within the Christian community. We’re meant to walk this journey together. What does that look like? Last week, we saw how being people who view ourselves through Jesus’ eyes prepares us for this. Today, we’re going to look at the first part of what “this” will look like. We’re just going to camp out in Galatians 6:1→ 


“1 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.”


    Restoration isn’t something we talk about often in churches. In fact, in our immediate circle, churches addressing anyone’s actual sin is pretty much ignored as a whole. We like to talk about sin in general terms, but we don’t want to “get up in anyone’s business” or have them getting up in ours. Distancing ourselves from sin is more comfortable, but it’s not loving. It’s not the result of having a heart that is changed by Jesus and being called to live life with a community of faith, with the body of Christ. So, here’s our big picture gist: Christians should be ready to restore with compassion. And to break that down even more, we’re going to look at this smaller picture gist ☺️: Family will stumble and be broken, so guard your heart, view brokenness with compassion, and care enough to restore.


I. Be Ready To Restore

    There are different ways to approach this text, but I thought it might be helpful to look at it from the direction of why we should be restoring in the first place, and then how we should go about that. First, notice that the context of this restoration is→ 

Family. The first point to notice here is Paul addressing them as brothers. That word means something like “from the same womb”, and it carries the connotation of family-intimacy, so it does not exclude women in any way. This is a big deal because we do things for family and expect things from family that we wouldn’t from anyone else. We weep when our family is hurting, and if they are hurting themselves, we will step in. Do you view fellow Christians like this? Do I? 

This is convicting for me. I love my family. It doesn’t matter what they do or where they are, if they need me, I want to be there for my family. No, I don’t love them perfectly. I screw up… alot. But you better believe, I want to give them my all. Do I love you like that? Is that the kind of fellowship we want to have with fellow believers? Or are we easily irritated and quick to write off? 

We should want to restore because that’s the heart of family, and we should want to restore because we understand even family→ 

Will Stumble. After referring to them as family, he continues with, “... if anyone is caught in any transgression…”. This will happen. The language here has a connotation of surprise. Though all sin is ultimately the result of us following the natures of our tainted hearts, this picture is still one of falling into sin, or being overtaken by it. We could try to break down what this may or may not look like, but ultimately the clarity of this picture is that these are people we love who need help!

Now, the ministry of restoration is not just an excuse to be a busy body or use false compassion as a pretense for getting “juicy gossip”. We’re also not supposed to nag fellow Christians about issues that are matters of conviction. We’re talking about clear and destructive sins taking hold of someone’s life. Tony Merida put it like this, “We should qualify this ministry, though. Do not take this as a command to be the “righteousness police,” inspecting every detail of a person’s life...The matters highlighted here seem to be sins that are destroying people. These are not mere conscience issues. For example, if a brother or sister is addicted to something, you should seek to help. If someone is working an excessive amount of time and neglecting family, then you should come alongside of him to help him. If a man is involved in a relationship that is “shady,” then confront him gently. If a sister has missed corporate worship for a month, then she should receive at least a phone call. Be a person who cares for your brothers and sisters…” Too often we don’t want to “rock the boat” because we care more about what people think of us than whether or not their life is being changed by Jesus. We need to have our eyes open to see needs because those we love will stumble→ 

And Be Broken. The word translated restore is the same term used to describe fixing a broken or dislocated bone. That hurts. It’s unnatural and damaging, and it takes time to heal. But, if no effort is made to fix the bone at all, it will always be out of place and painful. I know I’m getting into the second point here ☺, but that allows for “drift”. Just keep in mind, restoration can hurt, but we seek to restore because we’re aware of brokenness and want to be used by Jesus to mend. It can be painful, and it must be purposeful… and that purpose is Jesus.

Yet, as you do this→ 

Guard Your Heart.  Verse 1 ends with Paul saying, “Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” Remember that balance between boldness and humility we talked about last week? An attitude of restoration is one who sees his or her life through the eyes of Jesus. We’re not above the sin that is trapping our brother or sister; we’re just coming in to point them to the grace of the God who loves us both! With that attitude, we come in cautiously. It is very easy to be pulled into the sinful behaviors you're trying to help your friend overcome. 

So, we need to be ready to restore→ 


II. With Compassion

    Since all this is interconnected, I’ve already started unpacking this a bit in our first point, so I just want to make a few observations here. First→ 

Restoring Is Christian. Paul defines the ministers here pretty clearly: “... you who are spiritual should restore…” I don’t want to sound overly repetitive, but this isn’t talking about super-saints or spiritual leaders. Remember, this comes right after Paul’s explanation of how we can know if we’re really walking in the Spirit. His response? The Holy Spirit will be working in your life. This happens to all who are spiritual, that is, all who are truly saved. You’re not getting out of this by not having a “formal ministry”. 

Secondly, we then all need to→ 

View Brokenness With Compassion. This restoration comes in a spirit of gentleness…”. Restoration isn’t a gotcha moment. I can be good at those. I’m sure you can be too. But we’re seeking to restore, not pull down. Like I said in opening, our heart breaks for those we love, so we should→  

Care Enough To Restore. Remember, restoration implies brokenness, so the ministry is one of putting back together. This same term was used to describe broken nets that had to be mended so they could be used again. That’s the heart of restoration right there. Oh, it could look like so many different things, but at its core it is wanting to come alongside someone and help point them back to the abundant life they were made to live! Do you love like this? We need to be reminded of the ministry of restoration which should be the natural outworking of the Christian life...because that’s not what we usually see in churches. My favorite band is the Christian Punk group Relient K. Growing up, I listened to them almost nonstop, so I have their lyrics firmly wedged in my head. They have a song called “Down In Flames” which expresses this so well. Honestly, the whole song has so many strong lines, but I think these express the reality we live in too often as well as any.


The enemy is much ignored

when we fight this Christian civil war.

We're cannibals.

We watch our brothers fall.

We eat our own, the bones and all.

...

We see the problem and the risk,

but nothing's solved.

We just say, "Tisk, tisk, tisk,"

and, "Shame, shame, shame."

   

Do we love enough to restore, or do we pounce on our wounded? Let’s recap in our→ 


TAKEAWAYS

  1. Family will stumble and be broken.

  2. So guard your heart.

  3. View brokenness with compassion.

  4. And love enough to restore.




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