March 29 - Galatians 6:1-5

March 29 - Galatians 6:1-5

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. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.

It is so easy to see the sliver in anothers eye and yet ignore the log in our own eye – right? 

Paul’s idea of community was that restoration should occur gently.  I can’t tell you the number of churches I have been in where the gossip and backbiting was so blatant and painful that it’s hard to believe God was able to move at all within that community.  It’s easy to get caught up in that and very easy to forget what our response is supposed to be.  We get all worked up in righteous anger and judgment, that we forget how we are called to respond.

In the centuries following Jesus’ death, early Christians were subject to all sorts of persecution – no matter where they lived.  It was expected that they suffer under that persecution and not fall away.  When they were required to carry a certificate stating that they had bowed to the Emperor’s statue, they suffered death rather than submit.

However, there were those who either ran away or just gave in – maybe because of their families, maybe just because of fear.

Incredibly enough – when the persecution ended, those that had been weak were no longer allowed in the church.  They were shut out – excommunicated.  If a priest or bishop gave in, it was even worse.  This caused quite a schism between various factions within the church.  Some believed they should be brought back into the fold gently – others believed not at all.

It got so bad that there was a group called the Donatists who believed that any person who took communion or was baptized by those who had been brought back into the fold was not really a Christian – that the sacrament was based on the righteousness and purity of the priest or bishop – not on the righteousness of Christ.  A very bright man named Augustine of Hippo took care of that and we now believe that the sacraments are made holy by the work of Christ – not the work of man.

So how do you look at someone you believe has sinned or maybe continues to sin.  How much judgment do you place on them and how much do you talk about their lives in a public or private forum?

Paul says we are to carry each other’s burdens – not make things harder for that person.  He also says that we should test our own actions. 

Mom always told me that I was responsible for my own actions and if I paid more attention to those than I did to those around me, I’d be in pretty good shape.  I fail miserably, but if I listen o both Paul and my mother – I’ll probably be a lot happier and a lot more loving.