the Law of Christian Community

We have learned that there are no laws that can get you into Heaven, because none of us can keep them flawlessly throughout our lives. This week we are introduced to another law. It doesn’t regulate who gets into Heaven, but it establishes how we are to treat one another.

Your opinions about how we treat each other are largely shaped by the tension between compassion and responsibility.

It is true that there are many examples of people who “play the system” and expect others to do or pay for things that should be the responsibility of the individual. Verse 5 of today’s text says plainly that personal responsibility does exist. Yet God has places us within a geographic community and placed believers within a spiritual community and verse 2 talks about bearing one another’s burdens and v.6 commands some to share.

No man is an island and it does take a village to accomplish some things. Yet others expect “the village” to step into roles that God has reserved for self or parents.

Years ago I was introduced to a book entitled, When Helping Hurts.

Every person who has received First Aid or CPR training has had 2 rules pounded into them. 1. Check the ABC’s (Airway, Breath & Circulation) and 2. Do NOT move a patient unless imminent death is present. Sitting someone up can rupture damaged nerves causing paralysis or death.

Sometimes our instincts or our best intentions can actually do more harm. The When Helping Hurts book has now been expanded to a whole series of books: Helping Without Hurting in Short-term Missions, Helping Without Hurting in Church Benevolence, and Helping without Hurting to Alleviate Poverty.

I’m convinced that too often we adopt a “Not my circus, Not my monkey’s” attitude of indifference or a harsh “Just Do It!” when God is calling us to a compassionate engagement with someone hurting or fallen.

Every single person who has ever fallen and got a stinger on your kneecap can identify with this woman. - https://youtu.be/q2xsUuV1YyA

Thankfully these 2 men stepped in when they did! This woman truly needed someone to do for her what she couldn’t do for herself in the moment. In 30-45 minutes when the stinger wore off, she may be able to catch the baby, but right then she needed someone to see her burden and act on her behalf.

Transition: Last week we contrasted the deeds of the selfish flesh versus the fruit of God’s Spirit. When we look over that description of 8 fruit, I notice some that are impossible to demonstrate toward myself. The ONLY way some of that fruit becomes evident is in our interaction with other people’s circuses and other people’s monkeys.

When a Brother Transgresses (Gal 6:1-5)

Some of you learned the Lord’s Prayer as “forgive us our trespasses” and others learned it “Forgive us our debts”. They are both right because Matthew uses one word and Luke uses the other. The word that Matthew uses for a shortfall (He was a tax collector) is the SAME word Paul uses here to describe the trap that catches some believers.

Restore what is broken/lacking (v.1b)

When a brother is found to be deficient in morality or sustenance, do we ignore or lecture or assist him?

I admit that I am reading into the words transgression and tempted to indicate that something is not as it should be, a.k.a. broken. Too often our response is harsh and hurtful.

This is one of the lessons that I have learned through Ann’s cancer journey. There are times when something is not as it should be and (fortunate for me) there have been doctors, nurses, therapists and other women who have been able to step in when I wanted to fix something that can’t be fixed quickly or instantly.

Someone has indicted the Body of Christ with the accusation that “the Church is the only Army who shoots its wounded”. I wasn’t able to find the source of that quote, but it is closely connected to a 1983 song by Chuck Girard “Dont Shoot the Wounded”

Don't shoot the wounded, they need us more than ever They need our love no matter what it is they've done Sometimes we just condemn them, And don't take time to hear their story Don't shoot the wounded, someday you might be one.

5. Notice clearly what we are to restore. It doesn’t say make restitution for the transgression. It doesn’t say pay the debt. It says restore him.

6. You do not have an obligation to the results of the transgression, our challenge is to make the brother whole so that he/she can behave appropriately.

7. Notice who receives this instruction. It is not given only to the Elders of the Galatian church. The phrase you who are spiritual is not you who are holy, you who are leaders, you who are sanctified, you who are righteous, or you who are spiritually mature! and Paul just finished explaining who is spiritual in 5:25—all those who live by the Spirit, all who keep in step with the Spirit.

8. You are not expected to be an addiction counselor or a therapist. You are not to endanger your own family by helping others, but you are to allow the Spirit of God to work through you within your gifting and His power to move that person toward wholeness.

Bear with what is weak (verse 2)

What were #5 and #6 in the song the children sang last week: kindness? Patience?

Your burden doesn’t become my burden, but I am to bear with your burden!

What is “the law of Christ”?

This phrase only appears here in the whole NT

I read 10 different commentators who each had a unique interpretation of this. I’m most closely aligned with James Dunn’s explanation in Black’s New Testament Commentary. Because Jesus gave other commands, I believe the best way to understand this phrase is to think of it as the law” as summarized by Christ” in loving God wholly and others as yourself.

By being patient and kind with others amidst the burdens that they bear, we are loving others as ourselves.

Test yourself for sincerity (vv.3-5)

Notice that the one person caught in one act of transgression is followed by a whole list of warnings for the “confronter”.

When you find a finger pointing at another, there are 3 pointing back at you.

Who are spiritual (controlled by the Holy Spirit)

Spirit of gentleness

Keep watch on yourself,

Subject to temptation

Right estimation of oneself (self-aware)

Responsible for own actions

Several months ago your Elders faced a Gal 6:1 situation that had caused harm to the body. Even though action was hard and painful, I want to go on record (without revealing confidential circumstances) that your leaders were slow to act because they were aware of these 6. And I am more convinced than ever that they did the right thing for the purposed of God both in this congregation and in the individual caught in transgression.

2. While some churches are quick to enter discipline, and others never care enough or are too fearful to actually engage in it, there is something VERY healthy when v.1a is followed by vv.1b-5!

Transition: The first 5 verses of today’s text begin with if because intervention in other’s is not a daily occurrence. The last 5 begin with is, because the sharing of Biblical teaching is normative in the Body of Christ.

When a Believer is Taught (Gal 6:6-10)

· This verse along with 1 Tim 5:17-18 and Phil 4:12, 18 are some of the supports for “full-time Christian ministers”

· Receiving information is only the catalyst, this 2nd paragraph highlights things we must do with the information we receive.

Choose to obey (vv.7-8)

There is an essential connection between our choices and our circumstances.

Yes, you can name times that good things happened to a bad person.

You can name times that bad things happen to a good person.

Some years farmers get a good harvest. Other years the same farmer will get a better harvest, and some years circumstances beyond the farmer’s control lead to a lean or no harvest.

Decades ago I was introduced to 3 laws of agriculture:

One can only expect to harvest WHAT one sows. I have yet to meet a farmer who planted beans and got pineapples.

One can only expect to harvest LATER than one sows. Germination and production doesn’t happen overnight.

One sows expecting to harvest MORE than he/she sows.

Sowing weeds of the Flesh will eventually yield corruption. Sowing obedience to the Spirit yields both Fruit of the Spirit AND abundant living into the age to come.

Choose to endure (v.9)

Due season and do not give up are important reminders of the 2nd law of agriculture.

I believe they are also laws of beef production.

In the last 2 weeks countless Manure Maker Movers have been cruising the highway in front of the church. While we are hopeful for moisture this week, if God should choose to shower us with that blessing, the lack of rain the last month had not prompted ranchers to load and ship the freshly delivered calves.

3. Between lean cattle arriving and fat cattle shipping requires endurance and patience.

4. Likewise, today’s sermon is unlikely to produce instant change overnight.

5. Change will happen when you take the principles taught from God’s Word to impact the way you interact with brothers who have transgressed and when you choose to obey and endure until the change can be seen.

Choose to serve (v.10)

· The last verse of today’s Scripture tells us HOW to obey and endure.

Application

Everyone – Jesus took an opportunity to challenge his audience to love the people around them. The knee-jerk reaction was to seek a disclaimer by narrowing that audience as much as possible.

Let us do good to those who vote like us

Let us do good to those who look like us

Let us do good to those who agree with us on gender

Let us do good to those who are citizens

The Holy Spirit’s 1st application to us is Everyone.

Especially – Without neglecting anyone, it is possible to prioritize.

The household is those who are closest to us. Yes, those who know us best are the easiest to ignore and the hardest to reach (unless we do it repeated over time).

The household is more than relatives. In the first century, especially in Gentile homes, the household would include those who are biologically related, or adopted legally, or those who performed service roles like a nanny, a tutor, or a chaperone. Likewise, I believe the household of faith is not limited to members of your own church, but to all those who call upon the Lord in faith and repentance.

Yesterday I wore a red t-shirt all day in honor of someone who is part of the household of faith, but is not a member of our church or worshipping with us this morning. He is a man whom I sat down and chatted just a couple of weeks ago. He is a man whose faith has held him steady through a horrendous final Semester of High School, a classmate of the 3 we honored this morning.

He is a young man who was taught the word, chose to obey what the Spirit has called him to do and has endured until God acts. And He is a young man whom I have observed doing good to people of all ages whenever he has opportunity.

Conclusion:

I am intentionally not giving his name, because I’m sure there are times when he has been caught in transgression and needed somebody to bear with him and restore him patiently as vv.1-5. I’m not nominating anyone for sainthood this morning.

But I am pointing to him as an example of one who more often than not has chosen to respond to the Word of God according to vv.6-10 so that our community as a whole determined to honor him yesterday publicly.

Beyond his public obedience, his best friend and his girlfriend are in our company today, and both of them have enough integrity that they would not be as close to him if he chose to disobey, give up or live selfishly.

One thing I appreciate about today’s text is that it is framed in the present tense with a view to the future. It doesn’t say if we’ve ever been too harsh with a brother in the past or if we’ve ever ignored what we were taught from the Bible that we are a lost cause. It is full of future momentum. It compels us to new heights in the future.

The next week will be ceremonies and receptions honoring our graduates for the last 13 years, but each speaker at Baccalaureate and Commencement will also be calling them to keep moving forward for the next 13 years.

That is Paul’s call to us: in the future you can be more consistent in bearing with others, and choosing to obey what you are taught.

Song of Response #399. “Higher Ground”

Benediction: Hebrews 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.