GALATIANS 6:1-5 - Life Together: Guarding One Another

Introduction

As you might imagine, our family has learned a lot about healthcare these past several months, particularly about oncological medicine. (And I bring this up knowing that there are plenty of you here who know far more about oncology medicines than you ever wanted to know, too!) If you have ever had chemotherapy, for instance (or insulin or some heart medications), you know that the nurse administering the drugs has to have another nurse come over and verify that everything is correct for dosages, etc. It is vitally important to administer those drugs properly because they are immensely dangerous if given incorrectly.

You see the same thing in other dangerous professions--Army Rangers have their parachutes checked by multiple people as they are being packed, scuba divers check each other’s seals on their gear before they dive; pilots and copilots of commercial jets both place their hands on the throttle during takeoff, climbers rope themselves to each other as they ascend a sheer rock face. In each of those examples, people check each other’s work and carefully examine each other’s behavior because in those pursuits mistakes can kill you.

No one questions the need to have someone else check your work or evaluate your progress when it is a matter of life and death. But isn’t it interesting that the one thing that no one likes to be questioned on or confronted about is the progress they are making towards their eternal life or death? We’re very interested in someone else’s evaluation of whether we have packed our parachute right, but how dare someone ask if we are making progress in our faith? We’re immensely grateful if someone helps look over the state of our tax return, but we bristle if someone offers to help evaluate the state of our soul.

Now granted--there are a lot of ways to do this kind of thing badly. And a lot of the apprehension or unwillingness we have toward someone inquiring about the state of our Christian life comes from bad experiences with Christian busybodies, gossips and legalists whose “care” for your soul is really just an excuse to feed their sin of gossip and slander. A church dominated by that kind of sin will kill off any genuine fellowship, because everyone has to put up a good front; no one can let the mask slip or they’ll get devoured by the “good Christians”.

But then there is a ditch on the other side of the road as well--a church can be so “hands-off” and so unwilling to confront sin or error that it allows people to be confident in their profession of faith who should be anything but. A church that constantly looks the other way regarding sin, or that prides itself on the attitude that “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven!” is a church that is letting everyone pack their own parachute with nobody to double-check. It is a church that kills off any true fellowship because it allows people to claim to be Christians without any evidence of the New Birth, without any indication of the fruits of the Spirit or desire for holiness or hatred for sin. And far too often, those are the people whose faith is eventually revealed to be counterfeit; when the ripcord is pulled it becomes obvious that they were never really Christians to begin with. And the tragedy is that the genuine believers in their lives never told them.

Eternity is long; sin is deceitful, human pride is rampant. And yet, as we read a few moments ago, we are called by God to guard one another’s faith. How do we do that in a way that honors God and avoids those pitfalls of judgmentalism on the one hand and lawlessness on the other hand?

So here is what I want to present to you from these passages in God’s Word this morning--when we are living together in true Christian community, we will

GUARD one another’s WALK with ETERNITY in mind

In the verses we read a few moments ago, we see the first description of what it means to guard one another in fellowship. look again at Galatians 6:1:

Galatians 6:1 LSB

Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

Guarding one another’s walk with eternity in mind means first of all that

I. We WATCH OUT for each other (Galatians 6:1)

The word here translated “caught” in any transgression does not mean “caught” as in “AHA!! We caught you sinning!!” The picture here isn’t of a judgmental, piously perfectionistic church “catching” you red-handed in some sin. The word here literally means “caught by surprise” or “caught unawares”. In other words, when you have been ambushed by sin; when you have been outmaneuvered by it; when despite your own best efforts to fight, sin has pinned you to the mat.

That is when your brothers and sisters in Christ must come to your aid with hearts

Borne of LOVE, not JUDGMENT (cp. 1 Cor. 13:5; 1 Peter 4:8)

When your dear brother or sister in Christ has been ambushed by sin, your goal is not to make sure they know they have sinned--trust me, they know. They know they have been made a fool of again; they know that they have failed to fight as they ought to have done; what they need to know is that their brothers and sisters in Christ are there to help them pick themselves up, brush themselves off in repentance, and get back into the fight.

We watch out for one another out of the love that “does not take into account a wrong” (1 Cor. 13:5), that is willing to “cover a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8. Not “covering up” sin or ignoring it, but by letting go of sin that has been repented of and forsaken. Judgment wants to hold onto that record of wrong, just in case they ever get out of line again we can smack them with it. But love is eager to get past it and get on with the business of pursuing together the holiness without which no one will see the LORD.

And the second part of Galatians 6:1 goes on to remind us that as we watch out for each other, our watchfulness is

Borne of HUMILITY, not SUPERIORITY (cp. Gen. 4:7)

Galatians 6:1 LSB

...restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

Pride will always want to distance itself from the sinner: “Well, I can see how you would be tempted to lie in that situation...”, while always thinking in the back of your mind, “Well I’m sure glad I don’t have to worry about that sin in my life...”

But Paul reminds us here in this verse that none of us are immune to being ambushed by sin--every one of us needs to hear the same warning that God gave to Cain in Genesis 4:7

Genesis 4:7 LSB

“...sin is lying at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Every one of us has sin crouching around the corner to ambush us if it can, and so when we are helping a brother or sister recover from such an ambush, we do so knowing that “This could have been me...” “This has been me...” “I want this brother to be restored and strengthened because next time he might be doing this for me...”

As Paul writes in Philippians 2, we do not seek to restore one another

Philippians 2:3–4 LSB

...from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

We are called to guard one another’s walk with eternity in mind--we watch out for one another, and

II. We SPEAK UP to each other (Romans 15:14)

Turn with me to the book of Romans, Chapter 15 (it’s on page 949 in the pew Bible). In verse 14 we read

Romans 15:14 LSB

But I myself am also convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, having been filled with all knowledge and being able also to admonish one another.

The Greek word translated “admonish” here gives the sense of warning or counseling someone about their behavior. And notice that Paul says such warning or counseling is only to be done with those who are “full of goodness, having been filled with all knowledge”--it is not a job for the prideful; it is not a task to be done by someone full of their own goodness or their own knowledge. As we have seen already, it is a task to be borne out of the love and humility that lives in us through the New Birth.

When a SCUBA diver realizes his dive buddy’s seals aren’t seated right, he speaks up. When a nurse sees that a cardiac drip isn’t calibrated properly, she says something. It’s not “loving” in those cases to keep silent out of fear of “hurting someone’s feelings”.

This is what the writer of Hebrews reminds says in Hebrews 3:12-13

Hebrews 3:12–13 LSB

See to it brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

We speak up to one another

Because SIN is DECEITFUL (Heb. 3:12-13)

Don’t miss the fact that the writer addresses his readers as brothers--as fellow believers— who can have an “evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God”! Now once again--the idea here is NOT that a truly converted person can “lose” their salvation. Once the New Birth is a reality in you, you cannot be lost.

But the problem is that sin is still deceitful--it will deceive believers into thinking they haven’t sinned, and it will deceive unbelievers into thinking that they are Christians! And so we must be ready to speak up when we see a brother or sister starting to trifle with sin--it seems like the most harmless, inconsequential little trifle to them, but to you and I who have been ambushed by that very sin, we know better, and we can warn them!

Christian, the battles you have fought and won with sin do not make you superior to your brother or sister in ANY way--what those battle scars do is enable you to help them fight! Help your brother recognize the lies porn is telling him; help your sister escape the snares that envy and self-pity is setting for her. Put your battle scars with sin into service to your fellow believer to keep them from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin in their life.

We speak up for each other because sin is deceitful; and we speak up for one another

Because our BROTHER is PRECIOUS (2 Thess. 3:14-15)

In 2 Thessalonians the Apostle Paul is writing to the church about some of the members of the church that were “...walking in an unruly manner" (2 Thess. 3:11). He writes in verse 14 that those unruly members might not listen to Paul’s admonishment, but that did not mean that they were enemies. He writes in 2 Thessalonians 3:15:

2 Thessalonians 3:15 LSB

And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

When admonishment has to take place, when you have to have a difficult conversation with a brother or sister because you can see the deceptions of sin starting to take root in their lives, it is one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. But that brother, that sister, has been purchased by the precious blood of Christ--they are infinitely worth it! To ignore your brother when he is struggling hard with sin is to hate him, just as surely as if you saw him sinking down into quicksand and walked by him without a word.

Leviticus 19:17 LSB

‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, and so not bear sin because of him.

Do not hate your brother by refusing to reprove him where necessary--because to ignore his struggle with sin is itself a sin on your part!

Because your brother is precious, you will do everything you can to make sure that your words are true, necessary and loving. As John Owen, the great Puritan scholar, wrote:

Let all the external circumstances of the admonition, such as the time, place, persons, and the like, be carefully weighed, so that all provocation in the least manner may be fully avoided (Quoted in Owen, J. (2014). Rules for walking in fellowship. Puritan Treasures for Today, p. 85)

When we guard each other’s walk with eternity in mind, we will watch out for one another out of love and humility; we will speak up to one another because sin is deceitful and our brother is precious, and in 1 Corinthians 5 we see the third way we guard one another in Christian fellowship:

III. We SET BOUNDARIES for one another (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 5 (page 954 in the pew Bible). We spoke earlier of the dangers of a church that is so unwilling to confront sin that they endanger the eternal safety of their members--instead of delivering admonition with love and humility in obedience to the Truth of God’s Word, they look the other way, they make excuses, they justify sinful behavior, they pretend that “everything is fine” when it is clearly not.

This is the atmosphere that Paul was writing to in the first five verses of 1 Corinthians 5. He writes:

1 Corinthians 5:1–5 LSB

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present: in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

There was a member of the church there in Corinth who was committing sexual immorality with his own stepmother. Paul says that even the other Corinthians (who were known as a ribald, sexually promiscuous people)--even the pagans in Corinth thought that was shocking behavior. But the church--in an effort to show themselves loving, no doubt--had decided to be proud of allowing that kind of sexual immorality not only to be tolerated but celebrated in their midst.

But Paul sharply rebukes them for this; instead of being proud of this couple’s behavior, they should have been brokenhearted over it (v. 2). To see a brother in Christ be so deceived by sin, so hardened to its lies, that he would commit such flagrant sin and feel no shame for it--this should have caused his fellow members to be devastated. Because such shameless, open and unapologetic sin calls into question whether such a one is even a Christian. This is why Paul says in verse 5:

1 Corinthians 5:5 LSB

deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

This is why church discipline exists--it is a way of saying that there is a point at which a church simply cannot affirm someone’s claim to be a Christian--that they have crossed a line with their unrepentant, unapologetic sin that leaves a church no choice but to say “We cannot in good conscience affirm the Christian faith that you claim to profess.” We do this, as Paul writes

For the sake of their SOUL (v. 5)

Can you imagine the horror of a soul that, on the Last Day, stands before Christ at the Final Judgment and finding out at that moment that they were never a Christian? You had lived all your life going to a church that left you alone to live the way you wanted, that had never once asked you questions about the state of your Christian walk, had always turned a blind eye to your vile temper, your seething hatred, your burning lust, your grasping greed and envy, but had let you go on about your life as you saw fit, telling you all the time that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, that Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven, and they had no business telling you how to live your life? And in the moment that you hear the voice of the Savior that you claimed to follow say to you, “Depart from me, Accursed One, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41)--the last moment in all eternity that you will ever be free from torment--your last thought will be “Why didn’t anyone at that church ever tell me?”

How could a church ever let one of their members fall into that horror? We set boundaries for one another for the sake of our never-dying souls--the discipline of the church is meant to bring a soul to Christ that otherwise would fall away because of the deceitfulness of sin.

We guard one another by setting boundaries of who is inside or outside the church. To separate someone from the fellowship of the church is a way of demonstrating that we cannot agree with their profession of faith--they go from being an object of our fellowship-love to an object of evangelism-love. Instead of loving them as a brother, we love them as an unbeliever who needs to repent and believe the Gospel!

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 that we set these boundaries of church discipline for the sake of the sinning member’s soul--and in verses 11-12 we see that we need to set these boundaries

For the sake of the CHURCH (vv. 6-12)

There are a couple of benefits to the church that come from the practice of church discipline. First, church discipline serves as sort of an “immune system” for the church. This is what Paul is getting at in verse 6:

1 Corinthians 5:6 LSB

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

In other words, when this kind of sin (and remember, we’re talking the “big-ticket”, serious and continually unrepentant Ten Commandment-breaking sins)--when this kind of sin takes hold in a church, it will eventually kill it. It really is a cancer; it will grow and spread and metastasize throughout the body until it kills of healthy fellowship, deadens prayer, paralyzes worship and chokes out the preaching and hearing of the Word. As hard and painful as church discipline is, if it is not practiced faithfully when necessary it will claim the life of a fellowship.

There is another benefit to the church that Paul indicates in verses 11-13:

1 Corinthians 5:11–13 LSB

But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God will judge. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

Notice here Paul is making a very clear distinction between those who are inside and outside the church--his responsibility is to those who are inside. Consider for a moment what the outsiders thought of the church in Corinth that Paul was writing to. “Wow--those Christians allow a man to sleep with his stepmother?? Well, I certainly am not going to associate with them!” If the level of morality inside a given church is no better (or in fact worse) than the unbelieving world outside its walls, what good is it? If a sinner outside the church sees that the people inside the church are at least as wicked as he is, why should he bother going in there? At least the people down at the strip club know that they’re the scum of the earth--they aren’t pretending to be holier-than-thou!

But when a church has to separate from a “Christian” woman who has been cheating on her husband or remove from membership a “Christian” doctor who won’t stop performing abortions, the world outside can at least acknowledge that whatever else they do, “that church practices what it preaches!” And in this world of phony virtue and hypocritical goodness, a church that is honest about its pursuit of holiness and obedience to God’s Word demonstrates an integrity that so many people are looking for and can’t find anywhere else.

And there is one more thing that can be said about a church that is willing to guard one another this way:

There is a world of difference between a church that tolerates unrepentant sinners and a church that delights in repentant sinners! If the world looks with disgust on a church that looks the other way when its members revel in their sin, how much more will the world look on in wonder at a church that delights to love the unlovable! A church that seeks to defend its people from the ravages of sin, coming alongside one another to strengthen and encourage and admonish and build up--a church that loves its members by protecting them from Satan’s attacks, picking them up when they fall, “having each others’ six” in the long, brutal war against sin.

Christian, what has God’s Word revealed to you about the way you guard your brothers and sisters in Christ? We are called to look out for one another, but “looking out for one another” is ugly when it is done from a position of superiority. When you look down on others for their struggles with sin because they aren’t your struggles. So the first way to guard your brothers and sisters in Christ is to seek godly humility by continual repentance in your own life. Jesus was clear that before you can remove the speck from your brother’s eye you have to clear the railroad tie out of your own eye! And don’t go around trying to be the most humble, most self-deprecating, most “Oh-look-at-me-I’m-such-a-worm” Christian--that’s just another form of spiritual pride masquerading as false humility.

But when you are truly seeking to love God more than you hate sin, when you are constantly living in the assurance of the salvation that Christ has purchased for you by His blood, that humility and grace will flow from you--true humility and repentance doesn’t have to go around telling everyone how humble it is; it actually pretty much just forgets about itself and gets on with the business of living repentance. And that is a heart that will look out for one another in the right way

We are called in God’s Word to speak up for one another--to be ready to go to our brother or sister and speak that admonishment when necessary. But in order to do that, you have to have the kind of relationship that makes it possible to have that kind of hard conversation. This is another way of saying don’t forsake the fellowship in this room. Cultivate such relationships among your brothers and sisters here that first--they will be willing to hear admonition from you, and second, that they will be free to bring admonition to you.

Think about this--the nature of sin and the nature of relationships means that usually you will see a pattern of sin in someone long before you have a relationship with them strong enough to speak to them about it. And because you don’t know them well enough and they don’t know you well enough, you don’t want to speak to them and they don’t want to hear it from you. And so sin wins in their life--and in yours.

So what you need to do, in obedience to God’s Word, is grow more deeply in meaningful fellowship with one another so that someone who is struggling will be willing to hear from you, and you will be willing to listen if someone approaches you. Giving or receiving admonition can only happen in the power of the New Birth, but it cannot happen between church members who barely know each other. So for the sake of your fellow member’s never-dying soul, do not forsake fellowship.

God’s Word instructs us to set boundaries for one another--We must guard one another so that we don’t become hardened to the deceitfulness of sin. For the most part, this takes the form of encouraging one another, picking each other up when we fall, pointing each other back again and again to the marvelous grace of Christ Who has purchased for us a pardon that can never be worn out--it is impossible to sin your way to the end of Christ’s mercy. There is no greater encouragement to a believer struggling with sin than to be able to say, “You are loved by Christ; He sees your battles, His grace is sufficient. He will perfect you in holiness; Keep fighting, keep repenting, keep battling; and I am with you every step of the way!”

But for those who do not battle for holiness; for those who number themselves among the members of the church yet never tremble at the sheer grace that has saved them or strive for the holiness without which no one will see the LORD; for the one who sins and laughs it off, the one who has a justification for every wicked act, the one who comes heedless to the Lord’s Table and wants to take those elements without thinking once about the state of his heart before God--for that one the most loving thing a church can do is say No. To warn such a one about the boundaries that mark genuine faith from hypocrisy, to admonish them to take heed to their soul before it is too late.

Take them aside, one on one, show them where God’s Word reveals their sin, plead with them to come to Christ in repentance. And if they do not listen, to go again with the elders to warn them that their sin will destroy them. And if they do not listen to them, to unite together as a church family to say, “We love you, we pray for you, but we cannot let you call yourself a Christian. You love your sin and pride more than you love Jesus; you do not take any thought to the warnings the Scripture speaks to your behavior; you want to be called a Christian but do not want to live as one. This body is for those who have been born again through Christ, but we cannot see that New Birth in you. We love you, we want you to love Christ, but an unbeliever cannot be a member of this body. We want you to hear the Gospel and be saved so that you can really belong here!”

Beloved, may there be no one here who becomes so hardened to the deceitfulness of sin that he finds himself outside the bounds of fellowship; may there be no one who cherishes her sin more than she cherishes the beauty of repentance and restoration. Sin is deceptive, eternity is long, your brother is precious. Don’t abandon each other in this battle; cultivate the love and trust that will allow you to speak up (and be spoken to!); and in all of it, as you guard one another, take comfort in the promises of God’s Word that you are

1 Peter 1:5 LSB

...protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

through your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 LSB

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

What are the two ways that “guarding each other” in the church can become sinful or destructive? Which of those tendencies would you say are more likely to be susceptible to?

What does it mean to look after one another’s Christian walk “with eternity in mind”? What does this mean about our attitudes towards sin? Towards our fellow believer’s value?

What does the word admonish mean? What are some reasons why it might be difficult (or even painful) to admonish someone who is being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin?

Why is it important to set boundaries for our fellowship as a church? Is it harsh or unloving to tell someone that their behavior demonstrates that they may not be saved? Why or why not?

How do these Scriptures demonstrate the necessity of close, meaningful relationships in a local church? Where is God’s Word showing you how you can commit to deepening your fellowship here at Bethel?