Christ’s Picture of a Healthy Body
Galatians 6:1-5
Near Watsonville, California, there is a creek that has a strange name: Salsipuedes Creek. Salsi puedes is Spanish for “Get out of it, if you can.” The creek is lined with quicksand, and the story is that many years ago, in the early days of California, a Mexican laborer fell into the quicksand. A Spaniard, riding by on a horse, saw him and yelled out to him, “Salsi puedes!” which wasn’t very helpful. The creek has been so named ever since. That’s what sin is like. We struggle to correct these tendencies—to get out of the effects of our sinful nature—but we cannot do it alone.
In Galatians chapter 6, God teaches the church through Paul that a healthy church doesn’t leave fellow believers in the quicksand of sin. A healthy church asks a spiritual believer to go carefully into the quicksand to help the struggling sinner get free. The call becomes, “Get out of it, with my help.” That’s the lesson we find in Galatians 6:1-5. In honor of God and His Word, please stand for the reading of these verses.
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load. [NIV]
[Prayer] In these five verses, there are three requirements of a healthy church body. Each of these traits involves our role as men and women of God living in a godless and selfish world of sin. Without them, we cannot be all that Christ has created us to be. But with these traits comes joy and healthy growth. The first trait of a healthy church is found in verse one… namely,
I. A healthy church gently restores straying believers with great caution (1).
Verse one is dealing with a believer who has accidentally slipped into sin; it wasn’t intentional, it’s not habitual (yet), but it is sinful. He says: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”
He is speaking to believers about how to restore a fellow believer who is “caught in a sin”. The phrase is literally “caught by a sin”; and the idea is that of a believer who was trying to run away from sin and doing their best to avoid the sin, but sin overtook them. It’s a scary thought. By the way, the legalists loved to use this tendency to ambush and trap desperate victims.
If you want to see the way they used entrapment without mercy or gentleness, look at the woman taken in adultery in John 8. She was set up by these legalists so they could use her to trap Jesus. The indication of this same word is that she may have tried to get away and had no intention of committing adultery when she was trapped. But they were using her as a pawn, perhaps because she had a reputation. She was “caught” (same word) in the act of adultery. But what did Jesus do? He turned the arsenal of grace on her wicked accusers. He vindicated her and set her free from the trap with the warning, “go and sin no more”. He didn’t berate her; He didn’t put her on probation for six months… He restored her with gentleness. No wonder they call Him the Savior.
Many of us have never been so zealous to avoid sin that it had to overtake us. Too many Christians willingly turn around to dance with sin as soon as it taps them on the shoulder. God’s word indicates there are some sins that will hunt you down and dog your steps even when you try to resist them; like enemy warfare in hand to hand combat. Still, you fight, you resist, and you call out to Jesus for help. You may be thinking, “What’s the use of running if sin’s going to overtake me anyway? Why fight it?” You fight against the enemy to show whose side you’re on.
In the great match of holiness, you don’t lose ground because you’re tackled by sin; you lose ground because you’re tackled while facing the wrong goal line. Run for holiness! Run for purity! If you’re overtaken in pursuit of these, Jesus will not throw you out of the game. His word says to gently mend, gently restore those who have been tackled while resisting sin. Some-times sin overtakes believers when they least expect it. That’s the context of verse one here. A believer has been surprised by sin while running in the opposite direction… and they need restoration. A healthy church restores the fallen. Consider what it means to restore someone.
The word for “restoration” is used medically in secular Greek for setting a broken bone; in the NT, the same word is used for mending broken nets. This is the exact same word used for what James and John were doing in their father’s boat when Jesus called them to follow Him and be fishers of men (Mt. 4:21). They were doing the difficult and delicate work of mending their nets. Whether you’re setting a broken bone or mending a broken net, the work requires steady, gentle know-how. It requires the same thing when restoring a fallen brother or sister. That’s why this activity of a healthy church is given to… “you who are spiritual”.
In this context, a spiritual Christian is not necessarily the oldest Christian or the one with the most footnotes in their study Bible; a spiritual Christian is the man or woman with the most evident fruit of the Spirit in their life. A fruit-bearing Christian knows how to restore a fallen believer in gentleness. The whole discussion of the fruit in chapter five was to prepare them (and us) for the work of the Body in chapter six. It’s great fruitfulness that defines great faithfulness.
Verse one ends with a caveat… a warning. “Watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” This tells us that even the most spiritual and fruit-bearing Christian can still be tempted and ensnared by sin. The warning is legitimate and real. After all, the Pharisees were using the woman taken in adultery to entrap Jesus. Spiritual restoration is desperately needed in the Body of Christ. It’s not easy or enjoyable, but it’s so necessary. Confrontation and restoration are often difficult for spiritual people because they are gentle; they aren’t meddlesome by nature; they aren’t the kind of people who look for scandals; they don’t usually scrutinize other people’s lives. Someone may have to tell these people that their spiritual help is needed for the health of the Body.
People who are gentle and full of abundant fruit are so needed in every church; because a healthy church gently restores straying believers with great caution. But he goes further. Second…
II. A healthy church graciously uplifts troubled believers with great love (2).
Verse 2 says, “2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
There are two questions we need to ask from this verse: (1) what is a burden?... and (2) how does carrying each other’s burdens fulfill the law of Christ?
To begin with, a “burden” is a weight above and beyond the normal load of daily living. It encumbers the Christian walk and inhibits spiritual progress. It may be physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, financial, or medical; there are all kinds of burdens. A burden is something that a person is harmed by bearing. Instead of making a person stronger, a burden tends to make them weaker. The point of this verse is that a Christian is unnecessarily weighed down and they need your help. This leads to the second question… how does carrying each other’s burdens fulfill the law of Christ?
The law of Christ is stated in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Christ’s law is love. You love your fellow believers when you lighten their burdens. Love doesn’t weigh people down; it lifts them up to bear greater fruit. Love does require accountability, but accountability isn’t a burden any more that a parachute is a burden to a skydiver. The accountability required by love keeps us from destroying ourselves and harming others. You fulfill the law of Christ when you bear one another’s burdens. This requires a rare mix of great strength with great gentleness.
Some of you know how to listen to those who are grieving and hurting. Your gift is mercy or compassion. Others have material resources or social contacts to help those with special needs. Your gift may be generosity or helps or administration. When I was in a church in Dallas, I had one old codger tell me he had the “gift of criticism”. Over the years I’ve met a lot of those people. I told him that’s one talent Jesus doesn’t mind if you bury!
Notice how different members of the Body have different gifts and abilities. We don’t all have the same strengths. God made us different to make us one in Christ. Without different gifts, there could be no harmony. Differences make us stronger when our doctrine, theology, and love for Jesus are united. Without differences, there could be no growth. Romans 15:1 refers to using our strengths to help those who aren’t strong in our area of giftedness. He wrote… “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just to please ourselves.”
For us to be a healthy church means I must do my part so you can do your part and vice-versa. When an immature member of the Body refuses to use their strength or exercise their gifts, they not only miss the joy of ministry, they actually become a burden to the other members of the Body. In verse five, we learn the difference between bearing a burden and carrying a load. But in verse two, just notice that bearing each other’s unnecessary burdens fulfills the law of Christ.
This is another mark of spiritual health in a church. So far we’ve seen (1) a healthy church gently restores straying believers with great caution; (2) a healthy church graciously uplifts troubled believers with great love. And now, third…
III. A healthy church legitimately equips each believer to exercise their gifts with great humility (3-5).
Listen again to vv. 3-5: “3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load.”
Some people may be confused by the fact that Paul uses the word “pride” positively in verse four after denouncing what sounds like pride in verse three. After all, it is ugly pride when somebody thinks he is something when he is nothing. Somebody said, “Pride is the only disease that makes everybody sick except the person who has it.” Furthermore, a prideful person is a self-deceived person. That is, they think about themselves in an idealized or unrealistic way; glossing over their flaws and hiding weaknesses. Paul says the answer to this problem is that “Each one should test his own actions.” How does that solve the problem of pride or comparison?
Well first of all, testing one’s own actions forces an individual to take a good hard look at himself as he really is. Now all of a sudden he’s not examining everybody else’s life for faults; he’s found enough flaws in his own heart to drive him to his knees. And what is he testing for when he tests his actions? From the context, it seems that he’s testing to determine the source of his actions. Did these actions flow from God’s Spirit or from the flesh?
There are two kinds of pride. There is the sinful pride which boasts in itself while looking down on others; but there is also an honorable kind of pride that swells with virtue for all the right reasons. This pride doesn’t come from comparison; it comes from honorable service and faithful dependence. When a Christian takes good pride in himself, it’s only because he sees more and more of Jesus in his life. That’s why the second half of verse four says, “Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else…” He’s got his eyes on Jesus; he’s not looking around at everybody else to see what they’re doing.
Exercising your gifts and using your strengths in the church as a fruit-producing Christian is what it means to “carry your own load”. Anyone who refuses to carry their own load in the Body becomes a burden for the rest of the Body to bear. Everyone in the Body of Christ has a load to bear. A load is your personal share of the ministry; it’s just your normal obligation as a Spirit-filled believer. It’s not a burden. Remember, a burden is an unnecessary weight beyond the normal load. God has given each believer certain gifts to edify His Body. Many of the most needed gifts are the private expressions of love and kindness, behind the scenes, away from the limelight. Without these private gifts behind the scenes, our public gifts become less effective.
A healthy church needs every believer to bear fruit and to find joy in using their gifts in God’s service. When every person does their part, burdens are lifted, loads are carried, and joy is pervasive. It’s true in the church that “many hands make light work”, especially when those hands are consecrated to the kingdom-building work of Jesus Christ in the world through His Body. What is your “load” that Jesus has enabled you to carry for His glory? Is there some burden preventing you from carrying your load? If so, Jesus calls us to come to Him to find rest for our souls; His yoke is easy and His burden is light. That’s because He bears them with us. He never calls us to do anything alone, for He is with us. All of His calls are empowered by His enablement; He said, “apart from Me, you can do nothing…” (Jn 15:5).
A healthy Body of believers is one filled with His Spirit and dedicated to the joy and prosperity of its fellow members out of great love for Jesus. Do you want to have great joy and to be part of a great church that reaches the world for Jesus? Then lay down your burden… and carry your load.
(c) Charles Kevin Grant
2003
