Jesus

Last weekend I had the good fortune to hear an excellent sermon based on Paul’s letter to the Galatian church.  Galatians is one of my favorite books because it is all about living the Christian life by means of the Holy Spirit.  As a former “fundamentalist” I am an expert on living life by means of rules and regulations, and I am profoundly aware of the spiritual death that results.  The sinner and church reconciliation was a frequent topic of discussion, not to say debate, in those circles.  Hang on for some difficult but hard news!

The preacher began his review by discussing Paul’s first admonition in chapter 6:  “Brethren, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”  We are aware that Paul is speaking of Christians who are “caught…in…sin” because he urges that they be restored, and Paul would not have considered non-Christians to have anything to be restored to.

A flash from my past. This passage reminded me of an occasion at which I was a speaker at a church conference in a small island nation in the South Pacific.  Some Christians at the conference had accused another Christian of committing a sin. The “sinner” did not admit wrongdoing and the dispute was elevated to the conference leadership. They were inclined to bring the matter to a close as quickly as possible by immediately giving the accused an ultimatum: confess that you have sinned or be banished from the church. The accused and a small number of supporters appealed to me to determine whether there could be church reconciliation. The leaders responded by pointing out that I had no authority in the church and themselves appealed to Scripture:  Matthew 18:15-17.  Nonetheless, they asked me for my opinion.  I responded by asking them what attempts had been made to restore the person, pointed out Galatians 6:1 and reminded them that, even in the Matthew passage, excommunication was a last resort in the process of restoration.  They eventually retreated into their authority, banished the accused, and made sure that no one else asked me what I thought about it.  My point in relating this story is not to criticize the outcome of that particular confrontation. I merely want to reinforce the idea that the biblical guidelines governing church reconciliation of a sinning Christian are not about anger, self-righteousness, fear or power, they are about restoration.

Three noteworthy principles. The reason that confronting the sinner among Christians is so hard is that everything that is biblically required of us is contrary to the flesh. The flesh is uncomfortable with confrontation and, in its presence, mobilizes “fight or flight” responses. Biblical principles, to the contrary, require us to stay engaged and be submissive.  Here are three points from Galatians 6:1 to consider:

1. Ignoring the sinner is not optional.  “if anyone is caught in any sin… restore such a one.”  This is an imperative.  We may not ignore and we may not banish, except as a last resort.
2. The purpose of confronting sin is restoration.  “…restore such a one.” Even the Matthew passage, which terminates in possible excommunication from the church, has restoration as its ultimate purpose:  The first stage of confrontation ends: “…if he listens to you, you have won your brother.”  The following measures provided for are clearly intended to have the same outcome.  Even when the church is forced to “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector,” we must infer that the intent is to show the sinning Christian what he is losing by refusing to confess his sin.  If and when he does so the church will begin the process of restoration that is the reverse of the process that led to his banishment.  Similarly, Paul tells the Corinthian church that there is a person among them whose sin is so blatant that  “I have decided to 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 Jesus.”  Note that Paul’s purpose is that the person ultimately be “saved.”
3. You must have the right motives to be qualified to confront.  “…you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.”  Anger and frustration are poor motives for church reconciliation and unity.  When any party in a dispute is in the “fight or flight” mode, the situation is likely to decline into a power struggle that drives a wedge between people.  At that point you have a circumstance in which all parties are sinning and none of them is likely to bring the gentleness into the dispute that is needed for a spiritual solution.  In the case prescribed by Paul, the spiritual quality of gentleness (Galatians 5:22-23) aligns itself with the other fruits of the Spirit to make it possible for the representatives of the church to engage with humility and patience in the process intended to bring back the person who has offended them.  These qualities can only come from the Holy Spirit.

Application of the principles. These principles have a broad application to the entire life of the church.  Christians sometimes defend themselves from the risk of submissive relationships by wielding truth like a weapon.  We know that a basic rule of godly living is to tell the truth. (Exodus 20:16, Colossians 3:9)  Thus, when we want to estrange ourselves from someone who threatens us, we feel free to tell others anything about them that is true, or to point out to them old grievances or sins, as long as they are “true.”  Ephesians 4:15-16, however, reveals the entire principle of spriritual truthfulness:

…but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together  by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.  (my emphasis)

Ephesians 4:1-2 begins this discussion with the broader context: “…to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” In other words, before we can talk about speaking the truth in love, we are called to humility, which enables Christians to put others first.  Finally, “[That] we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (v. 13)

Whenever we find ourselves reacting to sin within the body of believers with anger, self-righteousness, anxiety or fear, we should immediately realize that the individuals or church involved are in danger from both the sin and the reaction to the sin.  We are not qualified to even start dealing with the sin until we have dealt with our reactions to it.  We have to pray and submit to the Holy Spirit until we can truly say that we are ready to fight the sin but reconcile the sinner.  The church can grow stronger as a result of confronting sin, when it is done in the Spirit.  This is why the Bible makes it mandatory.  Nevertheless, we must understand that Satan views any sin in the church as an opportunity to widen his net far beyond the person who is “caught” in the original offense.  I have seen it happen, in the church I described above and in churches much closer to home.

Related Posts:

• The Sinner as a Product of the Christian Community
• A biblical definition of sanctification
• The routine of the Christian life
• …don’t brag. Oh my!

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