During January at the church
where I serve we have launched into the New Year with a brand new sermon series
entitled responsibility. During this series, we are spending
our time together wrestling with the issue of responsibility and what
responsibility looks like in our lives.
This week I would like for us to talk about a timeless
principle that powerfully impacts the whole issue of responsibility. The thing
about a principle, however, is that a principle is not good; a principle is not
bad; a principle just is. Take the law of gravity for example. The law of
gravity is not good; the law of gravity is not bad; the law of gravity just is.
If you ignore the law of gravity, however, that does not
mean that the law of gravity does not exist. Instead, if you ignore the law of
gravity, you will experience its consequences in a powerful and painful way.
The law of gravity does not discriminate; the law of gravity works the same way
for all people.
And in the same way, there is a principle that surrounds
responsibility that also does not discriminate. There is a law regarding
responsibility that works the same way for all people. We discover this law in
a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the
book of Galatians.
To fully understand the law and its implications, we
first need to understand to context in which the Apostle Paul reveals this law.
So let’s look at the context in which this law or principle is revealed,
beginning in Galatians 6:1:
Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, 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.
Paul begins this section of this letter with a situation:
Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass. Paul here is referring to
someone who is experiencing the consequences that come as a result of being
irresponsible in a way that hurt God and
others. This is a person who has gotten off track when it comes to their
relationship with God because of their irresponsible behavior. After revealing the situation,
Paul then provides the members of the churches of Galatia
a command in terms of how they are to respond to the situation. Paul commands
those in the churches who are spiritual to restore such a one. When Paul refers
to those who are spiritual, he is referring to followers of Jesus that are
influenced and controlled by the Holy Spirit and who are living responsible
lives. In other words, those who are on track and who are living Spirit-filled,
responsible lives as followers of Jesus are to help those who have gotten off
track as a result of their irresponsibility get back on track when it comes to
their relationship with God.
But notice how Paul says that followers of Jesus who are
responsible are to help those who have gotten off track as a result of their
irresponsibility get back on track when it comes to their relationship with
God. First, Paul explains that we are to display a spirit of gentleness as we
come alongside those who have gotten off track as a result of their selfish and
rebellious irresponsibility. The phase “in a spirit of gentleness” literally
means in a gentle manner.
In other words, followers of Jesus are not to use their
Bibles like a sledge hammer to beat the person who has gotten off track back on
track. Instead, for the person who has gotten knocked off track by their
irresponsibility, we are to lovingly and gently come alongside and guide them
and encourage them in a way that results in them getting back on track.
Second, Paul explains that we are to be “looking to
yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”
Now if Paul was making this statement in the language we use in our
culture today, this statement would sound something like this: “As you are
helping those who have gotten off track get back on track, pay attention and
look out that you don’t end up being enticed by your old nature apart from
Jesus that is dominated by selfishness and rebellion so that you don’t end up
off track as well.”
Paul here is revealing for us the reality that followers
of Jesus have a responsibility to help one another stay on track and live
responsible lives when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. When we see
other followers of Jesus get off track, we have the responsibility to lovingly
and gently help them get back on track, while at the same time guarding against
us getting off track and into irresponsible behavior as well. Paul continues to
unpack the responsibility that followers of Jesus have toward one another in
verse 2:
Bear one
another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
Here we see Paul command followers of Jesus throughout
history, to bear one another’s burdens. Now this command conveys the sense of
sustaining and supporting one another through the difficulties that come about
as we follow Jesus here on earth. And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us
the reality that part of the responsibility that we have to one another is to
support and encourage one another to live responsible lives. We are responsible
to be developing deepening relationships with one another that strive to
support and encourage one another as we live life in community with one
another.
That is why we are such strong proponents of community
groups here at City Bible Church. Community
groups are intentional environments that afford the opportunity for us as
followers of Jesus to develop deepening relationships where people can grow in
their relationship with God as they experience the support, encouragement and
the loving accountability that fosters spiritual growth and responsibility.
That is why our hearts desire is that every regular attender at City Bible
Church invest their time in a community group, because it is in community
groups that we can develop the deep relationships that support and encourage one another to live responsible
lives.
Paul then reveals for us the
reality that when we experience those deep relationships that support and
encourage one another to live responsibly, the result is that we fulfill the
law of Christ. Paul’s point here is that when we live in community that is
marked by deepening relationships that strive to support and encourage one
another to live responsibly, we reveal and reflect Christ’s character and
conduct. We are living in such a way that meets Christ’s standard to love God
with our total being and that shows our love for God by how we love and treat
others.
Tomorrow, we will see Paul confront
a potential danger when we live responsibly…
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