Pursuing Those Who Have Fallen With a Spirit of Gentleness
"My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted." Galatians 6:1 NRSV
We are so quick to condemn a brother or sister who has fallen into temptation and sin, forgetting that we have been forgiven of our sins - past, present, and future - by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
As we practice the discipline of solitude and silence, we create space for Jesus to reveal our many layers of sin, helping us to clearly see the log in our own eye before attempting to remove the speck in someone else's eye. In community, we faithfully meet with others to confess our sins. Compassion, not condemnation, is born when solitude and community are practiced together. The kind of compassion that leads us to go to the one who has fallen with a "spirit of gentleness," leading them back into a right relationship with Jesus. Our pursuit of the one who has fallen should be a rescue mission, not a march to throw stones at those caught in sin.
However, in our zeal to go, we often overlook Paul's warning - "take care that you yourselves are not tempted." The key to avoiding temptation is to go to a fallen friend as a group, not as an individual.
Are you regularly sitting alone with Jesus, asking Him to reveal any hidden sin in your life that you might confess to Him and other trusted spiritual friends? When you see a brother or sister in Christ publicly struggling with sin, is your heart filled with compassion or condemnation? Jesus left the 99 to go and rescue the one who had gone astray. Are you and I willing to do the same?
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