DAY 595: MENDING BROKEN BONES

The Return ^ | December 27, 2022

[metmom]

Paul wrote, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2, ESV).

Okay, this is where someone has committed an external, outward sin. This isn’t walking around, looking to rebuke everyone because you thought you saw something wrong in them. I grew up for a short while around that kind of stuff, really pride ‘spirituality.’ A person’s done nothing outwardly, but you have people who come up to them and say, “I see a spirit of jealousy in you. I rebuke you for that.”

The other person says, “What did I do?”

“Oh, I don’t know, but there’s jealousy. Now I want to try to restore you.” “Uh, no. Don’t restore me. Restore yourself, and get away from me.” But this kind of response would bring judgment, and we’d have a big rebuking contest on our hands. Everybody rebuking everyone else for what they perceive to be a shortcoming. We should just have a big dose of humility because we’re not all that ourselves.

What Paul’s talking about is someone caught in open sin, and he orders believers to restore them gently. The word ‘restore’ there is the same sort of meaning as mending a bone. You don’t amputate every time something breaks! Remember, believers are members of the body. This is a body we’re talking about. When someone falls into sin, you don’t get angry with them. If I fell and skinned my knee, would I start yelling, “What’s wrong with you, knee? Let’s amputate this knee!” No. You don’t do that. You take extra good care of the wounded member. You try to help them.

Paul is saying that this is what Christ wants us to do in the church, and he commands this to those of you who are living by the Spirit, you know, the mature believers. This is why he wrote, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

Brother and sister, let’s get better at this gentle mending of bones.

[metmom]

The Return ping

[RatRipper]

Haughtiness and arrogance, to me, is not consistent with one of true faith. NONE of us deserve the grace that we receive from God. “While we were yet sinners. . .” Christ gave himself up for us on the cross. Remember, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”? And never, ever forget, “let he who is without sin cast the first stone. . . .”

I am truly thankful for the salvation I have received, but I am compelled to remember how it came to me and the personal debt of sin I had accumulated . . . and still accumulate. I cannot be proud that I was forgiven of so much . . . only relieved and grateful.

[Paperpusher]

Great post, as usual. This reminds me of the Pharisee and the tax collector parable:

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Jesus called the Pharisees, in Matthew 23:27

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.”
They looked good on the outside, but not on the inside.