Brothers and sisters, even if a person is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you are not tempted as well. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting, but to himself alone, and not to another. 5 For each one will bear his own load.
Galatians 6:1-5
(NASB 2020 Strong’s Bible)
This is important: do you think yourself spiritual, someone who is more concerned about the things of the spirit than the things of the flesh? There are many of us who might claim to be such a one who, upon honest reflection, find that we are tripped up by this verse, for we are not always inclined to gentleness with respect to the failings of another. This is strange, no? For those of us who have said yes and amen to the gift of everlasting life sometimes forget that the gift came to us expressly through the kindness, the gentleness of Jesus Christ. We were not browbeaten into submission. We do not walk on the straight and narrow at the point of a sword or the muzzle of a gun. We are in right relationship with our Heavenly Father because of the sacrifice of His Son. Jesus hung on the cross knowing then (even as he knows now) of the fundamentally corrupt nature of our flesh, the vile inclination of our hearts, the perverse musings of our minds, yet he still saved us. Rather than forming disaster against us (Jeremiah 18:12) and leaving us to our own devices, God brought us back to Himself through the sacrifice of Himself.
We do not condone the misdeeds of brothers and sisters that run afoul of the Lord’s way. We do not cosign that which we know is abominable and abhorrent to the Almighty, but we are to love them as we love ourselves. This is the law of Christ, the second part of the greatest commandment. It is the work product of the first part, for if we love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and strength, we demonstrate that love by loving our neighbors, our brethren, as we do ourselves.
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