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. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

Galatians 6:1-5 ESV

I have previously noted that expressive individualism is the water that the modern West swims in. Samuel James defines expressive individualism by saying: “what most people in the modern, secular world believe is that the key to their happiness, fulfillment, and quest for meaning in life is to arrange things so that their inner desires and ambitions can be totally achieved… Life’s center of gravity, according to expressive individualism, is the self.” Even simple notions like being a dog or cat person or a morning or evening person give away that we are expressive individualists to some degree, since the very notion that I can be defined by what I like or dislike is fundamentally modern.

We see this especially in those who call themselves spiritual but not religious. The implication, you see, is that religion makes demands on a person that we may not always enjoy. Individual spirituality, however, is like Burger King, where you always to get to have it your way. Needless to say, that is not the biblical portrait of being spiritual. Instead, after having described to us what the fruit of living according to the Holy Spirit is, the Apostle Paul now goes on to give more particular examples of how that fruit will manifest in the Christian life. What will immediately become apparent to us as we explore the text before us is Paul’s foundational assumption that the Christian life will be lived in community.

Given our default towards individualism, we would do well to consider Philip Ryken’s words:

The Holy Spirit does not produce this fruit for our private enjoyment. True spirituality is not an individualistic quest for self-fulfillment–the kind of thing one has to climb to the top of a pillar to discover. The life of the Spirit flourishes for the sake of others. It is not experienced in private, primarily, but exercised in public. Therefore, it does not grow in isolation, but within the community of faith. Spiritual life is meant to be shared. It is less like a fruit tree hidden away somewhere in a secret garden, and more like one that grows in a public park. (244)

IF ANYONE IS CAUGHT IN SIN // VERSE 1

Even though the word brothers at the beginning of verse 1 seems to indicate a new paragraph and a slight shift in thought, it is worth returning back to verse 26 for a moment, which reads: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” Paul presented these three things as being antithetical to the fruit of the Spirit, which means that they are also against the principles for Christian living that he is setting forth in these five verses as well. Indeed, just as Paul gave over half of the list of works of the flesh to social sins, notice that these three are also social sins. While we may chiefly think of sin as an individualistic and internal war, the apostle is clearly emphasizing that our sins are against one another. Furthermore, while being conceited, provoking one another, and being envious are not as scandalous as some of the other sins that Paul mentioned back in 5:19-21, these are some of the most common sins, and some of the most likely sins to leave a congregation in ruins. And since we will particularly return to conceit throughout this sermon, let us prime ourselves for it with these words from C. S. Lewis:

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. (Mere Christianity, 128)

Indeed, the internal war that rages within each of us between the Spirit and our flesh ought to haunt our steps throughout these verses. We should consider the lists of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, the commands to keep in step with the Spirit, and the warning that those who go on practicing the works of the flesh will not enter the kingdom of God. And we should then ask ourselves how we can be triumphant in this battle against our flesh? Paul’s answer in verses 1-5 is that Christ does not expect us to bear that burden alone; rather, He has given us comrades for this fight.

With this in mind, let us go on to our text: 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. Here Paul gives us a scenario of a fellow Christian being caught in a transgression. What exactly does Paul mean by being caught in transgression? DeSilva notes that “the verb means ‘to overtake,’ often with a sense of catching off guard. It thus carries the suggestion of falling into sin through error, neglect, lack of vigilance, or sheer weakness rather than willful transgression” (129). Sadly, we all have plenty personal examples of being caught up in such sins, and as followers of Christ, it should be that all our sins fall under this kind of sinning. If we are walking by the Spirit within us, all of our sin should be through error, neglect, lack of vigilance, or sheer weakness. Willful and habitual sin is another category altogether. John Brown notes:

The phrase seems to have been selected for the purpose of conveying the idea that the person referred to is not a habitual sinner–is not a person who lives in sin–who habitually does what is inconsistent with the will of Christ. He is not the person whom John describes as “a doer of sin.” A person of this description has no right to a place in Christ’s church. If he has been admitted into communion with a scripturally organised church, it must have been by mistake; and when ever his real character manifests itself, it is their imperative duty to “put away from among them such a wicked person.” The fault here referred to is obviously occasional; the man is “overtaken” in or by it. (316-317)

In many ways, the distinction will become clear to everyone as restoration is undertaken, for Paul says that the one who is caught in transgression ought to be restored. This obviously seems to imply a confrontation over sin. Whenever we see our sin and repent of it, we have checked ourselves into the restoration process. But whenever a sin needs to be confronted, Jesus Himself gives us the steps to follow:

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17)

The one who is confronted with sin yet refuses to repent is to be excommunicated from the church as an unbeliever. The one acknowledges his sin and repents, however, ought to be restored to fellowship. Frank Thielman writes about this restoration, saying:

Matthew and Mark use the term here translated “restore” (Gk. katartizo) to describe fishermen’s putting their nets back in order (Matt. 4:21; Mark 1:19). Paul envisions, then, those who are walking in step with the Spirit in the Christian community working hard to help the erring brother or sister to become a fully functioning, useful member of the community once again (cf. 2 Cor. 2:5-8; 2 Tim. 2:24-26). (643)

But notice who should be the one who restores the sinning Christian: you who are spiritual. This would clearly be the person who notably embodies the fruit of the Spirit, for he should confront another’s sin in a spirit of gentleness. As I briefly noted last week, gentleness (πραῢτης) could also be translated as meekness. Meekness certainly entails gentleness as we would think of it, but it is also much more. Meekness means having a proper view of oneself, of knowing one’s own sinfulness. Lloyd-Jones gives a marvelous description of what meekness looks like (and take note that it is polar opposite of 5:26):

The man who is meek is not even sensitive about himself. He is not always watching himself and his own interests. He is not always on the defensive. We all know about this, do we not? Is it not one of the greatest curses in life as a result of the fall–this sensitivity about self? We spend the whole of our lives watching ourselves. But when a man becomes meek he has finished with all that; he no longer worries about himself and what other people say. To be truly meek means we no longer protect ourselves, because we see there is nothing worth defending. So we are not on the defensive; all that is gone. The man who is truly meek never pities himself, he is never sorry for himself. He never truly talks to himself and says, ‘You are having a hard time, how unkind these people are not to understand you.’ He never thinks: ‘How wonderful I really am, if only other people gave me a chance.’ Self-pity! What hours and years we waste in this! But the man who has become meek has finished with yourself altogether, and you come to see you have no rights or deserts at all. You come to realize that nobody can harm you. John Bunyan puts it perfectly. ‘He that is down need fear no fall.’ When a man truly sees himself, he knows nobody can say anything about him that is too bad. You need not worry about what men may say or do; you know you deserve it all and more. Once again, therefore, I would define meekness like this. The man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do. (69)

That is the spirit in which correction and rebuke must take place. Practically, this means that we should take one another’s unique temptations and personalities into consideration whenever we relate ourselves to others. For example, alcohol is of complete unimportance to me. I can enjoy the occasional drink, or entirely go without it. It rarely ever crosses my mind. For many others, however, alcohol is the great dragon that they have been at war with most of their life. Although I may not be able to relate to the allure of alcohol, I can certainly find similar dragons in my own heart, and that ought to be how we relate to one another. Rather than thinking we are holier than such a brother or sister simply because we do not struggle with that particular temptation, we should consider our deepest-rooted snares for the comparison. Indeed, I think Augustine is right whenever he says, “There is no surer test of the spiritual person than his treatment of another’s sin.”

Indeed, Paul concludes this verse by warning us to be vigilant over ourselves, for we may find ourselves tempted. While we may find ourselves tempted toward the same sin, most likely we will be tempted toward the behaviors in 5:26.

Now I have lingered over this verse for so long because these circumstances are going to be reoccurring in the life of the church until our Lord returns to make all things new. Personally, I have been the one caught in transgression who was restored in meekness, and I have been the one who is doing the restoring. Yet there is one application where this verse ought to be followed daily: parenting. Memorizing and applying this verse while disciplining your child will be of more benefit than a heap of books on parenting.

BEAR ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS // VERSES 2-5

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

While restoration of one caught in sin is a particular form of bearing one another’s burdens, many now assume that the apostle makes the overall principle clear, applying more broadly to the any trial, sorrow, or affliction that a brother or sister is enduring. And we can certainly apply these words generally. As John Owen writes:

If one member is in pain, the others have very little comfort or ease. A member not affected by the anguish of its companions must be a rotten member. Those, enjoying plentiful comforts, who forget the miseries of their brethren are marked particularly for destruction, Amos 6:4-7. If we do not feel the weight of our brothers’ afflictions, burdens, and sorrows, then we deserve that our own should be doubled. The desolations of the church made Nehemiah grow pale int he court of the great king, Neh. 2:1-3. Those who are not concerned in the troubles, sorrows, trials, wants, poverties, and persecutions of the saints, not even so as to pity their wounds, to feel their blows, to refresh their spirits, to help bear their burdens upon their own shoulders, can never assure themselves that they are united to the head of those saints. (61-62)

But since the apostle will speak of sharing with one another and doing good to one another in verses 6-10, I am inclined to think that Paul has the burden of sin most particularly in mind. Along these lines, John Brown writes:

When a Christian brother under his burden stumbles and falls, we are not to let him lie on the ground and recover his feet in the best way he may; far less are we to insult him as he lies prostrate, and point him out to the scorn and derision of the world. We are to take him by the hand and raise him up; and as we have all our burdens, we are to journey on, hand in hand, endeavoring to keep one another from falling, and to press in a body forward along the prescribed course, that we may all obtain the prize of our high calling, in that “better country,” where we shall be relieved from all our burdens at once, and for ever. (325)

Indeed, Paul calls bearing the burdens of others fulfilling the law of Christ. Again, as Christians we have not abandoned the law entirely, we are simply no longer under the law or enslaved by the law. The law of God is now written upon our hearts through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the law is now our guide rather than our judge and executor. And bearing one another’s burdens fulfills the law of Christ because, as Paul said earlier, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (5:14).

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. The word for tells us that Paul is continuing the thought of the previous two verses. Therefore, while we can certainly apply this principle of thinking much of oneself (that is, being conceited), the apostle probably has the scenario of bearing the burden of one another’s sins in mind still in mind. The conceited person who thinks he is something is unspiritual. He is the very opposite of meek. He does not have an accurate view of himself, so in reality, he is deceiving himself.

Think of David while he was on the run from Saul. Even though Saul had attempted to murder him many times and then came with his entire army to kill David, David refused to fight against Saul because he was anointed by the LORD as Israel’s king. In fact, David was given two opportunities to kill Saul while he was sleeping, which he also refused to do. How could David bear with so much injustice being done directly to him? I believe that David’s words to Saul after the first time that he could have killed him in his sleep are revealing:

See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the LORD judge between me and you, may the LORD avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea! May the LORD therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.” (1 Samuel 24:11–15)

Notice David’s view of himself. He calls himself a dead dog and a flea. Obviously, there is some hyperbole there, but this is an example of David’s meekness. He was not self-deceived. David knew that, apart from the LORD, he was nothing. Without the help of Yahweh, David was no more fit to be king than Saul, and he was certainly no less capable of sin than him. Indeed, the great tragedy of 2 Samuel is that once David is king, he begins to think that he is something. He thinks that he is above fighting with his army in the spring, and because, as Thomas Watson says, “The idle man tempts the devil to tempt him,” David caught sight of Bathsheba and committed adultery with her. Then, as if to show that David was not wrong about his original assessment of himself, the king attempted to cover up his sin by sending Bathsheba’s husband to be killed in battle. Of course, that was exactly what Saul previously tried to do to David by making his daughter’s bridal price one hundred foreskins of the Philistines. But where Saul’s sin failed, David’s sin succeeded.

The proper response to reading the sins of David, the sins of the latest fallen celebrity pastor, or the sin of brother or sister beside us in church ought to be same: there but for the grace of God go I. The sins of others should never give fuel to our pride but should stir up within us the great humility that we are capable of equal and even greater sin.

But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Here Paul is not telling us that we ought to boast in our own works. Toward the end of this chapter, Paul will say in verse 14, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The whole point is that if we each test our own work, which means honestly and scripturally evaluating ourselves, we will find that we have nothing to boast about except that Jesus has forgiven our many, many sins.

What Paul means by not boasting in our neighbor seems to be the all-too-common practice of comparing ourselves to others in order to feel better about ourselves. Now, do not hear what I am not saying. There is a perfectly beneficial practice of stimulating our gratitude to God by remembering the sufferings or hardships of others. When our tire blows out or some other unexpected hindrance, we all have the tendency to act like we are Job, and examples like Job are preserved for us in order to give us a proper perspective. That is all fine and well when done in humility and thanksgiving. What is altogether unprofitable is the habit of saying or merely thinking, “Well, at least I’m not like that person…” That way of thinking only contributes to our conceit and pride.

Again, we should evaluate ourselves honestly in light of God’s Word rather than in comparison to anyone else, for each will have to bear his own load. I agree with Thielman that “the future tense (“will…bear”) points to the last judgment (cf. 5:10) as the reason why (“for”) each person should be concerned about himself rather than about boastful comparisons of himself to others” (643). While our Christian walk is certainly communal, we must never forget that we will each stand before God alone on the day of judgment. On that day, our comparisons with others will be exposed as being as worthless as all any of our attempts to save ourselves. No, our only plea will be our forgiveness in Christ, that Jesus took the burden of our sin upon His own back and cast it off forever into the depths of the sea.

Our natural tendency is to be sympathetic to ourselves and judgmental toward others, but Paul is calling us to do the reverse. We ought to sympathize and bear with the sin of others and honestly judge our own sin. That is the proper way for the people of God to flourish as a community.

And again, all of this is the very opposite of being conceited. Indeed, conceit (or pride) is the great enemy of any community. As Lewis notes, “Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But pride always means enmity—it is enmity” (Mere Christianity, 124). But in Christ, we should “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). What law is needed to regulate such an attitude? What conflict can long thrive in a church if this is the disposition of its members? Pride is the fuel that feeds the fires of conflict, but they are smothered into smoke by those who are gentle in spirit.

Therefore, as we come the Table of our King this morning, let us see ourselves as we truly are: sinful, weak, and in great need of our great Savior. May our freely receiving of this bread and cup be a reminder that the forgiveness of our sins is likewise to be received and never earned. And may it also testify to our communion with one another around our salvation in Christ. May it ever remind us that even the most spiritual among us are still only beggars pointing fellow beggars to the Christ as the bread of life.