East End

1-14-08

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted (Galatians 6:1)."
What is the deadliest sin to a person? No many of you will start listing off the seven deadly sins immediately, but I think there maybe a different answer. I believe the deadliest sin to a person is the one that they say they can't commit. People say "oh I can't believe that someone would steal from the church, or drink, or whatever." Then they immediately follow that comment up with "I would never do that or think about doing that." In my opinion (and it is only that) I believe that is the deadliest sin to that person. I base that on the end of our verse today. Here in Galatians 6 Paul is telling the church to help not condemn or judge a person who has fallen into sin. Notice the last phrase of the verse though, "...considering yourself lest you also be tempted." What does Paul mean by "considering yourself?" Paul is speaking about examining your life and your motives for why you want to help the person. That is why he says that a spiritual person should be the one to restore the person. A carnal (worldly) person is more likely to do harm that good because they many times will judge the person who they are trying to restore. But a truly spiritual person would not want to help out of pride or superiority, but rather out of love. Why would they want to do this? Because they know that they could also be tempted. Put another way, a wordly Christian may walk up to a lake that is frozen over and see someone trapped out in the middle and crying for help. This wordly Christian is more likely to run out onto the ice full speed without making sure it was strong enough to hold him/her. The result would be that not only is the person out in the middle still out there, but now another person has fallen in as well. While a truly spiritual Christian would want to help the person out in the middle, they would put one foot on the ice first to test it, therefore making sure the ice would be strong enough to hold them so that they could go and bring the person back to shore. The spiritual Christian tests the ice first so that they don't fall into the same trap. Therefore when a brother or sister falls into a sin, I caution us all not to say that we would never do such a thing. To be entirely honest, no one person is above any one sin! How do I know this? Look at what David wrote in Psalm 14:3, "They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is non who does good, no, not one." Paul gives us good practical advice here, consider yourself. You may not fall into the same sin, but there maybe another sin that you fall into and need help getting out of. When all else fails we should heed the words of Peter in 1 Peter 4:8, "And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love covers a multitude of sins'" I hope that you all have a blessed week and ask God to draw closer to you than ever before!