HOW to set sinners free. BE GENTLE!
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.
“if” is “when”; someone is “everyone”; “caught” means “trapped” and not necessarily “seen”; but be careful about the “you.” Make sure that the “all y’all” [you] “live” or are “led . . . .by the Spirit.” The “you who live by the Spirit” is, unfortunately, not everyone – not everyone, it turns out, is gentle.
The point is “restoration” not rebuke, guilt, shame, or silence. Interestingly, Paul doesn’t actually address the sinner but those who are responsible for dealing with it gently. I, however, want to speak to the sinners – whoever you are. Sinner, are you here? Raise your hand. Friends, free people speak freely. They don’t hide. They’re free to tell the truth. Sinner, are you here? Good. Now, I want to tell you who to look for to help you. I want to give you advice on the way to find those who are the Spirit-led helpers. We don’t want the church to be like Home Depot – helpers everywhere until you need one. Paul does not say: “you who are rule followers should . . .” He doesn’t say, “You who are in church – Lord knows I’ve encountered more than a few hack surgeons in this place who confused surgery with sword-fighting and the church for the Hunger Games. He doesn’t say “You who are sinless, or long-standing members, or who went to seminary.” No, he says, “You who live by the Spirit.” And those who live by the Spirit, we learned last week, are best evidenced by fruit not doctrine, are observed by gentleness and not merely correctness. That word “restore” is καταρτίζω. It’s what a fisherman does to a net that is broken. He katartizei [mends] it (Mark 1:19; Matt. 4:21). It’s the process by which someone or something returns to its original state or purpose.
Gentle restoration is not dismissal of what one has done, particularly when others are being seriously hurt, but neither is it throwing away. It’s what Paul will do in Galatians 2. But let’s be real clear. What is the hurt in Galatians 2? It’s moral rule following and Biblical argument whose fruit is alienation and shame. Gentleness does not humiliate and neither does it punish. Paul’s call is to restoration NOT retribution. He aims to help both Peter and the Gentile Christians return to themselves and one another.
But what does a Spirited person sound like or look like when they encounter someone who is trapped in sin? Well, let’s look at our Spirit model, Gentle Jesus who encounters a woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11).
The Pharisees understand “caught” to mean: “We caught you, you dirty little sinner and now you should be punished”. And by the way, they had Scripture on their side, which stated she should be stoned (Lev. 20:10). Jesus, who is gentle, recognizes that she is “trapped” and not merely found out, and wants everyone, Pharisees, included, restored to themselves. Such restoration will of course require that we carry each other’s burdens without judgment. That’s Paul’s same point in Galatians 6:1-3. We must help people without falling into the sin of self-righteousness, where we think more of ourselves than we should. And gentle restoration is more than informing but helping.
If someone’s sin robs or empties him of something, it is our responsibility to help to fill him up. If her sin has weakened her, it is our job to give her strength. If their sin demonstrates some lack of knowledge or wisdom, it is on us to help educate and inform. If sin has led someone off the road, it is our work to guide them safely back to the right path.
But the gentle Spirit-led don’t catastrophize. One of the times I think the NIV got a translation totally wrong is when they have Jesus saying to the woman, “Go now and leave your life of sin.” The Greek is simple enough. It literally says, “Go and sin no more.” That’s it. Spiritless sin catastrophizing will tell people that their lives are sin. That they are only sin. The gentle Spirit-led, however, know better. They will honor everyone and gently say things like, “Stop hurting yourself.” Now, if sin has someone not simply hurting themselves but also others, those who are Spirit-led must speak up and act out. BUT the Jesus way is always to mend rather than destroy.
A student once asked anthropologist Margaret Mead what she considered the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected the anthropologist to talk about hooks, clay bowls or sharpening stones, but no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture is the proof of a person with a broken, healed femur. Mead explained that in the rest of the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You can't run from danger, go to the river to drink water or hunt to feed. You become fresh meat for predators. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that healed is proof that someone took the time to stay with the one who fell, healed the injury, put the person to safety, and cared for him until he recovered.
"Helping someone through difficulty is the starting point of civilization," Mead explained. Amen. Friends, the first sign of the church isn’t our worship or ur programs. Non, the first sign of the church is the proof of sinners with broken lives, healed and gently restored. Spirit-led, are you here? But alongside gentle restoration, Paul says that free people cultivate another fruit – goodness.
How to be good. BE GENEROUS.
If we’re supposed to sow it, goodness, that is. We should know the seed that it’s in our hand and what the fruit looks like and taste like. And always remember that that Spirit-fruit is a virtue of God, illustrated by Jesus Christ, and gifted to us by the Spirit.
Goodness is one of those words that can grow murky real fast and taste really sour if it ripens in the wrong way. We can easily imagine it to be a word related to being morally upright. That’s often how the Pharisees understood it. It was a virtue held by those who didn’t do “bad” things, say bad things, or become stained by those who did. But like, gentleness, I want us to listen to how Jesus spoke about this fruit of goodness.
He tells a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 about day-laborers hired to work in a vineyard. Some are hired in the morning, some at noon, and some at the end of the day, with only an hour left. When the foreman is asked to pay the laborers he is instructed to pay those hired at the end first and to pay them the same wage as those hired earlier leading to complaints. In response the owner of the vineyard says, “15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am ἀγαθός [generous]?’ That’s the same word in Galatians 6:10. Friends, the fruit of goodness looks and tastes like “generosity”
If we aren’t leaning into the world with a freeing generosity, we aren’t being “good.” If we don’t walk through Salem with an abundance of forgiveness, we aren’t being good. If we don’t care that brothers and sisters around the world are suffering because foreign aid has been stopped, we aren’t being good.
But, if that’s the case, why does Paul seemingly qualify that generous goodness by emphasizing that it should particularly be for “the family of believers.” The ancient world was a world utterly divided and entrenched in social, ethnic, and family divisions. One’s duty was always and only toward kin and kind. The only loyalty necessary was one’s loyalty to family and empire. And yet by emphasizing the “family of believers” Paul is breaking open the biological and political ties that bound people together. He is defining goodness as a generosity which welcomes foreigners, carries outcast, restores family, challenges any understanding of goodness being about merely me and mine. So be gentle, be generous, live free. Amen.
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