Galatians 6:1-10

A guy is walking down the street, when suddenly, he falls in a hole, and he can’t get out. People are passing by and he yells up, “Help, someone get me out of here.” A doctor is passing by, and he stops, writes out a prescription, throws it down the hole, and moves on. Pretty soon, a pastor stops, writes out a prayer, throws it down the hole, and moves on. Pretty soon, a friend stops at the hole. The guy yells up, “Joe, can you help me out?” And Joe jumps down in the hole. The friend can’t believe it. He says, “Joe, what are you doing? Now we’re both stuck.” And Joe says, “Yeah, but I’ve been down here before. And I know the way out.” He knew the way out. In order to help, he had to get close. But in order to help, he had to know the way out. Staying far away from the hole couldn’t help his friend. But getting close, and not knowing the answer would mean trouble for both of them. Close, but not too close. Near, but not too near.

This is where we must be if we are going to be any good to anybody. Last week, we saw Jesus, kneeling before us, washing our feet, serving us with His death. And we heard our Lord speak to us, and He told us that as we have seen Him serve us, that we are serve one another. That as He has washed our feet, so we must wash one another’s.

And in Galatians 6, we find out more about what that looks like. There’s a way to help, and there’s a way not to help. There’s a method that works, and a method that hurts. And verse 1 begins with what works:

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.

We begin here where we left off last week: we need each, just like we needed Jesus. We are not independent of Jesus, and we are not independent of each other. We were caught in sin, and Jesus came and found us and pulled us out of our mess.

Now, as Jesus did for us, we do for others. When someone is having a hard time beating temptation, if they just can’t seem to get past that particular habit of sinning, they need us to help. They need us to get involved. They may not know that they need us, they may not want to need us, but they need us.

And we need to help. We need to get involved. We need to come close with the intention, the purpose of restoring them. This is one way we wash one another’s feet. This is one way we can serve. Helping someone who is trapped in sin is one way to obey Jesus command to do for others what He has done for us.

But we don’t like to get involved, do we? I mean, it’s one thing to serve by mopping someone’s floor. We’re fine with mowing someone’s lawn or shoveling a sidewalk. But please, please, please don’t make us go to talk to someone about the sin in their life. That work is awkward, it makes us feel strange. We’d really rather not. And our hesitancy, our awkwardness makes us keep our distance. We don’t draw near. We don’t get close, at least not to the real issue. We’ll talk with our friend, we just won’t talk about that. We’ll stay at least a foot away from talking about their struggle. And we’ll be safe, we won’t get burned, we won’t feel awkward, but we won’t actually do anything, either. Nothing will happen. Our friend won’t be helped, and we won’t have obeyed Jesus. We have to get close, we have to get involved if we want anything to happen.

At the same time, we don’t want to get too close. Still in verse 1:

But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.

Stay too far away, and nothing happens. Get too close, and we get burned. Sin is a dangerous thing, and if it can trap our friend, it can trap us. Sometimes, the sin that they are struggling with is attractive. We like it. We like how it makes us feel. If our friend has a problem with alcohol or drugs, and we kind of like the effect that alcohol or drugs has on us, we can’t get too close. We can’t spend too much time with this person, or we’ll get trapped and someone else will have to come and rescue us.

But it’s not just the sin that looks good that can trap us. Sometimes, hurtful, damaging sin creates more hurtful, damaging sin. When someone has a problem with anger, when they sin by losing their temper, it becomes very easy for us to respond with our own anger. If they lash out, we lash back, and now we’re both wrapped up in sin. If someone is critical and judgmental, we can respond with our own criticism and judgment. If they’re picking us apart with our faults, we can turn around and pick them apart with their faults. If we get too close, then their sin becomes our sin.

Close, but not too close. Engaged, but not entangled, this is how we help one another. Verse 2:

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Jesus said that the law is summed up in two commands, to love God and to love our neighbor. God said, through Paul, in Galatians 5:14:

The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself

By carrying each other’s burdens, by washing each other’s feet, by serving one another, we obey the law of God.

It’s easier for us to see some burdens. We catch on pretty quickly when someone has surgery, or when there is a death, that a meal would be appreciated. We see the burdens, and we try to help. We get it when someone is hurt, or it’s difficult to take care of their lawn. We show up and clean the gutters and rake the leaves. It’s a little harder, but we try to be aware when someone has a financial need, when someone loses a job, or the bills are just piling too high. The deacons, with the benevolence fund, try to come alongside and help carry the burden.

But it’s more difficult when it comes to sin. Sometimes, the sin is obvious. We know, others know, it seems like everybody knows that a person has a certain problem. Sometimes, though, the sin is hidden. Only a few people, only a close friend might be aware that there’s a struggle going on, and their friend is not beating the temptation very often.

Either way, whether people know or don’t know, it’s our job, we’ve been commanded to help. We’ve been told to serve. We are as responsible to serve our friend, our fellow church-member, our brother, our sister in Jesus by helping to carry the burden, the burden of fighting the sin. We are obligated, just as much as we are obligated to help by bringing meals and raking leaves and cleaning gutters and helping to pay bills.

We are obligated to help restore someone who is trapped in sin, and we are obligated to do it gently, gently, says verse 1. We may think we’re helping when we’re slamming the person about their sin. We may have convinced ourselves that we’re restoring them when we give them our dirty looks, when we talk about them, when we express our disgust openly about their particular sin. This is how our minds work. We talk bad about them, or directly to them, about their sin. They don’t like to be talked bad about. Therefore, they stop sinning. It’s logical. It’s reasonable. And it doesn’t work. It’s mean. It’s not gentle. It’s arrogant and proud. And, verse 3:

If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Verse 3 is a reminder that each of us has our sin, our particular brand of evil that we struggle with. And each of us needs someone else to help us out of our particular trap. We need someone safe, we each need someone gentle who won’t pounce on us because of our sin. We need someone, each of us needs someone who will help gently restore us.

If we respond with kindness and understanding, then when we royally mess up, someone will respond to us with kindness and understanding. Sometimes, we think that when we respond to sin with an act of kindness, that this only encourages the sin. We think that kindness rewards the sin. Actually, it’s the opposite. When we recognize the sin, when we call the sin what it is, but we use kind, gentle, understanding words, people are much more likely to respond with repentance and grief for their sin. A harsh word creates defensiveness. Scolding sets up walls. Shouting, yelling, raking them over the coals just makes the person run away and hide.

But gently restoring the sin leads very often to purity. Picture this: you know your friend has a problem with anger. Something doesn’t go right for them at the job, or in their family, or in their church, and they tend to go off ranting and raving about how awful things are, and nobody gets it, and people had better not get in their way or they’ll hear about it. What are you going to do? Your friend is tangled up in sin, and they’re having a terrible time getting out.

Here’s your options. You can ignore them. That’s just them. They just get angry. And you really don’t want them to be angry at you, so you stay out of their way, try to stay on their good side, and wait until the storm passes. Or, you can get angry back. You can fight fire with fire. You can yell louder than they’re yelling, try to blast them out of their sin.

Or you can restore them gently. Pick a time when you can be alone with your friend. Remind them that the two of your are strong friends, that this won’t change. Remind them of conversations you’ve had about your own struggles with sin. And then, that awkward, embarrassing part when you have to tell them that you see the effects of sin in their life, in their temper, or whatever sin they’re struggling with. Be very clear that you’re not judging them, but instead you’re walking together, holding each other up as you both try to live pure lives. And then, listen. Give them time to soak in the information. Give them the space, the silence they need so they don’t have to defend themselves. Create that safe place where they can be real and truthful about the sin they struggle with.

This is awkward. It’s not fun. But it is required. This is one example of what it means to wash each other’s feet, as Jesus has washed ours. Facing the sin of another person is awkward and embarrassing, like washing someone else’s feet is awkward and embarrassing. But this is what Jesus told us to do.

And when we handle someone else’s sin gently, then our sin is handled gently. Rough treatment produces rough treatment, judgment leads to judgment. Gentleness causes more gentleness.

Is this what we are doing? Are we washing each other’s feet? Are we helping each other with our sin? Verse 4:

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.

We heard the promises that God made to Rhett this morning. We heard God promises to be Rhett’s God, so that, someday when Rhett understand what happened here this morning, he can answer back to God, he can tell God that he wants to be God’s son. The water that washed over Rhett’s head points to Jesus washing us, not our feet, but our whole bodies, with His blood. We heard God’s promises.

And did we hear ours? We promised to do what we could to help Rhett grow up to follow Jesus. That’s great, but that promise can be applied to everyone here. Jean is responsible for Larry who’s responsible for Dave who’s responsible for Ron. We made our promise this morning to serve each other.

Are we serving one another, even if the hard ways? Are we looking out for each other, while they’re looking out for us? Have we, are we, gently restoring one another from the sin that traps us. Close, but not too close. Engaged, but not entangled. Helping, not hurting. Serving, washing, just like Jesus.