A few years ago, I went on a hiking trip to a national park with some friends. In preparation for the trip, I made sure to go to the gym a couple of times a week so that I would be able to keep up. I was doing great the first couple of days. Then we decided to go on a hike that required walking up a steep incline for a few miles.
As much confidence I had in my endurance and athletic abilities up until this point quickly vanished. I had to stop every few hundred feet because I was so winded and exhausted. I was the one holding up the group.
It would have been understandable for my friends to become annoyed and leave me in the dust to catch up with them later. But they didn’t. They stopped and took water breaks with me. They encouraged me to keep going. Eventually, we made it to the top of the mountain. I was proud of myself. They were proud of me, and the views were absolutely worth it.
In a moment when I could have given up and turned around to go back to the bottom of the mountain, my friends displayed gentleness with me, which spurred me to continue forward.
In the same way, believers are called to exhibit gentleness when dealing with a fellow believer caught in sin.
Sin is anything we think, say, or do that does not please or honor God. Our sin is an affront to God telling Him, “I know what’s best. I’m the one in charge. I can live life how I want apart from you.”
When we catch a fellow believer in sin, our first instinct might be to become frustrated and say things like, “What were you thinking? How could you do such a thing?” But this is not the way Christ deals with us in our sin. As ambassadors of Him, we are to model the same behavior.
Jesus meets us in our sin with gentleness, care, and compassion. This does not mean that we can live however we want because His grace will always be available. It also doesn’t mean that Jesus is easy on sin. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Jesus cares so deeply about our hearts and dealing with the sin in our lives that He took on the punishment for our sin in dying on the cross.
Sin is a big deal. Our sin is what eternally separates us from God. We are to engage in restoring others, not overlooking it. But we are also not to become holy bullies, condemning everyone we find in sin and leaving them there. We are to find the balance of rightfully calling out sin but doing it in a loving and gentle way, trusting the work of the Holy Spirit to pierce a person’s heart.
For some, the Holy Spirit works immediately to bring a consciousness of sin to their hearts and minds. They feel immediate guilt and shame. In these moments, what response do you think is best? Beating them down and continuing to call them out on their sin is not what they need in this moment. The Holy Spirit has already done the work of conviction. As Galatians tells us, we are to restore said brother or sister in Christ with gentleness.
For others, they find themselves caught in sin, and they’re not sure how to get out. It’s like being stuck in a pile of quicksand. They feel like they are continuing to drown. They don’t know how to say no or walk away from their sin. For these people, they need the help of other believers to surround them, hold them accountable, and encourage them. It’s choosing to continue to walk the path of restoration with them.
For others, they are caught in sin, and they don’t want to turn from it. For these individuals, we are called to do the same thing as with the others. We are to bring their sin to the light with gentleness. We are to lovingly call them to repentance because we love them and want God’s best for their lives. Matthew 18 gives us a great guideline of how to move forward if someone chooses to continue living in sin, contrary to God’s ways.
In all of these situations, we have to remember that it is not our responsibility to change hearts. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to faithfully call out sin, gently care for others, and continually examine our own lives for the sin that can so easily creep in.
We can be so quick to point out the sin in others that we forget to bring our own sin to Jesus. We can put our blinders up to our own sinful nature. This is why regular confession is vitally important in the life of a believer. Confessing our sin helps us to remain reliant upon Christ. It also helps us to remain humble in dealing with other’s sins, as Jesus points out in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:3-5). We are all in need of God’s continuous grace, and it is our privilege to join God in His work of caring for others and pointing them to the cross of Christ.
Today, I encourage you to find other believers who can know all of you, even the sinful parts. Let them in on where you’re tempted and where you’re struggling. Allow them to speak into how you live your life, where your priorities are, where you’re running hard after Christ, and where you’re giving in to the enemy’s lies. We are to carry one another’s burdens, and this begins by letting others into our own lives.
Wherever you are today, know that Jesus loves you. He’s not sitting in heaven watching for when you mess up so that He can condemn you. He wants you to turn back to Him where He is waiting with open arms.
I pray that we will experience the love and forgiving grace of Jesus and in turn show it to others.
