Restore One Another Gently!

The couple woke up to find that their dishwasher was not working properly. Most nights they would set the dishwasher to run while they were sleeping so that they would wake up to clean dishes. On this day, they woke up to clean dishes, but also a very wet kitchen floor. They agreed not to try and fix it themselves but call a repair company. However, one of them had to go to work, while the other stayed home. Having a change of heart, the spouse who was at home chose not to pay someone else to fix the problem, spent an hour on YouTube and took the dishwasher apart. When the other spouse got home, the dishwasher was still taken apart and the dirty dishes were stacking up.

That evening, the couple discovered that the broken dishwasher was not their biggest problem. When the spouse who was at work returned home to the broken and dismantled dishwasher, to no bill from a repair company and to a stack of dirty dishes, no words needed to be said. The expression on the face of the spouse who was sure a repair company was the way to deal with this situation said, “I told you so.” This caused the biggest problem between the couple. The expression “I told you so” is common to all of us. In our New Testament reading from Galatians 5, this boastful and competitive attitude is addressed,

26 “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

The Greek word translated as ‘conceited’ comes from the combination of two Greek words literally meaning ‘empty glory’, which is like the phrase ‘blowing hot air.’ The words and even the facial expression, “I told you so,” are conceited and do not help someone when they have been overtaken by a situation.

Paul needed to warn the Galatians about becoming conceited. The Galatians needed to be warned about the seriousness of becoming conceited because many had been overtaken by a situation. Many Galatians struggled with the false teaching that Christians were still required to keep the ceremonial laws found in the Old Testament. Yet, Christ freed us from those laws. Thus, the main theme of Paul’s letter to the Galatians was the Christian’s freedom from the Law because we are justified by faith alone. Those who understood their freedom through Christ needed to be warned not to hold their being right against those who had fallen into believing the false teaching and who needed to be corrected by Paul. They needed to be warned about becoming conceited, boastful and competitive. Paul modeled the way to address someone who is in the wrong by addressing the Galatians with kindness and humility, calling them family, as we read in Galatians 6,

1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Paul encouraged the believers, those who live by the Holy Spirit, to treat those overcome by sin with gentleness when showing them their sins and calling them to repentance. He also warned them against the temptation to boast about how they knew what was right all along as if it were a competition.

You and I must make these words our own as well, 26 “Let us not become conceited.” We are blessed to have been told the truth that we are no longer required to keep any law to get into heaven, to know we are justified by grace through faith in Jesus, to know God’s power in baptism to save, to receive God’s forgiveness through the Lord’s Supper and to hold firmly to the unchanging truth of God’s Word. This overwhelming confidence in our Savior, forgiveness and eternal life in heaven, can make us quick to show others the error of their ways. Our confidence can turn to winning religious battles. Our confidence can isolate us from those overcome by what is wrong. When confidence becomes conceitedness, it takes you down a dangerous path that empties your heart of love for others who are overcome by sin. Your heart can lose the love and thankfulness to God for his grace. Your heart can fill up with love and pride in yourself, and quickly lead you away from trusting in Jesus’ forgiveness to proving Jesus’ forgiveness to others or else they can go to hell. The path of conceitedness puts you in danger of losing your faith to face hell.

Jesus removes your conceitedness. In our Gospel reading from Luke 10, we hear about Jesus sending out 72 disciples to towns to 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ By the power of Jesus, those disciples did miraculous things as we hear, 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” The 72 were amazed at the power given to them, but they had been overcome.

18 He [Jesus] replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The disciples lost sight of God’s greatest gift; their names were written in heaven. Their names were not their because they were so great, but by the grace of God alone. God wrote your name in heaven. Jesus removes your conceitedness by reminding you that you are an equal recipient of his grace. You are a sinner like everyone else. You were on a path to hell, but God sent his one and only Son to experience hell on the cross dying for your sins. You have been freed from sin, death and hell by God’s grace. You did not write your name in heaven. Instead, the good news that humbles us all is that because of his love for you, God wrote your name in heaven.

With the humility of Christ’s love for us, we are called to love one another gently. We continue reading from Galatians 6,

2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. This law of Christ is a reference to what Jesus told his disciples the night before he died in John 13,

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Those who live by the Spirit, those who are believers, carry each other’s burdens. We help each other when sin overtakes one of us working not to cause more guilt or make someone feel like a worse sinner than others. We do this by doing what Paul wrote just before this,

1 … “if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.

We all have different looking sins, but that is not an excuse to run away. You are all spiritual doctors who can work on souls. You can restore others by showing them their sins and showing them their Savior. It’s like a bull rider who breaks his back getting bucked off a bull and an office worker who gets carpal tunnel syndrome from the keyboard meeting at a hospital. Though different, they both need to be at the hospital because their bodies are broken. Paul reveals how we are broken in the last verses of our New Testament reading from Galatians 6,

3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.

We each have a load of sins so heavy; it has broken us body and soul. And the only one who can restore that kind of broken, who can restore us to full spiritual health, righteousness and eternal life in heaven is our Savior, Jesus.

That evening when the couple was reunited around the broken dishwasher, they discovered that the broken dishwasher was not their biggest problem. “I told you so,” is the conceited response when someone is overwhelmed. Instead, we who live by the Spirit love one another with the love God has for us as described in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 66,

13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” 14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.

The Lord has brought you comfort and given you every reason to rejoice. Jesus restored you through his sacrifice and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. Do not be conceited and become an enemy of God and one another. Instead, love one another, restore one another when you fall into sin, carry one another’s unique burdens of sin and test yourself against God to remain humbled by our own sins forgiven by him, and comforted in the promise of your name written in heaven. Use God’s Word, the message of sin and grace, to restore one another gently. Amen.