Relationships Among Brethren

Okay, today we start Galatians chapter 6, and we're at verse 1 and 2 today, and we're in a section, Relationships Among the Brethren. This is part 1, and Bob Wolford's going to do part 2 next week, coming up. That's verses 3 through 5, 3, 4, and 5. And Paul begins a new section here.

He starts to give them commands, as we know that Paul always does. He starts out a letter with doctrine. And then he moves to application, doctrine and then application. And we've heard that a million times. I like how Dennis Roxer says it. He moves from the blackboard to the blacktop. Yeah, so he sits believers down and he gives them the X's and O's and the plays and how to maneuver around defenders and that's all doctrine.

And then your job is sort of to live your life and go out and do the basketball court and, you know, play basketball. I think is where that analogy comes through. So that's a good one. So substitute there in their football or whatever your sport of choice is.

But he begins chapter six here is, brethren, even if any of you, anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each one looking to him yourself. so that you too will not be tempted." And in the King James, I like the wording better, just a bit. The wording is, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, and that's a good word for trespass, and you see that the word overtaken replaces the word caught in the New American Standard. He says, if any man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such a one, in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."

So I like the King James version of this verse starting out. So I like Roxer's, Dennis Roxer's, he boils this down to his sort of title for this verse, this section here, is Restore the Overtaken. And so what he's done is he's just taken the verb and the subject, the overtaken, and that's the command, to restore the overtaken.

So that's what we're going to be looking at today. And I made very good friends with Zodiates this past week or so, and I liked looking up these Greek words, and they really bring out the meaning of the text, and I just really liked exploring these things.

So, to be overtaken or caught is pro lumbano. And that's to be surprised or snuck up on, caught off guard. And you see it's a passive. So Rockster says, you're not, it's something a brother in the assembly isn't looking out for. He or she just is taken by surprise by this trespass. And you can see it's subjunctive, so maybe they'll be caught in a trespass, maybe not. And the command is just to brothers, brothers in Christ, so the local assembly.

And the examples he doesn't give, and so it's left open, but I kind of tried a bit. I said, what if a new believer used to use drugs or alcohol and then falls by the wayside and goes back? Or if someone has an anger management problem, let's say, and that fires up or lapses into swearing. Maybe a believer used to swear a lot before they came to the Lord, but every once in a while that kind of presents itself. Any of you have any We're perfect. No problems. Let's go around the room and you pick out a brother and you... I could tell about Roger. Right, right. Not me. Say, Andrew? Yeah.

He could also be referring to all those who are caught up in the legalism of the Judaizers. Yeah, and that's true, because the Judaizers, and next week go down that route a little, Bob. The Judaizers would place undue burdens on these believers, and they would, of course, trespass all these legal things that really aren't grace. So that's true.

So go down that path and kind of open that up for us. And I didn't quite go that way. I kind of in a parallel track here. So yeah. So I agree with you there. So it's something that you can sneak up on here. To be overtaken in any trespass, the word trespass is peritoma, it's a slip up from the verb peripeto, and that's a, you're on a path and you fall beside the path, and you have a fault or a lapse.

And that's something heinous in nature, really, and it comes from weakness. It's a lesser transgression than the word parabasis, which is synonymous with sin, or hamartia. The word for sin is hamartia. Anyone have a better pronunciation of the sin word? Hamartia? Hamartia?

Sounds good. Pretty good. Okay. I get a blue ribbon there. So that's our trespass, peritoma, and it's a slip-up, it's a fault, it's a transgression. And the best analogy, and I'm going with a lot of rocks here, is someone who slips on the ice, to slip or fall on the ice.

And to Bob's point, the legalists, if there was any trespass, they had a bad track record of restoring a brother. They were more the mindset, how could you do a thing like that? You have the rules, you have the law, and their approach to a trespassing believer would be annoyance or ultimate shunning, because they transgress. They would find fault with their fellow believer. But Paul is going a different route here. He's talking about restoration of this erring believer.

So a legalist would be, you know, did you not read the sign? It clearly says, caution, slippery when wet. How could you have fallen and broken your leg? You know, that's a you problem. So that's the legalist mindset and how they approached erring believers. And you note that there's a conditional clause, third class conditional, so this thing hasn't happened, but it probably will in a local body. So then, if someone does have a slip-up, you are to restore such a one, catartizo. And Merriman calls it operation restoration. Restoration is catartizo.

I put the D in there to remind me that there's a soft D in that pronunciation. K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O for the ones not looking at the slide this morning on the internet. So you are to set right this person, or to restore them to good shape, or really to mend a net, mend their broken net. That's the, I think that's how they used it a lot in the Gospels, is cartetizo, mending nets. More on this word restoration or kartartizo. It's setting one a right, putting them back in order, or fitting or framing them back out, returning them to soundness. And it's imperative command. So it's a command from Paul. He's now in the section giving some commands. And there's a limitation as to who can do this, and can you see the limiting factor of who are to do it? The restoring?

Those who are spiritual? Yeah, that's it, yep. Those who are spiritual are the ones to do it, and who are they? The spiritual ones. Those walking with Christ? Yeah, well you all should be raising your hands. We all think we are. And you're correct, so the ones walking the Spirit, or living by, or under the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, being led by the Spirit. We have that in the previous context in 518 and 525, walking by the Spirit. So those are the ones to do it.

Or here I say being governed or filled with the Spirit under control influence of the Holy Spirit, and not under the power of the flesh. Yeah, not under the power and influence of the flesh, or being carnal. So carnal ones are excluded, but spiritual ones are included. Yeah, Andrew, isn't it interesting that the focus is not on the erring believer of sin, It's on their fellowship, it's on their restoration.

And that shows God's grace. Grace is working through the spiritual believer, not focusing on their sin, but on the person, which is really neat. Yeah, and their ultimate restoration. So I thought all week about each one of your faults, and now I can look at it another way.

I guess that's what you're not saying, Roger. Yeah, that's exactly right. Andrew? Yeah. Andrew, be gentle with us. Oh, sure, sure. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of power being here in this driver's seat. So, the question is, does the spiritual ones, does that include you, yourself individually? I would say yes, right?

It's each of us. Roxer and Merriman kind of point out that oftentimes, People, and I do this, and you probably do this too, you say, well, who am I to say this? No one steps up to do it, right? Who am I to set a fellow through history? Myself as judge? Yeah. Yeah. And who am I to judge? I'm not one to judge. Oh, or you look at yourself and you say, oh, oh, you know, and you look at your own faults and shortcomings. So no one ultimately kind of follows this verse. They demur to it.

Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. I was just thinking, Andrew, about where Jesus teaches about the speck in your brother's eye and the log in your own. And I think that's a lesson that's taught a lot. And so there's a fear of like, well, I probably don't use the code fault. which is probably true, you know, at times. But no, I mean, this is an imperative command.

And it's obviously in a spirit of gentleness. It has to be done. It's the right heart attitude. Right. But yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah, going along with what Miles said, it can't be judgmental. It's got to be encouragement. Yeah, right, and that, again, that focus on restoration, and it's very simple. Yeah, Merriman says it really well here, Carta Tizzo, this restoration, is therapy that accomplishes restoration for those who have suffered a spiritual dislocation. I like that. No idea of punishment whatsoever.

But what you're doing is basically setting a broken bone, right? You're putting up a splint up to it and just setting them back on their feet. So the whole analogy to this process in verse 1 is something like this this this woman who who is slip and let's call that ice she's slipping on the ice you've already had that not in sin, but you've all have slipped on the ice and know that feeling. So she's slipping on the ice, and that's the word for this trespass, this falling off the path.

So I'm going to use this Dennis Roxor ideology that he uses. I liked it a lot. It's kind of fun, too. So suppose it's snowy and icy this morning, which it is. A perfect example of snowing and icy this morning. It is? Right, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, it is? It is. I know it's hard to believe, but we actually have some snow. Okay, I thought it would be like sunny and 80 there. That was yesterday. So Andrew, you're the one who brought this. Yeah, that's right. It came just for your example. Yeah, oh good, good. Well that's what they say, a God thing is what the evangelists say, right? Yeah, they use that terminology. So it's icy and snowy and a woman from the fellowship goes out in the parking lot and flips and breaks her leg. So he says, do you condemn her for falling? Do you walk by telling her? People fall in this parking lot all the time.

I'm sure you'll recover. And so this is from Roxor. This is what he laid out for, it's really good. Or you walk up to them, do you examine their situation and walk to your car thinking, what a klutz. And it really gets the spirit of this verse. Or do you say to her, I knew you were going to fall. I saw it coming from a mile away. You should be more careful. And again, to what Bob was saying about the legalists having all these little rules and regulations that it was probably impossible not to break their rules and regulations.

Say to Roger, you go up to Roger and say, hey, so-and-so fell on the ice out there really bad. I'm telling you this so you can go help her. And keep in mind, it's talking about a brother. Yeah, put it around the prayer list, and it's talking about someone who has a slip-up with a sin, so you're passing that off onto Roger, and in a lot of cases, you know, you don't have to if you're spiritual. So no, what a person should do, the ice example, a woman falling into the ice, is you stop, you kneel down, you render aid. You secure the leg with a splint, the broken leg, and you give comfort to whoever this is. You call EMS. That's what you do. And that's what the verse is telling you to do, too.

Andrew, I was thinking, because you mentioned Roger, if there is a problem in the church, is that something that the elders should try to deal with first? Yeah, well, good question, because I think it's the degree. I'm taking this to mean something of a lighter kind of way, but something more serious. And I didn't want to go down that path, because we could talk about that man caught in a sin in what, 1 Corinthians, right? Who Paul was saying to throw him out of the church and things like that. And so the serious things. This is sort of just someone you know, someone says something off-color to you or something like that, you know? Say, Andrew?

Yeah. If this trespass affects the whole church, that's what the elders say. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Bob. That would probably be the, what do you call it, the... Deciding factor. Yeah, or the protocol. Yeah, the protocol is to what it is. Yeah, right. So yeah.

I'm saying that if, you know, we're out there getting cookies and you Bob, take away from somebody else. Yeah. or something, or you say a bad word, or you, with me, you can correct me on that, and yeah. Maybe I didn't even know it. I always think about that time that, oh, who is it?

Oh, it's Tom, because Mike uses this example. He says, he was saying, he said something that offended Tom, right? So Tom said to him, I'm trying hard to forgive you. He kind of brought it up, right? And that kind of restored Mike in a way. I think that kind of fits into it. And Mike was surprised, but then he felt bad because he didn't know that he said that. He said something to upset Tom. And I bring that up publicly because he's brought it up publicly. Whatever that was, that was a good thing. example, I think, of this.

So, you are to restore this person, this believer, in the spirit of gentleness. each one of you considering yourself." So from the interlinear, it's, in the spirit of gentleness, each one considering thyself, is how the interlinear states it. So Paul brings it back to the context of chapter five, walking by the Spirit, walking in the under the power and control of the Holy Spirit, and that person, a spiritual one, will exhibit this fruit of gentleness, because we looked at the fruit of the Spirit, and one was gentleness or meekness. So, meekness, I think this is Merriman, is as power under control is what meekness or gentleness is.

It's the right use of power. The Greek word is a proitus. which is forbearance, a smoothing, a soothing disposition, not an outward expression of a feeling, but an inward grace of the soul. And you can express power through The Lord was described as meek, right, in the Gospels, but he expressed wrath towards sin. You think about when he overturned the money changer tables, he was displaying power.

Or in this verse, Mark 3, 5, and we studied Mark and I don't I forgot about this example, but here is a man with a withered hand, and they brought this man with withered hand to Jesus, and he was going to heal on the Sabbath. So the Pharisees were, you know, they were giving him a hard time as they always did, healing on the Sabbath. So after Jesus looking around at them with anger, so Jesus was angry with the Pharisees, And he grieved at their hardness of heart. He said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored." So that's power, because he's healing a man with a withered hand. But he has this controlled anger because of the grief that the Pharisees were giving him.

In, I think this is Zodiotes, Aristotle gives the definition of the same word, this meekness. He describes it as a virtue that stands between two extremes. On the one hand, an uncontrolled, unjustified anger. And on the other extreme, not becoming angry at all, no matter what the circumstances are around you. So it's sort of like live and let live sort of thing. And that's not meekness. It's the midpoint of those two things, that power under control. Which I like that kind of illustration of the word meekness. So continuing on with this, it's power under control. And here is another example that I thought of with the Lord.

He came to the house of, and this is also from Mark, of the synagogue official, I think it was Jarius, right? And he saw commotion, and people were loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, he said, because his daughter had died, Jarius' daughter had died, why are you making a commotion, Christ said, and why do you weep?

The child has not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him, but putting all the people out, all of them out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions, and he entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, "'Tilitha kum,' which means little girl, I say to you, get up." And immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old. Well, here's Think of this power where she's dead and the Lord can just speak the words, get up, and restore to life. That is power.

But look at that where he – and I remember when we read this in the men's study that they laughed at him. They began laughing at him, mocking him. But he's stating a truth there. And he – what I would have done was I would have vaporized all of them. for being laughed at. Isn't that kind of, that's, yeah, that's kind of what I would do. But look at how he responds there. He just puts them out, he brushes off the laughing, and he just displays his power. And that's, that's pretty, that's pretty amazing. So that's power under control.

Still on this phrase, in the spirit of gentleness, each one considering yourself. Oh, the word considering thyself, right, yourself. That's skopeo, there's the Greek word, S-K-O-P-E-O. And anyone want to venture a guess of what English term we get from that? Skope. Ah, good. or microscope, derived to it, or episkopos is derived from that word, and it means to mark or goal or to spy, to look towards an object, in this case it's yourself, with contemplation and to give it attention. And so you're to skopeo yourself.

And here's the thing, people do this and And that's why, right, I mean, none of you have pulled me aside and said, hey, you really should, because you probably all scope out yourself to the extent that you disqualify yourselves. So it's kind of, so maybe we do this too much, but just to make sure that you're in fellowship there. And the reason you're doing this is so that you will not be tempted in verse 6-1. So each of us is to put a microscope on ourselves and make sure we don't, when we reach out to a fellow believer, we're not tempted by the same thing, or the same slip and fall, in this case. And the word tempted, so that you will not be tempted, that's perazzo. And that makes sense, doesn't it? It's a solicitation to sin. It's a fire's trial. And it's tough to think of an example, so if any of you come up with some really good examples, just shout it out there. It's a verse that's kind of open in that way.

If you're part of Alcoholics Anonymous, and who's the guy that's supposed to help you out, if you have a problem, you get with him, and then you both end up at the bar. Oh, and that's a really good example, right, because you have, in that organization, you have person coming alongside of you and people fall off the wagon all the time in there. I guess I've never been, but you go and you say it's day three or whatever and it's celebrated and things like that. So that's a really good thing, yeah. That kind of works. Or if you have an eating disorder and your buddy comes over and you start exchanging recipes. That's definitely a Pirazzo sort of thing, right? That's a trial. That's a fiery trial.

So, oh, here we are on to verse 2 now. So we're moving on to verse 2. We spent, let's see if we, oh yeah, we have time to get into verse 2. So in verse 2 he says, bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. So bearing another one's burdens.

Merriman – I went this route with Merriman. He said here it must refer to responsibilities or things that are overwhelming in nature and not normative to a Christian's life. so abnormal, and burdens of a grievous nature, heavy weight, crushing loads, abnormal load. So if a brother is having an abnormal burden placed on him, that's where you want to come in and bear that. So these are all brother-sister-to-sister body work that we're all to do within the body of Christ.

So bear is bastazo. It's from the word for foot, which is bases. So if you think about, you know, you have your feet on the ground and And you're taking on a load. That's this this word for bearing. And the bear the word for Baron is Barrows. which is a load or a pressure or a sorrow. And there's also, it's also, I didn't put this in here, but it's also connected to the concept in the Greek of, what's the word, bathos, B-A-T-H-O-S, which is deep. has like, the sea is deep, has this depth, kind of connotation. So you see this. And that's where this word burden is, that's where you get it to be a crushing load or overwhelming. And so the combination of this weight and this bearing down on your feet gives you the sense of the abnormal-ness to it.

So anyone, I can think of an example, I thought of you all when my dad had the leukemia, right? That was an overwhelming load, abnormal. So what each of you did, and I remember this, is so many people were going to the hospital and giving blood. And they were bearing that burden, giving blood. So I mean, I'm sure many of you, a lot of people in the Holly Hills Fellowship gave pints and pints, right, of blood for that and bearing his burden. abnormal burden. Whereas sometimes we have, yeah, illnesses and things which are more daily loads, and we'll get to that next week with verse 5, but I think of that. I always think of the people next door to my mom and dad on the street over.

They had these girls who were twins, little girl twins. And then Jill, is her name, she had another set of fraternal twins. And they were young. And one of the fraternal twins was born with his insides outside of his body. And so they had to place all that back in. So he was in intensive care for a month over with my parents. And they were bearing the burden of this young couple. That was an overwhelming burden on this couple. And that's what that means. That's the burden.

So I think of that, and that kid ended up okay. He's great. He's a tough guy. He's a hunter, and he turned out great, and everything's good there, but I just remember that. I'd come home, and who are these little girls here? Morgan and Mackenzie were their name. But yeah, that was a... tremendous burden on that couple.

Oh, yeah, so a lot of commentaries will tie the burden in with the—in relation to this trespass or sin. I think it's a different context than that, and so does Merriman. So this could be any burden, and not quite in relationship to bearing someone's sin burden, because that doesn't really make sense. And I have a few points that I just kind of write out, saying it doesn't make sense that we should go on, keep on bearing someone's someone's sin and the consequence from sin, because I'm just making the point here in G&H that the ministry there is to restore them, but it's They're done with sin. They've been crucified with Christ. And so they shouldn't go on bearing any of those, or even guilt, right, in relationship to sin. So these are more bearing burdens that aren't related to that slip and fall issue. This is Merriman 2.

It can be best interpreted as a command in the true and correct sense of it's a constructive use of our liberty in which Christ made us free. And I like his term constructive command. It has a constructive quality to this verse 1 and 2. So next week, we're going to be told by Bob to bear our own load, and it sounds like it's a contradiction, but we'll look at that.

It's a different Greek word than this crushing burden. That load is a different Greek word, but we'll look at that. Okay, and we've looked at what the excessive burdens are. If you have any other examples, call them out. But just trials, tribulations, things like that. So the result of bearing one another's burdens then is that we fulfill the law of Christ. Andrew? Paul tells us. Yeah.

I'm wondering if a crushing burden could be something that's simply crushing the person, whether another person would be able to bear it, but this particular person is just crushed under it. How do you mean? Or say it again. If someone else would be able to bear that burden, But another person is just falling apart under that burden. It's crushing them. Would that be under that? Yeah. Yeah. If someone's under an emotional whatever it is, is that what you're saying? An emotional burden? Oh, yeah. Yeah. What say you guys, yeah? Yeah, I think that's right.

If somebody had lost a child, they come across another person, another family that lost a child, you can say, I was there, I lost my child, and I understand what your burden is about. So that would be very comforting to them or should be. Oh, and there's a good example too. A loss of a family member is an excessive burden. A sudden death in the family, those are all – yeah. People react differently to those things and some people are crushed under that it's trials and tribulations and Sometimes yeah, and so that's that's exactly it Kathy.

Yeah So what is the law of Christ? It's This one John 15 12. This is my commandment. He says that you love one another just as I have loved you and That's the law of Christ. And it takes us back in this letter in Galatians 2. the previous chapter, Galatians 5, where Paul says, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, and there it is, here's the law, or the principle of Christ, the law of Christ, through love serve one another.

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. And how do we do that? He goes on in verse 16 of chapter five to say, walk by the spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

So there's the, by doing this, by bearing burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ, this command to love one another. And what is this love? It's agape love, isn't it? And it also brings us back to agape being one of the 522 fruits of the spirit. I shouldn't say fruits of the spirit. It's a fruit of the spirit. Yeah, yeah. I can't say a singular fruit of the spirit. It's a fruit of the spirit. Because, yeah, we really jump on others for saying that. It's a singular. So here's a good definition of agape. It's a love source from God.

It's benevolent, with goodwill, with man's best interest in mind. It's freely given. It's patient, kind, not jealous, not bragging, not arrogant. not becoming, not seeking its own. It doesn't keep a ledger of wrongs suffered against it. It endures all things, hopes all things. And I made that all up. Really? Yeah, it's pretty poetic, isn't it, right? Well, you had a good source. Right, right, right. No, I can't take credit. It's Corinthians chapter 13. First Corinthians? Yeah. 13, there it is, yeah, and it describes agape love there.

Or here, see how great of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God, as such we are. As great of love, that's God's love for us. And that's what we exhibit as a fruit of the Spirit when we're walking by the Spirit. So that kind of ties this, this new section, these commands, into the last section there of walking by the spirit.

So, yeah, that's it. I'll wrap it up there. Unless I have another slide, which I don't. There we go. So I'll close us out in prayer. Here, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And we thank you that you give us all the things we need to live our lives under the control and the power of the Holy Spirit and the wonderful work that you accomplished for us on the cross. And we just thank you for that. And we pray these things in Jesus's wonderful name. Amen.