Proseuche Commentary: Love Your Sister

Proseuche Commentary

Love Your Sister

Brothers and sisters, even if a person were caught in any wrongdoing, 

    the spiritual ones (meaning you) 

     are to restore! this one in a spirit of gentleness,  

       also looking after yourselves in case you are tempted.   

And so regarding one another's burdens—bear them! 

    and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ.   

For if someone thinks of herself as being “someone,” 

    yet being no one, 

      she deceives herself.  

Each one test! her own works, 

    and then she will have a reason to list only her own work 

      and not that of others.  

    For each person bears her own burden. 

                                                                   -Gal 6:1-5 (personal translation)

            People tumble, people fall.  God is asking those who are stronger in His Spirit to take special care of those who have found themselves in some type of sin.  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we have a Jewish man who is mugged and left for dead on the side of the road.  A priest and a Levite walk by and keep going.  It would be too much bother to help him, because it would cost their time, money, and inconvenience.  You see, by touching an “unclean” person they would have to go through their cleansing rituals again.  The worst part of the story, is that the hero is suppose to be “the bad guy.”  In Christian terms, the guy who is robbed is a church member.  His pastor and small group leader walk by him, because they are too busy.  But a Morman man stops and helps the man with his time and money.  Ouch. 

Like the Good Samaritan who cared for the one beaten by robbers, we are to take our time and resources for the broken sister or brother in Christ.  If we walk around those who have fallen, not risking our own reputations, our own cleanliness, then we become the priest or the Levite who ignored the injured man.  In the parable, the one we least expect is the hero.  The “believer” is the one who does nothing.  And this is not what God wants!  He wants, he commands, us to restore! this one in zeal and judgment—no.  Restore this one with punishment and lectures—no.  Restore this one in gentleness.  Are we as the body of Christ restoring those who have fallen in gentleness, or do we treat them as if they are unclean?  Do we point and stare at the pregnant teenage girl in the pew, or do we welcome her and help at her baby shower?  When we act this way, we are doing the law of Christ, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you” (John 15:12).  For Jesus loved us while we were still sinners.  All the more we should share this love and forgiveness and grace that we ourselves received. 

Friend, it’s dangerous to think more highly of ourselves than we should!  The priest and the Levite thought that this man’s life was worth less than theirs.  And so, this raises the question, have you done a “fruit inspection” in your own life lately?  If you look at the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, which type of fruit is hanging on your tree?  God wants us to be able to stand in His strength and humbly say, “This is the fruit on my tree.”  Not what your church does, not what your pastor does, not what your friends do—God is interested in your own spiritual fruit and spiritual works.  For we stand before God on our own.