(Read articles one, two, and three here.)
Charlotte Brontë said, “The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.”
Today, you and I are living a lifestyle that researchers call “crowded loneliness.” They estimate the average American family manages around 35 separate relationships on a daily basis: from kids, extended family, coworkers, school, friends, coaches, moms’ groups, doctors, Starbucks baristas, customers, landlords, business partners, and any and every person in your life I did not mention. We have a desperate need for meaningful relationships, yet we are too busy or maxed out to actually maintain our relationships, and certainly not at any deep or meaningful level. Then we add another 100+ or so church members, and we find that we are in the middle of a crowd, even while still being completely and utterly lonely.
In Genesis when God created all things, He said it was all “very good.” However, what was not good? The man, Adam, was alone. So, God created Eve from his side and created someone to come alongside Adam. Adam, in a state of loneliness, was incomplete. One of the myriad purposes of marriage is to dispel and to quiet loneliness. In like manner, one of the purposes of the church is to remind us that we are not isolated followers of Jesus seeking to give God glory alone.
Jesus’ church is a unified community who has collectively been called out of darkness, made in the imago Dei, and set apart to advance the Gospel through holy living and Gospel proclamation. Yet within a local church, could it be said that we are still lonely?
In his landmark book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam contends: “People divorced from community, occupation, and association are first and foremost among the supporters of extremism.” Legalists may be in a church, but they are not in true gospel community. I contend that it is just as devastating to the church when people segregate themselves within it inwardly as those who separate themselves from it outwardly. Yet that is exactly what legalists do. Legalists do not really live in true Gospel community, because to be near other believers in close proximity and fellowship calls out this aberrant posture, within time.
As Paul wraps up his letter to the legalistically-prone Christians in Galatia, he closes with practical guidelines for true Gospel community to flourish. To be fruitful in the Body of Christ, we must have these five qualities: (This outline can be credited to Pastor David Platt. I could not improve on his outline, so I am going to borrow it, which comes from his “Christ-Centered Exposition” commentary on Galatians.)
1. Gentle Restoration (Galatians 6:1)
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Right before this, Paul listed the works of the flesh versus the fruit of the Spirit. Paul gives us a hypothetical case where someone may not be marked by those sins, but perhaps they found themselves slipping into temptation. That phrase “if anyone is caught” is an interesting construction in the Greek and would be better translated as “surprised.” These people did not have a premeditated desire to violate God’s grace; they were duped into sinning.
Most of us do not wake up and think, “Today, I think I’m gonna sin!” Most of us have the earnest desire to want to please God and keep His commands and live a holy, exemplary life that glorifies God and benefits others who look on our fruit. However, the reality is that we do sin. The word “transgression” is sometimes translated “fault,” which is a softer word to our ears than “transgression.” The word means “a false step, a blunder, a failure to achieve.”
So what do we do in a Gospel community when someone is caught up in a sin they did not anticipate?
We are told 3 things:
a. You who are spiritual should restore him.
In other words, the one who is walking by the Spirit. This is not an upper class, nor are these first-class Christians who are considered “spiritual.” It simply means those who are walking in the Spirit. Statistically, that should be every Christian. Sadly, it is not.
b. We are to restore the sinner gently.
When someone sins, our reaction is normally critical. Do we respond in a spirit of judgment and criticism? (Oh, it doesn’t surprise me that they’d do that!) Or are we sincerely grieved? I am always grieved whenever a Christian falls or fails.
The question comes down to this: When someone sins, do you become a Policeman or Paramedic? Paramedics are proactive; policemen are reactive. Paramedics care for the health and condition of the person, whereas policemen are concerned about the facts of the crime. Paramedics do not care what happened; they care about who it happened to and how to nurse those people back to health. Policemen want to get all the details to build a case and prosecute the guilty party.
Notice that Paul says restore them “in a spirit of gentleness.”
This is in the active voice and imperative mood, meaning it is a present command that we are to be active in doing over and over and over. We are to gently (the word is “meekness”) restore that fallen sinful brother. The word restore here means to literally put the bone back in place. When you put a bone back in place, consider the gentleness needed. You do not want rough, strong hands — you want gentle ones! This is a long healing process that needs a cast and rest and protection.
In the same way, church discipline should be redemptive, not vindictive. We are not seeking to expose people, like a Kiss Cam gone wrong. We are not here to rejoice when someone fails; we are to help them if they fall. Sadly, the church’s leaders often fumble this, to Christ’s shame.
c. Carefully consider our own vulnerability to sin.
Paul says “keep watch on yourself! You too could be tempted!” When we see someone sin, in any way, we should honestly look in the mirror and say with sobriety: “Apart from the grace of God, so would I go.” We are to come alongside someone who is sinning, which implies knowing one another and taking the time and risk to be known. It is an honor to gently restore a husband in his marriage or a repentant sinner to the church community.
Look how this goes deeper, beyond sin to every area of need:
2. Humble Burden-Bearing (Galatians 6:2-5)
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
Verse 2 is the same phrase used of Jesus carrying His cross. In a Gospel community, we are to bear one another’s burdens! So if a couple is struggling in their marriage, we should help bear that burden. If a college student is broke, we should have them over for dinner. If a guy is worshiping at the altar of sexual sin, we should be strongly challenging him and helping him bear his burdens.
Paul says not to think much of yourself as you help others. The Greek in verse 3 reads, “If anyone thinks he is a big number, when he is ZERO.” We can become self-deceived. The way to escape this is to examine yourself — to stop comparing ourselves with others but with God’s expectation on our own lives. When we realize that others need our help, that does not make us better than them, it makes us realize that we too will eventually need help! As we measure our lives not by how we compare to others but how we compare to the law of Christ, we stay humble.
However, there is a difference between a personal “load,” (v.5) and a community’s “burden” (v.2). Loads are responsibilities in life: personally, financially, with your time, fitness, vocation, relationships, etc. The church is not responsible for helping people carry their own loads! The elders are not going to give you a wake-up call to remind you that church is this Sunday at 10am. That is a load, not a burden. The church may help challenge and direct you to be more responsible, but the Gospel community is not responsible to carry loads for you. When there is a burden, though, the church is called to love one another and help.
Starting in verse 6, Paul changes gears and uses the analogy of planting seeds and reaping a harvest, and we come to the third aspect of Gospel community:
3. Generous Sharing (Galatians 6:6)
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
I used to think that this verse meant that if you received some sort of encouragement from a sermon, you were supposed to go to the pastor or the person who taught you and thank them, but that is not what the original language means! The word here for “share” is the verb form of the word “koinonia,” which means the fellowship we have as we share all things in Christ, in common. The early church was not an isolated community of believers who all showed up on the same day each week to worship God but never knew each other outside the four walls of the gathering and then dismissed to live separate, private disjointed lives.
No! They were intimately involved in one another’s lives to the point that they shared even their property, their real estate, their goods, their food, and their resources with one another. In this case, Paul is speaking about supporting the teachers of a church: the elders. In a Gospel community, the elders share the spiritual resources of the Word of God with the body, and the body in turn helps share their material resources to help support the elders. This is not a “payment”; it is “sharing.” Much has been written in the New Testament about financially caring for the pastor/teachers in the church (1 Corinthians 9:9-12, 1 Timothy 5:17-18).
What a beautiful partnership, where the pastor elders can commit their lives to ministering the Word of God to the people of God, and the people of God can commit their lives to building up the community and caring for the practical needs through their generosity! If you thought that was invasive, Paul gets more meddlesome! Look at the fourth aspect of Gospel community:
4. Personal Holiness (Galatians 6:7-8)
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Here Paul introduces the concept of reaping and sowing: whatever seed you sow into the ground will be what you reap. So Paul says, “don’t be deceived”! If you sow orange seeds, do not expect an apple tree. If you plant a garden of tomatoes, do not be surprised when you do not reap pumpkins. If you sow to your flesh, you can expect destruction; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life. So do not give up, do not carry your burden alone, be transparent, be real, be raw, take off the mask and know that people are here to help you, to bear that burden with you, to restore you. True Gospel Community requires us to see that our sin does not just affect us; it affects everyone. This is not a personal struggle; it is a part of a church body’s struggle.
God is not mocked. It does not matter who you are. The principle of reaping and sowing is no respecter of persons. Personal holiness affects the church community because just a little leaven can leaven the whole lump. One person’s laziness or legalism can be easily picked up by other people in the church.
5. Practical Goodness (Galatians 6:9-10)
9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
That phrase “grow weary” was used in the first century to describe a woman in labor pains. She is suffering, she is waiting, and in her excruciating pain she knows something good is coming, but not yet. Often there is a long time between the sowing and the reaping, and some are tempted to think, “This isn’t worth it, I should just give up.” But, verse 9 exhorts us to not grow weary in doing good — because there is a season to plant, and there is a season to reap! Verse 10 connects it all: Do not grow weary in doing good. So as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, but we must start firstwith the household of faith.
In other words, there is a responsibility first to our Gospel community, whom Paul calls the “household.” Just as we take care of the “four walls” in our family budgets first, so too, practical goodness begins first and foremost in our home church. The church is not merely one of many “groups” that one simply identifies or affiliates with. It is not like you are a part of the Kiwanis Club, the Runner’s Club, the Country Club, the Cyclist Group, and oh, I forgot, I go to First Baptist!
Your church is your tribe, your family! So how can we care for ourselves and not care for our other family members? How dare we do good to the unbelieving community around us, at the cost of our church family? We all see the hypocrisy of someone visiting kids in the inner city to feed them but then coming home to their own starving children. We make our church family our priority, and we do good to our body first. Then, once the body is cared for adequately, we go and pray for opportunities to do good to all.
The Opposite of Gospel Community: “iChurch”
I believe the reason many of us are isolated, lonely, discouraged or frustrated as believers is because we keep doing the exact opposite of this list. In short, I call it, “iChurch.” Let me show you how, through selfish, legalistic attitudes, each one of these morphs into the opposite reality.
At iChurch, Gentle Restoration becomes Harsh Neglect. Rather than gentle restoration, when someone sins at iChurch, we either neglect or expose them. One of those is passive aggressive, and the other is directly aggressive, but they are both wrong. People are left to themselves to struggle through sin, or are gossiped about or slandered to the entire congregation. Matthew 18 is excused, avoided, or forgotten, and sinners remain isolated.
If your Gospel community is more like iChurch, then Humble Burden-Bearing becomes Proud Comparison. So because we see sin in others that we could never see ourselves capable of, this pride leads us to begin comparing ourselves with others, and looking down at them, rather than helping shoulder their burdens. Rather than making sacrifices to help come alongside others, we get prideful and we hold back. We wonder how all these other people can be struggling so much in comparison to us, because we are awesome. Intercession devolves into accusation. We do not let our lives get messy by including others, because that would weigh too much, which means allowing that person to be crushed under burdens as they do life alone.
Thirdly, iChurch means Generous Sharing turns into Stingy Isolationism. We are not about to start sharing our lives with each other, so we cut ourselves off. We keep our schedules to ourselves, our gifts and abilities to ourselves, and even our material resources to focus on caring for our own priorities. We do not open our home for others, we do not invite people into friendship and fellowship, and we do not give financially to help support the preaching and teaching ministry of the church’s elders we are primarily fed by. In this isolationism, we begin to sow to our flesh, and not to the Spirit, and thus we will eventually reap destruction rather than a harvest. Even if that money was invested for our retirement and made millions, it is still sowing to the flesh.
That means that at iChurch, Personal Holiness devolves into Sinful Leaven. When we take this selfish mindset to its logical conclusion, we will begin to look at the church and rather than seeing the needs that she has, we criticize her for lacking what we want, when often we have the very resource she needs. That mindset begins to spread like leaven through the entire church. We truly corporately reap what we have corporately sown.
Which means at iChurch, Practical Goodness morphs into Critical Consumerism. We distort into church-shoppers, a phrase that should be a contradiction in terms. We are a family! Paul called the Galatians “brothers” ten times in six chapters! You may go to the store to shop for an item that you can use for your own advantage, but no one shops for family members. Sadly, we can end up becoming people who solely view a church for what it offers us (not what we can offer it and how we can lay down our lives and sacrificially serve).
Thus, the legalist has no idea what true, connected, Gospel community looks like, because they have never confessed their sin to another person. They have never reached into their weekly schedule or their wallet to help contribute. They do not build up others or do good to others because they are so consumed with how good they are doing personally, or how much sin they have sniffed out in their fellow believer’s life. They may be in a church, but they are not a contributing part of one.
Thus, as in Galatians (and most of Paul’s letters!), grace has the final word. Legalism must be confronted and plundered in a local church, because it is not the Gospel, and leads to despair, defeat, and destruction. God, by his Holy Spirit, obtained by the finished work of his beloved Son, has invited us into fellowship with himself, as well as with his people. Have you experienced this grace awakening?
