The pastor search committee of this rural Baptist church was excited about their recommendation for a new pastor. The candidate was known to the congregation and liked by all. Only the formality of approving the salary and benefits remained before the final vote could be taken and the new man welcomed by the church.
But formalities can sometimes become bumps in the road.
The confusion was not about the proposed salary. It was about the pastor’s vacation. The pastor search committee recommended two weeks of vacation including one Sunday. A member sitting on the back row of the church questioned the recommendation. Two weeks means 14 days, he observed. That meant the pastor should have two vacation Sundays.
The pastor search committee did not see it that way and the debate quickly escalated into heated exchanges. One of the committee members who had not spoken to that point stood to defend the committee’s recommendation. When the member on the back row stood to respond, the committee member sitting a row in front of him suddenly turned around and knocked the questioning member flat in his seat.
What followed was a knock-down, drag-out fight between the two men, both faithful Christians and leaders in the church.
Christian humility
Afterwards both men were embarrassed. The pastor search committee member, a deacon, was embarrassed he had lost his temper and had swung at his fellow church member. He felt he had disgraced himself, the committee and the church. The other member was ashamed that he had become argumentative and let the disagreement grow from a definition of what constituted two weeks of vacation into a personal crusade where he had to win the argument.
In a rare sense of Christian humility, both felt they had contributed to the unfortunate incident. Neither blamed the whole episode on the other.
Still, fighting in church is wrong. It falls into the category of what Galatians 5:20 describes as “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions” and more. It is a manifestation of what the preceding verses call the “sinful nature” (Gal. 5:17). How should the church respond to the situation? How should the church respond to the two men who brawled in the back of the sanctuary?
Members of the church, where I was serving as interim pastor at the time, were halting their efforts to deal with the situation. They did not want to “stick their nose in where it did not belong.” They feared offending, maybe driving off, both men and their families. At the same time they recognized that to do nothing clouded the boundaries between what was acceptable in church as opposed to what secular culture might allow.
The church found guidance in Galatians 6:1–3 and the verses about bearing one another’s burdens.
Fighting was out of character for both men. “If a man should do something wrong, my brothers, on a sudden impulse” (v. 1) seemed to accurately describe the situation. Some translations of this passage omit terms like “sudden impulse” but the passive voice of the verb in Greek implies the idea of surprise, so the translation is appropriate. In this case, neither man was habitually aggressive. The fight was not premeditated. It was abnormal behavior for both.
Verse 1 continues, “you who are endowed with the Spirit must set him right again very gently.” Again the Greek is helpful. The verb translated “set him right” is used to describe setting a broken bone. It has no connotation of punishment. It is about restoration or making whole again.
The task facing the church was to find a way to hold the men accountable for their actions as well as to restore them to participation in the fellowship. That meant helping them overcome their sense of embarrassment, shame and failure.
This church had its “Holy Joes” and “Pious Pollys” who wanted to say, “I told you so.” A few had the spirit of Shakespeare’s Shylock and wanted a “pound of flesh” for the men’s transgressions.
But the Bible says people are to be restored “very gently.” Restoring one caught up in sinful behavior is to be done for the good of the body of Christ.
After all, when one part of the body of Christ hurts, the whole body suffers (1 Cor. 12:25–26). Restoration is to be done with sensitivity and consideration, not with self-righteousness and superiority.
Restoration is led by “you who are endowed with the Spirit.” The reference is not to a special class of Christians. Too many churches have members who think themselves superior to others in terms of biblical knowledge and knowing the will of God.
That is exactly the attitude the Apostle Paul condemns in this passage. “We must not be conceited,” he writes. Later in the same verse he adds, “Look to yourself, each one of you: you may be tempted too.”
Those endowed with the Spirit point to the members of the church whose lives evidence the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). These are the ones (both men and women) whose lives evidence the abilities to walk with love, patience, kindness, fidelity, gentleness and more beside the one who has suddenly and unexpectedly been caught in sinful behaviors.
As if to summarize this entire section that begins with a description of the sinful nature in chapter 5, the writer says in verse 2, “Help carry one another’s burdens.” The verb form is imperative. It is a command, not an option. In other words, the responsibility of the church is to help those caught up in sinful behavior on their journey back into full fellowship with the church.
Helping carry heavy burdens
That is a difficult journey. The weight of failure is heavy. Fellow believers have the privilege of helping the fallen carry that heavy burden as their brokenness is mended. When we do what the Apostle Paul says, “in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” This is a serious matter.
“Help carry one another’s burdens” means much more than helping the wayward, but it certainly includes that responsibility.
The church in question stumbled its way into restoring both families to full fellowship and the experience strengthened the church family. Doing what the Bible says, even when it is difficult, has a way of doing that.
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