237 – HOW TO DEAL WITH AN ERRING BROTHERNovember 5 1961
Henry F. Kulp
Galatians 6: 1 - 5 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.
Paul in the book of Galatians has been talking about law or grace and he says those who are of the law are of the old nature. They are of the flesh—but those who are of grace are of the new nature, the Holy Spirit, and those who are of the old nature will naturally have strife and bitterness—there will be envying and there will be trouble, but those who have the Holy Spirit and walk in the new nature have the fruit of the Spirit. They are kind and gentle and they are long-suffering and they are meek.
1/ Now we have here in Galatians 6: 1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
The difference between a legalist and a true grace believer. How can you tell the difference? The way he treats those who come short, those who get into sin. It all can be governed by the way he judges other believers. Notice, I said other believers, for this has to do with the brethren. That is the first word in Galatians 1.
2/ Let us notice the last verse 5: 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
This is a real admonition. Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another, envying one another.
How can brethren do such a thing? But they can do it because they have the old nature. This comes about because of the fact that we love legalism—we love to judge other people, we love to challenge one another as though in combat, each getting more credit and praise than the other receives, and of course, back of all this lies envy which is that old nature which just love legality.
3/ Then we come down to Galatians 6: 1 and notice that first word, Brethren. A brother is one who is a fallen brother—we are not to judge, censor, or condemn. We are to restore such a one. The word, restore, we said is a surgical term, meaning to set a broken limb, or it can mean mending nets. We have the very same word in Matthew 4: 21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
And this word is always an action that requires expert skill. This is not to be done by a novice—this is not to be done except by those who are spiritual because it requires utmost skill.
4/ We are in the restoring business—the mending business. If we could only understand that grace removes judgment from us, and gives us the duty of restoration. This is throughout the Pauline Epistles. Let us get this principle and see what Paul has to say about it. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
5/ I Corinthians 4: 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
God says here, withhold your judgment of another until Jesus Christ comes and then you better let Him be the judge. Why? Because He alone knows the secret of each heart and He sees the motive and efforts of even the defeated Christian. He takes into consideration all the facts which effect our conduct.
6/ Let’s see what else Paul has to say on this Romans 14: 1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
We are not to exclude the weaker believers, we are not to put them on probation, but receive them—the weaker they are, the more they need our help and fellowship
7/ So here we have our relationship to weak Christians. Now this is not the unsaved. We do not do this to the unsaved world—those who deny the deity of Christ, those who cast aside the Virgin Birth. That isn’t the thought that is here—it is those who believe in Jesus Christ that they do things that we think they shouldn’t and God tells us we do not have the right to judge them. We are not to judge the weaker brother, the Lord Jesus Christ will do that, and when we receive him is not for argument’s sake. Arguments do no help anyone, but fellowship will help, especially close fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
8/ Not let us look at another Scripture.
Romans 15: 1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Perhaps the key word in this portion of Scripture is the word, ought. We ought to bear with the weak. In this word the sense of obligation is very great. In early English, ought was the past tense of owe. We owe it to the weak, and therefore we ought to pay it and bear with the weak and try to help them.
9/ Of course, it is for those who are strong. Are you one who has robust faith? Or are you weak, pale, sickly, stooped. If you have strong faith you bear with the weak, and if you are weak, you certainly can’t sit around and criticize anyone else.
10/ Let us look at another Scripture that is right to the point.
II Timothy 2: 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. apt to teach, patient,
The word, servant, is slave. And what happens when a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ meets up with Christians who oppose themselves? They are to be apt to teach. I believe with all my heart that we are to contend for the faith as we have in Jude 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
But that is not what Paul has in mind contending for the faith here. These are Christians who are weak and get out of line. We don’t come upon them with cursing and bitterness and condemn them to expulsion from our group, but rather we are to go to them in the spirit of meekness, instructing them, explaining to them. Bishop Handley Moule translates this potion of Scripture in a delightful way—he says he is to be explanatory. I wonder if we are explanatory Christians. It is better to go to someone who is overtaken in sin, someone who is living the way that is contrary to the Christian conception, It is far better to go to him in meekness and instruct him, and of course, there is one way to instruct him and that is out of the Word of God. We are not to argue or wrangle—we are not to strive, and that word, striving there means battling. We are not to battle with these Christians, but we are to teach them—grace is the matter of teaching, not battling, not arguing, not striving.
11/ Then, have you ever wondered why the Apostle Paul was so successful as a minister for the Lord Jesus Christ? I can give you one of the reasons—he was a grace preacher, and grace was in his heart, and he treated those with whom he came in contact with grace. He argued—Yes, about doctrine. He would battle those as we have in Acts 15. He would have great disputes among them because of wrong doctrine, but I want you to notice how he treated the Thessalonians.
I Thessalonians 2: 7, 8 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.
Here we have the compassionate heart of Paul that made possible the successful ministry. Paul took care of these folks just as a nurse takes care of her patients. Literally, the expression is a nurse taking care of her own children. A professional nurse will often do a good job of taking care of someone else’s child because she believes in certain professional standard of duty, but if it is her own child, that makes a tremendous difference, and she gives them just the very best treatment that she possibly can, and Paul as he reveals his compassion here says I am even willing to give my life for you. Then he says, you were dear to us, regardless of their actions, because they are children of God, they belong in the family of God, they are part of His body, and we want to keep them and treat them as a nurse would treat her own children.
12/ This is the thing that is missing, I believe, in Christendom today. His very attitude, this heart-warming desire towards others. It is easier to criticize than to teach. It is easier to look down upon a person than trying to hear their burdens and work with them.
13/ The word, cherisheth her own children, is to warm—it is used of birds covering their young with their feathers—in other words, protecting them, watching over them. That is what we are to do with others.
14/ We do all this considering ourselves lest we also be tempted. In other words, it is the same thing that Jesus Christ said to the religious leaders of His day, who were so legalistic. He that is without sin among you cast the first stone—here we have another principle whether it is law or grace that is so important. These scribes and Pharisees were so vicious—they looked down their noses at the woman taken in adultery, and all the time their lives were filled with sin. When we recognize who we are and what we are, and we are only what we are by the grace of God, we will not look down our noses at someone else, but we will try to help someone else.
15/ It is necessary to see we do not condone sin in our midst. That is not what God wants us to do at all. We are not to put up with sin, but we are rather to be anxious about sin and to go to a person who is living in sin, in meekness, considering what we are, and how we can fall, and looking at our own sin, and go to the person and try to teach them and try to help bear their burdens, and try to show them the folly of the position they are in.
16/ Now notice, Galatians 6: 2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Instead of discouraging those who are weak and burdened, we are to bear their burdens. This is a step higher, isn’t it? Not a holier-than-thou attitude of criticism, but rather trying to help.
17/ Then we go to Galatians 6: 3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
So what is wrong with a man when he cannot do this? Why is it that he does not want to bear someone else’s burden? Why is it he doesn’t want to be gentle and teach others? Why does he want to be hypocritical and judging? Why does he want to look down his nose at others? Because he believes he is something when he is nothing. Do you know what is the best rendering of this third verse, and I think it is excellent, FOR IF ONE DEEMS HE IS SOMETHING WHILE HE IS NOTHING, HIS MIND DELUDES HIMSELF.
What is the trouble? It is right in his mind. His mind is that which is causing him all the trouble he has, and soon as I read this, my mind goes back immediately to Romans 12: 3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
A man is not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. It is a terrible thing when a man or woman, boy or girl, who has met the Lord Jesus Christ and has been saved by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the grace of God should think that they were someone special. We should never reach the point where we exalt the flesh.
I want you to notice what Paul had to say in a warning that he put out about himself.
II Corinthians 12: 6 For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
This is a wonderful thought—this Paul who is the protose, the great leader, did not think of himself more highly than he ought to think, as a matter of fact, he had a reason for not thinking highly of himself. He had a reason why he thought soberly concerning himself, and we have that given to us in II Corinthians 12: 7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
And Paul said, I have all these wonderful experiences that if anyone could ever exalt the flesh and think more of himself, it was the Apostle Paul, but he said, Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation, there was given to me a throne in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure—in other words, really think that I am someone. Paul said, God intervened to keep me humble. No wonder he could say to the church at Thessalonica—have treated you, I have warmed you as a nurse would her own children. We think ourselves to be something when we really are nothing.
18/ I heard a preacher say at a Bible conference, he said, You pray that the Lord will make me nothing so that He can use me. And with twinkle in his eye the Bible teacher turned to the missionary and said, You are already nothing.
Oh, that we could learn this truth—We are already nothing. We are absolutely nothing in the flesh, It is only when God controls us that we become someone or something, and we are only someone or something when we are gentle and kind and considerate.
19/ Then notice, Galatians 6: 4 But let every man prove his own work, and than shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
The idea here is called self-judgment. Let us impose the acid test of God’s Word upon ourselves, and not upon or brethren. We should judge our own lives by God’s standards, and not by our neighbors.
AMEN
Ref: 11/05/1961 / 237 - HOW TO DEAL WITH AN ERRING BROTHER / 04/09/2021
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