Today's Passage - Galatians 6:1-5

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Galatians 6: 1-5    "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. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ......"                  It's very easy to either condemn or rebuke the brothers and sisters in church when they stumble into sin; ask God to help us learn His principles, not to act according to the flesh. If we consider ourselves "spiritual", we need to restore brothers and sisters in a spirit of gentleness. The spirit of gentleness is to empathize with the weakness of human nature, while not agreeing to the sinful acts. In fact, Jesus came to this world to finish this work; he became the likeness of man for our sake, through all the suffering in the world, empathized with the weakness of our flesh, so this is the spirit of gentleness. If we go and condemn another person instead of empathizing with his weakness, then we only consider he is weak and I am strong; but once we get in touch with another person with a spirit of gentleness, then it truly empathizes with his weakness.                  When brothers and sisters are weak, we need to treat them as a family. If the same thing happened to the church and one of them is your family member and the other is a newcomer to the church not knowing anyone, then you'll find entirely different reactions to these two people. The new believer who has just come to the church may probably be criticized mercilessly; but if this is a brother or sister, then we are family, and we'll comfort him, "we all have weakness, no problem!" Ask God to let us keep this we're family attitude, use the spirit of gentleness to treat others.                  Next, we need to restore them; a spirit of gentleness does not mean ignoring the other's sins, we still need to be faithful to the truth and bring them before the Lord. In this warped and crooked generation, on one hand there is love, on the other hand we need to be faithful to the truth, not condoning sins. Yet we have to empathize with people's weaknesses, and bring them before God. When helping and supporting the weak brother and sisters, ask God to let us not be tempted, not being dragged into sin. Ask God to give us wisdom and power, restore the weak brothers and sisters with a spirit of gentleness, and let us be of one mind moving forward.                                                                               Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, thank you for restoring us with your gentleness. We also want to learn to restore brothers and sisters who are weak in the flesh with the spirit of gentleness, while bringing them before you in truth, please give us wisdom and power. We give thanks and pray in the victorious name of Jesus, Amen!