Ye Which Are Spiritual

"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."
- Galatians 6:1-2

Over the last year or so, I have heard quite a bit about two high profile collapses in the ranks of Christendom. Sometime last year, I got the news that Bob Gray from Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL had been living in denial of gross sin for decades. Not too long ago, the nationally recognized case of Ted Haggard's sexual and addictive sins was flashed all across the news stations and papers. I am not surprised at all by the fact that I would hear about these things, and even be constantly reminded about them, by the wordly news companies. The unregenerate have every reason to desire to hurt the testimony of Christ and His followers.

What truly saddens me is how much I hear about the situations from "mature" Christians. In no way am I excusing these men by making the points I am in this post. However, the Bible is very clear how we are to respond to the sin of brothers and sisters in Christ. It sickens me to see the gross details of the situations plastered all over Christian "news" sites and blogs. I had "mature" Christians coming to me repeatedly to "talk" about the Bob Gray ordeal and to use that as a reason to attack that camp of Independent, Fundamental Baptists. The truth is, you can find failure like this in any "camp" or flavor of Christianity (and I use that term loosely). The reason for that is that there are people in every camp. People will make mistakes! There are a lot of things I don't agree with about the Neo-Evangelical crowd. I don't like a lot of their philosophies or methods. However, you will never hear me say, "I can't stand the Neo crowd because of sickos like Ted Haggard!" All of that talk and character assasination is the most irresponsible and immature response to those kind of situations.

Galatians 6 clearly teaches that those of us who are spiritual are to restore the one who has fallen, not gossip about them and kick them while they're down. If you aren't involved in the situation, then you obviously can't help restore the individual. If you can't restore the individual, you shouldn't concern yourself with the situation in any way.

If you want to tell me that Bob Gray or Ted Haggard or whoever sinned and they can no longer be in the ministry, that's fine. After that, I don't want to hear about it! I don't need to hear about it. I'm not mad at those men, nor has there ever been a moment where I hated them for what they did. My only response is sorrow. I'm sorry that the cause of Christ was hurt and I'm sorry they did this to themselves. I'm sorry they will have to face the consequences of their sin.

Galatians 6 tells us to restore these Christians in meekness, considering ourselves, lest we should be tempted. The way I see some Christians attack people like this is a sure sign of pride. We all know what comes after pride! (Proverbs 16:18) Our response to these situations determines whether we fulfill the "law of Christ." I see far too many Christians failing to fulfill that law. If you find yourself wanting to make sure everybody knows all the details of these moral failures or if you want to attack someones "camp" because of their individual sin, you need to grow up! You are not spiritual, you are carnal!