Hatchet Man
I tend to be the kind of guy that wants to cut someone off at the knees when they mess up. Jesus extended grace and I struggle doing that… I want to extend the hatchet, or maybe a baseball bat, or perhaps a sledge hammer. I recently didn’t extend someone grace and God showed me that quite clearly today . Maybe God returned the favor and hit me with the hammer.
Today I was reading Galatians and it says this:
Galatians 6:1 – Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.
I need to get better at the “gently” part. I tend to lead towards shoving people into restoration.
The Greek word for “restore” that Paul uses here is kat-ar-tid’-zo and it means to completely and thoroughly repair.
How does that translate into life application?It does not simply mean stating the obvious mistake someone has made and moving on. It means that God expects us to participate in completely and thoroughly repairing that person to full health. In order to really do that we have to be in relationships with the people we are confronting, we have to care for them and they have to know we care. If people don’t know that we genuinely care they often wont allow us to help them.
Frank,
Thanks for your honesty.
I think some of the verses that Bob Lewis has been pounding into our Home Team coaches speaks to this as well.
2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”
Colossians 3:16 “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”
These verses talk about using wisdom, patience, and careful instruction when correcting, teaching, rebuking, and admonishing. The whole goal being to spur one another on towards love and good deeds and to a closer relationship with Christ.