In today’s passage the Apostle Paul discusses how a Christian community should respond to a brother who has slipped up & fallen into sin. Let’s consider this idea literally to see what Paul might have to say for us today.
So a friend in faith (we’ll call him Trip) is walking down a freshly mopped tile hallway. The plastic yellow warning signs are posted urging caution & there is a sturdy handrail nearby for support. However, Trip is distracted with reading Galatians 6:1-10 on his Blackberry. He suddenly loses his footing on the slick floor & falls flat on his back. Trip is now lying on the tiled floor in dire need of saving. How should a Christian respond?
A group of fellow believers (led by a friend we’ll call Lee) rushes to the scene of the fall. But instead of offering immediate assistance, Lee & his friends question Trip extensively about the circumstances of his tumble. They begin to lecture Trip for disregarding the many warning signs & not using the available handrails. Lee & his friends draw the distinct contrast of their fallen brother & their own fine style of walking. They would probably be eager to demonstrate for Trip exactly how they would have held onto the handrail & carefully navigated the slippery floor. (They might want to do this 2 or 3 times, just to make sure their friend “understood.”) Perhaps Lee’s friends would compare their now enviable record of “fall-free-days” with Trip’s current record of zero “fall-free-days.” Of course through all this, Trip is still lying on the floor in need of saving. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Trip is beginning to seriously reconsider the spirit of “helpfulness” of his fellow believers.
Now, lets consider a 2nd approach to Trip’s predicament. This group (led by a friend we’ll call Phil) takes Paul’s urging to “bear one another’s burdens” to heart. Phil & his friends immediately come to Trip’s aid. They do everything they can to lift him up from his fallen condition. Their goal is to help their brother be restored to his previously upright state. Phil & his friends recognize that they, too, could have very easily slipped. Phil realizes that we all make silly mistakes that we regret. Their hope would be that if they should fall, that they could count on their fellow believers to be there to help them regain their footing & continue on their journey. While Trip still has a nasty bump on his head as a consequence of his fall, he feels encouraged having been surrounded in Christian love.
The question now before us is which group best exemplifies the spirit of Christian love? The response from Lee Galistic’s group to Trip’s fall? Or should we aim to follow the actions of the group led by Phil Adelphia? The choice is ours to make.
Darren Lippe co-leads the “Loving God” Learning Community at The Church of the Resurrection.
