Caught In Sin

 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.  But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

          Four definitional issues seem to call for attention this morning: caught in a sin, restore, gently, and tempted. Each of us has a slightly different understanding. For example, what does it mean to be caught in a sin? If A catches X in a sin, should B be involved?  According to the passage from Matthew, not immediately. But if they don’t listen to you, you’re to take B, or B and C along. And if they still don’t listen, you add the rest of the alphabet within your congregation.

          But caught? That means you walk in on the sin. You hear the person talk about the sin. You are a primary witness. If you hear about it from someone else, you may go ask X about it, to learn the truth of the matter, but you may not act on what you heard  until you’ve seen or heard it from X.

          I have to admit, I’m probably not good at this. When I hear about something, I tend to believe or disbelieve, but not investigate. When someone says or posts something I think is wrong, I don’t pull them aside or private message them. I ambush them right then and there, and I don’t let go. I don’t seek out B or C or even the whole alphabet. I argue. And argue…and… argue. And somewhere in that arguing, the person tends to stop being the focus, and the argument becomes the focus.

          That brings us to the second issue. Our goal should be to restore that person or bring them back into a good relationship with God, with other people (Church or not), with us, and with themselves. This means dealing with the person as a person, and with the person’s relationships. Until or unless they recognize that what they are doing has caused a separation in a relationship they value, it won’t help. The key, then, is to help them learn to value the relationship enough to not want to cause the separation.

          We’re to go about this gently. That means we’re to use the lowest possible level of force or power. But it doesn’t mean we are never to use any force or power, but that’s not the goal. As I thought about being gentle this morning, two things came to mind.  One is that we need to remember that we’re dealing with fragile, fallen folks. Again, it’s about the relationship. The other is similar. Being gentle is only going to happen if we are loving. On doesn’t gently seek revenge. We must be passionate about the well-being of the person, but dispassionate about the sin.

          We’re not there to inflict any more pain than is necessary, and we need to be surgical about it. There is no room for extreme language or name calling. The only joy to be had in this situation is in the restoration of relationship. This is why I am adamantly opposed to celebrations in the defeat of another, in what goes around coming around, or in people getting what’s coming to them. We need to keep in mind that there is a difference between rejoicing in the truth and in loving righteous and enjoying destruction.

          Lastly, we need to deal with the possibility that in confronting someone with their sin, we must be careful not to be tempted as well. Tempted to commit the same sin?  Yes, that’s one possibility. How better to make Christianity look bad than by reducing its leaders to the same levels they’ve spoken against for decades? But I think there are other sins that are harder to avoid: the sin of reducing the person to the sin (making the sin and not the person the focus,) the sin of separating instead of restoring, and the sin of hating instead of loving – of enjoying the dehumanization and destruction of another person.