“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted”
in a spirit of gentleness,
Restoration of a fallen Christian is to be done in a “spirit of gentleness.” Gentleness is not a weakness but the spiritual strength to help someone who falls. The idea is not to punish the fallen person but to help them. Anger is not a good methodology for correcting them. Meekness is the right method.
“Gentleness” is a fruit of the Spirit (5:23). A person who seeks to restore someone else must first recognize that God restored him by grace. “Gentleness” is meekness and meekness is in-wrought grace. A meek person recognizes that he is what he is because of God’s grace, not because of something in himself.
Principle:
Gentleness is grace in action.
Application:
Where the spirit of censoriousness prevails in our dealing with those who fall, we lose the idea of grace. We are in debt to God’s grace because of our own sin as Christians. We earn or deserve nothing from Him. Everything we have as Christians is from His unadulterated grace.
All of us violate the Lord at some point. Grace means first that we receive unmerited blessing from God and, secondly, it should mean that we give undeserved blessing to other people. The best attitude that we can have in dealing with fallen people is to remember that we are the subject of God’s grace as well as the fallen believer. By grace, we are here; it is by the grace of God that they are still here.
