DEAR FRIENDS,
If you have been around my wife for any length of time, stepped into our home, or reviewed our past Amazon baby registry (not an announcement)…you have probably noticed that Laurie is a huge fan of neutrals. She gravitates towards a variety of muted shades that would appear to lack color and yet present slight underlying hues that change with different lighting. Her design palette falls somewhere in between Joanna Gaines and Switzerland. The other day, I found a very sparkly, frilly, and mostly over-the-top pink dress that just so happened to fit my 11-month-old daughter. So naturally, being the helpful husband that I am…I set out to indulge my sweet daughter and introduce her to the land of fairy princesses, bubble gum, and unicorns and dressed her up. Naturally, three out of four people in our small family were very impressed with the dress. Intrinsically, Hazel was the most excited, pulling at the sparkles and shouting (in baby): “Look mom at this very pink dress!.” Keep reading, I'll come back to this story in just a moment...
This week, I found encouragement from reading a familiar passage out of Galatians 6: “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 reminds us that sin is a present reality in the life of every Christian. Therefore, Paul urges Spirit-led believers to recognize and execute the practical responsibilities of spiritual accountability within the household of faith. The Spirit works in us to help us love one another, not to devour one another (Gal. 5:15) nor to provoke and envy one another (Gal. 5:26). These truths lead us to recognize that we are corporately responsible for the spiritual health of others within our local body! Whether you crave spiritual accountability or not… Whether you see the need for it, or not — Scripture commands us to actively participate in the spiritual lives of other believers as commanded in Galatians 6 being fully enabled by the same Holy Spirit of Galatians 5. So how can we participate in God’s necessary plan of Biblical accountability?
1) Pick Them Up OR Be Picked Up (vs 1)
Paul starts with common familial language. Paul begins by saying, “Brothers, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;” Let’s get this out of the way: the church is a spiritual family and you need a family to care for you spiritually. The church is a “household” (6:10) of brothers and sisters who call God “Abba, Father!” (4:6). Some may ask why do I need spiritual accountability? The answer: the inevitability of sin’s deceptive attraction. Paul says that sometimes those in the family get “overtaken in a fault.” They are guilty of transgression or sin. Satan sets traps and sometimes we fall into these schemes. This is why we need each other to pry open the traps and set us free. James would refer to the idea of wandering from the truth like this: Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins (Jas 5:19–20). Clearly, this accountability IS NOT liberty for each of us to become the “righteousness police.” Paul was not encouraging believers to inspect every detail of a person’s life. Nonetheless, if one is struggling with sexual sin, pride, discontentment, doubt, or discouragement; the Scriptures call us to avail ourselves to the grace of God through the help of His people.
2) Hold Them Up OR Be Held Up (vs 2-5)
Those who are living in sin need our help (v. 1), and those who are burdened need our help (v. 2). If a Christian brother or sister is weighed down by some burden, then we have a responsibility to bear that burden. In our flesh, we are often concerned with our own problems but the Spirit produces love involving our care for other brothers and sisters. Our daily mission should be to stand alert to the burdens of others and devote ourselves to making them lighter. Paul assumes that the Galatians will have burdens. Why? They are unavoidable. They may come in the form of mental illness, physical illness, financial crisis, sin, addiction, or family crises. Paul not only assumes that we will have burdens, but that we cannot carry all of our own burdens. Undoubtedly, we must always first cast our burdens on the Lord knowing that He will sustain us. Following this, we should seek out accountability and help from the body.
3) Build Them Up OR Be Built Up (vs 6)
Verse 6 can be confusing. The seemingly obvious interpretation and the most common one is that Paul is exhorting congregations to pay their pastors fairly. Although that principle is taught in the New Testament, it does not seem to be what Paul is teaching here. He has just been talking about restoring sinning brothers, and in verses 7-8 he talks about sowing and reaping in the flesh or by the Spirit. The verse seems to indicate that the “sharing of all good things” is the third step to spiritual accountability with other believers. The spiritual Christian who has picked up and held up his fallen brother also builds him up in the Word, in whose “good things” (teaching/righteous living) they fellowship together.
Spiritual accountability is not a regular practice in the lives of many believers. Why? I believe that the American church can aid in deep spiritual deception. Just like a silly, frilly, and over-the-top dress, one can walk into church, show off all of their spiritual victories, and mask the true struggle of sin that they battle every day. The Scriptures call us to something higher. The day-to-day may appear more plain, neutral, and not as glamorous. However, the reward of participating in Biblical accountability is worth it in our fight against sin for the glory of God!
Sincerely,
Pastor Jordan