"It is easy to talk about the fruit of the Spirit while doing very little about it, so Christians need to learn that it is in concrete situations, rather than emotional highs, that the reality of the Holy Spirit in their lives is demonstrated".
James Boice
In the 1988 presidential campaign, commentators and voters made much about the character of the candidates, especially those who were rumored to be womanizers. One of the leading candidates had ridiculed another man who had fallen under public attack for his conduct toward women. This leading candidate dared the press to follow him and try to find any misconduct on his part. The press took him up on the dare. Some time later news media published photos of this man himself on a yacht in the Caribbean with an attractive lady who was not his wife. The name of the yacht, prophetically, was Monkey Business. The scandal grew so large that this candidate was forced to withdraw from the campaign which he might have won.
A similar incident happened during the eighties with moral scandals that rocked the Christian television industry. A leading television evangelist was caught in a moral lapse which made headline news all over the United States for a long time. I recall hearing an interview with another television minister who leveled a scathing rebuke of the evangelist who had sinned. I was taken aback at the intensity of this attack; However, it wasn't long before the story of this second evangelist's moral lapse was on newspapers and weekly news magazines across the nation.
Both the television evangelist and the leading presidential candidate were arrogant in their condemnation of others, and their own indiscretions were revealed a short time later. Paul warned of that attitude in this final chapter of Galatians. He encouraged us to treat gently other Christians who have fallen into sin, all the time watching out for ourselves, lest we also be tempted.
Paul was writing to the Galatians because he was concerned about how the church should treat a person who has committed an act of sin. To be clear, God is the only one authorized to tell the church how we should handle someone who has sinned, not politicians, not newspapers, not television talking heads and certainly not people who are not part of the body of Christ in general or that particular church in specific.
Prayerfully, we will talk more about Galatians 6 this week as I am starting to learn how to juggle school and church a little better. Sunday we shared this text and titled it Grace in Action and the brief points were:
I. Be Godly----Pick People Up vs 1
II Be Gentle--Hold People Up vs 2-5
III. Be Giving---Build People Up Vs 6
James Boice
In the 1988 presidential campaign, commentators and voters made much about the character of the candidates, especially those who were rumored to be womanizers. One of the leading candidates had ridiculed another man who had fallen under public attack for his conduct toward women. This leading candidate dared the press to follow him and try to find any misconduct on his part. The press took him up on the dare. Some time later news media published photos of this man himself on a yacht in the Caribbean with an attractive lady who was not his wife. The name of the yacht, prophetically, was Monkey Business. The scandal grew so large that this candidate was forced to withdraw from the campaign which he might have won.
A similar incident happened during the eighties with moral scandals that rocked the Christian television industry. A leading television evangelist was caught in a moral lapse which made headline news all over the United States for a long time. I recall hearing an interview with another television minister who leveled a scathing rebuke of the evangelist who had sinned. I was taken aback at the intensity of this attack; However, it wasn't long before the story of this second evangelist's moral lapse was on newspapers and weekly news magazines across the nation.
Both the television evangelist and the leading presidential candidate were arrogant in their condemnation of others, and their own indiscretions were revealed a short time later. Paul warned of that attitude in this final chapter of Galatians. He encouraged us to treat gently other Christians who have fallen into sin, all the time watching out for ourselves, lest we also be tempted.
Paul was writing to the Galatians because he was concerned about how the church should treat a person who has committed an act of sin. To be clear, God is the only one authorized to tell the church how we should handle someone who has sinned, not politicians, not newspapers, not television talking heads and certainly not people who are not part of the body of Christ in general or that particular church in specific.
Prayerfully, we will talk more about Galatians 6 this week as I am starting to learn how to juggle school and church a little better. Sunday we shared this text and titled it Grace in Action and the brief points were:
I. Be Godly----Pick People Up vs 1
II Be Gentle--Hold People Up vs 2-5
III. Be Giving---Build People Up Vs 6
2 comments:
IT'S FUNNY HOW FOLK SAY WHAT'S DONE IN THE DARK WILL COME TO THE LIGHT.IF THATS' TRUE WHY DO WHAT U DO IN THE DARK. JUST DO IT IN FRONT OF FOLK AND THEY WON'T SAY IT WAS DONE IN THE DARK
RIGHT???
I WAS IN A 4 YEAR RELATIONSHIP,AND WHEN WE WERE TOGETHER HE DID'T WANT TO WORK ,HE ALWAYS WAS SAYIN I WAS CHEATING ON HIM.SO I BROKE UP W/ HIM AND JUST FIGURED I WOULD STAY SINGLE.BUT IT'S HARD WHEN I HAVE AN OLD FRIENDS THAT WOULD LOVE TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP W/ ME.I KNOW I'M NOT READY TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP AGAIN CAUSE I FEEL LIKE I GAVE ALL THAT WAS LEFT OF ME TO THAT MAN.BUT I LIKE SPENDING TIME W/ MY OLD FRIEND. I JUST DON'T WANT ANY FEELING TO DEVELOPE . IT'S KINDA SCAREY CAUSE I COULD BE PASSING UP A GOOD THING.IT'S HARD 4 ME TO PASS UP MY HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART IT'S HARD 4 ME TO TELL HIM (NO).I KNOW GOD HAS A PLAN 4 ME I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS YET. BUT I KNOW IT'S NOT TO LIVE LIKE THIS. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT,I DON'T KNOW IF I'M HAPPY,I DON'T KNOW IF I SHOULD PICK UP AND JUST MOVE AWAY FROM HERE.MAYBE I CAN FIND A BETTER LIFE SOMEWHERE ELSE OR MAYBE I SHOULD RUN TO GOD AND PRAY & STAY TO MYSELF
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