A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” ( Galatians 6:1). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ! It’s a question asked by at least one of my children in the last few years, and by untold multitudes over the last two millennia: “If Christians can treat other Christians this way, why do I want to be a Christian?” A serious question… a serious problem… for if the actions of us, who call ourselves Christians, lead others to fall away from the faith, are we not guilty of causing these little ones to sin? Would we not be better off cast into the sea with a millstone necklace? So why do we do it? More to the point, what do we do about it if it happens, when we sin against a fellow Christian or when a fellow Christian sins against us? St. Paul says: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load” (Galatians 6:2-5). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! If you check out this text closely you might notice that it contains some apparent contradictions. Verse 3 says “Bear one another’s burdens,” but at the end of the same paragraph it says, “For each will have to bear his own load.” Then, in verse 4 we read, “Let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone,” but at the beginning of the last paragraph the au...