Have you wanted more intimacy from church friends? Does your Christian fellowship leave you feeling incomplete? Have you struggled with finding your people?
Deitrich Bonhoeffer describes the beautiful balance of community and individuality in his convicting work Life Together. In the first chapter, Bonhoeffer highlights a danger for Christian idealism, “Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.”1 We have been working through Galatians in our home church, and after establishing one’s freedom in Christ (Gal 5), the text of Galatians 6:1-10 has been having a profound impact towards our Christian application. In a 3-Part series we will discuss how Galatians 6:1-3 helps us understand ‘who’ and ‘what’ the church is, as it emphasizes the necessity and benefits of Christian community.
How do we move from the ‘dream of community’ to authentic Christian community?
In this post:
Why accountability and gentleness is essential for biblical community.
Explore how Gal 6:1 helps hold us accountable to community and our individuality.
Paid Subscribers
Identify the implications of a lack-of accountability in church and community.
Practical application to move from the ‘dream of community’ to authentic Christian community. How to apply Gal 6:1 appropriately.
Uncover the benefits of biblical community as we zoom in on Gal 6:1 - its freedom, protection, and implications. Paul will define for us what it means to live in community, which is being the church, in its manner, character and essence.
Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted. Galatians 6:1
Mutuality
In biblical community, our accountability is necessary because
As indicated by Bonhoeffer, one person’s sin affects the whole community, “There is no sin in thought, word, or deed, no matter how personal or secret, that does not harm the whole community. When the cause of an illness gets into one’s body, whether or not anyone knows where it comes from, or in what member it has lodged, the body is made ill. This is the appropriate metaphor for the Christian community.”2
We are restoring a brother or sister back to their original workmanship of keeping in step with the Spirit.
As we watch out for another, in humility, we keep ourselves from falling susceptible to temptations.
In Gal 6:1, first notice the person who is overtaken in any wrongdoing is to be restored by the church body, ‘you who have the spirit’ or ‘you spiritual ones.’ This restoration is to occur ‘with a gentle spirit.’ This is not to limit spiritual accountability to the ‘mature’ Christians.3 We have a duty to treat others as we want to be treated. Humility is necessary when we approach restoring others because we ourselves are susceptible to our own temptations. As Christians, we are accountable to one another. In the same breadth that you may be used to convict someone else, you may become the one who will eventually needs intervention.
We are co-dependent upon one another to help carry one another’s burdens. (See Gal 6:2)
If you're hanging out with a person and you see their consistent habitual sin overtaking them do not ignore it. Otherwise, you might be the tempted to follow down that same pattern or your own pattern of sinfulness and ignore it. Gal 6:1 ends with a warning, ‘watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.’ Anyone with the Spirit must be accountable for themselves, as well as to one another. We have an individual responsibility that also is not subsumed by community but supports it - watch out for ourselves so that we are not tempted. Bonhoeffer similarly proclaims, “Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community. Such people will only do harm to themselves and to the community.”4
Knowing that you are susceptible to temptation, restore gently, because you might need to be restored gently for the temptations that you succumb to.
Where do you see biblical community being practiced?
How scary it must be to shepherd a church body with no accountability! How terrifying it is to be in a church body where you would never know whether someone is being overtaken by sin because your relationships in church are all shallow. In shallow relationships Christians are creating an environment that enables all sorts of sin and temptation due to the lack of accountability. When the lack-of accountability plagues a church, known sin goes unchecked and it fosters a weaker resolve for Christians to resist their own temptations. Problems compound, particularly when folks still partake in the Lord’s Supper.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to King & Co. Conversations to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.