Restoration

If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you’ve made a friend. If he won’t listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won’t listen, tell the church. If he won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love. (Matthew 18:15-17 MSG)

The Lord has put Christians in a wonderful relationship where, by His Spirit, we are to live in relational community with one another. In this relationship, we are charged with the privilege and responsibility to be our “brother’s keeper”. This does not mean that we attempt to play the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our brothers and sisters; rather, this means that we are to be in such a relationship that we are willing to lovingly give and receive wise counsel. And further, as this scripture indicates, we are to be mindful of what is going on with our brothers and sisters, to the point that we seek to restore them to right relationship with the Lord and ourselves if a sin has occurred.

So let’s look at this practically. Bill’s car is in the shop for a couple of weeks and Carl loans him an extra car that he has. Bill drives the car for two weeks and when he returns it to Carl, the car is dirty, there’s a tear in one of the seats, there’s a minor scratch on the driver’s door, and the tank is near empty. Without a word, besides “thank you”, Bill returns the car to Carl. The next day, when Carl goes out to move the car, he sees all of the problems that have occurred while Bill drove the car. Rather than being mad and either hostile or passive, Carl’s choice is to talk with Bill, to find out what’s going on with him, and to try to get everything resolved.

This is a very minor issue but the point is that as Christians, we need to concern ourselves with the well-being and spiritual state of our brothers and sisters more so than being concerned with justice for ourselves. In the case of Bill and Carl, there is reason for concern and Carl should talk with Bill about what’s going on in his life and heart.

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9)

Matthew Henry: “When a person is unconcerned in the affairs of others and takes no care when they have opportunity to prevent hurt--especially in their souls,--that person in effect speaks Cain’s language.”

One of the greatest commands, Jesus told us, is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark 12:31). Because of this, we need to lovingly tend to one another and be a restorative factor in each other’s lives.