Add to your faith goodness, and add to goodness, knowledge - God - His person and attributes, His manner and way, His commands and instructions, discipline and correction. Loved well, loving well, loving one and doing good to another.
The first thing I want to do is bring our focus to Jesus and Jesus’ heart for the suffering and sinful
John 3:16-18 - He, God, so loved the world, the sinful, rebellious, broken world… that He sent His Son, not to condemn, but to save (Romans 5:6-11)
John 4:4-30, 39-42 - Jesus’ love compels Him to graciously engage the woman, shrewdly alluding to her life’s choices and predicament, graciously and patiently walks her through her attempts to evade the subject of her life’s choices, squirm out from under the mounting pressure, justify or at least deflect - with religion - her person, only to succumb to His grace - when she runs back to the village to tell the people who knew, the very people she had tried to avoid, and tell them about this gracious and kind man who, in His kindness, told her everything about her.
John 8:2-11 - Jesus protects the life and dignity of the woman, confronts (lovingly and kindly) her accusers, and grants mercy to her in spite of her sin, and then speaks a loving truth to her in regard to her sin.
John 21:15-19 - Jesus, having suffered an offense at the hand of one He loved, sinned against, in due time, at the right time, Jesus isolates Peter and walks him through the process of reconciliation and restoration.
Then I want to turn our attention to ourselves …
In each one of these encounters, the person Jesus is with has committed a sin and has had it known - in each case, the person with whom Jesus is - is us - we are each of these broken pieces.
How, how do we love in the midst of sin and hurt, what do we do to walk with someone into repentance and restoration, how would we hope to be treated ourselves - when we stumble, and fall, walk wobbly this road, or even choose to rebel?
Jesus’ merciful and gracious restorative process - His to us, His commands to us for others:
Matthew 18:30-32 Forget not where you come from - the wicked servant - or we place ourselves in peril
As we see another’s sin and look to intervene
Luke 6:36-42 Examine one’s self - plank and speck
Matthew 5:3-4 This self-examination ought to lead us to God’s mercy seat, the remembrance of our own desperate need for mercy and grace
Mercy; merciful: visceral feelings; compassionate, experiencing deep pity (lamentation) as God has for people who look to Him for help in their difficult situations; to help or assist the afflicted, to bring help to the wretched
Which in turn should condition our heart, my heart, to a knowing humility, born from the humiliation of being so greatly loved, when I so obviously did not and do not deserve to be loved so and this realization should produce in us, in me, a desire to express, to extend that same mercy and grace to others - not judging them (Luke 6:36-38), but seeing me in them, and knowing, at least imagining, how I would want someone to treat me if this were me - and, if I’m honest, it is, and will be, me. (Lev 19:18; Mat 7:12; 22:39; Mk 12:31; Luke 6:31; Ja 2:8)
Then, and only then, do I turn my attention to them… and when I do so, I do so in the manner that God has approached and treated me, and that is, mercifully. (Mat 5:5-9, 44-45, 48; Luke 6:35-36; James 3:17)
Love deeply and sincerely - Proverbs 10:12; 1Peter 4:7-8; Romans 12:3, 9-13
Bring truth with great care and affection - Galatians 6:1a
Brother - a fellow-believer, united to another by the bond of affection; so most frequently of Christians, constituting as it were but a single family
Someone - with the added notion of weakness, by which man is led into a mistake or prompted to sin
Spiritual - one who is filled with and governed by the Spirit of God
Restore gently - Galatians 6:1b
Restore - ethically, to strengthen, perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be - according to truth and righteousness, not one’s own feelings, desires, or opinion
Gently, or with a gentle spirit - meekness ("gentle strength") which expresses power with reserve and gentleness; "gentle-force") begins with the Lord's inspiration and finishes by His direction and empowerment. It is a divinely-balanced virtue that can only operate through faith - humility
Approach humbly - Galatians 6:1c-2
Feelings and truth - God, through the prophet, warns that “the heart is…” our hearts (the seat of our feelings) are “...deceitful above all things” (Jer 17:5-10) and therefore, we must be very careful regarding the feelings of our heart and how we respond to them, we allow them to rule and guide us.
The truth is, our feelings though real, can say things to us that can actually lead us astray as they often do not well-represent the truth of God. With that in mind, we need to understand the importance of subjecting our feelings to truth, God’s lasting and enduring, never-changing truth, that we might examine the source of those feelings and discern the nature of our feelings as to not be deceived and potentially led astray.
With this, ironically, God also calls us to guard our hearts, that “above all else,” we are to “…guard our hearts for it is the wellspring of life”. (Proverbs 4:23)
What? Why? How so, if it is so deceitful?
Because, our heart, that seat of our feelings, is where we are called to store truth, so that, that deceiving and easily deceived heart, might be well governed, informed of what is true, anchored when swayed, made true when assailed, rightly and goodly guided and led according to God’s truth - Jesus, His teachings and commands, His manner and way, His character and nature - which is life and freedom.
...and God, through the pen of Paul, implores us to come to God - the God of truth - with all that makes our minds and hearts feel anxious, that doubts God’s presence, caring, or understanding, that feels for whatever that its feeling is true and right reflecting or telling us the truth - and He promises, His descending “...transcendent peace will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:4-8) - who is the Truth and the wisdom of God.
And we are commended, even commanded, to do this by recognizing that we have weapons of destruction to use in the face of anything that stands up against the knowledge, or truth, of God, to take these thoughts and feelings captive and make them obedient to Christ - or - truth. (2Cor 10:3-5)
You see, we all have feelings, feelings that lead us from here to there, into and out of places, feelings that drive us, move us, stop us in our tracks - feelings are real, they might be true, but that does not make them the truth, neither do they, if followed, guarantee our safety or righteousness - in fact, it is usually, and unfortunately the opposite.
If fact feelings are very often misleading, or at least incomplete in their ability to lead and guide - they are subjective, they are a creature born in the moment, they are our reaction to what is seen, heard, and/or experienced, they too often lack insight, discernment, wisdom, or prudence.
The truth is real, it is true, and it speaks to us the truth. It gives us guidance and leads us a path of righteousness, it illumines our way. Truth is what we subject our circumstances, thoughts, and feelings to, to make sense of them, to inform of their meaning, to rein them, that the truth may reign in our lives.
