Contrary to the popular saying, we are, according to the Bible, our brothers’ keepers. Growing in Christ, while having some dependence on the individual, is also pictured in Scripture as a collective effort. We are to grow together. Walk together. Live together. In fact, many of the commands issued in the New Testament can’t possibly be obeyed in the absence of what we do together because many of these commands directly relate to the way we treat each other.

What we do we do together, and sometimes that means helping a brother or sister come out of sin.

Yep, that’s uncomfortable. And yep, it’s pretty messy. But if we really want to grow together, then it’s something we have to be prepared to do. Knowing that, though, Paul issued not only instruction about how such a process must happen; he also issued a warning accompanying that instruction:

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. (Galatians 6:1-3).

The goal here is restoration. That word – restore – is the same word used in Mark 1 of the fisherman who were mending their nets. They were restoring them – patching the rips and tears and putting them back in order so they might be useful for their intended purpose once again. Such work is tedious, time-consuming, and careful. Such is the case with the kind of restoration in Galatians 6. It takes a long time. It involves careful personal investment. It’s something that’s only truly accomplished by those who know what they’re doing.

That’s the goal. And then comes the warning: Don’t fall into sin when you are restoring another.

I’ve often wondered what that might mean. I suppose the most obvious kind of sin we might fall into is whatever sin the person being restored has found him or herself in. In our attempts to get close and help, we might find ourselves a little too close and be tempted with the same thing that has made our brother fall. But I think there’s another kind of sin we might fall into in this process, and that’s the sin of pride.

Here you are, the spiritual one, the one who doesn’t need to be restored but instead the one doing the restoring, and look at you. So spiritual. So wise. So understanding. So lucky is this poor brother on the other side to have someone like you by their side. And slowly, during that process of helping someone else out of their sin, you begin to believe your own headlines. You think yourself too mature and too wise to ever fall like this person. Without even knowing it, you have begun to measure your own spirituality against that of another.

This is our natural tendency. Even when we believe in the grace of God, we are very easily tempted to move into the realm of comparison, you know, just to make ourselves feel a little better. And comparison is very easy when the person you’re comparing yourself too is beaten and bloodied from the battle.

Be careful. Be careful you don’t fall in the same way, and be careful you don’t subtly gloat over not having done so.