Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

March 28, 2019

by Pastor Hawtree

BIBLE READING: GALATIANS 6

We are thankful for our pastoral staff here at Kerwin and it is always good to hear insight from each of them concerning God’s word. As we continue our Bible reading schedule for this year, Enjoy this devotion today from Frank Newsome, our youth pastor.

Galatians 6:1
6 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

As we move from Galatians 5 to Galatians 6, I want to go back to chapter 5 and talk about verses 19-26. In those verses we have the stark contrast between fulfilling the lust of the flesh, and walking in the Spirit. We have what is called the “Works of the flesh” and “The Fruit of the Spirit.” We all know someone who has chosen to live for themselves, and the flesh rather than living for God, and walking in the Spirit. I have been guilty of this in my own life (many times.) In chapter 5 we’re told that there is a choice to be made, follow after the lust of the flesh, or choose to surrender your will to God’s will and walk in the Spirit, both choices produce a fruit of some kind. In chapter 6 another choice is presented us. How do we as Christians respond to those that have chosen to fulfill the flesh rather than walk in the Spirit. I’ll be honest with you there have been times where I got the news that a fellow Christian would choose to do wrong and I chose to fulfill my own lust of the flesh, and I would talk about them, judge them, run there name in the ground, as we say. In many ways I am no better than them at that moment. That didn’t accomplish anything, if anything I proved my own spiritual immaturity.

A lot could be said about this verse, but I want to focus on the first word of the verse, Brethren. Of all the squabbles and arguments at the church of Galatia Paul injects this one word: Brethren! Pastor Hawtree tells us a lot that if you want to study a word go back to the first time it was mentioned in God’s Word, so I did that, and what I found was interesting.
Genesis 13:8
8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
We all know the story well, Abraham takes in his nephew Lot, and things become very tense between Lot’s men and Abraham’s men. This threatened to ruin the relationship between the two men, but Abraham took the lead, as the more spiritual man, he took the high road as we say sometimes. His focus was on restoration not on resolution. Look at Galatians 6:1 again, it doesn’t say we should correct a brother when they fall, it says to restore them. The word restore here in the Greek means: To mend (what has been broken or rent) to repair. Isn’t that what family is about? When everyone else casts you out, family should be there to pick up the pieces. If there should ever be a place we can go, when we have nowhere else to go it should be to family. Kerwin Baptist Church we are a family, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes family makes a mess of things, family drives you crazy like nothing else can, but you’re family. Let’s be the type of family member that restores instead of rebukes, because the last part of that verse is very humbling “considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” It’s only by the grace of God we aren’t the ones needing to be restored.

Frank Newsome