Galatians 6:1

Galatians 6:1

I. In considering the duty of restoring the lost and criminal, let us note, first, the spirit in which it is to be performed: "Restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Surely this is the very opposite to the spirit of the world. That spirit refuses to consider the possibility of ourselves being tempted, parades a challenge in the face of the world to question our own purity and inviolability, and declares that we are determined never to admit the hypothesis of our becoming like the sinful. We have to put on a spirit directly contrary to that which we find around us in the world, to sit at the feet of a far different Teacher, and learn of Him. Our blessed Lord spent His life and shed His blood in devising means whereby His lost ones might be recovered to Him; and every follower of His is exhorted not to look only on his own things, but also on the things of others.

II. There was one law in which our blessed Lord summed up His social and practical precepts, one which peculiarly belongs to Him: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them." In by far the greater number of cases of discharged prisoners it is to be feared that evil influence prevails, and they relapse into crime; but there is a remnant in whom there is a desire, more or less earnest, to regain as much as may be of what has been lost. The whole world is against them, but we should open our doors to them, and encourage them. We should look on the fallen as our brethren, bearing their burdens, instead of disclaiming them and letting them sink under their weight, and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. vii., p. 195.

References: Galatians 6:1. Homilist,3rd series, vol. i., p. 340; Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 143; E. Johnson, Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 262; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xviii., p. 22.Galatians 6:1; Galatians 6:2. Ibid..,vol. xxv., p. 378; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 80. Galatians 6:1. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ill., p. 217.