"..you who are spiritual should help.." Galatians 6:1-2 (GW)

Part of being a mature Christian brother or sister is to recognize that when another believer has been tempted to do something which distracts their vision from seeing Christ clearly and walking in that freedom, our job is not to condemn the one caught in sin, but to humbly and gently encourage them on their path to see Christ clearly once again and help them to put aside anything that hinders that vision.  

It is a fine balance between encouragement and insight so that we do not fall into the trap of giving them advice, or control the outcome for they can hear from the Lord themselves.  

Our role is to stand beside others and affirm them and to help them to hear what Jesus is telling them to do, the Lord is able to lead anyone who is caught in the web of temptation or sin into a place of peace once again.

How many times have we been tempted to sin or become distracted from the voice of the Lord?  It is a common condition which every Christian encounters.  

 If we are attentive to our spiritual health when we recognize that we have strayed away from Jesus and notice that the peace of the Lord has departed from us and we are vulnerable to fear and doubt.  

It is these “signposts” which give us a clue that something is wrong or amiss when we take the time to humble ourselves and seek the Lord and ask Him where we have strayed from His presence, He is faithful to show us or to bring someone into our path to bring a word of knowledge of our condition that we may be restored.

From the perspective of Jesus, He wants nothing more than to have His presence be the guiding factor in our lives, and His desire is that we would seek Him every morning and invite Him to be integrated into our lives so that our entire day is ordered by Him and through Him.  It is not like He doesn’t do that already without us asking, but when we do ask we are in agreement with Him and we can rest in the knowledge that He is in control and His peace can fill us because we trust Him and His outcome fully.

It is that place of God’s peace that we can pray for an outcome that brings new life and hope, that is the integrated approach to walking and praying in Spirit.  We don’t always know the outcome of every situation, but we can pray and ask for an outcome that will bring life to the person or persons involved and that the light of Christ will shine through.

Paul makes it clear that we must be cautious because the enemy is always looking for a place to land into our lives to bring damage and ruin to us for assisting another brother or sister by bringing that same temptation to us also.  

The demonic presence that tempts us is one of fear, doubt, discouragement, or anything that takes our eyes off of the peace of Jesus and puts our focus on our own emotional responses.  Paul doesn’t give us any wiggle room in the above passage, we must be vigilant and not give any room for the enemy to take our eyes off of the prize which is Jesus, His peace is our treasure and our foundation for everything we believe.

“So he is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart.” 

Ephesians 2:14 (GW)

That wall of “hostility” is sin, in the Greek language it literally means wall, hedge, fence or partition.  Jesus broke down the partition which separates us from others and He becomes our mediator and our peacemaker in every matter.

We can carry each other's burdens by taking them to Jesus in prayer continually and passionately daily.  We can pray for one another with understanding and compassion knowing that their needs are our opportunities to demonstrate God’s grace through us.  

We must remain cognizant that we cannot answer prayers, only the Holy Spirit can and bring the proper outcome that he wants to accomplish in a persons life, but we can remain faithful to how the Holy Spirit wants us to respond in every situation.

This is how we fulfill the teachings of Christ in our lives by being watchful and attentive to what He tells us to do, and responsive to others and their spiritual condition.

So, am I my brother's keeper?  In the context of this above verse in Galatians 6:1-2, I would say it is a resounding YES!  In as far as we respect the dignity and the humanity of other believers by not making snap decisions or advising them, but allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us to be the blessing they need.

As we reach out to the needs of our brothers and sisters we are actually reaching out to Jesus and ministering and blessing Him.  Below are the words of Jesus:

 “And I, the King, will tell them, ‘When you did it to these my brothers, you were doing it to me!’  

Matthew 25:40 (TLB)

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett