Judges 12. Jephthah, part 10: War with Ephraim - Love: the perfect bond of unity.

Title: Judges 12. Jephthah, part 10: War with Ephraim - Love: the perfect bond of unity.

God makes us what we are if we are following Him. God makes the local church what it is if His word is magnified. For the sake of our study we will not consider what God makes of the saint or the church that refuses to follow His will.

Yearning for the physical presence of other believers is not sin or fleshly. Paul desired it. Jesus desired it.

We noted Paul's desire to be with the church at Rome and Thessalonica.

Luk 22:14 And when the hour had come He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him.

Luk 22:15 And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;

Luk 22:16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

Luk 22:17 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among yourselves;

Luk 22:18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes."

Matthew records:

Mat 26:29

"when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."

When the pressure upon His soul was to the crushing point, He took with Him Peter, James, and John.

Mar 14:32 And they came to a place named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here until I have prayed."

Mar 14:33 And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled.

Mar 14:34 And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch."

No member of the body of Christ can say to another member, "I have no need of you." (1Co 12:21)

To have a community of believers or even one other like minded believer in your life is a wonderful gift from the grace of God and should never be disregarded.

Any blessing that is around us every day can be easily forgotten. Giving thanks to God in prayer every day will avert such a tragedy.

In fact, in prayer, we should request that God lead us in thanksgiving and remind us of the things that we should always be thankful for. We should ask Him to bring to our remembrance that which we have forgotten.

In 1Co 3, none of us are anyone. God causes the growth.

Community or unity does not mean that everyone is always holy.

It is not based on inward piety or level of spiritual growth. If that were the case we'd have to have a time of holy gathering, unholy gathering, spiritual baby classes and spiritually mature classes.

Gal 6:1 Brethren, even if a man is caught [caught up as in a net] in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Caught = caught up as in a net. In this case, the net was the false doctrine of the Judaizers.

This would not refer to a premeditated or willful sin. It would not refer to a person who knows darkness and light and willfully chooses darkness.

This verse is closely connected with the contents of chapter 5. In the latter chapter, two methods of determining conduct and following out that determination with the appropriate action, are presented.

Two methods of conduct are presented: life dependent upon the Holy Spirit or a life under the law dependent on self-effort or the flesh.

One is in dependence upon the Holy Spirit for the supply of both the desire and the power to do the will of God. This is done by faith and results in a life in which the fruit of the Spirit is evident.

The other method is that of putting one's self under law, and by self effort attempting to obey that law. This results in a defeated life full of sin, for the law gives neither the desire nor the power to obey it. The law arouses sin and reveals it as Paul states so well in Rom 7:7-14. The problem isn't the law, for the law is holy, but us since we are sold in bondage unto sin. The evil nature rebels at the very presence of the law since the law makes a claim on the sin nature. The sin nature wants to rule. It doesn't want to be ruled.

Those Galatians who were adopting the latter method in conformity to the teaching of the Judaizers, were finding that sin was creeping into their lives with a constant presence. Since they were most earnestly zealous of living a life of victory over sin, and in conformity to the ethical teachings of the New Testament dispensation, the strong presence of sin in their lives was a source of surprise to them. They found that sin often appeared in their lives before they were conscious of its presence, and at a time when they were not at all conscious of harboring any sinful desire. They were in about the same position as Paul before he knew of the delivering power of the Holy Spirit, when he said, "I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I do not understand: for what I would (the good), I do not; but what I hate (the evil) , that I do ... For to will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good I find not ... For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Rom 7:14,15,18,19).

That is exactly the predicament which many Christians are in today, since they do not have an intelligent understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit or they do not depend upon Him in faith and diligently pursue the way of Christ. They often do not know of the needful and correct adjustment of the Christian to the Spirit in grace, and are consequently depending upon self effort to obey the ethics of the Pauline epistles, or, if they are also ignorant of dispensational truth they depend upon self effort to obey the legal enactments of the Mosaic law.

Deprived of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the lives of the Galatians were an easy prey to the Tempter of men's souls, and he was working havoc amongst them.

For the Galatians who had not been caught up in the net of the Judaizers, they were restore their trapped brethren in love and a spirit of gentleness.

There is a debate as to whether the word caught (Greek: prolambano) means to be caught by another who witnesses the sin or for the sinner to be caught by surprise by the sin in his life. The second meaning would refer to a believer who desires to live the Christian life and is surprised by the amount of sin in his life. The context of the epistle fits this. The Galatians were duped by the Judiazers and came to think that it was right to follow the law. In doing so, the eyes of their soul came off of Christ and onto the shadow of Christ. It is like worshipping the veil in the OT rather than the God who is behind it. They thought they were doing right, but in worshipping the shadow of Christ the sin nature finds itself unrestrained and with its new found power it pursues its own lusts and desires and even breaks the commandments of the law.

"trespass" - paraptoma = a false step or blunder. It is the opposite of walk in:

Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk [stoicheo: walk in a straight line] by the Spirit.

The straight line by the Spirit is the narrow road that leads to life. It is the way of Christ. It is the race that is set before us. Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us.

The spiritual among the Galatians, those who were still living their lives in dependence upon the Spirit, are exhorted to restore those Galatians who had abandoned that method for the one taught by the Judaizers.

Restore means to repair. It is used for reconciling factions and even of setting bones. Paul is exhorting the spiritual believers to repair their stumbling brethren. The primary thing that they needed to be set right about was not the act of sin which they committed, but that they had wandered off the right road of grace and were stumbling in the quagmire of self-dependence and legalism.