Can The Church Ever Be The Church Again (Part 6)

I watched a movie not to long ago that had a very frightening scene in it. It involved a pack of wolves and one turned on the alpha male, who was the leader of the pack. He quickly lost his battle to the alpha male and was mortally wounded. As he limped off, I watched in horror as the whole pack chased him down and ended his life. Piece by piece they tore into him until he was dead. A pititful sight and a horrible end to such a beautiful creature that just moments before was one of their own.

The church is supposed to be a place where the sick can be healed, the lost found, and the wounded restored. We do pretty good with the first two, but man, we don't do very good with the last one. I have seen the church kill it's wounded more in the past few years with no remorse whatsoever. We seem to be the only organization that does something like that while shedding no tears.

What has happened to us?

Everyone bears scars from wounds of the past. Even though God forgives our past and gives us a new lease on life, sometimes those wounds begin to fester again. The old habits, temptations, and sins grab ahold of us and pull us down. The devil throws something in our path on a weak day and we just cannot overcome it. It's in those moments that some of the greatest men in the scripture were glad for a loving and forgiving God.

Let's be truthful with one another. When we do something wrong we need to correct our mistakes and go forward. If we are in spiritual leadership and have a spiritual failure we need to submit to those in authority over us in the Lord for discipline and direction. We have to face the responsibility of our actions and deal with the consequences. Yet, we also must deal with a brother or sister who has a failure in a scriptural way. If we don't we are subjecting ourselves to the same possibilities that happened to them happening to us.

Paul said in Galatians 6:1, "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."

The Message Bible says, "Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out."

1 John 5:16, 17 says, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death."

I believe if the church is ever going to reach the heights we once did we must become an example of the restoration process and not the demolition business.