Be Gentle With Others By Ed McDowell

A Call to Gentleness and Humility

Paul invites us to help each other out when we make mistakes by being gentle and humble in how we help.

“Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you only fool yourself. You are not that important.”

Galatians 6:1-3 NLT

Reflections

What is your response when someone following Christ makes a mistake, blows it, and messes up?

It’s a good question for each of us to answer honestly.

Paul invites us to respond to the situation this way:

You who are godly: If you follow Christ, you are godly. If you pray, you are godly. If you read God’s word, you are godly. You are godly if you seek to love God with everything you’ve got. You are godly if you work at loving the people around you and treating them well. This phrase isn’t about your perfection; instead, it is about your intentional effort to follow Christ.

Gently and humbly help restore that person onto the right path: The people that are the most helpful to us when we make a mistake and screw up are not the ones yelling in our faces, condemning us on social media, or heaping judgment upon us. Instead, those choose to be with us, stay with us, and walk us back to a good, right, and authentic way of living. It is the humble and the gentle who carry God’s restoration.

Be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Helping others who are in trouble can be vulnerable. We can also get in trouble if we are not surrounded by accountability and support. We need to walk alongside the troubled person.

Share each other’s burdens: This shows we are following Christ and is so helpful to the people we walk alongside. When life is hard, even if it is our own doing, it is a gift to have someone come alongside and help carry the load. Let’s do this for each other.

If you think you are too important to help someone, you only fool yourself. You are not that important. None of us are above helping someone else who has messed up. Followers of Christ are encouraged to draw close to other believers and help them when something has gone wrong.

Encouragement

Being gentle and humble starts with the people we are closest to. We do make mistakes with those we love and need to be restored in loving and helpful ways.

Step back from harshness and judgment. Step forward by being gentle and humble.

Don’t withhold help.

Share the burden.

Walk the relationship forward into a good place again.

Follow Christ every step of the way.

The Holy Spirit is with us, helping us in this work of loving each other well.

Prayer

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for Paul’s words on how we come alongside those following you and messing up.

The truth is, I do mess up—we all do. Thank you to those who are gentle and humble with me as I correct the course.

None of us are exempt from needing the humble and gentle support of others as we follow you.

Holy Spirit, please help us as we grow to live this way with each other.

In your name, Jesus, we pray,

Amen.

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Ed McDowell is the CEO of Warm Beach Camp Ministries. He also coaches and consults in board leadership and development to bring fresh perspectives to perplexing situations. Ed authorizes a devotional series titled A Well-Planted Faith in an Uprooted Culture. His writing and speaking aim to challenge people to have God’s Word inform how they live. Ed and his wife, Bev, live on Camano Island, Washington, where they live out their mission statement: “To give our lives away for the cause of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.”