Cain, after he murdered his brother Abel, made this statement to God: “Am I my brother's keeper?” Genesis 4:9 NKJV. Imagine, he said this trying to cover the fact he had just murdered his brother Abel. What Cain did was so heinous that God marked him that day. The murder of Abel, the first murder in human history, was motivated by a lack of brotherly love. That, in fact, is one of the Greek words for love — Phileo — which is a brotherly love. How we love our brother and sister in Christ matters to God. And the fact we have brother and sister biting and devouring brother and sister in Christ’s body should concern us.
It’s time for the fathers of the Church to rise up and to teach us to cover our brother and sister who have been caught in sin. The Church’s entire message is about forgiveness. And if we cannot forgive our own who have been caught in sin, how can we expect to receive those in the world who love their sin? The Apostle Paul wasn’t always an apostle. At one time, he was a blasphemer and murder. But Jesus came and saved him from his sins. The early Church didn’t know if his conversion was real. But Jesus appeared to a humble Christian and said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.” Acts 9:11, NKJV.
Ananias didn’t know Saul, who would the Apostle Paul, was praying until Jesus came and told him. Truth is, we don’t know what’s in people hearts. That’s the danger of judging by appearance: we don’t see the heart. And Christianity is all about having a change of heart. And even well known prophets can get it wrong when they look at the appearance of people. The prophet Samuel did. Then, God spoke to him, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7, NKJV.
“The extremes of the world have crept into the Church.”—Scott Wallis
The Bible reveals two types of repentance: “godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10, NKJV. Often, we fail to discern the difference. Yet that difference makes all the difference in the world. Remember, two of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb sinned grievous sins: The Apostle Peter, the first of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, denied Christ. Then, and believers often forget this truth, he turned from his calling and went back to fishing. The Apostle Judas, always called in scripture, the traitor, repented. But his repentance was superficial. It didn’t bring a change of heart. Judas didn’t have a godly sorrow, but Peter did.
The Church still has both Judas’s and Peter’s. They were both apostles. They had both sinned grievous sins. Only the Apostle Peter was saved. His sorrow was real; it brought salvation. The Apostle Judas’s sorrow wasn’t real. He wasn’t really sorry that he betrayed Christ. No, he was sorry for himself and what he realized would now happen to him. But he wouldn’t have changed what he had done. In the end, he killed himself because he found no real place of repentance. Often, we will say of those like Judas, whose repentance isn’t real — they cried crocodile tears. That means, they didn’t really cry over what they did, their repentance wasn’t real. But let’s not forget — the Apostle Peter’s repentance was real.
From the outside looking in, we would judge and condemn both the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Judas. But Jesus restored the Apostle Peter. The difference was in the heart, which we cannot see. But God can. God looks at the heart. And His judgment is based on what He sees and not what can physically be seen. The heart of man cannot be seen by men and women. Only God sees the heart. That’s why God calls us to cover our brother and sister in Christ — we cannot see what is in their heart.
In Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT, we read, “He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” We don’t think God’s thoughts, even when we think we know them. God speaking through the prophet Isaiah corrects our thinking, saying, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9, KJV. When we look into the sky at night and see the stars shining in the night sky, that’s a picture of the vastness of what’s in the human heart; it’s also a picture of how differently God thinks about things than we do. When we judge and condemn, God forgives and mends. Why does God forgive and mend? That’s His nature.
The Apostle Paul makes it clear how we should handle those who sin in the Church — “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.” Galatians 6:1, NLT. Truth is, not everyone can restore the one caught and ensnared by sin. Only mature men and women of God can do that. It takes maturity in handling God’s Word to restore those who have sinned, especially those caught in grievous sin.
Today, we have many who have fallen into sin. What should our response be as the Church? Should we judge and condemn them? Should we turn on them and remove them from our midst? Sometimes, we must do that in the most severe cases, the Apostle Paul did with the believer caught in sexual sin with his father’s wife. Hear what the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthian church: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.” 1 Corinthians 5:1, NIV. No, the Apostle Paul didn’t let this sin slide; rather, he judged the sin to save the Church and the sinner. Yet, later, after the sinner repented, he said, “When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit”. 2 Corinthians 2:10, NLT.
And that’s what we lack today — balance in the body of Christ. The extremes of the world have crept into the Church. We are to be different from the world. We are called to forgive, as Christ forgave. The foundation of the Church is forgiveness. If the Church cannot forgive the one who sinned, then we have certainly strayed from our message, mission, and mandate in Christ. That’s what the cross is meant to teach us — forgiveness. The world cannot and does not carry that message, the Church can and should carry that message. That’s our calling.
Today, I want to remind us, we are called to be our brother’s keeper. Yes, we must cover, comfort, and correct those caught in sin. It’s time to restore; it’s time to heal; it’s time to forgive, even the most heinous of sins. Erika Kirk, who lost her husband Charlie Kirk to an assassin’s bullet, taught us how believers are called to respond to evil — “That man, that young man. I forgive him.” Then, she taught us why — “it was what Christ did, and is what Charlie would do.” A wife at the most grievous moment in her life chose an act heard around the world — to forgive. And her act, like that of her Savior’s, was heard around the world.
I don’t know what will happen to that young man. Today, he’s still in trial for Charlie Kirk’s murder. What I do know is the legacy of Charlie Kirk and his widow, Erika, should be held in the deepest regard by the Church. We must cover our brother and sister in Christ. That’s what Jesus would do. And even when it’s hard to forgive, we must find a way to forgive, even the most intolerable acts. Truth is, forgiveness is hard, but unforgiveness is even harder. If you want to see what happens when unforgiveness settles in people’s hearts, look at the Middle East. The eyes of the world are on this region consumed by hatred and unforgiveness. It’s generational. It’s violent. And it’s vile. That’s what unforgiveness brings. Forgiveness, on the other hand, brings salvation. That’s what Christ taught us.
Today, I want to remind everyone — “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.” Romans 3:23, NLT. That was our inheritance from Adam. But, in Christ, we have a new inheritance — forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration — we’ve been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And that blood extends both to sinner and saint, to the fallen and saved, to you and me. Recently, a good friend of mine, Jeff Ferguson, said on my broadcast,
“The same blood — the blood of Jesus — that qualifies us for heaven is also what qualifies us for ministry”.—Jeff Ferguson
Let us pray!
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