Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If any of you think you are something when you are nothing, you deceive yourselves. Each of you should test your own actions. Then you can take pride in yourself, without comparing yourself to somebody else, for each of you should carry your own load. Nevertheless, those who receive instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. People reap what they sow. Those who sow to please their sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; those who sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

—Galatians 5:25-6:10 (TNIV)

If you want to see faith in action, Paul here gives us a good example. First, notice how he tells us to treat those caught misbehaving. We are to restore that person gently. The guilty party will likely have to suffer the consequences for misbehaving, but the goal is restoration, not punishment or exclusion. Why? Because this is how God has treated us in Christ. None of us is worthy to stand before God on our own. It is impossible. But when we understand that we have been justified in God’s sight through the blood of Christ, we are necessarily humbled by this and treat offenders exactly how we wish God to treat us as offenders.

Second, notice the clearheaded advice Paul gives. Be on guard. Be watchful over yourself and your own actions. Be ruthless on yourself but gentle and merciful toward others (we typically do it the other way around). Why? Because we live in a body of sin, our mortal body, and we are ever prone to miss the mark ourselves. Therefore we have no reason to be self-righteous or haughty toward others because we are no better than them. As Paul tells the Romans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This isn’t some pious platitude; it’s an accurate description of the deadly problem of the human condition. When we fully realize that about ourselves (we do it so easily for others), it is another indication that we are beginning to develop a humble spirit, part of the transformative process of living in the Spirit.

Last, Paul seems to be reminding us that our efforts at manifesting our faith, i.e., doing good deeds for others, are exactly what we are to be doing if we love God because that is what God wills for each of us. Even when it appears that our efforts go for naught, we are to persevere, says Paul, because God is in charge and will not be mocked. He has an eternal perspective and we are to trust him that he will be both merciful and just. He will be merciful to those who choose to put their whole hope and trust in him and just to those who don’t. Just as living in the Spirit bears fruit, so does living in the flesh, and we can reasonably conclude that those who persist in pleasing their sinful nature have chosen not to put their hope and trust in God. Yes, even those of us who live in the Spirit will continue to sin, but that is not the persistent and consistent pattern of our living. Our sin is an anomaly rather than the norm.

When you finally understand the wondrous hope that is in the Good News of Jesus Christ, it is life-changing. This doesn’t mean life in Christ is easy; it isn’t because we are sinful and fallen creatures. But when we finally realize the enormous gravity of our sin and the separation from God it causes, receiving the Good News by faith is like taking the weight of the world off our shoulders. It truly makes us free to love and serve this God of ours who loves us madly and who has given himself for us in a great and costly act on the cross. This is what God wants for each of us.

Do you have Good News in your life?

For while all wish to receive [mercy], only a few are willing to give it. Yes, there is mercy in heaven, but the road to it is paved by our merciful acts on earth. There is, therefore, an earthly as well as heavenly mercy, that is to say, a human and a divine mercy. Human mercy has compassion on the miseries of the poor. Divine mercy grants forgiveness of sins. Whatever human mercy bestows here on earth, divine mercy will return to us in our homeland. In this life God feels cold and hunger in all who are stricken with poverty.

What kind of people are we? When God gives, we wish to receive, but when he begs, we refuse to give. Remember it was Christ who said: “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat.” A poor person asks you for something; you ask God for something. The poor person begs for a morsel of food; you beg for eternal life. Give to the beggar so that you may merit to receive from Christ. It baffles me that you have the impudence to ask for what you do not want to give. Give when you come to church. Give to the poor. Give them whatever your resources will allow.

—Caesarius, Bishop of Arles (6th century), Sermon 25.1

If you read this through the lens of actions issuing forth from a heart filled with love and gratitude for what God has done for you in Christ, this will not read as a primer for works righteousness.

The Church is called Catholic or universal because it has spread throughout the entire world, from one end of the earth to the other. Again, it is called Catholic because it teaches fully and unfailingly all the doctrines which out to be brought to the people’s knowledge, whether concerned with visible or invisible things, with realities of heaven or the thing of earth.

It is most aptly called a church, which means an “assembly of those called out [i.e., holy],” because it “calls out” all people and gathers them together, just as the Lord says in Leviticus: “Assemble all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting.” It is worth noting also that the word “assemble” is used for the first time in the Scriptures at this moment when the Lord appoints Aaron high priest. So in Deuteronomy God says to Moses: “Assemble the people before me and let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me.” The churches of Christ are already multiplying throughout the world, and of them it is said in the psalms: “Sing a new song to the Lord, let his praise be sung in the assembly  of the saints.”

—Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (late 4th century), Catechesis 18.23

What writing has taught us to turn to the East at prayer? We all look to the East at our prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own ancient country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden to the East [this obviously was written from a Western perspective]. We pray standing on the first day of the week [Sunday], but we do not all know the reason. On the day of resurrection [Sunday] [Greek ana-stasis, “standing again”] we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ [Greek sun-ana-stantes, “stood again with”] and are bound to “seek those things which are above;” but also because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect [God’s New Creation]. Of necessity, then, the Church teaches her own foster children to offer their prayers on that day standing, to the end that through continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our removal thither.

Moreover, every time we fall upon our knees [in confession and prayer] and rise from off them we show by the very deed that by our sin we fell down to earth, and by the loving kindness of our Creator were called back to heaven.

—Basil the Great [Late 4th century], On the Holy Spirit 27.66

Did you know this?

Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of your faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown but the well-being of your Church, gave generously of his life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.