
We have a responsibility to other believers. We should help bear their burdens and gently turn them back when they have fallen into sinful behavior. In the previous chapter, verses 19-21, it says those living in the acts of their sinful nature will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. That alone should be motivation enough for us to desire to help gently redirect them. We have to be careful too though not to be lured into their sin along with them and also that we are not tempted into attitudes of pridefulness, superiority, jealousy, or even hatred toward them. Sitting back and wishing ill to befall them in consequence for their behavior and being unwilling to go through the uncomfortable actions necessary to restore them is effectively hating them in your heart. All of us have wandered away from what is right at times, all of us have needed to be corrected and redirected away from sin. So we shouldn’t judge, just gently and humbly help. Let the fruits of the Spirit guide your dealings with the person as you endeavor to bring them back home.
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Galatians 5:19-21 NLT
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Galatians 5:22-23 NLT