Baptist Fellowship Church

Restoring Fallen Believers

Galatians 6:1-2

Christians are not immune to temptations and they too fall into sin. Restoring fallen believers and families goes beyond the usual spiritual needs. The church has sometimes been accused of shooting its own wounded and abandoning those who are less than exemplary. The church must act responsibly to those who have failed the Lord in some way.

Who should work towards restoring fallen believers? Should it be church leaders or should it be church members?

How does the church carry out the process of restoring?

There are three common approaches to avoid.

a. Cast the sinner out
b. ignore the sinner
c. forgive and forget -then restore the sinner to the previously held position

All are not true biblical restoration. What then is the way?

What to so?

To restore is to bring back to their place of usefulness to Christ. His relationship with God and his fellow believers should be set right.

Who to do it?

“You who are spiritual” (Gal 6:1). Those who are spiritual and walk in the Spirit (Gal 5:16). Those Christians who are spiritual should be the ones to do it.

How should it be done?

Three things can happen when the fallen believer is approached.
a. He or she may not repent and may even justify the sin
b. He or she may feign repentance and receive pseudo restoration. Some churches contribute to this by the “forgive and forget” fix. But, in such a case, the so-called restoration is superficial. Many lapse into sin again.
c. The person may repent and is truly restored.

True biblical restoration cannot happen until the sinner opens his heart to God’s discipline, grace and mercy. It cannot happen unless a spiritual person guides him. A truly repentant person will feel the pain that he has sinned against God. Repentance is possible only after confession. Paul urged gentleness in the approach. Do not go with a self-righteous attitude. But for the grace of God, we, too, can fall into the same sin.

Restoration is not a single act - unlike at the point of salvation. It is a continuous act - not accomplished overnight. It is not to be done with a harsh, self-righteous, condemning attitude.

Steps to restoration

1. Have clear established goals
2. Pray
3. Work towards conviction of sin
4. Confront sinners gently
5. Look for biblical evidence of genuine repentance.
6. Lead the repenter to biblical confession of sin -let the person talk to God
7. Lead him to make restoration
8. Guide him through the period of testing - the temptation is still there during this period.
9. Bring restoration to a closure
10. Re-assign offender to God’s service

Mr and Mrs ET Chua

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.