Sin Is a Group Effort

​Galatians 6:1 “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.”
 
The last time I wrote for this column, I talked about dirty diapers. I hope that I did not gross anyone out. If I did, I am sorry, and I hope that I don’t gross you out again. Maybe my mind always goes back to diapers because I am in that stage. Perhaps the subject is continually in my mind because I never grew up. Who knows?
 
Have you ever changed a diaper, and what was supposed to stay in the diaper jumped out and got over everything else? Brown smears all over the place.
 
That’s bad. But what I think is worse is when I am trying to clean up a substantial dirty diaper, and the poop gets on my hands—a big glop of disgusting sitting on my thumb.
 
Sometimes when we try to clean up something, we get the dirt on ourselves. The same is true when we try to help someone change.
 
Paul says: “Watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”
 
We all have the propensity to sin or get addicted. We all have the temptation to cope with difficulty negatively. When we help someone else, we can get triggered to dive into our sinful patterns again.
 
So, what do we do to make sure that we do not get the disgusting scraped against our hands?
 
First, we wear gloves. I know very few people wear gloves when changing diapers. But, when we are helping someone else with their struggles, we need to have protection. Protection looks like knowing our boundaries, coping positively, and talking with someone else about the experience.
 
Second, we ask for help. Sometimes, two people need to change a diaper. In the same way, some situations need multiple people to help. God designed the church for this reason. The whole church comes together to lift people out of sin.
 
Third, we step away. There are some diapers that I cannot change because I am sick and will vomit. In the same way, there are some sin issues that we cannot help with because we will be triggered to jump into our addictions.