On one Saturday afternoon, my neighbour who is an elderly man came to visit me at my hostel.  He was very gentle and polite.  He is an architect in charge of a construction project in the University of Cape Town.  In the course of my conversation with him, he told me that he had changed church membership several times.  I gathered that the reason for his change was church quarrels.  He was stumbled by the unloving way church leaders fought against one another.  He remarked something to this effect: “How could we hurt another Christian so deeply whom Christ bought with His life?”

My heart ached within me as I reflected about what he said: Indeed, when a Christian destroys another Christian, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ must be very grieved.  How can a brother or sister bear to hurt another brother or sister who belongs to the same family—the family of our Heavenly Father?  Just as your mother will be grieved when you hurt your sibling, our Heavenly Father will also be very sad.

On the one hand, we do not compromise with sin.  That means, if someone has sinned against God, we do not pretend to say that it is not a sin or that it is alright to sin.  God commands us: “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy” (Lev 11:44).  God demands that we live a life of a high standard of holiness.  This standard is nothing less than the holiness of the almighty God.  We need to because we are created in the image of God.  Furthermore, holiness is beautiful and sweet.  Just as no one likes to live in a smelly and dirty house, living in sin is unbearable.  But when a house is painted with new paint, washed and mopped dry, we would enjoy living in such a clean house.  We do not love sin.

But on the other hand, we must love the sinner.  Thus, when someone does wrong, Paul urges us: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently” (Gal 6:1).  Let’s give that person time to change because God also gives you time to change.  That person is not perfect.  But neither are you.

In the three years that Jesus nurtured His disciples, there were lessons that He had to teach them again and again.  But our Lord never gave up on His disciples.  Take for example, Peter who denied Jesus three times.  After Jesus rose from the dead, our Lord went out of the way to seek out his disciples who fled when Jesus was arrested.  He also personally restored Peter’s relationship with Him.  That’s how kind and patient our Lord is.

Let’s do the same for one another.  We do not compromise with sin but we must love our brother or sister who has fallen.  Let’s not just label sin as sin.  But let us also patiently and in practical ways, help our brother or sister stand up again so that he or she can walk in ways that please the Lord.

As we serve together in a ministry, there will be matters over which we disagree.  There will also be moments when we make a wrong decision, say or do something that offend our co-labourer.  Let’s learn to forgive one another and give each other time to learn and grow.  Be gracious to others as you would want others to be gracious to you.  As Jesus exhorts us:  “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).

PS: I’ve bought my umbrella and the washing machine is no longer leaking. Thank God.