The ministry of RESTORATION, not here reconciliation as Paul mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:18, again I mean “restoration.”
In this context, our Verse today: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, RESTORE such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Yes, we are still looking at Galatians 6:1.
Our verb is here written as an imperative! It is a stark command from our old beloved Apostle Paul. We have no choice. Such “restoration” is our duty!
But what does it mean?
To “restore” someone overtaken in a fault?
The Greek verb is “katartizo,” used 13 times in the New Testament! What a ideal number, giving us a pleasant array of Holy Spirit “uses” of the word!
And if we can define it, that data will teach us how to “help” any of our fallen brothers or sisters along the way. Those suffering lapses in their faith. “Temporary” failures, we hope!
Twice (both in Matthew 4:21 and Mark 1:19) “katartizo” is used when some fishermen are “mending” their nets! (Try that for a good word picture! Healing, repairing a “torn” bother in Christ! Trying to assist in his spiritual “mending!”) Yes, that is Bible “restoration,” for sure.
But in Matthew 21:16 Jesus uses “katartizo.” He is there quoting (and adapting) a verse from Psalm 8. And He has God the Father “perfecting” praise from the lips of little children! (Hence … bringing something to completion, to maturity, to fulfillment!)
Wow!
In 1 Corinthians 1:10 Paul uses “katartizo” to mean “perfectly joined together!” In the King James Version, anyway. (I am told that in the ancient Greek medical world, “katartizo” was the verb used for “setting broken bones” so they “could mend together” once more!
Wow!
Here is Paul again, desiring “to mend” some deficiency in the Thessalonian Church! “Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and MIGHT PERFECT that which is lacking in your faith?” This is 1 Thessalonians 1:10. Paul the “restorer!”
In Hebrews 10:3 “katartizo” is used of God the Father “preparing” a Body for His Son, surely in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This is Jesus talking to His Father … “Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He (Jesus) saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body HAST Thou PREPARED Me.”
Wow, again!
God, in creating the world, did so via the “katartizo” principle, in that much detail! “Through faith we understand that the worlds WERE FRAMED by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:3
These should be enough Bible “illustration” of how the Holy Spirit defines “katartizo!”
Now we should “go and do likewise!” (An allusion to Luke 10:37, a line in the marvelous parable of the “Good Samaritan.”)
I mean … go “restore” someone who may be floundering in the faith.
But do so carefully!
And that’s the thought we will explore in tomorrow’s Lesson, the Lord willing, “carefully!”
— Dr. Mike Bagwell