You should have a little insert, and I'll be referring to that insert here as we go along. I'm going to start off by talking about something you're going to say, what are you, in the world are you talking about that for? It's proverbs. Can you take a proverb out of context? That's the question I want to ask you. My answer is, it depends. If I said, well done is better than well said. Or if I said a lie stands on one leg, the truth on two or any of a number of proverbs that Ben Franklin made up, I think it would be difficult to take those out of context, because in those cases, the proverb is the context. And to take it out of context would be to completely destroy the meaning of the proverb. Now, I think we often think about biblical proverbs the same way as isolated little context to their own. Maxim here, a maxim there, a saying there. But is that really true? Are proverbs in the Bible just like proverbs of Ben Franklin? Well, what if I read you this proverb? Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. How would you interpret it? What if I told you that the Greek philosophers had sayings exactly like this? What you might interpret it, then, is an appeal to take a philosophy class at school. Certainly not the worst thing you could do. But what if I told you that in this proverb, the speaker was wisdom and that wisdom is the spirit of Christ? Well, now, suddenly the proverb takes on a different meaning. What you are to seek here is not bare knowledge, but knowledge gained through fearing the Lord. How about if I give you this proverb, be not wise in your own eyes? Now, that's similar to something we're going to come across here in a minute. What if I told you that Greek pagans spoke just like this, do not be wise in your own eyes, how would you interpret the meaning? Perhaps you might think that humility is an end to itself. But what if I finished the proverb as it reads in the Bible, be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Now, again, we see that the proverb has a spiritual context. This is said to a believer as a means of preserving through the trials of life, not becoming conceited. Now, we could go on and on and on like this, who knew that the proverbs could be so complicated, right? Why would I start off the sermon on Galatians 6, 1 through 10 by telling you about proverbs? I'm going to give you two reasons. Galatians 6 is filled with Proverbs. They're technically called, technically called sententia, but they're similar to the book of Proverbs. The sayings in Galatians six. This is the second reason are set in a context, just like the book of Proverbs. Now, at first glance, these might seem like random ethical instructions. Let me give you some of them from our passage. Keep watch on yourself, lest you be tempted. Bear one another's burdens. If anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. One who is taught the word must share all good things with the teacher. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. You can hear how it's like Proverbs, right? And when you read it just kind of like that, it sounds pretty random. It's popular to view this part of Galatians as Paul giving loose or diverse exhortations that defy grouping or structural order, but which deal with personal and corporate responsibility in the churches. So you can't really group them, but there's a kind of a broad grouping of dealing with the inside the church. To view it that way provides some context, at least, but in my opinion, There is very discernible structure in this passage, one that is important to understand if you want to get the best possible understanding of what God is saying through Paul. So that is what your insert is all about. I'm going to help you see what I think is the structure that's taking place in this text. We want to read the Bible properly. So first, what I'm going to do is tell you what kind of structure it is and why that matters, and then I want to show it to you. The structure forms a multilayered set of chiasms. Now, we've seen chiasms many times over the years in our study of the word, but this is the first time that I've noticed it in Galatians. A chiasm is a literary tool where you position your thoughts in a symmetrical order or pattern. By repeating ideas, it helps you remember what you've heard, but it does more than just be a memory device. It can emphasize main points. And in the common form of a chiasm, where they kind of move towards the center, that central point comes to the forefront. Now, the main chiasm, as I see it, is the first one on the top of your sheet there. It's got an ABCBA form. The center of the chiasm is verse six. And this is a verse that every commentary I read says is the most enigmatic random verse in the entire section. It says those taught the word must share the word with the teacher. But I think that if you view it in terms of the structure, this is not just one point among many some random thought that just popped into Paul's head. It's actually the central point of the passage. The main thought in the verse is the word coin and nail. Does that sound familiar? It's a verbal form of coin and Nia, which is the word we usually translate as fellowship, but which is translated here as sharing. Fellowship is something that takes place in the body of Christ, which is the setting for all of these things. It has nothing to do with sitting around talking about sports. That's not fellowship just because you're two Christians and you get together and talk about politics. That's not fellowship. It has to do with sharing what you have in the body of Christ, whether that be your talent, your treasure, your time or teaching. In this case, he focuses on teaching. The chiasm almost helps you. It helps you to see the centrality of the church. In verse six, there's a teacher and there's a student. The teacher is called the catacomb. Sound familiar? The teacher is called the catacombs. And their subject of study is the law. That's why I read John one for the gospel this morning. You're familiar with all these words, they are the words of the gospel and of the church. Historically, the catacombs are students in the church. who go through the basics of the faith and they pass a test at the end. And the gospel is what they are being taught to learn. Now, the edges of the chiasm. Point you in the same direction of the church, the first one people caught in a transgression are to be gently restored by those who are spiritual. Now, the idea of somebody being caught and restored is legal language, but it's not the legal language of a court of law. It's that which takes place in an assembly. Of believers, so it's about the church, if you look at the very end of verse 10, same idea, the instruction is to do good, especially to the household of faith. This, again, refers to the local assembly. So what you can see just by analyzing the very basics of the structure is how you can get a better understanding for the meaning of the Proverbs that all are connected together here. I don't want you to be guilty of taking Proverbs out of context. These are not just ethical shots coming out of Paul's theological six shooter aimed at nothing in particular. He's just some kind of a random Wild West cowboy shooting at the hip. They are very specific applications of walking in the spirit, which is what the previous chapter told us was serving one another in the body of Christ and in love. So with that, let's go to the passage in its order and let's work our way through the structure. Paul begins in verse one. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watching yourself, lest you be tempted. He begins by thinking of a situation he can use to make concrete application of the works of the flesh versus the works of the spirit that he just finished explaining that we've looked at the last couple of weeks. It's as if he's now saying you want to know what it means to walk by the spirit, to display fruit, to serve one another in the real world in love. Well, here's what it looks like. And so he gives verse one. Now, this situation has three parts to it, kind of a one A, B and C. First, you have a description of the condition. Then you have the procedure for handling it, then you have a warning. To those who administer the procedure. To have a description and a procedure and a warning. So let's look at him. First one is, what is the condition? He writes about someone caught in any transgression. OK, to ask ourselves, is there something specific in Paul's mind as he wrote this, and the answer is maybe. Remember, back in verse 15 of the last chapter, he said these people are biting and devouring one another. Maybe he's thinking about something like that, but he makes the application general enough, he says, that they've gotten any transgression. So he could be thinking about anything in the list of vices, the works of the flesh and chapter five, 19 to 21, those that include sexual vices, religious vices, communal vices, how you act towards one another, vices of alcohol, and things like these. But to make it more concrete for us today, I want you to think on the third category of things, that longest part of that list in the works of the flesh, because it's easier to see the situation and how it could backfire when something like enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions and divisions within the body are in play here. These things are easy to spot in a church. But they're not always easy to identify the source. The idea of the verse is that the person has been tempted and they've given into the temptation and they've transgressed and they've been caught. I'll work on how they got to this point. It says they are caught in a transgression. Now, this could refer to being caught or being caught up in either one. So translations will go either way. Kind of a big difference. But for our sake this morning, I'm not going to focus too much on the word can mean to take or undertake or to be taken. OK, so you either one of those most commentaries say something like the person in question is ensnared by the tempter before he fully realizes what he's doing. They are taken unaware because of a lack of caution, something like that. Now, this is true, but it neither excuses the sin nor means that the sin in question is necessarily not that serious as if this is just a little fault or error or mistake, because, hey, I didn't really mean to do it or something like that. All you need to do is think about Adam and Eve to see that kind of a thing. They were tempted. They were ensnared. They were caught up in sin. They didn't fully realize what they were doing, but their sin was inexcusable and it was utterly grave and serious. I mean, it pretty much shattered the entire world, brought us all into a state of sin. And all this happened at the same time. What is interesting to me is how Paul seems more interested in how the church handles the person. Then in the person in the sin himself, That is pretty much not the way things like this work in our day. How sins are handled are often the source of much worse works of the flesh than the original transgression ever was. How is the church to deal with it? What is the procedure? That's the question that he asked in the second part. So I want to think about Jesus, who gives us the procedure to follow in Matthew 18. Verses fifteen to seventeen, it involves individuals, elders and the entire church. It has increasing degrees of formal procedure to follow. So first, a brother goes to a person and tries to help him. People almost always skip this step, skip this step in real life because it's easier to make the pastor deal with the problem. They don't want to deal with it themselves. So I always ask people who want me to deal with other people who they have a problem with that they've already talked to the person first. Because I'm going to take him back to the procedure that Jesus gives us. Well, if they have and if the person hasn't listened to them, then an elder is taken as a voice of reason and advice, as well as to be a witness. So when Jesus says, take two or three witnesses, that's technical Old Testament language for the leadership of Israel. This isn't just take two of your buddies along. OK, you're following formal procedure in church. Finally, if the person is completely unrepentant, the entire church is involved and you must cast the person out of the midst like they did in the first Corinthians five and Galatians six one. You could be anywhere along this road in the procedure. And therefore, anyone here could potentially be involved. When you cast somebody out of the church and the church takes a vote on it, everybody is to heed the warning of the verse. And so what Paul says by way of warning has to be heeded by every one of you in this room, because you will all at some point or another see a brother in sin. And you may very well get to the point where that kind of a sin takes the form of church, formal church discipline. And we've only thankfully had one case of that in our church in the past 10 years. Hope we never have any more again. The first thing Paul says is that restoration should come at the hands of those who are spiritual. Now, he isn't talking about super spiritual Christians versus carnal Christians or something like that, but simply someone more consistent in following the promptings of the spirit. This restoration must be in a spirit of gentleness, you see. That's what he's focusing on, really, in the verse. Note that Paul himself takes the lead in a gentle way, bringing up this very topic in an affectionate way. He starts off the verse with brothers. He's called the Galatians a lot of things in this book, but here he's taking the affectionate, gentle route. Now, why does this matter for the context? If you remember, gentleness is a fruit of the spirit, right? In other words, this is an application of Galatians five. A situation has a region arisen where the works of the flesh are being sown in the church. And now the church has to deal with it. And how will they deal with it, will it be with more works of the flesh? No, but with the fruit of the spirit, with gentleness, meekness, self-control, humility. See, the problem is it's far too easy to respond in the flesh rather than the spirit. This is why I wanted you to think about things like anger and factions and divisions. These things, more than some of the others, naturally tend to arouse the very same problem in your own heart. You get angry at me. My natural inclination is to get angry back. You get a mob to take me out and I'm going to get a mob to take you out. This is the very thing that destroys churches, doesn't it? When we give into the flesh, we do so because. We give in to the same temptations that overcame the original transgressor. And so Paul warns us, keep watch on yourself, lest you to be tempted. Now, here's a very relevant proverb, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So Solomon knew what he was talking about a long time ago. This warning naturally leads into the second part of our chiasm, which is self-deception. It's so easy to be a hypocrite, especially when we look at the sins of other people. The next session section in that is Galatians six, two through five. And as I said earlier, without context, it seems like a string of unrelated sayings, but it isn't. This section has its own chiasm, so this is the one on the bottom left. OK. Sort of a chiasm within the chiasm, if I'm right about this, then this is a highly structured section of Galatians and Paul took his time in writing and thinking about it. Now, this is even larger than the first one, and it's, I think, more pronounced. And you can take a look at it, bear one another's burdens, fulfill the law of Christ. If you think you're something when you're nothing, you deceive yourself. The center of it is self-deception. And then it makes its way back out. Let me walk you through it. Bear one another's burdens is the first one, and it relates to the last one. Each will have to bear his own load. So you can see the language is actually the same. Bearing burdens is a common theme. Next, it says that if you bear with one another's burdens, you will fulfill the law of Christ in B. And what is that law? We talked about it in the last chapter. What's the law of Christ? You remember? Love your neighbor as yourself. The law that he got from Leviticus. How does the section conclude there be one and not his neighbor. So you've got that same idea. Do not compare yourself to your fallen brother in Christ. That is perverse. Verse three begins, if anyone thinks he's something and just before he speaks about his neighbor in verse four, he says, then he his reason to boast is in himself alone. Thinking of yourself of something and boasting in yourself are the same thing, and we're almost to the center. This is going to be tedious to talk my way through this, but I'm trying to do my best I can. In verse three, you shouldn't think you're something when you're nothing. And the other part of that is to test your own work. So the point is, as you're looking at it, you can see how these things are either parallel or they follow one another. To discover, you have to test your own work. The man or woman who test themselves will quickly discover that they are just as full of sin and the desires to give in to them as the person that they're trying to restore. So the whole point of verses two through five is to. Help you understand the warning at the end of verse one. You want to understand the real source of boasting, which isn't yourself and it isn't your neighbor. So the very center, then, is the central idea of the verse or of the section. It's the only part we have left in verse three. He deceives himself. Now, do you see how this is related to verse one? Keep watch on yourself lest you be tempted. If you do not keep watch, you're going to easily fall in temptation to temptation and you won't even realize it because you are self deceived. You will not realize that you're nothing. Because you're not testing yourself, you're not looking into your own heart. You will think that you're something and you will boast in yourself. You will think that you will not fulfill the law of Christ and you will not boast in yourself because of your neighbor's shortcomings that you apparently don't have any of. You will not bear one another's burdens, but you will have to bear your own. So you see, just work your way back out of the structure. What's so amazing about this entire thing is that each of these sayings has counterparts in the Greek pagan world. Surprise, surprise. You can take any one of them alone, as many commentaries do, and look at them, but they clearly serve Paul's larger context of how when a person is caught in a sin, they are to be restored gently. It's remarkable that Paul could take pagan thought, which is also expressed in the Old Testament as well. And of course, remember, Van Til said that the pagans are doing nothing but stealing from the Christian worldview, so they shouldn't surprise you. But he applies it in the church in such a remarkable literary, effective way. Question is, how do you restore somebody gently? These verses specify what that looks like. Outwardly, you bear one another's burdens. If you're tempted or and if need be, then you need to share your temptation. You need to pray for one another, help one another, love your neighbor, fulfill the law of Christ. Isn't that what the word says? Don't think yourself better than another person in regards to sin, but humble yourself. How do you restore somebody gently? That's how you do it. Humble yourself in front of them. So that they will recognize that they are not alone in sin, because you have shared your own problems, whether it's generally or specifically with them. How often people caught up in sin are made to feel subhuman by smug, condescending help. Of another person. Inwardly, you understand that you are dust, that the flesh is deceitful, that you yourself have many problems and shortcomings. You test your own heart when you're going after somebody else. Take inventory of your sins and confess them to God, repent of them, and for goodness sake, do not compare yourself with your neighbor as if his or her failure were the source of your boasting about your own goodness. Compare yourself with God, with perfection, with the real standard. Look upon the real source of the comparison, then recognize that you are what you are because of him, and then your boasting will not even be in yourself, but in Christ. As Paul says so many times in the churches, by God's grace, I am what I am, or if I must boast, I will boast in the Lord. And you can think of several places where he does this. Certainly, all of this sharing the word, all of this is sharing the word with one another when you're bearing burdens and you're praying and these kinds of things. So I'm going to come down to verse six, which is, I think, is the center of the structure, the center of our text today. One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. Now, I didn't give you the specifics of how there are counterparts to the many problems in the last three verses. Just for sake of time, but I may do it here in this one, there's counterparts here to what Paul says in verse six, take the Hippocratic Oath, for example, which says To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him. And if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine. That's what part of the oath of the Greeks was when they took that oath as doctors. If I had more time, I would tease out this idea that pagans have proverbial counterparts to what is said in the text this morning. And I've at least mentioned this a couple of times because it's a very specific reason why I'm doing it. Too many people have this dangerous, mistaken notion that what makes us Christians is our laws, our proverbs and our works. And this is nonsense. This is Paul's whole point in the passage today. The whole world has God's law written on its heart. What makes us Christians is that we acknowledge the source of the law, because something has come to us that makes us want to do so. God has saved us in spite of ourselves by crediting to us something that we do not have by nature, which is righteousness. He's done it through the gospel, the one John calls the word, the Logos, which is the very same word Paul uses in verse six here. Scholars are perplexed about why Paul would have this saying here. Is it just a random proverb? I don't think so. I think it gets to the heart of how the fruit of the spirit is cultivated for the apostle sharing all good things is at the heart of this. The sentence begins in Greek with the word coin a nail. It's not in the middle of it like it is in the English, but it begins in Greek as a special function where if you want to emphasize the point, You can put any word you want at the beginning of the sentence. We can't do that in English. It would sound really silly. They can do it in Greek. And when you do that, you're saying, here's what I want you to know in the sentence. And the word is koinoniao, fellowship. And what is true fellowship at the heart of sharing is the word. He focuses on the teacher and student here in catechesis, the student is supposed to say back to the teacher what he has learned. Specifically, Paul has in mind here the idea of all that is good. The law, of course, is good if used lawfully, so that can be part of it. But the gospel is really good because Jesus is perfectly good and Jesus is the good word. And if the Galatians would have sat down and discussed Paul's letter, really trying to grasp its meaning, they would have been on the right track and they would have been focusing on things like justification by faith alone and not by the law. It would have later in their discussion included the place of the law in a Christian's life. It's by sharing these good things that the fruit of the spirit is cultivated in a life because through this fellowship and the spirit, the head knowledge becomes implanted in your heart. This is how I believe verse six fits into the text. It is the heart and soul of the entire thing. The good news undergirds even the proverbs here at the end of the letter. The gospel supports the law always. The Greeks might have their altruistic principles, their love of wisdom, their goodness and beauty. But we have Christ who personifies and embodies and gives meaning to all those things and who saves us from our sins. That's what makes us differ from them when we talk about the same kinds of ethical ideas. Let's take us back out now, verses seven and eight. The way we act as believers can be out of the flesh or the spirit that is the Holy Spirit. The fourth part of our passage parallels the second part, verses seven through eight, and do not be deceived. Remember, self-deception was at the center of the last one. Now he starts off here. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever you sow, you will reap. The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. The one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. So the deception is the closest link in the two sections, he deceives himself in the first section, do not be deceived here. The idea of sowing is implicit in two through five. When you bear somebody's burdens, you fulfill the law and you sow the fruit of the spirit. But now the idea is explicit. Whatever you sow, that will you reap. The proverb is a general saying here that, again, is contact with the pagan world. I thought about the idea of karma in Hinduism or Buddhism. which is actually sometimes actually called the fruits of karma. But we're not talking about fatalism here. We're not even talking about the whims of fallen, wicked gods like they might see in Hinduism that are punishing us and blessing us in some cosmic cycle of cause and effect. We're talking about the difference between the flesh and the spirit, between two worlds and ages, one that's ruled by sin and the other that's ruled by God. Works of the flesh would include quarrelsomeness, conceit, envy, living aloof from the needs of others, pride and other things that he's mentioned in this letter. They are contrasted with the fruit of the spirit. He's talking about fulfilling the law of love versus not in these two verses. He uses a metaphor. Which is that of a field, which field will you sow your works? Will it be the field of the flesh or will it be the field of the spirit? I find that interesting. Now, all of a sudden, the flesh and the spirit become the place where you sew your works. Will it be a temporary field or an eternal field? Will it be a wicked field or a holy field? Will it be the field of merit or the field of gratitude? If you sow in the field of your flesh, you're going to reap corruption, he says. Whatever the seed is, it is the field that makes the difference. If you place your hope for salvation upon circumcision or fill in the blank or upon obeying Jewish Torah, you will reap corruption because of the hypocrisy that will remain in your own heart. As Dr. Ritterboss put it, corruption here is not the cessation of human existence, But the positive existence of grief and woe, temporal and eternal. Ultimately, it's the idea of eternal damnation. It's eschatological is the way the flesh is, too, for example, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruptible inherit the incorruptible. The word corruptible is the same word that's used here. Now, this sowing in the flesh is contrasted with sowing in the spirit. That's your final structure, that little one on the bottom right. You can see the parallels very easily in it. The idea is that you are throwing seeds of fruit into the field of the Holy Spirit who makes them grow. You're not to cast them into the field of the world, the flesh, the devil. Your heart, your heart shouldn't be the field you sow into your will. Your intellect shouldn't be the field you sow into. You shouldn't sow into your neighbor, your enemy, your spouse, your philosophy, your emotions, your parents, your girlfriend or boyfriend, your politics. Those are not the field that you sow your life into, you're to sow your life into God. You're to cast your seed upon him. Such fruit that grows up in this soil is eternal fruit. The fruit of the eternal city and the everlasting kingdom, the fruit that comes from father, son and Holy Ghost, the fruit that he gives his children, the consequences here couldn't be more plain or stark heaven versus hell. And so that's what versus seven and eight are telling you. Don't be deceived. So your seed in the right place. Now, with the motivation of eternal life and eternal punishment pushing us, Paul concludes in verses nine to 10, let's not grow weary of doing good, because in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially those who are of the household of faith. Doing good is contrasted with restoring a person in gentleness in verse two. How do you do good? One way is to restore a person in gentleness. Doing good and gentleness are fruit of the spirit. Both are loving your neighbor as yourself. Both are walking in the spirit. Both are serving one another in love. The idea of reaping is implicit in verse one. When you restore your fallen brother with gentleness, you will reap a bountiful harvest in the church, you will not find yourself getting into temptations of the flesh and on it goes. That which is implicit in verse one now becomes explicit in these two verses. If you will not grow weary of doing good in due time, you will reap. Now, notice that in due time, that's very interesting. It may not happen immediately. That you will reap the harvest, but neither do trees planted yesterday produce fruit today. So you must not give up. Perhaps here's the most difficult lesson of all in our text. It's one thing to give you a sermon on Galatians six, one through ten, and to tell you all about it. That's what we're doing right now. If you were to share with me and with each other what you've learned. From the word here today, when you leave this place, that would be a good start. You're sort of commanded to do that. But what about a month from now or a year from now? When you have forgotten all about this sermon. Now, hopefully you won't forget it by this afternoon. But what happens when a brother falls into sin? In a year or five years or when you are tempted yourself to get angry or upset at a brother, but you don't have this reminder from the pulpit right now. What do you call to do? Do not give up. Watering plants takes a long time from them to grow to maturity. Seeing results in others lives and often your own is not always immediate. The Bible knows nothing of the instant gratification that is being taught in word of faith churches all around the country right now. God did not destroy the inhabitants of Canaan all at once in order to test Israel, he says, to see if they would obey the commandments. And judges, too. So also, God does not get rid of the flesh here, but it stays to test us and Lord willing to cause us to grow in the spirit. Now, he says he concludes, we're commanded to do good to everyone, but notice what he says, especially to the household of faith, which is the New Testament context. Of the local assembly, you need to put a face to the problem. That's what the local church does. Here in the local church, you have to learn to be kind and gentle to those who are different than you are. People who do not ordinarily make up the circle of friends that you would have. People who are outcasts, strange, perhaps even a little bit weird. It is here that you have to learn these things, not only with likable people, but with unlikable people. You have to learn it not with perfect people, but with fallen and real people. Look around this room. There are people here you have been angry with in the past. Maybe even the present. It is with these people that you will reap what you sow. So do good to them, because Christ has done good to you. and be gentle with them, because Christ has been gentle with you and with them. If the only one who actually has a right to get angry, won't do it, then neither beloved should you. Look within and do not be deceived and then look without and behold the face of the Savior who has loved you, died for you, died for them and has made it possible through the Holy Spirit where people once living in the flesh can now actually display the very fruit of heaven itself. That's how Paul. Starts to wind his way down in this letter to the Galatians, where he spent so much time on doctrine, he starts to conclude it where the rubber meets the road, doesn't he? We have one more sermon, probably in Galatians, as we conclude what Paul has to say to these churches. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, may your law go out powerfully to convict us of our sin, to cause us to look at our own sin, to cause us to want to be more kind with other people when we get upset because they do things we don't like. Or even when they do things that are wrong to want only their best to restore them to the faith, even if it has to come to drastic measures in order that their soul might be saved. And reclaim from Satan, as Paul said, in the most extreme cases of church discipline, it's never to punish. It's always for restoration. And the reason why you do this in part and have people like this in churches is so that it might continually cause your children to look at themselves, to never boast in their own goodness, to never compare themselves with the weakness and sin of others, but to always compare themselves with you, who is the great God who has done so many kind things for us. Help us to see this law rightly in its proper perspective in our Christian life, I would pray in Jesus name.