What It Is All For

For four Sundays this series has talked about being held to account. Everyone gives account of himself to God. While we are on this earth, God usually asks for that account through people, so we have to let someone in: let someone point out our faults, be ready to hear "you should not do this," and refuse to be the person nobody is allowed to say anything to. Accountability begins at home, between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. If a brother is going the wrong way and his sister, who knows the word, says nothing, God will ask her why. If the mother-in-law comes to prayer and the daughter-in-law stays home, or the prayer meeting is held in our own house and our own son will not sit in it, and we never ask why, God will ask us. And last week, from Colossians 4:1, we saw that everyone has a master. The employer has one too, in heaven, and both the one who works and the one who gives work will answer to Him.

Why did we spend five weeks on all this? What is it for? That is today's question. If a series on accountability produces a church whose members watch each other suspiciously, it has failed. So it has to be said plainly what the whole thing was for.

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted." - Galatians 6:1 (NKJV)

"சகோதரரே, ஒருவன் யாதொரு குற்றத்தில் அகப்பட்டால், ஆவிக்குரியவர்களாகிய நீங்கள் சாந்தமுள்ள ஆவியோடே அப்படிப்பட்டவனைச் சீர்பொருந்தப்பண்ணுங்கள்; நீயும் சோதிக்கப்படாதபடிக்கு உன்னைக்குறித்து எச்சரிக்கையாயிரு." - கலாத்தியர் 6:1 (TAOVBSI)

Accountability without restoration is only exposure. The aim was never to catch a man. It was always to bring him home.

What Are We Trying to Do? · நாம் என்ன செய்ய முயல்கிறோம்?

The church has a particular place in all of this. When the Lord established the church, He gave it this fellowship (ஐக்கியம்) so that believers would grow in devotion and restore one another. We do not come to church only to come and go. We come so that our devotion grows (பக்தி விருத்தி): more prayer than before, more of the Bible, more obedience to the word.

Who brings that about? Most of us assume the answer is the minister. He is the one who gives counsel in church. But Scripture does not leave it to him. It tells us to counsel one another, and that is what the fellowship is for. If only the minister may correct, the minister becomes a kind of employer, and that is not how the Lord arranged it. The head of this church is not the man who leads the service. The one leading, the ones sitting and the ones listening are all the same before God; the head of the church is Jesus Christ.

The pastor will certainly correct, and he has one small advantage: when he does it, people may be angry but feel unable to show it. When the person in the next seat says the same thing, they pick a quarrel and go and sit at the back. Even so, the duty belongs to all of us. We come to this church to become holy and to have our lives set right, and for no other reason. One day we will meet Jesus Christ and live with Him in heaven forever, and the church exists to make us ready for that. I help another become ready, they help me, and each of us does it for the people around us.

The word Paul uses for restore was used of setting a broken bone and of mending a torn net. Both pictures assume you intend to use the thing again.

Restore, Do Not Expose · சீர்பொருந்தப்பண்ணுங்கள்

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness..." - Galatians 6:1 (NKJV)

"சகோதரரே, ஒருவன் யாதொரு குற்றத்தில் அகப்பட்டால், ஆவிக்குரியவர்களாகிய நீங்கள் சாந்தமுள்ள ஆவியோடே அப்படிப்பட்டவனைச் சீர்பொருந்தப்பண்ணுங்கள்; நீயும் சோதிக்கப்படாதபடிக்கு உன்னைக்குறித்து எச்சரிக்கையாயிரு." - கலாத்தியர் 6:1 (TAOVBSI)

"If a man is overtaken" (அகப்பட்டால்). Paul pictures a man caught out, ambushed by something. That is not the language of a court; it is the language of a rescue. And notice what "caught" means. It does not mean that one person did wrong and the rest did not. It means he did wrong and was found out. All of us do wrong; one of us gets caught.

Could anyone here say they have never committed adultery? Never murdered? By the standard of the word, no one can. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Read verses like these and nobody can say, "I have never done wrong." We are all offenders. That has to be understood first.

Imagine the thoughts running through your heart were played out loud through a speaker for the whole street to hear. How many of us would walk into town with confidence? No one could, because thoughts that bad run inside every one of us. But somewhere, on some day, one person's circumstances catch up with him and he is exposed. And what do we do with the one who is caught? We roast him. We should stop and ask what would become of us if we were the one caught that day.

So when someone in the church is caught in a fault, we cannot do what a court does. A court pronounces its verdict: this man did all this, here is his sentence. And then the judge gets up and goes home. God did not establish the church for that. The church is told something else: restore him.

"Restore" (சீர்பொருந்தப்பண்ணுங்கள்). Some would say it means to set someone on the right path (நல்வழிப்படுத்துதல்). Perhaps a better explanation is counsel that makes a person fit again (தகுதிப்படுத்தக்கூடிய ஆலோசனை), which assumes he has lost his fitness. He was caught in a fault, he stole, he did wrong, and he lost his standing. Restoring him means making him fit again. Paul's word was used of setting a broken bone and mending a net. You do not set a bone in order to prove it was broken.

Think of a bicycle. A screw works loose and falls out, or the chain comes off. Do you pick up the bicycle, throw it away and call it waste? You tighten the chain, fix what came loose, and ride it again. That is what the church is for, and that is why we have studied accountability. For four weeks we have seen what is right and what is wrong, and that we must give account. But when someone fails at it, when their wrong comes into the open, or when someone comes to you on their own and confesses, "I did this, it was wrong, it was sin," we must not pass sentence and push them out. We restore them.

"In a spirit of gentleness" (சாந்தமுள்ள ஆவியோடே). The manner is not optional. This lesson is for the preacher as much as anyone; gentleness did not always come naturally, it has been coming slowly, and there is still a long way to go. We tend to think a harsh word will set a person right, and most of the time it does not. Truth delivered harshly has broken more people than silence ever did. When the chain comes off a bicycle you lift it and slip it back on gently. Throw the bicycle down and beat at the chain, and it bends this way and that until it can never be put back on.

The same gentleness belongs to the things we say again and again. We keep telling people to give the Lord's day to the Lord and not go to work, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added (Matthew 6:33). Even if we said it through loudspeakers in the street, many would hear it and keep walking. We cannot conclude that they will never listen and give up on them. The Lord did not call us here for that. Our work is to say it again, gently, as many times as it takes, until the day the person who would not listen is the one standing up front telling others not to go to work on Sunday. That is restoration.

A confession that travels is a confession that will never be made again. When someone comes and confesses a fault to you, are you a courier office delivering it to every address, or do you keep it inside? What comes in must not go straight back out. It should go in and stay there, and from there you pray for the person and help them as far as you can. Telling it to four other people is a serious wrong, because the next time nobody will come to you. Nobody will say, "I did this, it was sin, the Lord convicted me." We said this on an earlier Sunday too. What is said to you in trust stays with you. Guard it like your own name.

How many people trust us enough to tell us something and ask us to pray? That number is a fair measure of how mature we have become. If nobody does, we are not yet fit for it, and we still have much to give account for ourselves.

So we did not study accountability to find out other people's faults and trap them in them. We studied it to bring home the ones who were caught. Someone who has done wrong does not come home. He sits outside. When we were children, our parents would let us go out to play in the morning on condition that we were back by ten. We would leave at seven or eight, lose all track of time, and look up to find it was twelve. Did we march boldly into the house? We hid outside. "He is inside; if I go in now, the blows will fall." So we wandered about. People who sin do the same. They think, "If I go home I will be disgraced," and they do not come near the house. They run off somewhere. That is how many who do wrong are lost: there is nobody at home to receive them. Our church must not be like that. We bring the one who did wrong back home, not so that he can go on doing wrong under our roof, but so that he can be restored. This morning we sang about returning to the first estate (ஆதி நிலை). Whatever state we were in when the Lord first chose us and we first received Him, that is the state we try to bring the fallen one back to.

The aim was never to catch a brother. It was always to bring him home (திரும்பக் கொண்டுவருதல்).

Considering Yourself · உன்னைக்குறித்து எச்சரிக்கையாயிரு

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." - Galatians 6:2 (NKJV)

"ஒருவர் பாரத்தை ஒருவர் சுமந்து, இப்படியே கிறிஸ்துவினுடைய பிரமாணத்தை நிறைவேற்றுங்கள்." - கலாத்தியர் 6:2 (TAOVBSI)

Paul turns the sentence around at the last moment: considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Restoring a man caught in a fault is a good thing. But you went to help him; now look at yourself. You must not fall in the same place. The one doing the restoring is in the most danger. Nobody can say, "I will never fall into this; it has nothing to do with me." If you say that, you do not yet understand life.

Pride is the occupational hazard of the corrector. "I am strong in the Lord. I pray hard, I read the Bible, I am a big man, I restore everyone." We cannot think like that. The moment I think I would never is the moment I have stopped being safe.

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." - 1 Corinthians 10:12 (NKJV)

"இப்படியிருக்க, தன்னை நிற்கிறவனென்று எண்ணுகிறவன் விழாதபடிக்கு எச்சரிக்கையாயிருக்கக்கடவன்." - 1 கொரிந்தியர் 10:12 (TAOVBSI)

Recently a video went around of a man who took a guitar into a TASMAC liquor shop and sat there singing and playing, "Sinners, repent." How much good do you think that did? Did anyone repent? There is an older story, heard in childhood, of a minister who went to live in Mumbai's red-light district, the area where prostitution is permitted, saying he would tell everyone there about the Lord and bring them all to repentance. He ended up starting a business there and settling down.

Taking heed lest you fall means accepting that every one of us is weak enough to fall into any sin. There is no small sin and big sin here. Adultery, murder, an ordinary lie, a small cheat, stealing a pencil: human beings are capable of anything that does not please God, however great a minister they may be. That is not a prediction that anyone will fall. Many are kept from sin by the Lord, and that is true; you may rightly say, "The Lord kept me from falling." But the possibility is there for everyone, so none of us can say it is impossible. The one who restores has no ground to think himself a big man. His heart has to stay humble before the Lord.

And when we restore someone caught in a fault, we should pray for ourselves too. But pray the right prayer. Do not pray, "Lord, I am doing these things; do not let me be caught." Pray, "Lord, do not let me do these things. Do not let me do what does not please You."

"Bear one another's burdens" (ஒருவர் பாரத்தை ஒருவர் சுமந்து). Accountability is not "I am a big man." It is not "I have done nothing wrong, my accounts are all in order." Accountability means helping the one whose accounts are not in order. To restore him we go and stand with him. We cannot climb up and stand on top of him; we take his load on our shoulder and help him carry it. Accountability is not standing over a man; it is getting under the load with him.

This is the difference between a church and a court. A court gives a verdict. The church restores. And who is the church? All of us together. So each of us has to remember it personally: if I am in this church, my work is to restore others and draw their lives closer to the Lord. When we see that someone has stopped reading the Bible or stopped praying, instead of making a great charge of it and declaring that he will never amount to anything, we pray for him, counsel him, and do whatever it takes to bring him back to where he was. A court establishes guilt and goes home. A church picks the man up and walks with him.

Correct only those you are willing to stay with afterwards. If you will not carry the burden, do not name it.

Breakfast on the Shore · கரையிலே காலை உணவு

"He said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?' Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' And he said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed My sheep.'" - John 21:17 (NKJV)

"மூன்றாந்தரம் அவர் அவனை நோக்கி: யோனாவின் குமாரனாகிய சீமோனே, நீ என்னை நேசிக்கிறாயா என்றார். என்னை நேசிக்கிறாயா என்று அவர் மூன்றாந்தரம் தன்னைக் கேட்டபடியினாலே, பேதுரு துக்கப்பட்டு: ஆண்டவரே, நீர் எல்லாவற்றையும் அறிந்திருக்கிறீர், நான் உம்மை நேசிக்கிறேன் என்பதையும் நீர் அறிவீர் என்றான். இயேசு: என் ஆடுகளை மேய்ப்பாயாக என்றார்." - யோவான் 21:17 (TAOVBSI)

Jesus Himself is the great example of restoring. John 21 is worth reading slowly at home, from the first verse.

Think about who Peter had been. When Jesus spoke of going to the cross, Peter said, in effect, "Lord, why are You talking like this? I am here. Let anyone try to get past me." And Jesus answered him, "Get behind Me, Satan" (Matthew 16:23). Peter was no balloon with a coat of paint on it; he was genuinely strong, sure he would protect Jesus. Yet the moment Jesus was arrested, he denied Him three times beside a charcoal fire, and not only denied knowing Him but began to curse (Matthew 26:74). Then he watched Him die and be buried.

Who was caught? Peter. All the disciples ran; all of them hid. But Peter alone said, "Let me go and see where they are taking Jesus," and he was caught in the very place he went to look. Four people asked him questions and he had to lie. Had he stayed hidden at home like the rest, he would never have denied the Lord. We are the same. Everyone runs, and one man gets caught. We were keeping quiet, and someone pulled the words out of our mouth (வாயைப் புடுங்குதல்), as we say, and the words became a sin.

And after it, Peter went back to his boat, because that is what a finished man does.

"Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We are going with you also.'" - John 21:3 (NKJV)

"சீமோன்பேதுரு மற்றவர்களை நோக்கி: மீன்பிடிக்கப்போகிறேன் என்றான். அதற்கு அவர்கள்: நாங்களும் உம்முடனேகூட வருகிறோம் என்றார்கள். அவர்கள் புறப்பட்டுப்போய், உடனே படவேறினார்கள். அந்த இராத்திரியிலே அவர்கள் ஒன்றும் பிடிக்கவில்லை." - யோவான் 21:3 (TAOVBSI)

If you are going fishing, go. Why announce it to two or three others? But he told the disciples, and they said, "We are coming with you." That is how it goes. When we leave the church and leave the Lord, we rarely go alone. We take two or three along: "We are not coming to this church any more; we are thinking of going there." If you are going, go; why tell four people? And four people say, "Fine, I will come too." Going to another church is no wrong in itself; if someone moves to another church, that is good. But no one must leave the Lord. In the same way, a man who has left the Lord says, "My heart is heavy, I am going for a drink," and two others who are also heavy-hearted go with him. Peter took the others along.

It was exactly how Jesus had first called him. Then too they had fished all night and caught nothing.

"But Simon answered and said to Him, 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.'" - Luke 5:5 (NKJV)

"அதற்குச் சீமோன்: ஐயரே, இராமுழுவதும் நாங்கள் பிரயாசப்பட்டும் ஒன்றும் அகப்படவில்லை; ஆகிலும் உம்முடைய வார்த்தையின்படியே வலையைப் போடுகிறேன் என்றான்." - லூக்கா 5:5 (TAOVBSI)

They let down the net, brought in a great catch, and Peter, having seen the miracle, left everything to follow. "From now on you will catch men," Jesus told him (Luke 5:10). They dropped the nets and the fish and followed Jesus. And now the same Peter had put his life in reverse gear and gone back to the old life.

In the old life the nets came up empty again. At dawn Jesus stood on the shore and said, "Cast the net on the right side." John realised it was the Lord. They cast, and the net filled with a hundred and fifty-three large fish (John 21:11). When Peter saw it, he plunged into the water. He had been caught. The man who said nobody would touch Jesus without going through him had denied Him three times, thrown away every word he had heard in all those years beside Him, and gone back to catching fish when he had been told he would catch men. How did Jesus restore the Peter who was caught in this fault?

Jesus does not pretend the denial never happened. He did not treat it as though nothing had gone wrong. Nor did He hold back for fear that naming it would hurt Peter, or that a man told of his wrong would be offended and stop coming. Three times, once for each denial, He asks one question: do you love Me? Peter grieves the third time, because the count is not lost on him. Real restoration walks through the failure, not around it.

But He feeds him first. Before He asked "Do you love Me?", Jesus sat them down to eat. He did not call Peter over and open with, "Come here, I know everything you did." He went nowhere near the subject. To the man trying to hide, He said, "Come and eat. You must be hungry." The fish was cooked, Jesus took it and gave it to them, and they ate. Grace sets the table before it asks the question.

"So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?' He said to Him, 'Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.' He said to him, 'Feed My lambs.'" - John 21:15 (NKJV)

"அவர்கள் போஜனம்பண்ணினபின்பு, இயேசு சீமோன்பேதுருவை நோக்கி: யோனாவின் குமாரனாகிய சீமோனே, இவர்களிலும் அதிகமாய் நீ என்னிடத்தில் அன்பாயிருக்கிறாயா என்றார். அதற்கு அவன்: ஆம் ஆண்டவரே, உம்மை நேசிக்கிறேன் என்பதை நீர் அறிவீர் என்றான். அவர்: என் ஆட்டுக்குட்டிகளை மேய்ப்பாயாக என்றார்." - யோவான் 21:15 (TAOVBSI)

So as a church we must learn this: when someone does wrong, we do not immediately pick up the Bible and stand on "the Bible says, and that is all." We also think about their worldly situation. That is why some faults we do not make much of. When someone new comes and does something wrong, we may not say anything yet; we say, "All right, come, let us pray." With someone who says they have been coming to church for twenty or thirty years, we say, "Wrong is wrong." Each person's condition has to be understood and met accordingly. We cannot go only "the word, the word, the word." The measure of each person's faith differs. Sometimes you have to feed a person first and counsel him after.

Jesus knew that bread and fish are not what feeds a man forever; eternal life is everything. Did Jesus know that? Of course He did. Yet He did not call Peter over and start on spiritual things. "Come, sit, eat. Do you want more fish? Have two more pieces. You caught them; eat well." He fed him, and only afterwards asked, "Do you love Me?" To restore people, then, the church cannot be only a place where we sit and pray and read the Bible and pray and read again and go home. We have to do other things too. That is why so much service goes on here: the little children in tuition classes, sitting and talking with the elderly. Hours spent laughing with the old people of this place are hard to forget, and it was the Lord who gave them.

If every visit to someone is "Did you pray today? Praise the Lord. Did you read the Bible?", what will they do? How long can a person pray? How long can anyone keep reading? We need the ordinary things of life as well. We need to laugh and to talk. Life needs a joke too. Someone reads "nor sits in the seat of the scornful" (Psalm 1:1) and resolves never to tell a joke again; what kind of life is that? Never laugh, always be serious, think every minute of every day only about the Lord's return? Nobody can live like that. To keep people in their relationship with the Lord, we have to set them right in the things of this world too. The man was hungry first. Sit a hungry man down and counsel him as long as you like; will he hear? Even a congregation at quarter past eleven on a Sunday morning stops listening once the stomach starts calling for tea.

It was the same with Peter, and it is the same with us. Sometimes we are glad, sometimes sad. Those who lead prayer and those in ministry grow weary too; they lose heart and say, "I cannot lead any more." We must not snap back, "How can you not?" There has to be room for that, because one day we will be weary too. Everyone has had days without faith, days when the question came, "Is the Lord even there?" Elijah, who had challenged so many in public, sat under a broom tree and asked to die.

"...and he prayed that he might die, and said, 'It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!'" - 1 Kings 19:4 (NKJV)

"அவன் வனாந்தரத்தில் ஒருநாள் பிரயாணம் போய், ஒரு சூரைச்செடியின் கீழ் உட்கார்ந்து, தான் சாகவேண்டும் என்று கோரி: போதும் கர்த்தாவே, என் ஆத்துமாவை எடுத்துக்கொள்ளும்; நான் என் பிதாக்களைப்பார்க்கிலும் நல்லவன் அல்ல என்று சொல்லி," - 1 இராஜாக்கள் 19:4 (TAOVBSI)

How many of us have prayed, "Lord, take me. I cannot bear it. The troubles of this world are too much; take me"? Everyone grows tired. Everyone gets fed up. Nobody can be happy all the time or keen all the time; there are days when even leading the singing is beyond the one who leads it. Anyone human gets tired and needs rest. Understanding all this, and knowing that the Lord matters above everything, we still have to set these other things right before we can restore anyone in the thing that matters most. That is why faith without works is dead.

"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." - James 2:15-17 (NKJV)

"ஒரு சகோதரனாவது சகோதரியாவது வஸ்திரமில்லாமலும் அனுதின ஆகாரமில்லாமலும் இருக்கும்போது, உங்களில் ஒருவன் அவர்களை நோக்கி: நீங்கள் சமாதானத்தோடே போங்கள், குளிர்காய்ந்து பசியாறுங்கள் என்று சொல்லியும், சரீரத்திற்கு வேண்டியவைகளை அவர்களுக்குக் கொடாவிட்டால் பிரயோஜனமென்ன? அப்படியே விசுவாசமும் கிரியைகளில்லாதிருந்தால் தன்னிலேதானே செத்ததாயிருக்கும்." - யாக்கோபு 2:15-17 (TAOVBSI)

A man comes hungry, and we say, "I will pray; the Lord will bless you and give you food. Off you go, it is time for my lunch." That is dead faith. Give the hungry man food first. Then speak to him about the Lord, or about faith. Prayer and Bible reading matter, and so does every service we are able to give.

From the Womb to the Tomb · கருவிலிருந்து கல்லறை வரை

The vision behind this church's work is from the womb to the tomb (கருவில் இருந்து கல்லறை வரை): from the time a person is formed in the womb until the day he is carried to the grave, to offer not only the spiritual things but every kind of support this world requires, to children and to the elderly, whoever needs what, whenever they need it. We study accountability so that we become people who can do that. That is why the Lord blesses us at all.

That is why some of us have been given a house of our own. Those who own a house should hold house prayer meetings and invite many people. When a son's engagement is coming, or a child is leaving for college, or there is a birthday in the family, call the household and the church and say, "Come, let us pray." There is no need to serve snacks and tea; water is enough. Nobody will go away saying, "You get nothing at his house." It is a great blessing to the one who opens the door, and it is what the house was given for. How many have no house, not even a rented one, and keep moving from place to place? Once we were like that too. Today the Lord has given us a home, and in the home the television runs and no fellowship with the Lord ever happens.

Remember how it used to be. Churches were far apart: one in Tenkasi, one in Courtallam, two or three kilometres to walk or a bus to catch. For a nine o'clock service you were at the bus stand by eight, waiting. The Lord has changed that. He has given us bikes and bicycles; we can leave five minutes before and still arrive. And what time do we arrive? The resources He gave are being wasted.

The purpose of His blessing is this: to restore others. With our money, our time, our goods, our space, our comforts, whatever we can do to restore others, we must do. Some of the older women of our church drive out to visit the sick and pray with them. How do they go? By car, because the Lord gave a car, and they use it to sit in the homes of people too sick to come to church and pray for them. It is a blessing to those homes. So each of us should ask: what has the Lord given me? Time? Strength? Money? A place? Nobody can say, "I have none of these." Everyone has been given something. What are we doing with it? That is accountability. That is what the Lord will ask: "I gave you all this comfort, did all this for you, poured out all this blessing. How many did you restore? How many did you lead in the Lord? How many did you set on the right path?"

None of this is about changing anyone's religion. What we do is set lives right. A husband and wife who have separated, who fight and are caught up in adultery and immorality: we try to restore them, so that one husband and one wife live together, with their children, in peace. That is what we teach.

"Feed My sheep." The Tamil Bible says என் ஆடுகளை மேய்ப்பாயாக in all three places. The English varies: feed My lambs, tend My sheep, and feed My sheep. Shepherding covers everything, and feeding is part of shepherding, but the English draws out the plainest part of the work: give My sheep food. Keeping a life alive matters most of all. Is something in a dying condition? A marriage broken and all but dead? We cannot leave it. We feed it, strengthen it little by little, restore it, and do not let it break, so that it stays one, according to the will of God. Peter is not put on probation. He is given work. The fisherman who had been made a fisher of men fell along the way, and the Lord restored him, and under one sermon three thousand were saved and baptised (Acts 2:41). Restoration returns a man to usefulness, or it is not restoration.

And the restoration is public, in front of the same men who watched him fall. A man restored quietly is still a man under suspicion.

"...let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins." - James 5:20 (NKJV)

"தப்பிப்போன மார்க்கத்தினின்று பாவியைத் திருப்புகிறவன் ஒரு ஆத்துமாவை மரணத்தினின்று இரட்சித்து, திரளான பாவங்களை மூடுவானென்று அறியக்கடவன்." - யாக்கோபு 5:20 (TAOVBSI)

A sinner who wanders off the way is heading towards death. Whoever brings that soul back saves it from death and covers a multitude of sins. This phrase is often misunderstood, along with its companion verse:

"And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins.'" - 1 Peter 4:8 (NKJV)

"எல்லாவற்றிற்கும் மேலாக ஒருவரிலொருவர் ஊக்கமான அன்புள்ளவர்களாயிருங்கள்; அன்பு திரளான பாவங்களை மூடும்." - 1 பேதுரு 4:8 (TAOVBSI)

It does not mean that a loving person takes the sinner home and says, "Go on sinning; I will hide it so nobody knows." That is not love. A wife who says, "My husband drinks; never mind, drink where nobody can see," is not loving him. Love covers a multitude of sins when we bring someone out of the wandering way and out of death, help them put right what they have done, reconcile them and restore them. Then the Lord forgives all they have done and receives them. That is the meaning. There are people who keep a wrongdoer comfortable at home under the name of love, and it is badly wrong; it is not living by the word. They have to be told it is wrong, they have to make the effort to leave it, and they have to be reconciled to the Lord again.

"Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." - 2 Corinthians 5:18 (NKJV)

"இவையெல்லாம் தேவனாலே உண்டாயிருக்கிறது; அவர் இயேசுகிறிஸ்துவைக்கொண்டு நம்மைத் தம்மோடே ஒப்புரவாக்கி, ஒப்புரவாக்குதலின் ஊழியத்தை எங்களுக்கு ஒப்புக்கொடுத்தார்." - 2 கொரிந்தியர் 5:18 (TAOVBSI)

This ministry of reconciliation (ஒப்புரவாக்குதலின் ஊழியம்) is what we have been given. James says the one who turns a wanderer back saves a soul from death. That is what all five Sundays have been for.

Conclusion · முடிவுரை

Five Sundays: every one of us gives account; a voice must be let in; the house goes first; the master has a Master; and all of it exists to bring people home.

The series ends here, but the question it asks does not. Can we give our account before the Lord? We take leave from work for a wedding. Even when the day off is given to us, we do not come to prayer. The Lord gives time, work, a salary and a holiday, meets every need and sets us down at home, and we fry chicken and sit in the house while prayer goes on at church. He will ask about that. He has given strength to our hands so that He can bless the work of our hands. On the day a hand is drawn up and will not work, we phone at seven in the morning: "Will the auto come today? I cannot ride the bike, I cannot walk; may I come by auto?" On the days the hand is well, ten o'clock comes and we do not come to prayer at all. That is our nature. This is not aimed at any one person; it is said to everyone who stays away. We can take leave, we can go anywhere, we have everything; if we wanted to we could do anything, and prayer still does not get first place. Live like that and we will never be restored in the Lord ourselves, nor restore anyone else. Life can be lived and finished that way, but there will be difficulties when the account is given.

So do not look at others and think about what they did wrong. If someone does wrong, restore them. Take heed lest you fall. And be restored yourself first. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

If this series has only made you watchful of others, put it down. If it has made you reachable, it has done its work.

There is a fire already burning on the shore and breakfast already made. Whoever you are and whatever is behind you, the Lord is not asking for your record. He is asking whether you love Him.

Declaration Prayer · அறிக்கை ஜெபம்

பிதாவே, என்னைத் திருத்துகிறவர்களுக்கு இருதயத்தைத் திறக்கிறேன்; விழுந்தவர்களைச் சாந்தத்தோடே சீர்பொருந்தப்பண்ண எனக்குக் கிருபை தாரும். நானும் சோதிக்கப்படக்கூடும் என்பதை மறவாதிருப்பேனாக. இயேசுவின் நாமத்தினாலே, ஆமென்.

Father, I open my heart to those who correct me; give me grace to restore the fallen with gentleness. Let me never forget that I too can be tempted. In Jesus' name, Amen.

One Thing This Week · இந்த வாரம் ஒன்று மட்டும்

Think of one person who has drifted from us and go to them this week, not to correct them, only to bring them breakfast.

Next Sunday, 20 September, a new five-week series begins: கண்ணுக்குத் தெரிவதைவிட அதிகம் (More Than What You See).