If we see someone who has fallen into sin then the first thing we should do according to God’s word is to examine ourselves. We are to make a self-assessment before we put ourselves forward for the task of helping to restore another.
Biblical church discipline is a duty among the churches, as is the restoration of those who have fallen, but there is a danger that where we are commanded to restore our fellow believers we rush in without proper reflection of our own sins and end up playing the hypocrite. We should come to this work only after we have considered our own ways carefully and repented of any known sins. But to be spiritual here does not mean to be perfect, for we all sin in many ways. To be spiritual is to handle our sins in a biblical way, to confess them to God and where necessary to our fellow Christians, to repent of them and to be humbled by the remembrance of them. This preparation of mind prevents us coming to others who have fallen as if we were spotless, looking down on them from the height of perfection in a lofty or condescending way. This does not mean that we fail to see the gravity of sin or make excuses for the perpetrator, for there are many evils that should not be once named among us and which it is perfectly possible for us to avoid from the moment we are converted.
A spirit of gentleness is always appropriate, even in the case of extreme sins. Our harshness and forcefulness is not going to achieve anything, for if the conscience of the culprit does not to speak to them at the prospect of facing God in discipline, they we will not be humbled by any severity of ours. Joshua dealt meekly with Achan even though his trespass was so serious.
Who can say that they are spiritual when Paul writing as a believer described himself as ‘carnal, sold under sin’? Is the requirement in this verse that we should never do anything to restore those who fall, each one frankly judging himself to be too unspiritual for the task? Paul has elsewhere dealt with this reaction and corrected it as out of balance: ‘If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?’ (1 Corinthians 6:4-5), and he said this to the Corinthians even though he also assessed them as, ‘carnal and behaving like mere men’.