“If you find a perfect church, don’t join it. You’d spoil it.”—Billy Graham

It’s only a matter of time until the people around you do you wrong. Sometimes the “wrong” is a petty offense they’re unaware of. But other times it can be something substantially wrong that cost you something dear.

What do you do when that happens? When you confront someone for something they did, what’s the goal of your confrontation?

It’s easy to make justice the goal. Where there was a wrong, it needs to be made right. There needs to be justice. Usually confrontation happens in a way that seeks compensation from the other person.

But God gives a different way to navigate injustice: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently” (Galatians 6:1).

God guides you to confront someone, not to seek compensation from them but to pursue restoration with them.

Making restoration your goal reflects the way God loved you. Jesus did not come to seek justice. He came to satisfy it by becoming a sin offering on our behalf. He restored you to God so that your life is now an ongoing offering right back to him.

It is more than likely that someone today will do wrong to you. The way God restored you now equips you to restore the people in your life.