Bear one another's burdens,and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
I titled my post this morning starting with the word TODAY because as I was praying before my quiet time, the posture in which I prayed was humbly asking the Lord for the things I need today. All too often I get wrapped in a bigger picture, but when I do that, I have a tendency to take on more self-sufficiency than I should. This year I’ve not spent as much time writing here on the site as I’d like.
My reading was in Galatians 6:1-5. Paul gives us a lot of really great instruction here and I’ve actually had to reference it several times over the last six months. There are three behaviors and two heart conditions Paul gives us as we look at what it means to bear one another’s burdens.
ATTEND to One Another: Paul says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression.” This is not an overanalyzing of a brother or sister in Christ, nor is it analyzing the speck in another person’s eye when we haven’t taken care of the log in our own. No, it is really about being close relationally with one another so that we can observe the earthly lived life of a follower in Christ…that we might help prepare them see the face of their King on the Day of Judgement
ACT: The second behavior is to actually respond in our relationships with one another. Here Paul is not only saying we should be attentive to one another, but when we see ways we can encourage or exhort one another, we should do it. WARNING: There is, however, a warning. Paul tells us to be careful; that in our plight to restore a brother or sister in Christ, we have to be careful not to become tempted and sin ourselves.
SERVE: Paul then tells us to bear one another’s burdens. Burdens in this sense are considered “an extra heavy load”. Essentially, coming alongside one another to help with the difficulties and problems they’re dealing with.
WITH Humility and Obedience: The last three verses here cover the heart posture that we should have when we have the mindset of coming alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul tells us to not to think too highly of ourselves and if we do, we’re actually deceiving ourselves…when we transparently look at our lives and the work of the Lord in it, we will find is that it isn’t us who does anything it is the Lord through us.
The last piece of this is verse 5 which says, “for each will have to bear his own load”. What this tells me is that we are responsible for ourselves and need to be very careful to look at our own response…this is what we are responsible for before the Lord.
APPLICATION:
We are all very good at analyzing other people and we can easily see the faults in others especially when it comes to what we believe. We are all on our own walks of sanctification. God in his great mercy has given us his Son as the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. It is so important for me to preach the Gospel to myself every morning so that I have a daily reminder of the great sins I have sinned against the Lord and yet have been forgiven of all of it… and now have an eternal hope in glory. When I look at that, it is really hard to see one little thing in anyone else being even a fraction of the horrible ways I have treated my God and Father before he redeemed me.