Burden Bearing
You may have heard from a sermon in church that we are all a family. Maybe you’ve heard church members refer to each other as “brothers and sisters in Christ”. If you read the Bible, you’ll see hundreds of verses referencing our familial bond as children of God. Sometimes we hear these terms, and we don’t know exactly what to do with them. How does knowing that we are siblings in Christ change how we relate to each other? One way that God tells us that this familial relationship affects how we interact with one another is in Galatians 6:2 where it reads “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” From this verse we can conclude that one way we can live out being family in Christ is to bear one another’s burdens.
Helping One Another Fight Sin
When Paul writes this phrase, he is in the middle of a letter to the church in Galatia. The verse that precedes this one discusses how to lovingly correct one another in Christ. Bearing one another's burdens means that we help each other as we face temptations.
It means that when someone shares in our small group that they are struggling with a specific sin, we don’t just shrug it off or simply say “thanks for sharing”, but instead, we actively pray for them and check-in on them frequently. It means we are not afraid to bring up potentially awkward topics for the sake of our brothers and sisters holiness. It means we share resources, read the Bible together, and share our own temptations and struggles to help our fellow Christians.
It also means we encourage each other frequently in our fight against sin. Hebrews 3:13 says, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” In his book Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness, Gavin Ortlund writes, “I have concluded that most people, most of the time, need encouragement” (50). Bearing one another's burdens can look like an encouraging text or comment. It can look like writing a little note or a prayer for each other. We are called to walk with each other through burdens but also to encourage others to walk in the truth of Christ.
Being With One Another Through Hard Circumstances
Bearing one another's burdens is two-fold. First, it means we have to be close enough to one another to know about the burdens in each other's lives. If you’re involved in church for any length of time, you’ll learn of hard circumstances that your fellow church members go through. From financial difficulties to health scares, to loss of life and loved ones, Christians are not immune to the harsh realities of life. However, if we do church at an arm's-length-only sneaking in after worship starts and leaving before the sermon ends, we will never know the true difficulties our fellow church members are facing. Additionally, if we only have surface-level conversations in the lobby, we will only get a blurry snapshot of the real lives of our friends. Getting to actually know each other takes effort—it takes consistently attending a small group, texting with and spending time with one another, and praying for one another. Knowing each other's burdens doesn’t require perfection but it does require faithfulness and desire to authentically be in relationship with each other. We can’t fulfill the command to bear one another’s burdens if we refuse to learn what they are.
Next, bearing one another’s burdens means we not only know about the struggles our fellow church members are facing, but we actually care and help carry those difficulties. This can be messy. It takes patience and faithfulness. As we know, actual life is not a hallmark movie where a huge problem is solved perfectly within 90 minutes. Caring about the lives of our church members means frequent sacrifices of time and energy.
A few years ago, in April of 2020, my husband and I had a miscarriage. The way that Life Pointe members helped carry our burden in this time was praying for us, finding ways to safely socially connect with us in the height of COVID, asking about how we were processing it months after it happened, and even dropping off soft pretzels at our door. Even more meaningful than all of that, our fellow church members continually pointed our eyes to Christ and the hope that we have in Him.
Remembering How Christ Loves Us
This verse also contains the phrase “to fulfill the law of Christ”. Paul recently mentioned in Galatians 5:14, “the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus explains that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-38). When we love others, we are fulfilling the law of Christ.
When we think of the concept of carrying each other's burdens, it should bring to mind the great weight of sin that Christ carried for us. The love he showed us in coming down to us, sitting with us in the heaviness of our temptations and trials and then taking all of it upon himself on the death at the cross. And then rising again and continuing to walk with us as we face whatever life throws at us. What love! What Sacrifice! What faithfulness! Let that be the driving force behind our love for one another. 1 John 4:19 says “We love because He first loved us”. Let that be our motivation. Let Christ’s love compel us (2 Cor 5:14) to willingly sacrifice time, energy, and our pride for the sake of our brothers and sisters.
Conclusion
Now, this command may feel overwhelming, and you may be asking alongside me, “Where do we start?” I would encourage us to start with prayer. Pray for the members in our churches. Pray for energy, boldness, and love that only comes from Christ. Pray for grace, humility, faithfulness, and patience. As we as churches pray for these things, I have no doubt our love for Christ and one another will increase. Christ will help us fulfill the law of Christ by carrying one another’s burdens. God loves our churches more than we ever could, let us follow His example in the way we love and care for one another.