Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
Mary Ann is skilled in so many ways that it just makes my head swim! She sews, paints, gardens, and teaches with such great skill and wisdom that the only thing I can do is shake my head in amazement.
Thankfully, I do have a role to play, helping her with all the things that she so skillfully accomplishes.
Nerd. When it comes to technology, I’m so happy to be able to help with her phone and laptop.
Carry. When it comes to lifting or carrying something heavy, I love being able to pick up, dig up, and move things for her.
While the nerd thing is good, I really enjoy jumping at the chance to carry things for her. I used to ask her to wait, but I’ve found out that there is no time like the present to help by carrying anything and everything for her.
I know that it probably sounds like a little thing. But it doesn’t matter because I want to help her in any way I can. Digging a hole for a tomato plant, cutting down overgrown limbs, getting her sewing machine out, putting the ironing board away. It doesn’t matter. I love helping her because I love her.
This is the way it works. Love motivates and energizes helping. And carrying each other’s burdens is one of the ways we are to help one another. And just in case you didn’t know it, we all have burdens that are just too big to carry ourselves.
Notice that Paul tells the Galatian Christians to carry burdens. Not a burden, but burdens. Plural. More than one. We each have burdens that we can’t carry by ourselves.
The command is that we are to be presently and actively carrying burdens with and for one another. We are to willingly help carry the burdens of other Christians.
And when we help, we’re to be sympathetic to their problems and pains. We’re never to look down our nose at them. They are our brother and sister, someone who Jesus died for. That takes away any room for pride in our hearts, minds, or words.
And oh, by the way, when we help carry burdens, there’s no guarantee that we won’t get caught in the backwash of their burden. We might also experience heartache and unkindness along the way.
We have a responsibility for others in our Christian community. Yes, I said responsibility. It’s not a suggestion or something that we optionally get to choose if we have enough time and energy.
And why? Because when we help carry burdens for one another, we are responding to God’s love for us. We are motivated to fulfill the law of Christ.
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.
James 2:8, Leviticus 19:18
When we carry burdens, it’s the total opposite of being selfish. Helping to carry burdens releases us from ourselves. When we are connected to others and their burdens, we become selfless. We leave ourselves behind as we help take care of others
When we fulfill something, we do what’s expected. What we’ve signed up for. What we’ve agreed to. We never fulfil anything by accident. We can only fulfil what’s required. Or, to put it plainly, we practice what we preach.
We all have burdens. When it came to sin, God himself is our burden bearer[1]. He is bears the burdens of this life[2]. And Jesus himself understand the burdens that come our way[3].
There’s an old hymn that talks about our burdens and where to take them.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty Rock, within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.[4]
Yes, God has taken care of all our burdens. But this doesn’t mean that there won’t be pain, disappointment, or heaviness in this life. They are all around us in this broken world.
But he’s there all the time. His arms are open wide to receive and carry us through whatever comes our way. And in response, we are to help others, carrying them with that same love and power that Jesus carry’s us with.
So, let’s carry on, helping one another just like he’s helping us.
[1] Romans 3:24
[2] Matthew 11:28
[3] Romans 4:15
[4] Beneath the cross of Jesus, Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane (1868)
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