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Last updated on
July 28, 2004
Bear One Another's Burdens
Delivered July 4, 2004
by Pastor Werner De Jong
Text: Galatians 6:1-10
Main Idea: God calls Christians to deep, not superficial, fellowship with one another, as together we follow Christ and bear one another's burdens on the journey.
Purpose: To challenge the listeners to live in deep fellowship with one another by helping to bear one another's burdens. To encourage the listeners that those who don't grow weary of doing good will reap a harvest of blessing.
Introduction: This week I weeded my gooseberry patch. I have four bushes in the back corner of my vegetable garden, next to my compost pile. Unfortunately, the compost only seems to have fed the weeds, which were so thick and high that I could barely see two of the gooseberry bushes, even when I was standing little more than ten feet away. If you have a gooseberry plant, you know they are full of thorns, and weeding around and under them is a rather precarious undertaking! I wore jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, but my hands were still pricked more times than I can count, and there are still two or three small thorns embedded in my skin. Despite the nuisance, however, I persisted with the weeding job and finished it because I care about those plants, and I want them to bear fruit.
As I was weeding I suddenly thought of today's lectionary text from Galatians 6. The overarching theme of these verses is the call to bear one another's burdens. It is a most basic instruction regarding Christian community, but as we see in our text, it's not always easy to do. In fact, the specific example of burden bearing which Paul gives is the rather thorny responsibility which we have to approach a brother or sister who has been overcome by some sin, and to gently restore that person, and help that person back onto the right path, in a spirit of humility. I say that it is a thorny responsibility because we risk getting ourselves pricked when we do so. But still God calls us to care about one another in such an intimate way. We are to have such deep concern for one another that our mutual care should extend to doing whatever it takes to help one another mature, and bear fruit.
Burden bearing, of course, extends beyond helping to lift up those who fall down. In the text Paul raises two other ways in which the Galatian Christians were to care for one another. In verse 6 he encourages the believers to help shoulder the financial burden of those who teach them. "Those who are taught the word," he instructs, "must share in all good things with their teacher." And in verses 7-10 Paul concludes the section with the general admonition not to grow weary "in doing what is right," but to persist in it, as we constantly look for opportunities to work for the good of all, "especially those of the family of faith."
A Call to Deep Fellowship: Taken together the instructions in this text represent a call to profound fellowship. The teaching poses a fundamental challenge to the isolation that runs through much of contemporary church life. Many Christians today essentially follow Jesus alone, even though they may belong to a church. No one supports them in their daily Christian living, and they support no one. Such a state of affairs is symptomatic of the rugged individualism that characterizes life in North America. But the biblical call is not to journey the Christian life alone. It is to walk together, and to bear one another's burdens on the way. The Bible teaches that we have a mutual responsibility to one another. Fulfilling this responsibility demands deep, not superficial, involvement in one another's lives. Even though we may risk getting pricked when we draw close together to one another, it is worth it, for the benefits far outweigh the cost. There is no substitute for a genuine, loving, caring community in which each person looks to the needs of the others.
Our individualistic society often sends us the message that we are weak if we have to lean on others for support. As a consequence many people find it very difficult to ask for help when they need it. In our pride we shoulder our burdens alone, rather than allowing others to take some of the weight for us. For the same reason we are often slow to offer to help carry another person's burdens–we fear that we may offend their pride. Now in our text the apostle Paul does acknowledge that, to the degree we are able, we should seek to carry our own loads. If we are well able to carry any given burden, we should not irresponsibly unload it on someone else. For example, if we are strong and healthy and able to work, we should work, and not expect others to support us.
But there are burdens that no one can carry alone, and it is these burdens which Paul is particularly thinking about. From our text it is clear that one such burden he has in mind is the struggle with temptation and sin. We need mutual support in this area, we need people who will pray for us and with us, and should we fall, we need loving, sensitive people who care enough to lift us up. There are also many other burdens we can help one another with–those who are sick or elderly have physical burdens, and need help doing physical tasks; others may have genuine financial burdens; still others have emotional burdens, like people who have been deeply hurt, or people who grieve and have suffered loss. Whatever the case may be, the interesting thing is that Paul assumes that everyone has burdens they can use help carrying. For when he writes, "bear one another's burdens," the language is that of mutuality, and the implication is that everyone can benefit from the mutual help of caring community. We all have needs that can only be borne with the help of others. But mutuality also has a flip side–the teaching also indicates that we are all able to help carry the heavy things that weigh others down. If we all have our own burdens to bear, in Christ we all also have our own unique strengths, and therefore we are able to help one another. The teaching is this: I will use my unique strengths to help you, and I will receive your unique gifts to help me. In the community of believers God pours out, through the Holy Spirit, all the gifts which the community needs to be healthy and strong.
Restore one another in a spirit of gentleness: So the general teaching of our text is clear: "bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." But we better understand what this means when we consider some specific examples. For when we look at the specifics, especially the first example listed by Paul, we see just how close and intimate Christian fellowship is meant to be.
Let me read Paul's first example again. The New Living Translation puts it very well: "Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path" (6:1). Paul may or may not have had an actual situation in mind when he wrote these words. But generally speaking, he has in mind a Christian who has done something wrong. The question then is this: how should the community of faith respond to such a person? The answer is clear: by seeking to restore the individual.
Paul's answer is very counter-cultural. The predominant model today is to live-and-let-live. You have your life, and you can live it however you want, and I have my life, to live as I want. I won't say anything about the way you live if you don't say anything about the way I live. And so we live these lives of comfortable detachment from one another. There is no chance of getting pricked if we keep a safe distance from each other. But there is also no chance of helping one another to mature as people. I can choose to leave the weeds in my gooseberry patch, so I don't risk getting poked by thorns, but then the gooseberry plant suffers. In the same way, I can choose to ignore the harmful behaviour of a fellow brother or sister in Christ, it is the comfortable thing to do, but then my brother or sister suffers. We live in an age where "tolerance" is promoted as the greatest virtue, and there are times when tolerance is the right decision, but tolerance isn't always the loving thing to do. There is certainly nothing loving about tolerating the harmful behaviour of someone else. It weakens community rather than strengthening it, for it leaves my brother or sister to struggle alone. The call to approach a fallen brother or sister derives from the importance of that person within the larger community. He or she is precious to God. In the body of Christ, every person matters, and we all need each other. Let me change from a gardening to a racing metaphor. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to run the Christian race together. In a competitive race, like those we'll see this summer at the Olympics, when someone falls the rest of the runners naturally keep on running, for they don't want to jeopardize their own chance of winning a medal. But the Christian race is not like that. It is much more like the three-legged races we see at picnics every summer. If one of the runners in a three-legged race stumbles and falls, the other one doesn't continue charging straight ahead. Rather, you help your partner get up so you can continue on together. For the two racers are bound together as one. Similarly, Christians have been bound together by the Holy Spirit, we are one in Christ, when one suffers, all suffer, and when one rejoices, all rejoice. We are to bear one another's burdens, because it is the community that is important, not just the individual.
Unfortunately, because we live in such an individualistic society, when we seek to restore a fallen person we do run the risk of our actions being misinterpreted as intrusive meddling rather than as an act of genuine love. But we must not allow that risk to prevent us from approaching someone who has been overcome by sin. For sin is always harmful to an individual and to the community. All of God's commandments are intended to foster love in human relationships, and between humans and God. Therefore, when God is disobeyed, when an individual succumbs to temptation, or is overcome by sin, it breaks a person's fellowship with God, and it more than likely wounds human relationships as well. To ignore a brother or sister who has fallen is to be like the priest or the Levite in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, who walk by on the other side of the road, rather than help the injured man who was beaten by robbers. That is how we must think about this matter. A person who is spiritually wounded needs our help just as much as a person who is physically wounded. When we think about bearing burdens, we must not neglect spiritual burdens. In fact, it is in the spiritual arena that we need each other's help most of all.
To return to our text, Paul doesn't list what failures are serious enough to warrant going to another person and seeking to restore them. We are left to work that out on our own. Paul assumes that his readers are mature enough to recognize when an individual needs their help. He also knows they have the Holy Spirit who can guide them: "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit," he wrote at the end of chapter 5. One thing we can be sure of–Paul is not envisioning Christians approaching each other every day and pointing out every minor matter and every little peccadillo that annoys them. For the verb he uses in verse 1 suggests someone who has slipped or fallen down, someone who needs our help to get up again. That suggests a more serious matter. A good general rule of thumb is this: if my brother or sister is hindered or not progressing in the Christian life because of a certain sin, then I need to go, and point out the matter, and offer help.
If an occasion does arise when we need to approach a fellow member of the Christian community in this manner, then there is one thing we must always bear in mind–the person making the approach must only do so in a spirit of gentleness. Paul wisely points that out, for more harm than good can be done when gentleness is ignored. The intent must never be to punish, or humiliate, but always to extend a caring, helping hand. It is one thing to harshly criticize someone else; it is another thing altogether to gently point out wrongdoing and then offer our help and our love and our support.
It is so important to keep in mind that our motivation in approaching people who have fallen is to help them bear a burden. That is the context in which we find this teaching. We are to share the pain of another's failure, not add to the sting of it. There is no place for sharp words against a fallen brother or sister in the Christian community. This does not mean we don't have a responsibility to help restore someone who has fallen; it does not mean that we shouldn't speak the truth and address the matter directly; but it does mean that we should only do so gently. Paul wisely points out that the spirit in which the criticism is given makes all the difference. If I judge others angrily, or arrogantly, or with a spirit of superiority, it likely won't motivate them to change. To the contrary, it might make them dig in their heels and become defensive, even though that isn't a Christian reaction either. But if they do become defensive, I bear some of the blame, for in my arrogance and smug superiority I have made it harder, not easier, for my fallen brother or sister to stand up. Therefore if we truly want to help bear the burdens of those who fall, we will speak kindly to them, and choose our words carefully.
Before we move on, we need to remember that gently restoring a fellow believer is but one specific example of the general teaching to carry each other's burdens. That is the overall teaching of this text, that is the foundational teaching of what it means to be the community of Christ, that we have a mutual responsibility to one another. The specific example certainly has value in and of itself; but if we consider it in context, it also clearly shows the depth and the degree to which we are to go in caring for one another. True Christian community is not superficial; it involves a deep commitment to help others on their Christian journey, and to allow others to help me.
Share with your Teachers: The next example of reciprocal community which Paul gives is very different. We find it in verse 6: "Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher." Jesus spoke similar words in this morning's lectionary reading from the gospel of Luke when he said, "The labourer deserves to be paid" (Luke 10:7). We are no longer dealing now with the question of an errant brother or sister. We are dealing with the relationship in a church between those who teach and those who are taught. Paul's instruction is clear: those who benefit from those who dedicate their time to teach and so build up the body of Christ have an obligation in turn to support their teachers. In particular Paul seems to have financial compensation in mind, which comes out clearly in the New Living Translation: "Those who are taught the word of God," it says, "should help their teachers by paying them." I hesitate to comment on this verse, for I am very adequately compensated, and I don't want anyone to misinterpret and think that I am unhappy. Definitely not, so we can put that thought to rest! Or rather, let me encourage you by complimenting your generosity! But the teaching is interesting, for it illustrates yet another way in which we can bear one another's burdens. Pastors or teachers are called to help lighten the load of their flock by consistently and faithfully bringing forth the teaching of God's word. They are not called to invent their own message, but to relay the hope and good news of the kingdom of God. And the listeners in turn help to shoulder the financial burden of pastors and their families. It is another wonderful illustration of mutuality, or of life in the community of faith. But notice too how mutual burden bearing doesn't have to be an exact tit-for-tat. Teachers may give one thing, and receive something else in return. That's how it is in the body of Christ, we all have different gifts to contribute. We don't necessarily receive back the same thing we give, and in the same measure. One believer may have the gift of generosity and help carry another believer's financial burdens, while the other believer may have the gift of discernment and help the donor to see through a problem. Understanding this will help curb the temptation to keep score: "I have done this for so and so, but nobody has done the same for me." That is not what mutual burden bearing means at all. It doesn't mean I stop helping others until I have received the same help in kind. Most often we give help in one area, and receive help in another area. Even if we don't, we are still called to help one another.
Persevere in Doing Good: This leads into the final point of our text, which is a call to persevere in doing good. "Don't get tired of doing what is good," writes Paul. "Don't get discouraged and give up....rather, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to our Christian brothers and sisters."
It is not easy to persist in doing good, especially when others don't reciprocate in kind. Nothing tempts us more to give up than when our good actions seem to go unnoticed or are not reciprocated. It makes us want to put down the other person's burden and walk away. But Jesus calls us to keep on loving. That is the example he left for us. He didn't even allow outright rejection and hostility to become an excuse to stop loving. The greatest example of this were his words from the cross concerning those who put him there: "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." Paul clearly follows our Lord in calling us to die to self, and to strive instead to honour our Lord by loving our neighbours as we would want them to love us. The Christian life is not all about us, it is about God, and God's kingdom, and God's people, and God's glory. Paul's words here are a clear echo of the words we looked at last week in the previous chapter, Galatians 5, when Paul urged his readers not to use their freedom in Christ as an opportunity to indulge themselves, but rather, in love, to become slaves or servants to one another. That is our call, to persist in serving one another. That is what it means to be a loyal member of the body of Christ. It means that we cheerfully bear one another's burdens. It means that we obey the call to love even when we don't feel like it.
The good news is that those who don't grow weary of doing good will one day reap a harvest of blessing. "If you sow to the Spirit," writes Paul, "you will reap eternal life from the Spirit." But if we choose to sow in another field, in the field of self-indulgence, then there is a warning for us: "You reap whatever you sow," writes Paul. "If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh".
Conclusion: In conclusion, therefore, let each of us do everything we can to bear one another's burdens. May we have the love and the courage to restore those who stumble in a spirit of gentleness; may we use our unique gifts to build one another up, whether the gift is teaching or generosity or anything else; and may we persist in doing these things, and many more, and not give up, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest of blessing. Amen.