From Favoritism to Flourishing- Part 6 of 9: Bearing Burdens: Galatians 6:1-5

In our series from Favoritism to Flourishing, we are wrapping up the section on weakness with a talk on how and when to carry each other's burdens and when to not carry those burdens. It is important for us as Christians to keep an eye on and care for each other, but there is also a place where we need to recognize that each person has to be responsible for themselves. To shed more light on this topic, let's look at Galatians 6:1-5 today:

1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load.

         This section is split between verses 1-2 and 3-5. The first part tells us about carrying each other's burdens. Let's isolate this first part:

 1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

          Here, we see that we need to be holding each other accountable in our sin struggles. Having an accountability partner is important in our lives as Christians. Look at Ephesians 5:11-13:

11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 

          The Bible is telling us that we need to expose our sins to other people. I can tell you from much personal experience and the experiences of my friends that sin loses most of its power to control our lives when we expose them to some close friends. They not only hold you to a higher standard, but the shame that is attached to sin no longer dominates one's life as well. However, if you have been tracking with us through this series on escaping Favoritism, you already know that sin will stay hidden in the darkness if we know that we will be judged for our sins. This is one of the many ways that Favoritism brings death into our lives.
           Galatians 6:1-2 is also mentions times where someone's sin gets dragged out into the open for everyone to see. In these times, the Bible tells us to let the more mature Christians approach and console the exposed person. The passage tells us to do this with caution because it is easy to get ensnared in the sins of our friends if we are not open, honest, and intentional in the healing process. This passage tells us that if we are successful in helping each other with our burdens and trials, we will be fulfilling the law of Christ.
           The second passage, Galatians 6:3-5 continues

3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5 for each one should carry his own load.

          This section tells us that we need to be paying attention to our own loads and that we can take pride in testing our own actions. Now, this is an interesting development in a series on escaping Favoritism. You would not think that any form of pride would be acceptable in a world where we acknowledge our weakness and dependence on God and use that weakness as a springboard to a Flourishing life. However, we see that God wants us to feel good when we start to see our lives matching up with what is commanded in Scripture. Take note that the passage says that this kind of pride keeps us from comparing ourselves with other people. We should only be glad that we are succeeding in our Christian goals. We should never use the Biblical standard to create a new ladder to climb and destroy the grace that is growing in our communities.
         This last section is very useful because it lets us know that each person is ultimately responsible for their own spiritual journey. You cannot force someone to mature or to take their walk with God seriously. We all need to learn the important boundaries that separate our responsibility to carry each other's burdens and each person's sole responsibility for their decisions and their consequences. We do this by taking each day as an opportunity to edify and be edified by our family in Christ without becoming dependent on that assistance. For more help on when to help and when to hold back, check out my earlier Heavenly Wisdom series.
       To reinforce the idea that we should never use our success at following the Bible as a new ladder to climb and push others down on, let's look at Luke 17:7-10:

7 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.

          Here, we see that we should not think of our strict obedience of scripture as something exceptional or an indicator of being a "Super Christian", but should instead see our obedience as normal and something that is owed to God because of our love for him. Our fulfillment and identity comes from God's love and sacrifice for us instead of any law or standard that we ever succeed in obeying through that love and sacrifice.
         Now that we have finished our section on weakness, we will take the last three weeks to see how God uses our place of weakness as a springboard for reaching our true potential and living out life to the fullest.
In Christ,
Simeon Snow