Bearing Burdens; Not Growing Weary in Doing Good

Galatians 5:26-6:10
Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

6My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. 4All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. 5For all must carry their own loads. 6Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher. 7Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. 10So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

I have included the passage from Galatians above so it can be easily referred to below.

I want to start from the end of the passage before us and work backwards from that. At the end of this passage Paul exhorts the church in Galatia to not grow weary in doing what is right and to work for the good of all, especially the family of faith. I think that this exhortation is a little snapshot of what Paul sees church to be, a place where people who are forgiven learn to forgive one another, to care for one another, to bear one another’s burdens, as he puts it earlier. A church consisting of members who are being made by the spirit of Christ to be able to do just that will also be well equipped to act with a genuine no-strings-attached benevolence towards those outside of the church, thus bearing witness to the goodness of God.

Now let’s go back in this passage where we are exhorted by Paul to bear one another’s burdens. I would suggest that this exhortation is given in order to flesh out what it looks like for one Christian to help another Christian move forward in his repentance and restoration. Whether Paul had in mind “big sins’ or “smaller sins”, a specific instance or a general principle, does not make that much difference. What he wants us to understand is that a spiritually healthy church is one where restoration looks like one person bearing another’s burden. Bearing one aother’s burdens: what a striking image! This way of talking, of course, is Paul’s way of evoking the image of the cross. Luther puts it this way in his commentary on this passage; here is my paraphrase of him: Christians must have strong shoulders and mighty bones so that we might bear flesh, that is the weakness of our brothers and sisters; love therefore is patient and kind, designed to wink at many things and to bear them.

It should not surprise us that Paul marks out cruciform behavior as a sign a healthy community. As John Howard Yoder wrote: “God has the same shape as Jesus and he always has had. The cross is what creation is all about. What Jesus did was local of course, because that is how serious and real our history is to God. But what the cross was locally is universally and always the divine nature.”

Making cruciformity the measure of the sort of interactions Paul has in mind in this passage challenges us to think, perhaps, differently than how we usually do about spiritual maturity.

When it comes to restoring someone who has fallen into sin, church people often think of those who occupy the moral high ground reaching down and helping the weak come along. But this goes against the grain of Paul’s words and imaging in this passage. The one who restores

* should not see spiritual maturity in competitive terms (5:26)

* is a burden bearer (6:2) think of Christ bearing our burdens
* exercises a spirit of gentleness (6:1) there is no whiff of condescending here
* is one who should regard himself as nothing and should not think of himself as something (6:3)


As one person has put it, we heal by solidarity and not condemnation. Another way of saying that would be to put it this way: we don’t help others grow in grace by sharing stories that make us seem like our lives are all-buttoned up. Rather, it is by sharing our stories of God meeting us in our weaknesses that creates the kind of community where we effectively bear each other’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.

Questions:

1. Can you think of a friend, associate, or loved one who you regard yourself as better than? Is there something that that person struggles with that makes you think that you are better than him or her before God? If so, do you see that as a problem?

2. Can you make up a hypothetical scenario, even if it is inspired by bits and pieces of real life events in your own history, wherein you can present what it would like to

* heal by solidarity, through demonstrating your weaknesses?
* and, what it would like to attempt to heal by talking down to the person?



3. Do you have enough (or any) relationships that are genuine and robust enough to offer occasions for true mutual burden-carrying? How can these relationships be fostered so as to avoid the sort of hierarchies that invite spiritual competition?