6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (ESV)
Reflection
Galatians 6:2 tells us to carry one another's burdens. Picture how you help a person who is trying to carry a load that is too heavy. To help with a burden, you must first come very close to the burdened person, standing virtually in their shoes. Next, you must put your own strength under the burden so its weight is distributed on both of you, thus lightening the load for the original bearer.. To "carry the burden" means to come under it and let some of its weight, responsibility and pain come onto you.
There is a hidden reciprocity in Galatians 6:2 that should not be overlooked. Notice it does not say "carry other's burdens" but "carry each other's burdens." It means something like: "Live in a community where you don't let others carry their loads alone, and where you also don't try to carry your own load alone. Help others and let others help you." It is a form of hypocrisy to be willing to help others with their weaknesses but to hide your own or refuse to help. It takes a gospel-changed heart to give help unselfishly to others, and it takes a gospel-changed heart to receive help unashamedly from others.
Galatians 6:2 then expands this thought. "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Obviously, Christ is the ultimate example of burden-bearing love. He bore the infinite burden of our guilt and sin on the cross and it crushed him. He did not simply share that burden with us, he completely freed us from it by bearing its entire weight. Anyone who knows this infinite, burden-bearing love has a breathtaking model and amazing resources that inspires and empowers us into the same kind of love. Consider today Christ's burden-bearing love for you, and consider, too, how you might begin to regularly take on the burden of others in the name of Christ.
There is a hidden reciprocity in Galatians 6:2 that should not be overlooked. Notice it does not say "carry other's burdens" but "carry each other's burdens." It means something like: "Live in a community where you don't let others carry their loads alone, and where you also don't try to carry your own load alone. Help others and let others help you." It is a form of hypocrisy to be willing to help others with their weaknesses but to hide your own or refuse to help. It takes a gospel-changed heart to give help unselfishly to others, and it takes a gospel-changed heart to receive help unashamedly from others.
Galatians 6:2 then expands this thought. "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Obviously, Christ is the ultimate example of burden-bearing love. He bore the infinite burden of our guilt and sin on the cross and it crushed him. He did not simply share that burden with us, he completely freed us from it by bearing its entire weight. Anyone who knows this infinite, burden-bearing love has a breathtaking model and amazing resources that inspires and empowers us into the same kind of love. Consider today Christ's burden-bearing love for you, and consider, too, how you might begin to regularly take on the burden of others in the name of Christ.
Prayer
Lord, I thank you that on the cross you took the infinitely heavy weight of my guilt and sin off my shoulders and bore it yourself. I pray, O Lord, that your cross would fill me with such joyful gratitude that I when I see others burdened, I would shoulder their burdens in your name.
-Redeemer Catalyst Group Daily Devotion 10.24.2011
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