Dennis Tuuri

# Sharing One Another’s Burdens

Sermon text today is Galatians chapter 6 verse 2. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. And the topic for today’s sermon is sharing one another’s burdens. Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Let’s pray. Lord God, it is our heart desire to fulfill the law of our Savior, to walk in relationship with Him and with You by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord God, that we would focus our lives upon You as our great delight. And our desire is indeed to love the Savior by walking in His word and in His ways. Help us today see the significance of bearing one another’s burdens in terms of this great and high goal that we have in our lives. Bless us, Father, as we consider Your word and dig down into it in an attempt to understand how we’re to love one another by sharing one another’s burdens, needs, and troubles.

In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. Throughout this week, a song has been bouncing around in my head, and sometimes that happens to me and it’s hard getting it out. So one way I thought to get it out is just to get it out here. The song is “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” And you know, some of my children tell me my references, my pop culture references are so old. And this one is quite old. 1969 when the Hollies had a hit with “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.”

And for some reason, I’ve always associated it with the Vietnam War, which was going on at the time, although I don’t know that there was any connection. The song was actually written by a well-celebrated duo. One guy wrote lyrics, one wrote music, that was kind of Puccini-ish, so to speak. It wasn’t some sort of pop song in that sense. It was written more like the traditional songs of old. I wanted to read the lyrics and I looked at the lyrics this week of the song, and I threatened my wife that I was going to sing the entire song to you. I’m not going to do that. Everybody will say amen. Okay, here are the lyrics:

“The road is long, with many a winding turn that leads us to who knows where, who knows when. But I’m strong, strong enough to carry him. He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother. So on we go. His welfare is of my concern. No burden is he to bear. We’ll share the load till he’s able to share. For I know he would not encumber me. He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother. If I’m laden at all, I’m laden with sadness that everyone’s heart isn’t filled with the gladness of love for one another. It’s a long, long road from which there is no return. While we’re on the way to there, why not share? And the load doesn’t weigh me down at all. He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother.”

I like that song a lot. And one reason is because how many songs do you hear on the radio that uses the word “encumber”? Over 40 years old, and we could still use words like that and people knew what they meant. Encumbered. But it’s a wonderful kind of summation, really, of the central message of the verse we just read. You know, “He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother,” and it’s my love that wants to carry him as needed.

So we’re going to talk about that today. We’re going to talk about this next in the series of “Affirm, Share, Serve.” And this is sharing one another’s burdens—sharing their needs. We talked a little bit about physical needs and sharing resources last week. This is more about sharing their burdens in the sense of emotional needs—for instance, difficulties and trials that come into our lives, temptations. We’ll see the immediate context here has to do with restoration of a member who’s sinning. So sharing one another’s needs and problems, sharing one another’s burdens is what today’s text is all about.

So we are to love and support one another. And this yet another section of verses on “one anothering” each other gives us some specificity as to how to go about doing that. So what I want to do is first of all give the context for Galatians 6:2. Look at the verses around it. Look at the epistle generally. Then we’ll look at the specific terms on your outline that this verse uses. And so we’ll go right through the verse and we’ll talk about each of those phrases separately. Then we’ll look at a couple of related texts. We’ve done this throughout the series because originally when Tim Keller produced some of this material that this is based on, he just took the one another texts in the New Testament and grouped them into these sections.

So I think next week I’m going to actually have a chart for you that’ll be available on the back table of all the one another verses, so there are a couple of other one another verses that we’ll throw in as related texts at the end, and it will help us again to get a sense of how to go about doing this requirement to bear one another’s burdens.

So first of all, the context. N.T. Wright, in his commentary on this text, says he was reading a biography of a guy who was one of the best cricketers in English history, and the guy was talking about his first ten years. While he was wonderful and great, and he was actually on a team with a lot of other pretty good stars, they never won the championship. They never really succeeded in cricket. And after ten years, some of the well-established stars had moved on. They got a new captain and a whole new emphasis got placed upon the team. And that’s what it was. The emphasis became the team.

So from the coach down—kind of like what Pat Riley did with the Lakers many years ago—the emphasis became the team. Now, “there’s no I in team,” and so individual accomplishments and how great people were no longer the deal. They would give those things up to make their team members succeed. And so they knew that because the whole team would have to succeed. And of course, the end of the story is that they won the championship.

Then Wright uses this as an example of the epistle to the Galatians. This was not a team. There were great divisions, you know, primarily Jew-Gentile, but other ones as well. And as we’ve talked about as we’ve gone through these series, many of the epistles are addressing division. So this epistle—what Paul is writing here to the church in Galatia, that’s the region Galatia, it’s a specific geographical region—what he’s writing to them is to address this difficulty among other things: their divisions. So they were a deeply divided church and they were in need of the Spirit’s work.

What the Spirit does is the Spirit is the matchmaker. The Spirit is the bond builder. Right? If the covenant is described as a personal structural bond—I think that’s James B. Jordan’s wording—that “bond” part is Jordan’s sort of emphasis on the Holy Spirit: personal, structural bond. And we always want to fall off the road in one of those directions, that they’re all three, because God is trinitarian and there are aspects of that. So the Holy Spirit is what they need.

And so, for instance, this is why in the book of Galatians we have a list of the fruit of the Spirit as opposed to the horrible results of the flesh. In Galatians 5:26, we read this: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” So that’s the kind of divisions that Paul was addressing, and that’s the context for this particular verse.

And as I said, in verses 22 to 25, he gives the fruit of the Spirit. The singular fruit of the Spirit is a life characterized by love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now Paul’s going to use “law” in our verse today. So he’s setting it up previously with “there’s no law against these things” and “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

So this is a church badly in need of the Spirit’s work. And the Spirit’s work is what will bring unity and teamwork—you could say—back to the church that it would be successful. And we’ve seen this emphasis, as I’ve said, in many places in the New Testament.

So first of all, that’s the context. Secondly, the direct context for verse two is verse one. And verse one of chapter 6 says: “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual—see, it’s living in the Spirit—you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. That’s the fruit of the Spirit he’s just referenced. Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.”

So the immediate context of bearing one another’s burdens is this commitment to restoration. So if there’s sin in the church or sin in a particular member—he slipped somehow, or she’s sinned somehow—not an absolute rebellion against God, but slipping. We’re supposed to restore people like that. So that’s the immediate context of bearing one another’s burdens. And that means a big part of bearing one another’s burdens is just that in our relationships, we have to know each other well enough to see the slips. And then we have to love each other well enough to restore one another. Not to condemn one another, right? But to restore one another.

And we’re supposed to do it with some humility, knowing that we might sin in the same way. Oh, so that’s how you embezzle money from your employer. Hmm, that’s interesting. You know, so as you work with people, you can fall into sin yourself. And again, this message just penetrates through. And this message is the need for humility. We just read it in the verses leading up to this. You know, conceit and pride are the things that’ll kill a body, right? Pride is the body killer.

And so if you’re too proud, you’re not going to really have the restoration of the brother. Even if you do, you may end up sinning yourself, not recognizing you’re as weak as he is. Okay? You’re a fallen sinner just like he is.

So the immediate context is restoration of transgressors carefully and humbly. This is—you know, the thing here—on your outlines, I’ve got this: “Cure not punishment. Amendment not penalty.” So what’s your instinct? If you’ve got somebody in your community group that confesses to some sin, is your instinct to punish that person or is your instinct to try to bring amendment to him? Is your instinct to sort of separate from that person, or is your instinct to come along and bear his burden—that his sin has caused him or the temptation to sin—and help bear it with him in a corrective manner?

So that’s the immediate context: this restoration of other members of the body. This is our obligation. This is the way the body of Christ works. It is not against anybody. We’re trying to help recover people from their sins. Hebrews 4:15 says, “We don’t have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

So the point of reading that verse is Jesus understands our infirmities. He didn’t sin, but he understands any temptation you’ve gone through. He became incarnate. He lived as a man. And Hebrews says part of the cash value of that is he’s a sympathetic high priest. Well, if we’re to be Christians—little “c”—anointed ones—and be part of the way God restores people, we’re supposed to be the same thing. We’re supposed to be people who are sympathetic, right? We don’t want to engage in the same sins, but we’re sympathetic with one another.

So as I said, the beginning of this series really lays the foundation for the building of the church that’s being built upon it. That beginning of the series is the affirmation of one another. You know, just because they’re part of the same family as you—number one, right? They’re part of the body of Christ. They’ve been forgiven like you. And you affirm them for that reason. And then number two, you affirm them because they’re part of this particular body, this particular family, and they all have particular things they bring to that family.

So that’s the baseline. And so that produces a sympathy, an empathy for one another, a care, a concern, an emotional connection to people so that when sin happens, it’ll be not penalty but rather restoration. It’ll be restoration and helping that person. And that’s in the immediate context of verse two.

Third, more context: the danger of pride. I’ve already touched on this, but just before this verse, in verse 26 of chapter 5: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” So I read that verse with the emphasis upon the provoking that was going on in Galatia. But now the emphasis is upon the reason why they’re doing this: because they’re conceited. They’re puffed up. They’re prideful.

So if somebody sins, “I didn’t do that sin.” If somebody’s a Gentile, “I’m a Jew.” If somebody’s a Jew, “I’m a Gentile.” You know, you just have all kinds of things that you start to become prideful over, right? And so that again—the body killer is pride, conceit. That’s what produces envying one another, provoking one another, et cetera.

And then immediately after verse two, we have the same emphasis in verse three: “If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Could be a traditional saying that Paul is using there. Not sure, but there’s some evidence to that. But he’s affirming it nonetheless. And what he says is puffed up, conceited, thinking yourself to be better than you actually are. You’re nothing, right? You’re nothing in the eyes of God. You’re nothing without the grace of God. Well, you are something. You’re in rebellion—radical rebellion—against God.

I was listening to Tim Keller talk about the Robert Louis Stevenson book, *Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*. And when Jekyll takes the potion, he says that he realized, after he took it, the full or much greater understanding of his own evil, and I think he uses the term that he’d been “sold into slavery to sin” and he recognizes that. So the book is about when you unleash that and identify with that completely—it takes over your life.

Stevenson had a Christian background, that’s why he wrote that way, and so the book is kind of a morality tale. But the point is that’s who we are, right? We’re that guy after we take the potion. That’s who we are in and of ourselves apart from the grace of God. And we need to remember that we’re not going to be able to do the kind of body-building practices that will have real impact for the kingdom in the world around us and in our own lives with pride. We have to be humble before God.

Romans 11:18 says, “Don’t boast against the branches, but if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” Okay, so this word “port”—it’s the same word for “bearing,” that bearing each other’s burden. Same word. And in the context of a plant, this idea that Israel and the church are part of this plant. The root bears us up. Okay? It bears us or supports us 100%.

So if the root’s gone, you’re gone. So again, the emphasis here is that Paul says, “Don’t be boastful. You’re being supported by the root. That’s it.” Okay? So Jesus supports us, and we’re to understand that without Him we’re nothing.

Now, I know we all assert this in our theological systems. But I’m talking about boots on the ground, eye-to-eye relationships in your community group and your family with your friends here at RCC. That’s what I’m talking about. And recognize that you are prone—whether you believe it or not. Paul doesn’t give us these verses because it’s not needful for us. He’s preaching to our weaknesses. And our weakness is to think of ourselves as better than we are. And when we do that, we don’t bear one another’s burdens.

So, you know, I know we kind of say, “Yeah, yeah, I know all that.” But do you really know it? Do I know it? Do we practice it as we go into our week in avoidance of pride?

1 Corinthians 13 says, “If you bear one another’s burdens, you fulfill the law of Christ.” And 1 Corinthians 13:4: “Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It’s not puffed up.”

So again, to love, fulfilling the law of Christ by bearing one another’s burdens, you have to not be puffed up, not be conceited, not be prideful, not think of yourselves as more than you are.

All right. Now, let’s see. Oh, one other context verse is bearing one’s own burdens. And this could confuse you. In Galatians 6:4 and 5, we read: “But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load.”

Okay, so it’s like “bear one another’s burdens” but “each one has to bear his own load.” And we’re like, “Well, maybe that’s my community group where they won’t bear my burdens. I have to bear my own load.” That’s not what’s going on here. They’re two different words, and the translations I just read showed that, right, in the verse. In our primary verse two, it’s a burden—big, heavy, crushing kind of weight. And here, a “load” is a smaller thing, like a backpack, for instance. So a burden is a backpack filled with lead, and a load is just a backpack.

So you know, we are supposed to bear our own loads. Paul isn’t giving us here an excuse for some form of Christian socialism or communism where people just do whatever they want and count on everybody else to take care of them. That’s not what Paul is talking about. We’re called to care for each other.

But the context, the immediate context, says we’re to bear our own loads in our calling. Now, the verse that leads up to that is a little confusing. Let me read the Phillips translation. R.J. Rushdoony uses this translation in his commentary on the text. The Phillips translation here is: “Let every man learn to assess properly the value of his own work. And he can then be glad when he has done something worth doing without depending on the approval of others.”

So that’s a little more—it’s a hard verse to kind of unpack, but I think that’s pretty good. Let me read it one more time: “Let every man learn to assess properly the value of his own work, and he can then be glad when he has done something worth doing without depending on the approval of others.”

And so we’re to do that kind of thing. So, you know, you’re still supposed to bear your own load. This is about bearing one another’s burdens. Interestingly, right after this, he says in verse six: “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.” So this reciprocity that goes on has to do with everybody kind of doing their part.

All right. So let’s get to the specific text itself, chapter 6 verse two. And you say, “Pastor Tuuri, you got it wrong here. You’re starting off with ‘one another.’” But doesn’t it tell us to bear one another’s burdens? Well, no, it doesn’t actually. In the Greek, the first term is the one another term. Now, that’s significant because in the Greek, what scholars tell us is that when a term is front-loaded in a sentence—where a kind of word order emphasis is going on, right?—it’s because it’s a way for Greek text to emphasize something to us.

So before we even get into the burden thing, what we’re to emphasize is the mutuality, the reciprocity of the sharing of one another’s burdens. The text doesn’t tell us to share other people’s burdens. It doesn’t say that. Did you catch that, kids? It’s on your handout. Does the text tell us to share others’ burdens? No. The text tells us to share one another’s burdens. What’s the difference?

The difference is we’re not to be hypocrites. If all I want to do is help you with your burden and never talk to you about my burden, that’s hypocrisy. Or if the only thing I ever want you to do is help me with my burden and I never want to help you with your burden, that’s hypocrisy. That’s not what Paul is talking about. Paul is talking about in the body of Christ, in the church, family of God, the building that we have—this reciprocity going on.

And we’ve talked about this a lot already. We have four more sermons after today on this series and we’ll continue to talk about it. But this reciprocity is front and center. Okay? It’s front and center in today’s verse because it’s front-loaded for emphasis.

So as we go into this, we have this kind of Philippians 2 verse 3 mentality that we’re supposed to have: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.” So we’re to have that kind of attitude. So it’s a one anothering—it’s a mutual reciprocity of relationship. That is really important, my friends, because as I said, you know, if you don’t have the oscillation back and forth, the thing doesn’t go forward. If it’s all one way, no good. Somebody’s prideful—probably somebody’s prideful, they don’t want to show their needs, or somebody’s self-centered and all they want is their needs to be met. So the reciprocity thing is really quite important.

This front-loading of “one another,” I hope that settles in.

Secondly, it does say “bear,” but in your outline, I’ve got some bracketed stuff to give you the sense of the term. It means “keep bearing.” You know, don’t “bear” one another’s burdens once. “Keep bearing” one another’s burdens. Okay? And so the idea is that this isn’t like, “Okay, when it happens, occasionally you might have to do it.” And that’s it. No, this is the life of the church—we’re supposed to be involved in on a regular basis helping other people with the trials, tribulations, difficulties that would bear them down otherwise.

Now, this word “bearing” is used in Matthew 20:12. Jesus says—these last men have worked only one hour, and he’s put this in the mouth of people that complain about hiring people at the end of the day and giving them the same wage. Great verse, by the way, in terms of things like minimum wage discussions. But blah blah. The owner can sign wages however he wants. He’s unfair. But Jesus defends him. He says the people that are against him will say, “These last men have worked only one hour. You made them equal to us who have borne the burden in the heat of the day.”

So this “bearing” thing can talk about a heavy workload. And that’s the way it’s used in the text from Matthew. You know, you’re working hard. I remember when I was in Arizona one summer, I was putting in some kind of thing around a swimming pool—105 degrees. I was all day long using a wheelbarrow to haul cement to pour this thing around this pool. Boy, it was really difficult work. I bore the burden of that wheelbarrow. And it was intensified by bearing the burden of the heat.

So this is bearing. Bearing one of those burdens means to bear, you know, a task that’s heavy and hard to do. Now, it can be used other ways. This word to bear—it’s used, for instance, in the gospels to talk about carrying a pitcher of water, for instance, to bear water. We have, you know, a guy that’s lame from birth and people have to carry him to where he’s going to be healed by Jesus. So this idea of bearing, carrying is what’s happening here, and it’s used in lots of different ways in the New Testament.

One woman tells Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore you.” So pregnancy is an example of bearing, you know, a particular weight, burden, load, whatever it is. And so that’s kind of the idea here: we’re to keep on bearing in the same sense of the term. It can also be used kind of metaphorically, right? So Jesus says, “There’s things I’m going to tell you about, but you can’t bear them right now.” So, you know, it wasn’t a matter of physical exertion, but it’s a matter of what they could understand, what they could bear, what they could actually carry with them at that time in the ministry of our Savior.

A couple of other verses that I think are significant is Luke 14:27: “Whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” So it’s the same word. So we’re to bear this cross. And do we put that on and take it off? No, we keep on bearing, just like our text today: “Keep on bearing one another’s burdens.”

So we keep on bearing the cross of Christ. You know, in our Sunday school class on marriage last week, marriage was described as a perpetual act of mortification. You know, and that can sound bad, but as we die to ourselves, we live to Christ. The only way to live in resurrected life is to have the death to the old man, carry your cross. And so to bear one’s cross.

And of course, we all know—hopefully you’ll make the association with John 19:17—that Jesus bearing his cross went out to a place called the place of the skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. So Jesus is going to achieve the victory over fallen man by bearing his cross literally, right? And so Jesus doesn’t call us to do what he hasn’t already done in many ways. So we’re to bear, carry, help carry somebody’s burden.

Now, before we leave this word and get to the next one, on your outlines, there are things you’re not supposed to bear. You know, it’s like the affirm thing. Well, if we’re supposed to be affirming, how come we’re not affirming people involved in various kinds of sexual sin? Well, there are things you don’t affirm. And in fact, it’s sin to affirm another person sinning. And there are things you’re not supposed to bear.

Revelation 2 verses 1 and 2. Jesus writes to the angel of the church of Ephesus. He says, “These things say he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and you cannot bear those who are evil.” Same word. He commends the Ephesians because they don’t bear everything. They don’t bear that burden of people who are evil in the church. They exercise church discipline. “You have tested those who say they are apostles.”

So we’re not supposed to bear everything. And in fact, in Revelation 2:18 to 23, he chastises that church because they’re bearing the sin—he doesn’t use the word, but they’re putting up with the sin of Jezebel leading people astray into idolatry in the church. He’s going to cast her on a sick bed. And the implication clear is he’s going to cast the church on a sick bed if they don’t stop—if they don’t engage in un-bearing, whatever this sin going on in the church is. They cannot—they’re not supposed to bear with that.

So we’re not supposed to bear everything. There are defined limits to this bearing if we just look at these topical lists of how this word is used in the New Testament.

Third: So we’re one another in mutual reciprocity. We’re engaged in a bearing, carrying—you know, having weight on us in some manner. And this is because our brother or sister has a burden. So we’re bearing one another’s burdens.

Matthew 23:4 says of the Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men’s shoulders.” So sometimes the way we help people is to remove legalism, to remove pharisaic additions to the law that people are stumbling under, or a system of administering the law that’s crushing to them. This is one of the specific terms where the same word “burden” is used.

So this burden idea—what is the burden we’re supposed to be bearing or helping carry on the part of our neighbor? And as I said, another term, another pointer, is verse one. We’re to be bearing one another’s burdens by being engaged in the work of hearing confession, moving to help people come to restoration, and that may require all kinds of different characteristics or means of dealing with people.

So if you, in your community group, recognize the tremendous truth that you’re supposed to be bearing one another’s burdens, part of that means you’re supposed to be hearing one another’s shortcomings, sins, whatever, and you’re supposed to have a caring enough atmosphere—a “correction, not penalty” deal going on—to where people will feel free to share with you things that you can then help them bear, help them deal with the complications or implications of various things that they’ve done, or just help them bear with the temptation, right?

So in terms of you know, one of the things we’ve talked about—and I’ve sometimes thought we could just get a group of a church subscription to this Covenant Eyes program. You know, so many men, adult men, teenage men, et cetera, are involved in seeing pornography. One of the ways we can help bear that burden, that temptation that men and women have, is to be a partner with them with Covenant Eyes. It Covenant Eyes, you know—wherever you go on your computer, your web page, a report is then given to someone else. So they just see where you went. You can have it with blocking or not blocking, but if you don’t block, they’re just going to see, “Oh, you went to that website. Okay?” So it’s a way for the other person to take some time to share the grief that you have over trying to move away from that temptation, to help bear that burden, help restore you if you’ve fallen into that sin—both with prayer, compassion, coming alongside of you and encouraging you, and then by using regular time on their part to review the report of your internet usage.

So if you don’t have that for your family, I would recommend you look into it. But it’s an example of verse one as it relates to verse two. If we’re overtaken in a fault, this is the kind of burden we’re supposed to bear.

Matthew 20:12 was the verse I talked about earlier in terms of bearing the burden. And the burden there was hard work done in the context of a hot sun. R.J. Rushdoony again, in his commentary on this text, says this: “We who prosper must bear the burdens of the poor. We who are healthy have a duty to the sick. We who are saved must seek to reach out to those who are lost. We who have families must help the widows and orphans, the lonely and strangers.”

So the whole idea is to forsake self-centeredness and self-exaltation. All kinds of different burdens that people have—whether they’re financial, health-wise, worry, anxiety, difficult relationship in their marriages—all kinds of burdens that exist in the context of our church and specifically in our community groups. And all these different conditions are proper conditions for the application of this particular verse.

So, and the thing that gets in the way of this again is pride. So how do you do this? If you look at it, if you look at the physical illustration that’s being used: so you’ve got somebody—he’s under a crushing load, a real, you know, *Pilgrim’s Progress* kind of deal. But he’s got a backpack filled with lead, and he’s stumbling, right? And so how are you actually going to help bear his burden?

Well, the first thing you have to do is you’re probably not going to shout, “Yeah, yeah, keep going. That’s great.” You’re not going to be at a distance. You have to get over to him, right? So closeness is the first step. Once you get close, then you can actually help. Maybe take some of the lead out of his pack, put it in your pack. Maybe just in a way kind of hold him up. The coloring picture today for the kids shows people holding up the burden of the one in front of them. They’re bearing each other’s burdens.

So you’ve got to get close to him. Then you actually have to take upon yourself some of the weight of that particular burden, right? That’s what’s happening. You’re helping him to share it by assuming some of the weight for yourself. You’re suffering as he suffers. What does Paul tell us? That’s the body. One part of the body suffers. We’re all supposed to be suffering. We’re not supposed to cut ourselves off.

So you have to get close. You’ve got to take some of that weight. After you’ve gotten very close to them—well, first of all, before you can get close, you’ve got to know he’s got a problem, right? You’re not going to get close if he hasn’t revealed the burden. So in terms of how we have to reveal ourselves to one another transparently.

Secondly, we have to get close to one another to actually help with that.

Third, we’ve got to assume some of the weight of that particular burden, right? We have to stand virtually in their shoes, right? To really help them with that burden, help them to bear that burden. You’ve got to stand in their shoes. You’ve got to walk with them.

As our biblical counseling training from Kristen Silva—that was her emphasis over and over again with people that she helps. She walks with them. She has relationship with them. And maybe she doesn’t know how to do anything to help them. No magic wands, but she just walks with them. And that’s part of what we do with people to help them bear their burdens. We just walk with them. We just walk with them, and we give them the strength of what we’re doing in our walk to help them in their particular walk.

So that’s kind of the overview of some of the things you’ve got to do in order to actually fulfill it. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re fulfilling the law of Christ. That’s the last term.

So: one another, keep on bearing burdens. You’ve got to know them. You’ve got to get close to them. You’ve got to help share them. And then you know what’s happening here is this is the way you fulfill the law of Christ.

Now, he doesn’t say “obey the law of Christ.” And I think one reason for that is—you know, there’s this distinction that can be made between just keeping the law externally. Again, to talk about Rushdoony in this text, he talks about the Pharisees having an external mechanistic view of the covenant. So you just do the right things mechanistically, externally, forget what’s going on in your heart, and everything will be cool.

And so you know, in that view, it can be tricky. We want to affirm the law, but we don’t want to affirm a simple externality of mechanical obedience. Now, I want to be quick to say, you don’t wait for your heart to get right before you obey the word of God. You may feel like sleeping with that other spouse, but it doesn’t matter—you obey. Okay, so I’m not putting down obedience. But here, the “fulfilling of the law of Christ,” the law of Christ is obviously—he’s already told the Galatians this—it’s the law of love. Okay?

So to do that, it’s relational. Okay? So it’s not a matter just of externalities or mechanistically keeping laws, as important as those laws are. This is like what I said last week about the rich young ruler. He had mechanistically kept the commandments in his conversation with Jesus. And Jesus said, “One more thing you ought to do. Sell everything you got and give it to the poor. Live in community.” In other words, bear one another’s burdens. Have that relational thing going on.

Sometimes when we act mechanistically with others, it’s because we kind of have that view of our relationship to God. We check the boxes and think we’re okay. Whereas, as we talked about last week, how does the spirit of God witness to us that we’re His children? Not by keeping an external list of commandments. We’re told in the text we looked at last week in First John: Rather, by your love for your brother—by doing this sort of thing, by getting close to people, sharing, not being puffed up, be humble with each other, carry one another’s burdens, think of each other—he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

I’ve got to do this thing. My heart’s sad if nobody else has this attitude of love, but that’s what I’ve got to do. We’ve got a long road and it is winding, you know, and you don’t really know where you’ll be at next year. We know the eventual end kind of dimly, through a glass, but it is a long road we’re all on. It is winding. And you know, it’s kind of hard to figure out what’s happening sometimes.

And so to do that involves community on that long and winding road. We want to be with each other and carrying each other. So when I say that’s what I have in your outline here: “Law, relationship, mechanical externalism.”

So in Galatians 5:13, he says, “You, brethren, were called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.” So the great motivation in our lives, if we’re Christians—and when we’re thinking straight, and we don’t do that all the time, some of us don’t do it a lot of the time—but if you sit down this afternoon and think, “What am I going to do with my life?”—I hope at the top of the list is you want to please Jesus. Right?

This is another thing. This book *Misreading Scripture Through Western Eyes* that George—a husband of Rachel—encouraged me to read. He talks about patronage relationships and how the terms “grace” and “faith”—*charis* and *pistis*—were patronage terms in the Greek world that Paul was writing in, the Roman world while Paul was writing. The context is: if you were gifted *charis*, a grace gift, you had obligations to act in faithfulness to the one giving you the gift. And if you recognize the depth, the breadth, the incredible gift that Jesus has provided for you, our responsibility is relationally to walk in faithfulness to Him. That should be at the top of the list, right? As Christians, that’s why we’re called Christians, because we’re supposed to be Christ followers.

And here we’re told, you know, how to do it. We’re told that to actually achieve that wonderful, surpassing greatness, this magnificent goal—to follow Jesus—is as simple, we could say, as going to group, being real with each other, sharing one another’s burdens, loving each other, not penalizing each other, and maturing each other, and helping each other have their burdens that we have in life shared. It’s as simple as that, right?

And when you do that—I mean, Paul goes so far as to say you’re fulfilling the law of Christ. He was writing to Judaizers, people that had this external mechanical thing going on. It happens in the church too, right? If we just say the right words here mechanistically, this will work for us—then you know, you sort of lose the whole point. That there’s a body, there’s a loaf here that represents the church. What’s important is not the words the pastor says. What’s important is the life that we’re entering into at this table.

You see? So we can do it in a Christian Eucharistic way of doing things, right? If we just go to group and we have group and we go through Dennis’s checklist, everything’s great. No, it’s not great. These things are external indicators to help, but they’re to flow from a heart of love, a heart desiring to fulfill the law of Christ.

And to do that, we share one another’s burdens. So that’s what the text tells us here. That’s kind of the motivation, okay?

Quickly, a couple of related texts. First Thessalonians 5:11 and then Hebrews 3:13. And the word here is encouragement. So we’ve talked about sharing one another’s burdens. And related to this, the other one anothers that you can look at are texts like these two where it actually says to encourage one another, okay?

Now, the First Thessalonians 5 text is interesting. They always are. But what happens—and we don’t have time to read it right now—but he’s talking about whether you’re in darkness or in light, what’s going to happen when Jesus returns, and all that sort of stuff. He says, for instance, in verse six leading up to this, “Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”

So there’s an eschatological kind of warning thing going on. And so there’s this kind of intensity, you know, as to what’s going to happen—whether we fall asleep or whether we stay awake. And that’s the context leading up to then a discussion in verse nine about “God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but He sent Jesus for us.” And that’s the immediate context of verse 11: “Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you also are doing.”

So this word “comfort” is translated “encouragement” in other verses. And it’s kind of hard to know which way it’s supposed to be translated. And that’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here. What he’s telling them: you could look at it as “encourage,” kind of more admonition thing, because he’s saying, “Look, eternal realities are being played out in your life. Big stuff is happening. Don’t sleep. Be awake. Be sober. Be watchful. Jesus is coming in various ways, right? He’s involved in your life directly. Therefore, encourage one another. Strengthen each other. Help to bear each other’s burdens because you want people to stay in the game. You want them to stay actively in the game of following Jesus, okay?”

But you could also see where it’s kind of a comforting thing because what he’s just told them is, you know, “God has saved you out of that darkness. You’re in Christ. He’s provided these things for you. So just keep faithful and everything’s going to work out.” And that’s kind of a comfort word, isn’t it? And that’s kind of the point. This word, this particular Greek word—now I’ll tell you what it always means. What it always means is to get close to somebody. The word means “to call alongside” or “to come alongside” somebody literally. That’s what it means. And then it can be translated encourage, exhort, admonish, comfort.

Probably about half the time it’s, you know, or about 20-25 times it’s “comfort,” 20-25 times the translators do “encourage” based on the context. Again, another verse in First Thessalonians—I think it’s First Thessalonians. Paul’s talking about the return of our Savior. And he’s telling him about what you could call the mutual recognition of saints in heaven. How’s that a big, big phrase? But it’s a big deal. When you get to heaven, are you going to know anybody or are you just part of a faceless mass worshiping God?

You ever thought about that? Well, Abraham is gathered to his fathers. We’re always gathered to our fathers. I assure you, you’re going to know people in heaven. There will be reunions. This is what Paul told him. When Jesus returns, you’re going to see the ones that you now miss because they’re dead. You’re going to recognize them. He’s saying there’ll be a mutual recognition of each other when Jesus returns and everything is consummated, okay?

And then he tells them, “Comfort one another with this word.” Now, he’s not saying “exhort each other with this word,” right? He’s saying this is really comforting stuff. Isn’t it comforting to know that you’re going to be gathered to your extended family in Christ and people you know? You’re going to see each other? Well, maybe that’s not so comforting sometimes. I’m going to see you and you know, it depends on how we do community group, right? It’ll wipe away all the tears we shed for our failures. It’ll be okay. But it is a comforting thought, right? Instead of just being isolated, part of a mass of people worshiping God, we know—that must be okay if that’s what it says. But it doesn’t say that. It says you’re going to know people. That’s a comforting thought.

So these related texts about encouraging one another, comforting one another—the other one another text that connects up with this bearing of one another’s needs and trials, et cetera, is this encouragement. And what it tells us is this kind of multiple use of the term. In Hebrews, I won’t read the text, but in Hebrews, the text is more “encourage” or “exhort,” because again it’s sort of eschatological, like the First Thessalonians text. You know, “Hey, this is a matter of life and death. Exhort one another,” and they’re all—you know, in Hebrews, they’re falling away from consistency in the faith. So there, it’s “exhort,” probably not “comfort.” But the point is that as you bear one another’s burdens, that’s what you end up doing.

Sometimes you get alongside of them and help them to bear it by comforting them. Sometimes it’s just your presence. One of the problems we have is, “I don’t know how to do that, Dennis.” Well, the Spirit of God does, and you know, if you obey, you’ll know more. So you don’t have to figure out how to help bear the burden necessarily. Sometimes just your presence with somebody, just standing next to them, putting your arm around them, praying with them, whatever, is comforting, right?

Sometimes you bring comfort. Sometimes, like in verse one, you’ve got to bring some admonition. Sometimes rebuke, because you really care about them. You hate all those spider webs they’re weaving around themselves. You want to cut them off, right? So sometimes it’s encouragement—exhortation. And sometimes it’s encouragement. That word gives people courage for the task that’s coming ahead.

So the word that’s used here that links in with this sharing of one another’s burdens, this “encouragement” word, is multifaceted. And I bring it up because that informs us about how we’re to carry one another’s burdens. How do you do it? Well, you do it in a lot of different ways depending on the particular circumstance. But do it. We should do it. We must do it.

Committing today: when you bring forward your tithes and offerings, or if you just sit in your pew, that’s okay. But commit today to try to encourage, to bear one another’s burdens more this coming week than you might have in the last week or month. Commit to do it. And I think God will bless us because of it.

Quickly: okay, Application—community groups. I’ve kind of made that all along here, but let me give you one positive application of this as a handout. So this is—I don’t even know how it came across my desk. Maybe B.H. It’s about how to live and think positively in the midst of the difficulties we’re in. This is everybody who I know that’s read it, and it’s only been maybe three or four people, but they’ve all been encouraged. It’s helped them to bear their burden. So I share this with you. It’s on the table in the foyer—this article on how to live positively in the midst of the difficulties we have. Very practical thing here.

And I do this by way of repentance to my extended family who always hear from me, or 90% of the time—what was bad on the news today? What horrible thing is happening now? I heard this morning some woman—no, I won’t tell you the condo story. I did hear it, but I don’t want to share it. This is what I bring to you today by way of application. Hopefully, it’s an encouragement and a comfort to you and helps you in some way to help you bear the burdens that we go through in our particular cultures.

But think about this in your community groups, right? This is community group stuff. It doesn’t have to be just community groups, but you know, if we don’t get this stuff going in our community groups, they’re going to fail totally. They may not look like they’re failing, but we’re not interested in what things look like ultimately, right? We’re interested in maturation in Christlikeness.

And I think that if community groups take this stuff to heart, to know each other better, to even know about the burden, to come alongside of one another, get close to each other, to make it be reciprocal, right?—we’ve trained the community group leaders. You want people to share problems in their lives? You do it. You go first, because you know, you’re the spiritual guy. You’re the one the elders have said as leader of the group, and now you’ve got to—they’ve got to confess to you this, you see? Mutuality and reciprocity in this is absolutely critical. And so our groups are a place to accomplish that.

And the leaders have a tremendous opportunity to encourage bearing one another’s burdens by the way they handle those kinds of conversations in group. We need to know what each other are doing. We’ve got to come alongside, get close to one another. We’ve got to bend down, so to speak, with humility, and help people carry. And we have to reveal our own burdens that we need help being carried as well.

You know, I mentioned this song, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” Actually, he is heavy, right? Anybody that’s done this bearing one another’s burdens—there are situations that the elders have kind of been involved in bearing people’s burdens for a long, long time in certain situations. He is heavy. He is heavy. It’s hard to do, okay?

Don’t want to sell vaporware here. But the point of the song is with love in our hearts, the load is lightened, right? We don’t have the burden. It’s a yoke. Jesus’s yoke is a yoke, but it’s a yoke that we can bear with the help of other people, with the strength from other people. So in actuality, he is heavy. And our obligation is to do it anyway, to commit to doing it. And as we go along, things will lighten.

In a Bonhoeffer quote here at the end: Bonhoeffer says, “The second service that one should perform for another in a Christian community is that of active helpfulness. This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters. We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed the man who had fallen among thieves—perhaps reading their Bibles.”

So interruptions is what this is all about. And you know what I found is the more you let yourself be interrupted, the more you’re going to get interrupted. And you know what? The happier life will be. Those interruptions to your plans are God sending people to you to help carry their burdens. What could be a more joyful thing to do than to fulfill the law of Christ doing that?

Our Savior, of course, bore the burden. As we come to this table, we’ll talk about this in a couple of minutes. He bore the whole burden of our sins, right? And so because of that, because we have this model of Jesus, our empathetic high priest who carried his cross and then carried the cross of the guilt for our sins at Gethsemane, because of that, we’re able to carry the heavy load that we are to one another with a degree of lightness, with a degree of joy and happiness.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for helping us to understand today how to go about joyously living, fulfilling the law of our Savior. Help us, Father, not just to hear these things and to walk away as idiots or fools, not doing them. But help us, rather, Lord God, to have heard this word, to rejoice in it, to rejoice in the wonderful vision that’s cast before our imaginations of groups and churches where this would actually occur more and more. And in that imagination, Lord God, give us hope, give us commitment, and give us, Father, the hearts to want to have this accomplished. And give us the humility to do this as well.

In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.