Walking In Step With The Spirit. lesson 2
Carrying Burdens
To “serve one another in love” (5:13) means to bear each other’s burdens
After all, bearing burdens is the work of servants.
The term burdens may refer to all kinds of physical, emotional, mental, moral or spiritual burdens: for example, financial burdens, the consequences of cancer or the results of divorce
The list of burdens crushing fellow Christians could be extended indefinitely. And no doubt the command to carry each other’s burdens covers every conceivable kind of burden and calls for us to be sensitive enough to perceive even the unseen burdens that our brothers and sisters try to hide.
But in the context the command seems to be directed primarily to the burdens of sin referred to in 6:1
Sin always has a kind of domino effect in a person’s life.
The consequences of one moral failure can be multiplied almost indefinitely. For example, the sin of fornication, sexual union before marriage, may seem natural in the heat of passion. But then the young woman finds out that she is pregnant. And the burdens caused by a moment of sin start to multiply
When we carry each other’s burdens in this way, we will fulfill the law of Christ (v. 2*).
Paul’s reference to the law of Christ here establishes a striking contrast between fulfilling the law of Christ and keeping the law of Moses. Keeping the law of Moses was the preoccupation of the law teachers and all who followed their message in the Galatian churches. But their focus was on how the observance of the Mosaic law separated God’s people, the Jewish nation, from “Gentile sinners”
Circumcision, purity and dietary laws, and sabbath and festival regulations were boundary markers established by the law of Moses to preserve the unique identity of the Jewish people.
Maintaining the ethnic identity of the Jewish people by observing these boundaries was viewed as a fulfillment of the purpose of the law of Moses.
All who lived within these boundaries would certainly enjoy the blessing of God; all who lived outside of these boundaries by neglecting to observe them were under God’s curse.
The law teachers insisted that the Gentile believers had to live within these boundaries to be reckoned among the people of God. Their zeal for the law made them intolerant of all nonconformists to these standards.
Paul knew from his own experience in Judaism before his encounter with Christ how destructive such zeal for the law could be
His conflict with “false brothers” in the Jerusalem church (2:4–5) and with Peter in the church at Antioch confirmed how quickly zeal for the law could divide the church by classifying Gentile believers as “Gentile sinners” and excluding them from the people of God.
And now the zealous teachers of the law are inciting Christians in the Galatian churches to bite, devour, provoke and envy each other. Ironically, their preoccupation with keeping the Mosaic law resulted in breaking the central commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
In contrast to this attitude, Paul says that the law of Christ is fulfilled when his people carry the burdens of sinners! Serving sinners in the church, not separating sinners from the church, is the way to fulfill the law of Christ
There are two striking parallels between this reference to the law of Christ in 6:2 and the quotation of the love commandment from the law of Moses in 5:13–14.
First, both “laws” are prefaced by parallel references to mutual service: “serve one another in love” and carry each other’s burdens
Second, in both places Paul uses the term fulfill to describe what happens when mutual service is performed: “the entire law is summed up” (literally, “fulfilled”) and you will fulfill the law of Christ
These parallels in 5:13–14 and 6:2 indicate that despite the great contrast between keeping the law of Moses and fulfilling the law of Christ, there is also a close connection between Moses’ law and Christ’s law.
Some have thought that this close connection indicates that the law of Moses and the law of Christ are one and the same. Others suggest that only the command to love, apart from any other external principles, is the law of Christ
The law of Christ is not so much the law taught by Christ, though of course he did teach and apply the love commandment. But when he taught the love commandment, he directed attention to himself: “Love each other as I have loved you”
The law of Christ is the love commandment fulfilled, confirmed and heightened in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. He loved sinners and gave himself for them (Gal 2:20
on the cross he bore the terrible burden of the law’s curse against them
he set them free from the burden of the yoke of slavery under the law (5:1).
Hence all who are united with Christ and are led by the Spirit will also fulfill the high standard of love established by the life, death and resurrection of Christ: like him, they will love sinners and carry their burdens. Serving one another in love in this way expresses Christ’s love and so fulfills Christ’s law.