Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

In South Dakota a man by the name of August had a clothing store he was going to close up.

His was not one of those perpetual year around closing sales.

He was actually intending to go out of business by July.

So he hung a sign in his window which read, The First Of July Is The Last Of August.

Those who did not know the owners name would think the sign was expressing a meaningless and hopelessly unexplainable contradiction, but for those who knew his name, the sign conveyed a clear and clever message.

So often an apparent contradiction has a very simple explanation.

This is the case with the many Biblical paradoxes.

Paul has one here in the last chapter of Galatians that certainly seems on the surface, to be a flat contradiction.

In verse 2 he says, "Bear one another's burdens," and then in verse 5 he says, "Each man will have to bear his own burden."

Certainly in three verses Paul had not forgotten what he wrote.

But if he did it on purpose, which is obvious, how can it be that we are to carry one another's burdens, and at the same time each be stuck with our own load?

One might just as well say, that to be wise we must become fools, or, to be strong we must become weak.

As a matter of fact, Paul said both of those paradoxes as well.

Was Paul a master at double talk, or was he gifted with the ability to see life from a wider and wiser perspective than most men?

The latter is the obvious answer.

Paul's apparently conspicuous contradictions, and puzzling paradoxes, are the result of his God-given ability to see the whole of life, and not just some of its parts in isolation.

This ability was essential for one who represented so authoritatively Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

What can be more paradoxical than an A which is also a Z, or beginning which is also an end.

This can only be possible if we are referring to one who is eternal and omnipresent, and who, therefore, fills all of reality at the same time.

This, of course, is precisely the case with God.

Since God's very nature is paradoxical, because it is so all encompassing, it follows that it ought not to be surprising to find that His revelation partakes of His nature.

The Bible is filled with paradoxes just because it sees life as a whole, and not just in fragments, as is the case with all merely human philosophy.

To conquer we must surrender; to live we must die; to be exalted we must be humble; to get we must give.

God hates the sinner, yet loves the sinner enough to give His Son for them.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Yet, those who drink of the water of life shall thirst no more.

In the last days there shall come those forbidding to marry.

Yet, in the last days they shall marry and be given in marriage.

On and on goes the list of Biblical paradoxes, each of them with a valuable lesson to broaden our minds and enlarge our vision of reality.

We want to focus our attention on this one before us, which deals with burdens.

The thing to be aware of is the truth conveyed by paradox, which is, opposite things can be true of the same thing.

A river can be narrow and wide; crooked and straight.

From one perspective you may see it go straight for miles, and then begin to wind for miles.

The word burden has more than one meaning, and depending upon how you are using it, it can refer to a curse or a blessing.

There are burdens in life that no one can consider good.

They are evil, and are crushing burdens.

William G. Clark referred to such when he wrote,

Oh, there are moments for us here, when seeing

Life's any qualities, and woe, and care,

The burdens laid upon our mortal being

Seems heavier than the human heart can bear.

The Bible urges us to get rid of these kinds of burdens, for they are anxieties and cares that are beyond our control.

"Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you."

"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

The burdens of weary, overworked, and frustrated lives are to be gotten rid of, and refreshment, and rest are to be found in Christ.

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you."

This is certainly one way to look at the matter of burdens, but God forbid that we think it is the whole truth about burdens.

What of the Bible's clear demands that we take on burdens?

Take up the cross and follow me; take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

All the commands of Jesus, and especially the great commission are commands to take up a burden.

Paul adds to this the burdens we are to bear for one another in fulfilling the law of Christ.

Here is a burden that is among the loftiest loads we can lift, for to do so fulfills the highest law of all, which is the law of Christ, which is the law of love.

There is a story concerning a king who once placed a heavy stone in the middle of the road, and then hid to see who would remove it.

Men of various classes came by, and worked their way around it.

Some of them loudly blaming the king for not keeping the highways clear.

They all dodged their duty of getting rid of it.

At last, a peasant on his way to town with a load of vegetables to sell saw the obstacle, laid down his own burden, and took on the burden of pushing the bolder off the road.

As he did, he saw a purse that had been placed under it.

He examined it, and found it full of gold, and with a note saying that it was for the one who removed the stone.

Burdens can be a blessing when they are matters of helping others deal with their burdens.

The peasant fulfilled the will of the king by bearing a burden, and we fulfill the will of our Lord when we bear one another's burdens.

So we see there is more than one way to look at a burden.

There are the solitary burdens that we must bear alone; the social burdens that we share, and the senseless burdens that we are to cast upon the Lord.

Paul could have kept things simple and uncomplicated by just referring to one kind of burden, but he doesn't do that.

He speaks of both the solitary and the social burden in the same context.

He links together our obligation to others, and our personal responsibility.

Paul is primarily concerned with believers, and the bearing of one another's burdens within the community of faith.

The total context, however, is much broader.

In fact, in verse 10 Paul makes it clear that all men are included in our social responsibility.

He writes, "As we have opportunity let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."

There are no boundaries to Christian burden bearing.

Any good done for any person can be a fulfillment of this Biblical command, for it is a comprehensive statement, as broad as the love of God.

Within that general attitude of good will to all, is a specific emphasis on fellow believers.

This is similar to the statement that Jesus is the Savior of all men, but especially of those who believe.

The love and atonement of Christ is universal and comprehensive, but only those who believe in Christ, and receive him as Savior, benefit by being redeemed.

There is always both the all, and the few, in Christian relationships.

The comprehensive potential, and the limited actual.

As we study this chapter we want to keep in mind the total scope of our obligation as far as burden-bearing goes.

We have seen there are some burdens we ought not to bear at all, but in this chapter we see three kinds of burdens we are obligated to bear.

They are, personal responsibility; social responsibility within the church, and social responsibility to those outside the church.

6:1 Paul begins by writing, "Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault."

Here is the first person who needs a hand with a burden.

It is the brother in Christ who has been overtaken by sin.

It is not just a fault as the KJV has it, but a serious trespass.

Sin like a leaping lion as overtaking him in the jungle of life, and has pulled him from the path of purity into the vines of vice, or the cave of corruption, there to devour him, and to render him useless as a servant of God.

There is more of this that takes place than we realize.

It is not a rare isolated incident.

Peter warned that Satan like a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour, but here is a brother who did not heed the warning.

Paul was not blind, for he knows a Christian brother or sister can be overtaken by some sin.

Like John the beloved Apostle, he knows if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves.

John made provision for the Christians in sin, and said, if we confess it Jesus is faithful to forgive it.

Paul gets into the social aspect of sin.

Sometimes sin is not just a private matter you can confess and be done with it.

Sometimes it has social implications, and becomes a public matter, and a heavy burden.

There is blame and shame, and a need for more than God's forgiveness.

There is also a need for the acceptance of the body.

The world is full of people who know God loves them, and has forgiven them, but who are cut off from the fellowship of the church, because the body paid no attention to what Paul is saying here.

We are social beings, and if we don't get social acceptance and restoration to fellowship, we are like branches cut off from the tree, and we wither and bear no fruit.

I remember a silly story I use to tell as a teen.