Bearing the Load

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We find ourselves in the very practical and applicable section of Galatians.

Paul has spent the previous 5 chapters rebuking the Galatians in their theology, and now he is teaching on a correct, orthopraxy, right living.

It’s an interesting passage, because a lot of the words are uncomfortable.

Some of language seems to be wrong.

We are told that if we test ourselves, we will boast in ourselves.

That seems odd.

That seems to go against other famous passages of Paul like that says we are saved by grace alone so that no one may boast.

Then there is verse 5 that says we have to bear our own load, which only comes 3 verses after hearing we must bear one another’s burden.

I hope that we not only will work out some of this confusion, but that it will be practical and helpful to you.

First, we see that Paul tells us to test ourselves.

The Galatians were a church that was zooming towards legalism.

They had accepted another Gospel.

They had accepted a gospel of works.

They had accepted the teaching that if someone was going to be saved they needed to circumcised.

The Galatians were expecting others to be circumcised.

They would boast in how they were able to persuade and convince people to be circumcised.

It was a good day if someone was circumcised.

Their value came in what they saw in others, not in their own true conversion.

They were boasting in what they were able to get others to do, while neglecting their own spiritual condition.

This is the kind of hypocrisy that is so deeply offensive.

People see right through it.

This is the hypocrisy that obsesses over others, while you are guilty of the very same thing, and often times even more so.

This is like receiving marital advice from an adulterer.

Or being told by a liar to tell the truth.

Subconsciously, the thinking is that if you can make a big enough deal out of someone else’s sin, then you can overlook your own sin.

Jesus talked about this kind of hypocrisy in , “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

The Galatians would strive to remove a speck of dust from their neighbor’s eye.

They were fighting over the smallest of issues.

And meanwhile ignoring their own sin, ignoring the log in their own eye.

And so Paul’s first words in today’s passage are, “But let each one test his own work ...”

This is a test of authenticity.

This is a test of qualification.

I remember watching old pirate movies when I was a kid.

Movies like Treasure Island.

Pirates would find that hidden stash of gold.

The one eyed pirate, with a peg leg, would take a gold coin and bite it, and it would bend.

And he’d verify, it’s gold.

Paul is telling the Galatians that they need to be verified, they need to see if they are the real thing.

They’re telling everyone else what to do, and never questioning whether they meet the qualifications.

This doesn’t mean you don’t talk to people about sin.

This doesn’t mean you don’t confront people on their sin.

You wouldn’t go to a brain surgeon who got his degree online.

This is a test that comes first.

Are you qualified to speak into the spiritual life and well being of others?

Imagine if you went into a doctor’s office for a brain surgery consultation.

You looked around and you didn’t see a diploma.

There were no drawings of anatomy or brains on the wall like you expect to see in a doctor’s office.

It looks very unscientific, and then you ask where he got his degree?

And he says, he took a good brain surgeon degree course online.

And then you ask how long he’s been doing brain surgeries?

And he raises his shaky hand and says, “About 3 weeks.”

Imagine if he said he just started, that he got his degree online.

Well, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know, he’s probably not the best guy for the job.

You’re not going to trust him with your brain.

You get out of there.

He’s not qualified.

begins with a call for us to be concerned about others, to serve one another, to bear one another’s burdens.

In this situation, if you are going to be concerned for others, and concerned enough that you confront them in their sin, you need to be qualified.

Paul begins by saying, you need to test yourself.

And as I think about the Bible, there are two aspects to this test.

The first is your own salvation.

Thankfully, the qualifications are fitting for the job.

says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

This is about salvation, do you know Christ.

If you don’t know Christ, then how can you tell people to follow Christ?

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for this type of living.

He said they were white washed tombs.

They were walking dead men.

They looked alive, but underneath there was nothing there.

They looked good on the outside, but underneath they were corrupt.

The first question is are you in Christ?

And hopefully, you can answer yes to that question.

Because if so, then you no the truth.

You love the truth.

You understand that that it’s only in Christ where there is forgiveness of sins.

The second part of the test is to test the quality of your walk with Christ.

So assuming you are a Christian, what does that look like?

What is the quality of your Christian life?

So you are confident you are a believer, and you have been born again, what is the quality of your new life?

You test yourself.

talks about this in regards to communion, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”

We read that passage during communion.

This examination is not necessarily even about salvation.

That’s not talking about salvation.

That’s talking about your own personal holiness.

Your own obedience to Christ.

You test yourself.

Is there sin that needs to be addressed?

What is your own spiritual life like?

Are you in prayer?

Are you in God’s Word?

Are you growing in holiness?

Are you becoming more and more Christlike?

As you look back on your life, can you see a steady growth of maturity.

You test yourself.

Most of the time you can do this yourself.

Other times it takes help from others.

Sometimes it’s nice to go to a brother and ask them what they see in you.

What weaknesses do they see?

Where do they think you should grow?

Paul calls for a test, and notice who you test, yourself.

It doesn’t say, “Test others.”

But we sure like to do that don’t we?

We love to compare each other.

And specifically, we like to compare ourselves to those who aren’t as far along as ourselves.

We look for that flaw in another person, and we become fixated on it.

Jesus told a parable in of a Pharisee and a tax collector.

The two of them went up to the temple to pray.

The tax collector, ashamed of his sin.

He stood in a corner by himself.

He wouldn’t even look up into heaven when he prayed.

Instead in humility, with his eyes down, he beat his breast crying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

Meanwhile the Pharisee, proudly stood and said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

But that’s what we do isn’t it?

We say, at least I’m better than him.

And why do we do this?

Because we make other people the standard.

And specifically, we like to make people who are worse than us the standard, so that we are better than the standard.

Think of when you sell a home.

It’d be nice if you could pick a price out of thin air and sell it for that much.

But you are restrained.

You get comps.

You look at nearby homes that have similar:

Location

Size

Features

You make a price for your home based off of what similar homes in your area have sold for.

And hopefully, you’re able to say, and “My house is even better!” so you charge a premium and make a profit.

When you sell a car, how do you get a value for that car?

You go to Kelley Blue Book.

You compare your car to other cars like it, that have similar features.

Then you come up with a price.

Unfortunately, we also do this with people.

We find someone who we think we are better than, we say, “Well at least I’m not like them.”

There’s a silly preacher story, that I swore I’d never use in a sermon … well here it is in a sermon.

There were two boys who were walking in the woods.

They came across a big grizzly bear, that was hungry.

He wanted to have the boys for lunch.

So the boys turned to start running.

One of the boys stopped to take off his shoes.

The other boy said, “What are you doing? You can’t outrun that bear with your shoes off.”

The boy said, “I don’t have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you, and I’m faster than you with my shoes off.”

Basically saying that as long as he was faster than his friend, he wouldn’t be eaten, unfortunately his friend would be.

For many Christians, there’s never a race for us to mature, instead it’s just to be better than those around us.

That is like thinking that God is grading eternity on a curve.

You remember in school when a teacher would grade on a curve.

She would take the average grade in the class and make that the average, make that the C.

So if

As long as you did better than the class average you did pretty well.

And what ends up happening is we compare ourselves to someone who is really unholy.

And we say, “Well I’m better than him.”

But that is not how God is grading. He says, “But let each one test his own work ...”

How are you doing in your walk with Christ?

Don’t put it in relation to me or anyone else.

This calls for a new level of honesty.

And for some it might be frightening.

And you find out that you should be more mature by now.

The author of Hebrews rebukes his listeners for that.

He says that they were still drinking milk, and hadn’t moved on to solid food yet.

This is frightening because it calls for action.

If you see that you have secret sin, you get rid.

If you see that you are still drinking theological milk, then you move on to solid food.

Start memorizing Scripture.

Start reading.

Attend Bible study.

Be in fellowship.

Then Paul tells us to Test the work.

The Galatians had forgotten who there work was for.

They had forgotten who gave value to their work.

So when they were able to get a convert circumcised they boasted in that.

It’s as if they put a tally on the wall, saying “We got another one.”

Look again at verse 4, “But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.”

They were boasting in other people, as if people were a scorecard.

If we are not careful, that can happen to us as well.

We are told to serve one another.

We are told to serve one another.

We are told to go and make disciples.

Why do we make disciples? Because Jesus has authority and He has commanded us to.

Disciple making is directly related to Christ’s authority.

But when you separate disciple making from Christ’s authority, then disciple making becomes about ego, and score keeping.

You ever hear the phrase soul winning?

It’s another way to describe evangelism.

Sometimes people say they went soul winning when they went evangelizing.

I’m not a fan of the word, because it makes it sound like I’m the one winning the souls.

Especially, when churches are already so focused on numbers and how many converts they can get.

But when it comes to evangelism, we are really very weak.

There’s not much to boast in.

Evangelism is about talking; communicating, telling the good news.

And who does the soul winning?

It was Jesus who purchased the person.

And it’s the Holy Spirit who changes the heart.

I’m just announcing the good news.

We need to remember who our work is for.

I’m not winning anything.

Paul tells us to test our work.

And the way we test our work is by looking at ourselves.

Not others.

It’s not about how many converts that you got, it’s how well did you serve Christ.

Proof of a job well done isn’t how big our church is, or how many good deeds you did during the week, but how faithfully you served Christ.

And a job well done, work well done, is work that God approves of, not other people.

You can test yourself by asking yourself, who is it you serve?

Some might answer God, but in reality, they see value in their work by what others think.

You can test yourself by asking yourself, who is it you serve?

And in that sense it’s really not God.

You can test yourself by asking yourself, who is it you serve?

A job well done, work well done, is work that God approves of, not other people.

I think that is why back in verse 2, Paul says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

We serve one another … why do we serve one another?

Because Christ has commanded us to.

Because Christ has commanded us to.

We love one another … why do we love one another?

Because Christ has commanded us to.

We bear one another … why do we bear one another?

Because Christ has commanded us to.

And by serving one another, we are serving Christ.

And then fulfilling the law of Christ.

So whatever we do for each other, should really be out of obedience to Jesus.

What is your motivation for for your efforts?

We test it.

And the motivation should be Christ.

It is His law that we are fulfilling.

We are still testing ourselves, but now we are testing ourselves in our work.

And a job well done, work well done, is work that God approves of, not other people.

You can test yourself by asking yourself, who is it you serve?

In , Paul is addressing some of the factions within the Corinthian church.

People there had their own apostolic heroes that they followed.

Some were in love with Paul and they wore their, “I love Paul T-Shirts.

Others loved Peter, and so they wore, “I love Peter” hats.

They each had their favorite apostle, and they were pitting them up against each other.

In a humanistic sense that’d be quite the honor wouldn’t it.

Think of the Martin Luther.

He has an entire denomination named after him, Lutherans.

Paul wasn’t flattered, in fact he was offended.

His goal wasn’t to win a popularity contest.

He didn’t serve the church so people would like him.

says, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Paul was a kind man.

Each of us are indebted to him and his faithfulness.

But he didn’t come for you and I.

He came to preach the Gospel.

A job well done was one where he faithfully preached Christ.

That’s what he was put on this earth for, to preach the Gospel.

Later on he would say, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” ()

Because Christ put him on this earth to preach the Gospel.

And a job well done was a job where he was faithful to what God had commissioned him to do.

You have been put on this earth for a reason as well, and your job is to do what God has assigned for you.

Your job is to serve Him.

Not to look to others and for them to approve of you, or pat you on the back and say, “Job well done.”

It’s serving Him first.

This doesn’t mean you don’t compliment people when they do something outstanding.

It’s good to encourage one another.

It’s nice to receive encouragement.

But the reason why we serve is not so others can approve us.

Paul tells us to test our work because really our work is for God.

says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

He prepared you for His Work.

He made you for His work.

He gifted you for His work.

Who are you working for?

One day God will judge you on your works.

Let me get eschatological on you, one day you will stand before God and he will test you on your work.

Listen closely, because this is a difficult topic.

But if you are in Christ, your sin has already been paid.

Your sin has already been judged.

Your sin was judged on the cross.

And the goodness that you were lacking, it’s been imputed or given to you through Christ.

But your works, your obedience will be judged.

Let me give you a quick handful of verses to describe what we are talking about.

, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

This is called the bema seat judgment, or the believers judgment.

We will stand before God, and this will be a rewarding judgment.

Kind of like when winners of an olympic event stand on those platforms.

They receive medals.

They are judged and rewarded for their accomplishments.

The podium during the olympics is not a condemnation judgment.

It’s a reward judgment.

And according to , our works will be judged.

describes it like this, beginning in verse 12-15, “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”

So you die, and you face God.

You have a foundation, and that is Christ.

Christ is your foundation.

Then there are other things built on that foundation.

Those are the works of your life.

The efforts of your life.

The works that you do in life, will be presented to God, and anything outside of Christ and His kingdom will be burnt up, destroyed, as if it never existed.

For example, you spend your life accumulating money, hordes of cash.

You get to heaven, and none of it matters.

It’s useless.

It’s as if it’s burnt up in fire.

And all that’s left is your obedience to Christ.

The only things that will be remembered, will be what was built on the foundation of Christ.

But you see, I don’t give you any rewards.

And your family won’t give you any rewards.

But Christ will.

And for these things Christ will reward us.

But you see, I don’t give you any rewards.

And your family won’t give you any rewards.

But Christ will.

This is a call to test who you are working for.

These are rewards for a job well done, for faithfulness to the work that God has assigned to you.

I don’t know what our rewards in heaven will look like.

I do know that it will be some kind of recognition.

In the parable of the talents from , the recognition is a commendation and more responsibility, , “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

We test our works.

Who are you working for?

And if it’s God, then hopefully, that puts a fire under you to do it well.

Who are you looking for validation from?

Now we live in such a way that we are not ashamed of our life.

I want to end my life in such a way, that it says, “I lived my life to the glory the God.”

In fact, it should be even greater than that.

It should be living my life so that God says, “Well done, good an faithful servant.”

Then we Test The Burden we carry through life.

Look at verse 5, “For each will have to bear his own load.”

At first glance that might look like a contradiction with verse 2.

Verse 2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

And now we are told that you’ve got to bear your own load.

These 2 verses aren’t at odds with each other.

Verse 2, is describing helping a brother or sister out while in sin and suffering.

That word describes hardships and burdens.

Those are the types of things that we suffer alongside each other with.

And now in verse 5 we bear our own load.

It’s not the same as the burden found in verse 2.

The load that you see in verse 5, is actually a word used to describe a ship’s cargo, or wagon that is full of goods that it brings into a town.

Verses 1-2 tell us to carry one another.

We do this in love, fulfilling the law of Christ.

It’s what we carry through life.

Confronting brothers who are caught in sin, and helping lead them to repentance and confession.

It’s the church discipline, it’s restoration.

You bear them.

You carry them.

And if you can’t do that then verse 3 says that you are proud.

If you’re too proud -

If they’re sin offends you too much:

If they’re sin offends you too much -

Then you need to examine your heart.

Then you need to examine your heart.

Remember the Gospel.

You were nothing and Christ saved you.

Verse 4 tells us to test ourselves.

To remember what Christ has done to you.

Are you in Him?

What is your own spiritual condition like?

And then according to verse 5, you bear your responsibility.

This is your responsibility.

And what is this responsibility? What is the load that you bear and carry?

And what is this responsibility? What is the load that you bear and carry?

Well, he’s just told you, it’s the sinning believer

This

Think of this burden as something that is unique to you.

For example, I cannot be saved for you.

He is your personal calling and ministry that the Lord has given you.

Your fellow brothers and sisters are the work, they are the load that God has entrusted you with in life.

I cannot follow Christ for you.

That’s what this final chapter is mainly about.

Besides Paul’s final benediction at the end of the chapter, this chapter is about bearing one another, serving one another.

God has entrusted you to each other, as your ministry.

I cannot repent for you.

And so out of obedience to Christ as king, we carry each other.

I cannot be baptized for you.

Those around you are there because God has placed them around you for you to serve Him by serving them.

There are certain things that can only happen to you, that only you can carry through life.

What a thought?

And so this is a final plea

Each person who is here is here for a reason.

Someone sins and they always have an excuse.

We each have unique gifts that are needed and useful for serving one another.

And we have unique people around us who are here for a specific reason.

They might be here so they can carry you through a hard time.

Or you might be around them so that you can carry them through a hard time.

One thing is for certain, you have a load to bear.

And out of obedience to Christ you carry it.

Test Yourself

A year ago, I was told I was prediabetic.

Diabetes runs in my family, and it’s going to catch up to me sooner or later.

The first thing I do every day is I test my blood sugar.

And the last thing I do every day is test my blood sugar.

I have this little device that pokes a hole in my finger so that I can get a drop of blood to come out.

I put it on this test strip and it tells me what my blood sugar is like.

I have to do it frequently.

It’s important.

So I do it twice a day.

Christ is better than blood sugar.

Spiritual health is more important.

So frequently test your spiritual condition.

Test it.

Test your spiritual health.

Test your work.

And test your faithfulness in carrying who Christ has assigned to you.

Pray