Bearing Your Own Load

Read

Galatians 6:1–5 (ESV)

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. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 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. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

Opening Prayer

Introduction

As we finish the flow of thought from last week...

What we want to keep in mind here is...

Galatians 6:3–5 (ESV)

3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 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. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.

This is part of the testing of whether one is spiritual.

Are you walking in the Spirit?

Leaning on the work of God in you in order to do anything He delights in?

Because if what you do is not an outworking of the Spirit of God working in you...

It is worthless.

We’ve been talking about helping one another when one is caught up in a transgression.

Helping a brother/sister be restored to live the way Christ has called us to live.

To enjoy life the way Christ has called us to enjoy.

So, we’ve been talking about the criteria and personal preparation of the one who is going to help.

Now, Paul gives the counter-argument against a person who would use this Christian command to bear one another’s burdens as a crutch.

Who Is Ultimately Responsible?

Now, look at...

v.5 For each one will have to bear his own load.

This is for the whole congregation to understand and contemplate...

This is important for those who need help to understand.

Because one thing help can do, if it is done wrongly...

Is develop dependence on solutions to come from someone else…some other person(s)

An outside human source, rather than themselves working through the circumstances while leaning on God.

A few things that can and do, typically, go wrong:

#1 — We can cause people to become dependent on someone other than God.

#2 — We can can cause people to think that solutions can only come from outside of their effort to pursue obedience to God.

#3 — In so doing, we cause people to think that they cannot pursue holiness and have success, not perfection, but success at it.

When those things happen, people usually start blaming others for their misfortunes...

And, they blame their sinful situations on others not doing what they should do...

Or helping in the way they want them to help.

Paul is making two things very clear:

#1 — We, as Christians, are called to bear one another’s burdens.

To help in whatever way we can.

So much so, that we gladly take on burdens to give relief to our brothers/sisters in Christ.

#2 — The person needing the help, specifically help because their caught up in transgression, is responsible for their getting into sin and getting out of sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

The church, made of individual Christians, are to help.

But, you and God alone can get through it...

And you, as an individual, are responsible to.

There will be no blame shifting when our sin is examined by God.

Now, to clarify, when Paul says...

Galatians 6:5 (ESV)

5 For each will have to bear his own load.

He’s not talking salvation.

Paul makes it very clear in all his epistles that we are not saved by works.

But, there are good and bad consequences in this life.

And, there is reward in heaven, for Christians, based on what we’ve done in this life.

And, there is dross from this life that will be burned up.

It won’t gain reward.

Jonathan Edwards stated it that all Christians will have different sized cups of joy in heaven in which their joy will be utterly full.

And, that Christians, based on works in this life would have larger or smaller cups...

And, yet no one would know that anyone’s cup is larger or smaller than their own.

The Bible teaches that our joy is founded in the person and finished work of Christ...

And, our experience of such joy, in this life, is tied to our good works of obedience in this life and the next.

Because the experience of our joy is within the context of obedience to God...

And, obedience to God is founded upon our resting in God...

Which is founded in our justification in Christ.

But, what Paul is saying is that burdens should be carried jointly...

Yet, the individual caught up in the sin is responsible for the way they handled it.

—I hope that makes sense—

Our responsibility for our individual sin will not be diminished based on the help we received or did not receive from others.

IOW, we can’t point fingers at those who did or did not help us. (it’s the woman you gave me, the snake)

We are responsible for ourselves.

Yet, at the same time our willingness to and our actual helping others in their burdens of sin...

Will cause our joy in Christ to be experienced at a higher level.

Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

IOW, it is more blessed to serve than to be served.

Another truth I believe Paul is teaching us here...

Galatians 6:5 (ESV)

5 For each will have to bear his own load.

It’s as if Paul is saying while we’re on this point, there’s another way this is true…

We each have a role to play in the testimony of the Church.

We each have been gifted, by the Holy Spirit, in specific ways...

For specific work to help the local body of Christ grow healthy while we are a part of it.

We are each to bear the weight of ministry.

Share the load according to giftedness.

Not leave it to others to do.

And, I believe he’s teaching us this truth based on what he goes on to say in...

Galatians 6:6 (ESV)

6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

It’s not just a bear your own load (share the weight that you can bear) when dealing with your own sin...

It’s share the weight when it comes to the service we are called to render to the church, within the church, and outside the church…

We bear our own load by using our giftedness to the benefit of Christ’s bride…and to the world…

And, to the glory of God.

Christ has called us to such service...

Romans 12:4–8 (ESV)

4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

All the giftedness that Christ has put into His Bride.

The blessedness of Christ to equip us for the life He calls us to live and enjoy.

And, we cannot be short-sighted in this...

The church is the church wherever we are...

We are a corporate expression of the church when we are gathered...

But, even when we are not all gathered...

And may be in smaller numbers we are functioning as the Church...

We serve the Church, serving one another in more than the capacity of the church service...

Or while gathered in this building.

I think faulty thinking has caused many to think somehow we only serve the church when we are here...

And, hear me, we should absolutely serve the church when we are gathered...

In any and every capacity that we can and is needed.

That’s part of bearing burdens and bearing our individual part of the load.

But, we serve the church everywhere we go, as well...

Because we never take off the title Christian.

And, we must never forget...

Bearing is Building

We are called to bear one another’s burdens...

As we are being led by the Spirit of God...

Walking by the Spirit of God...

And, it cannot look different than this...

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This builds relationships through self-sacrificing love.

Restoring a brother is taking on their burden and making it yours, too.

It is a willingness to take a risk for the good of your brother/sister in Christ.

Our natural inclination is...

I’m not getting involved...

It will just be grief and heartache.

But God has called us to care deeply for the people that are in our lives...

The people we can and should know more deeply...

Care for more deeply...

Pray for more often.

The Spirit of God calls us to love our neighbor as our self.

Paul says in v.2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ.

Speaking specifically in this context of helping one gain victory over sin.

But, we also help bear each other’s burdens in other ways, like Acts 4 shows helping financially.

We need to have a Christ-like willingness to help each other with our burdens.

Closing Remarks

We need to allow for each of us to be sinners who will make mistakes...

We all get caught up in sin at times.

We will approach people in the wrong way at times.

We may not handle situations the best, all the time.

We should bathe our lives in confession, repentance, and forgiveness.

All, while resting in the sovereign goodness that we have found in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We are all in community together...

Brought together by the sovereign, benevolent hand of God.

Growing in our understanding in order to flesh out the victory we have in Jesus.

May we live in community together bathed in forgiveness and patience and love.

Let us pray this together...

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Closing Prayer