He Ain't Heavy...He's My Burden!

The idea of bearing the burdens of others might bring to mind an image of young men helping elderly ladies cross the street. But Galatians 6 speaks of ‘bearing burdens’ in the context of carrying the heaviness and effects of another person’s sin.

Bearing the burdens of another means we purposefully intercede in the person’s life when he or she is caught in sin by both carrying the effects of that sin and restoring him to righteous living in Christ. God’s way of dealing with these sins is to have the brethren work with those who are caught unaware, overtaken by sin and spiritual weakness, or have wrongly learned that their sin is an acceptable way of living (Gal. 6:1). And maybe the sin has been there for a long time but has worsened, making it more noticeable and affecting the life of that person and others more drastically than before.

As an example, consider the person who struggles to budget his money, using it unwisely and habitually spending it on frivolities via credit cards. As debt builds, that person may suddenly find himself in need of funds to pay for food and shelter, and if there are children involved, the situation can quickly become desperate.

Galatians 6:1 says “you who are spiritual should restore him.” In other words, you who are solid in the Truth and Spirit of God should work with him to help him understand God’s Word, repent, and break free of sin and the misconduct that follows. But bearing the burden of his sin also means we shoulder some of the consequences; in the above example this may include helping support and feed his family while at the same time helping him to be delivered from the root of the sin and learn to use money in a God-honoring way. This is how we carry the heaviness of another person’s sin, shouldering the consequences with him while helping move him toward complete freedom.

A key component to bearing these burdens is to operate in meekness, patience and gentleness. We’re not to beat down or condemn the individual who is in this type of situation (Gal. 6:1). Honesty in love is a must, however, Galatians specifically tells us that we’re not to think of ourselves as better or more righteous or we may fall into sin while we’re carrying the burdens of others. This can happen if we walk in pride, become entangled in the very sin we’re striving to free them from, or teach the person to follow us more than Christ. Our goal is to help them get out of the sin which entangles them, but not at the risk of having them see us as their ‘end all be all’ instead of vessels of service to the Body of Christ.

If you’ve ever borne the burdens of others you know how frustrating it can be, especially when things don’t move along as quickly as you think they should. But shaking a finger, losing patience, scolding, condemning and spiritual bullying are signs that we’ve moved away from helping and slid into sin ourselves: this is nothing more than an abuse of God’s power and authority!

The truth is that we all have issues to work through at different times in our lives, and treating others with love and respect is likely the way we’d like to be treated as we work through our own grievous afflictions – self induced or otherwise. Just as Christ lovingly and sacrificially carried our burdens, we're to carry the burdens of others in bringing them to the fullness of Christ on this earth. And while we’re helping others to become whole and free in Christ, we may very well be planting a seed which will produce a harvest of help when we’re in need of someone to shoulder our burdens.

“If any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself, lest you should be tempted also.  
Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults...for if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load] when he is nobody… he deceives and deludes and cheats himself. But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor” (Gal 6:1-4 AMP).