Galatians 6:1-10, 14-16 CARRY EACH OTHER’S BURDENS
This is the time of the year when everyone is going somewhere. There’s something about the summertime that makes people restless, that makes people want to travel – go to new places, see new things. While I attended school, I always tried to travel during the summer. Some friends of mine and I would work extra hours during the school year, and then, when summer came, we would pack up our backpacks, jump in a plane, or a car, and head to Europe or the Middle East, or the mountains out west, and we’d live out of our backpacks for a couple months. It was fun, except for carrying your backpack. You can imagine all the things you’d keep in your backpack – clothes, jackets, shoes, tents, sleeping bags, guide books – your whole life – and it weighed a lot. And that was always my least favorite thing about traveling – carrying that heavy load on my back – hiking up and down mountains, running through train stations, dodging cars on busy streets, climbing up and down stairs - all with that heavy weight on my back.
Once in awhile we’d go to a nicer hotel, and then someone else would carry our backpacks for us, and I still remember how nice it felt to walk around with nothing on my back.
In our Scripture lesson for today, that’s what God tells us to do for each other. In verse 2, God says, “Carry each other’s burdens.” We all have burdens in life that we carry. God tells us today that he wants me to help you carry your burdens in life, and he wants you to help me, and to help each other, as we carry our burdens in life. “Carry each other’s burdens” is the theme for today’s sermon. As we focus on this part of God’s Word, we’re going to see how we are surrounded by opportunities. We’re going to see how our pride sometimes gets in the way. We’re going to see how God’s promises motivate us to help each other. And finally, we’re going to see how it’s OK to boast.
In this portion of Scripture, there are all kinds of encouragements to express your faith by helping other people. Verse 10 says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.” If you’re looking for people to help, you don’t need to look very far. Do good to all people, God says. Especially, your family of believers. Do you realize that every Christian has two families? There’s your earthly family – the people you’re related to. But then there’s also your spiritual family – the people sitting with you today – those are your spiritual brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. This is your second family. And God has brought us together not just so that we can hear his Word. That is our primary purpose. And God has brought us together not just so that we can drink coffee together, although that’s a nice thing to do. God has also brought us together to carry each other’s burdens, to help each other. That’s one of the reasons God has brought us into this family of Christians.
And there’s more to helping each other than just changing someone’s flat tire. Look at verse 1: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” The language of the Bible here gives us the picture of an animal who is suddenly caught in a trap – completely surprised, in trouble. That’s how this verse describes how a Christian caught in a sin. Suddenly, it just happens, and that Christian is trapped. Maybe that fellow Christian of yours is caught in the sin of neglecting God’s Word. He makes excuses for it all the time. And that’s a sin. It’s one of the most common sins Christians commit today, and it is wrong. Or, maybe that fellow Christian of yours is caught up in the sin of materialism. Or, maybe that fellow Christian is caught up in a moral sin, maybe living with someone outside of marriage. Those are sins. And Christians sometimes get caught in them.
And that is their burden. Their faith is getting crushed. Their soul is getting harmed. There’s guilt. That’s a burden. And that’s where you come in. “You who are spiritual should restore him gently.” Once again, the language of the Bible here gives us a picture – the picture of someone being extremely delicate and careful, like a doctor resetting a broken bone. Don’t be rough, the Apostle Paul says. Restore that person gently. Talk to that person. Share thoughts from God’s Word with that person. Be gentle.
And be careful. “But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” Sometimes you hear about a double-drowning. One person is drowning, and then the person who jumps in to rescue that person drowns too. Watch yourself, Paul says. When you reach out to help someone, don’t let yourself fall into the same temptation that they’ve fallen into.
You don’t have to look very hard to find opportunities to bear each other’s burdens. You’ll find people at home, or people here at church, people who fall into sin. Don’t accept it. Restore that person gently. “Carry each other’s burdens,” verse 2 says, “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ is to love other people, as you would love yourself.
But there is something that gets in the way of this, and that something is our sinful pride, our sinful nature. When we see someone else caught in a sin, we have a tendency to do something, don’t we? We have a tendency to look down on that person and say to ourselves, “Look at how sinful that person is compared to me. I’m so much better than that person.” That’s our pride talking.
That’s why Paul says in verse 3: “If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” In other words, when I see someone fall into a sin, and that causes me to think to myself, “Look at how great I am compared to him.” - when I think that way, I’m deceiving myself.
And yet, that’s exactly what we do sometimes, isn’t it? It’s the result of having a sinful nature. And God has strong words for our sinful nature, verse 7: “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.” When I let my sinful nature “run the show” in my life, when I walk around, all proud, as I look at others who have fallen into sins, God says to watch out. Eventually, I’ll “reap destruction,” maybe not in this life, but in the life to come – eternal destruction. And that is exactly what we all deserve, for all those times we’ve looked down our noses at other people.
But then Jesus comes into our lives, and he takes our sin away. I don’t think there is a better example in the Bible, of someone carrying another’s burdens, than that of Jesus, carrying our burden of sin. Isn’t that exactly what he did for us? Jesus saw that each one of us had fallen into certain sins, and on top of that, he saw that we all are born into sin. That’s our burden. And so Jesus comes into our world, and he takes that sin off your shoulders, and puts that sin on himself. It is as though you were wearing a 100 pound backpack, filled with sin, but Jesus says to you, “Here, I’ll take that.” And he takes your pack of sins and carries it to the cross. Today, he promises you, “That sacrifice I made – it was for you. You are forgiven.” That’s God’s promise to you.
And during your life, Jesus has sent people to you, people who have patiently worked with you, people who have born your burdens, people who have listened to you, who have shared God’s Word with you. And as you have heard God’s Word, over and over again in your life, you have come to believe that you are a forgiven child of God. Through God’s Word, the Holy Spirit has come to you, and has made you into a different person. That is the “new creation” that Paul talks about in verse 15. That is who you are – no longer an unbeliever who doesn’t know God. Now, you’re a new creation, someone who knows God, and someone who has the desire to help others, to carry each other’s burdens.
And so maybe you notice that fellow member as he begins to stray away from God’s Word. His priorities shift to making money and entertaining himself. You can tell, your fellow member is straying away, and making excuses for it. “Restore him gently,” God’s Word says. “Carry that person’s burden.” These passages tell us that this isn’t just the pastor’s job. This is the Christian’s job. It’s a job that we want to do, because this is who God has made us to be. We want to fulfill the law of Christ, which tells us to love each other, especially when we see each other fall into sin. And so we humbly and carefully and gently share thoughts from God’s Word with that person. And that’s how we carry each other’s burdens – listening to people, reaching out to people, and giving people what they need more than anything else – a thought from God’s Word.
And, as God works through us, it’s OK to boast. But not in ourselves. Verse 14 tells us, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” May I never boast, except in the cross of Christ. It is through that cross that I’ve been saved. It is through that cross that worldly things aren’t the focus of my life any more. It is through that cross that I find strength and comfort and joy. Carry each other’s burdens. And as we do, let us not become weary of doing this kind of good, “for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” And that harvest, is eternal life. May God give you a servant’s heart, a heart that is willing to bear someone else’s burden. Amen.
