Bearing One Another's Burdens
When our children were young, our family invested in a tent and some essential tools for camping—like lanterns, a cook stove, towels for drying off in the rain, and cots for the parents to sleep on at night (in a somewhat-futile attempt for the parents to be rested in the morning). On those camping trips, it was typical for us to spend a good portion of our days wandering the state park’s trails. And inevitably on those walks, one of the children would say at some point, “Daddy, I’m tired—I can’t walk.”
We would respond with various attempts to reason them into more walking: “You can make it… It’s only a little farther…” But eventually the child just couldn’t keep going. So I would hoist her onto my shoulders and we would finish the walk with her happily bouncing down the path overlooking my head and alternately playing with my hair and holding on by cupping her hands under my chin (which was not the most comfortable position for me).
While the ends of those trips were uncomfortable for me, they were a help to our daughters, enabling them to finish the walk.
If only the spiritual life was so easy. If only we could pick up and carry one another so that we would not fail and fall. If only we could make decisions for one another and actually obey in the place of one another. But it is a little more complicated than that.
The Difficulty of Carrying Another’s Burden
In Galatians 6:2, Paul writes, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” That’s straightforward and simple, yet it isn’t so simple.
While I can instruct someone, counsel someone, or even live with someone, I cannot act on his behalf. Whatever his burden, it is his burden. Whether he is tempted or suffering—whatever his burden—it is his burden, and he is responsible for carrying the burden. No one will ever be able to stand before the Lord and say, “I am not guilty of that sin because no one said ‘No’ for me.” If I fail to act, then I am culpable. In fact, that is Paul’s very statement in verse 5: “For each one will bear his own load.”
Yet Paul does write “bear one another’s burdens,” so he obviously means that there are ways we can help one another with each other’s burdens. Unlike Christ on the cross, we cannot move culpability to ourselves for another’s responsibilities, but we can help one another.
Help Carry Another’s Sin Burden
The primary way Paul seems to be thinking about carrying the burdens of others is by helping them with their struggles with sin. In verse 1 he explains how to restore a sinning brother and in verses 3 and 4 he warns against becoming spiritually proud in one’s fight against sin. So the verse between those verses (v. 2), is likely also about the fight against sin.
If so, how can we help one another in the fight against sin?
Paul gives us several ways to help one another with the burden of temptation and sin in the context of Galatians 6. First of all, do not be afraid to address known and observed sin in a brother (v. 1). Whenever someone is “caught”—ensnared, trapped, held hostage—by some sin, we are to help them by going to them and appealing to them to repent so that they can be restored to Christ (Matthew 18:15ff). And when we help them out of their sin, we are helping them to shoulder the load of sin.
Second, always address sin with the goal of restoration (v. 1). We do not confront sinners in spiritual pride or haughtiness (see vv. 3-4) or self-righteous condemnation. Yes, there is confrontation, but the confrontation is always in the form of an appeal and with the hope that when they repent, Christ will forgive and will restore them to Him in full fellowship (James 5:19-20). To work for their restoration is to say, “I am with you in this battle with sin and there is hope for a way out and for your future that is joyful.”
Third, help the sinner carry his sin by instructing him (v. 6). Verse 6 implies that the sinner should share his material goods with the one who gave him spiritual “goods” of instruction. So Paul means us to understand as well that one way sinners are helped is by instructing them with the Scriptures. Sometimes sinners do what they do simply because they don’t know a better way—they have never been taught what God says or how God empowers or the benefit of obedience. And when they are taught, they are helped—the burden of sin is shared with another.
But sin is not the only burden we carry in this life.
Help Carry Another’s Life Burden
While the context of the word “burden” leads us to think of the burden of sin, there are other kinds of burdens that are carried in this world. The word “burden” denotes things that are oppressive. Certainly sin is oppressive, but the “burden” also refers to responsibilities (Acts 15:28; Revelation 2:24), significant weights (2 Corinthians 4:17), and toilsome work (Matthew 20:12). So “burdens” are various and include things like accidents, illness and death, relational pressures and difficulties, work and financial weights, and more. While those are walked alone (v. 5), there is a way to help others carry those weights. How do we do that? While the text isn’t specific, to help others in their trials, do things like:
Pray with them and pray for them. We are commanded to pray for one another (Ephesians 6:18; James 5:16). Even a man as strong as the apostle Paul related his dependence on the prayers of others (Ephesians 6:19). So we pray for them as they come to mind, through the day (and through the night)—and we also pray with them (in their presence). When they relate their burden, we put our arms on their shoulders and take them to God’s gracious and sufficient throne, interceding for them and reminding them of the One who will see them through their problem.
Read and remind them of appropriate Scriptures. Quote the Bible and read the Bible to those who are burdened. They need to hear the sufficiency of God for their need—that God is sufficient for all the needs mentioned above and every other need every man has ever experienced (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Psalm 19:6-14). The Word of God will guide them and give them hope in their trouble (Psalm 119:105).
Care for some physical need. Mow her lawn, fold his laundry, cook a meal, take him to an appointment, pay a bill, clean a bathroom (or house), or babysit a child. Those acts do not take away the burden from the suffering friend, but by acts of kindness, he is alleviated of other pressures and enabled to give more complete attention to his bigger trouble.
Practice the ministry of presence. Job’s friends are rightly critiqued for their failures, but not everything they did was wrong. For seven days they sat in silence with their friend. They encouraged him by their presence. Simply being with him said, “You are not alone; we are with you.” Those seven days of silence were wise and gracious gifts to Job from his friends. Similarly, people in the hospital or with irreparably broken relationships or with every other problem know you can’t fix the problem, but merely being with them is a grace to them that says, “You are not alone; I am with you.”
Why would anyone take the effort to act in such sacrificial ways?
Help Carry Another’s Burden Because of the Love Principle
The believer helps his burdened brother because of the “law of Christ” (v. 2b). The law of Christ is the law that says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength [and] you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). This is Christ’s “royal law,” and when we love others by that law, we “do well” (James 2:8).
We are inconvenienced in caring for others (and make no mistake, there certainly is inconvenience in helping others through their sin temptations and life troubles) because we love Christ and because we love them. The nature of love is not to be served, but to serve. The nature of love is not to get, but to give. The nature of love is not to impose on others for personal gain, but to experience imposition for the purpose of being poured out and used up (2 Timothy 4:6).
We carry burdens for others because we love. That’s what the body of Christ does for one another.
Just like the dad who carries a fifty-pound child on his shoulders for the last two miles of a hike will get neck cramps, a backache, and a sweat-soaked T-shirt, so there is a cost for the believer who will carry the burden of a fellow believer. At times, our finances will be impacted, and always our schedules will be rearranged. But with the cost is also the joy of knowing we not only have been obedient to Christ, but that we have been God’s chosen instrument to help another believer finish well the course of his faith.
Do not grow weary in bearing the burdens of others.