Galatians 6:1-5

Carry Each Other’s Burdens

25^th June 2011

Paul's letter to the Galatians is six chapters long. From the start until Chapter 5 Verse 12, Paul defends the doctrine of Justification by Faith and urges his readers not to be deflected from it.

Justification by Faith is the revelation that we can never attain right relationship with God through our own efforts or our own goodness, bur we can be put in right relationship with God by believing in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross to bear the punishment for our sin.

For the remainder of Chapter 5, Paul teaches us to live by the Spirit and not to gratify the desires of the flesh.

In Chapter 6, Paul moves to the practical outworking of these two ideas - Justification by Faith and living by the Spirit. He begins:

Galatians 6v1-2
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.

When my brother is tempted to sin, I am tempted to another sin - the sin of judgmentalism. When my brother falls, I must try to help him to recover, and I must do so gently. Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). How strange that I should feel superior to my brother when I'm living according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit.

If I judge my brother for falling into sin, how will I think clearly to avoid falling into sin myself?

We must carry each other’s burdens, helping each other with the trials that we face, sharing our financial, emotional, relational, intellectual and time resources so that each of us can live successfully in the situation to which God has called us. In particular, we must help those who have stumbled to get up and start again, free from sin.

Next, Paul writes:

Galatians 6v3-4
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,

If we think we are so holy that we can justifiably judge our brother, we're deceived. If we examine our own life, we'll soon see that we cannot boast that we live sinless lives. We can take pride in ourselves not because we're sinless - we're not - but because we're children of God, and He is at work in us by His Spirit to make us more like Jesus.

Galatians 6v5
for each one should carry his own load.

In Verse 2, we're instructed to bear each others' burdens. Now, in Verse 5, we're told that each one should [NRSV: must] carry his own load. We should help each other with the burdens we carry in this life. But when we stand before the throne of God, we must answer to Him for our actions, including the degree to which we carried the burdens of others. That is, we should share the burdens of life, but we must carry alone the burden of guilt for our own sin, including the sins of judgmentalism, selfishness and laziness.