An Exploration of Galatians: Bear One Another’s Burdens

Galatians 6:2-5 - Rid yourself of the deceit of pride and examine your works, so that you can share the burdens of others and carry your own load.

Photo by William White on Unsplash

”Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load.“

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭2‬-‭5‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

These next four verses in Galatians 6 are quite profound, in my opinion, and follow on to the first verse. I’m going to take each verse individually in this devotional.

I wrote of my concerns in my last devotional if we can truly discern, in this age of the closed, proud and isolated individual, those who are falling into trespass. Now Paul says that we are to bear one another’s burdens, fulfilling the law of the Christ. The word burden in this case comes from the Greek word βάρος or baros. In the Thayer’s Lexicon, this means: in the New Testament only, figuratively, a load, abundance, authority:—burden(-some), weight. The same word, interestingly, is used in 2 Corinthians 4:17 to describe the weight of glory that awaits us.

So these burdens are in addition to and beyond trespasses (sin) and are the afflictions that humans suffer, from poor health, to difficulties in a marriage, to problems with a child, to grief over the loss of someone dear, to loneliness. Here is what Enduring Word says about these burdens:

Bear one another’s burdens: When Paul brought up the idea of the one overtaken in any trespass, it painted the picture of a person sagging under a heavy load. Here he expanded the idea to encourage every Christian to bear one another’s burdens.

• The focus isn’t on “expect others to bear your burdens.” That is self-focused, and always leads to pride, frustration, discouragement, and depression. Instead, God always directs us to be others-focused, and says, “Bear one another’s burdens.”

• This is a simple command to obey. Look for a brother or a sister with a burden, and help them with it. It isn’t complicated, and it doesn’t take a huge program or infrastructure to do it. Just look for a burden to bear and bear it.

• “Notice the assumption which lies behind this command, namely that we all have burdens and that God does not mean us to carry them alone.” (John Stott)

To be able to bear another’s burdens you have to really know another person to know that they have a burden. It might be obvious that you can help a homeless person or you can bear another’s burdens through giving to Christian groups that aid others, but those are both impersonal. Note that the focus isn’t on expecting others to bear my burdens. Steve and I do pray every week for others (friends, family) in intercessory prayer that we know are suffering from health issues, loss of a loved one, have a family problem or are concerned about employment or perhaps money issues. I would strongly advise my friends that if you say you are going to pray for someone, then put them on a list and pray for them! It’s so easy to just give lip service to these words when someone posts a concern on social media or calls you or sends an email. Going beyond this point runs into the same concerns that I identified in the last devotional because then it becomes face-to-face and much more personal and spiritual maturity is essential. You may be rebuffed, but God wants us to keep trying.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

First, a little bunny trail rant on the next verse (For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself). The Unsplash photo repository that you can access in Substack has the current expected (and unfortunate) results when you put the word “pride” into the search engine. Our society celebrates the worst sins of all, while usurping the rainbow to do it (originally a promise from God) and there are hundreds of pictures to not choose from to illustrate this profound sin. Sadly, the words “deceit” and “deceive” have very few results (I picked one that shows the definition of lying). “Nothing” results in photos of empty roads and vast expanses of ocean. It is a fact that egoism, depravity and “my truth” appear to triumph over the Great and Eternal Truth.

Anyway, this verse is quite important. We are lying to ourselves if we think we are something in this world. The cemeteries are full of people who thought they were indispensable and “something”. Lately, we have been streaming a lot of movies about WWII. We watched a John Ford movie from 1945 one night called “They Were Expendable” about naval troops in the Philippines who operated motor torpedo boats (known as PT boats); these boats weren’t considered very useful by the chain of command. However the boats aid in the evacuation of General MacArthur from one of the islands so he can retreat to Australia, while many of the sailors who lost their boats are consigned to walking a beach and fending for themselves as the Japanese conquer every island (no evacuation for them). MacArthur was probably essential to the war, but he would not have succeeded without the efforts of those unnamed enlisted men who gave their lives for their country. Just the name of that movie can break your heart. And MacArthur has now been dead for many years and is largely forgotten (except for those interested in military history) or may even be despised at this point by our cultural warriors (who knows? They change the rules everyday).

Enduring Word has superb commentary on this verse:

If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself: Pride prevents us from bearing one another’s burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ. It is often pride that keeps us from ministering to one another as we should.

• As much as anything, pride is self-focus. Pride doesn’t necessarily say, “I’m better than you are.” Pride simply says, “I’m more important than you are, so I deserve more of my own attention and love than you do.” Instead, Biblical humility tells us, “I am no more important than you are. Let me care about your burdens and needs.”

• When anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, it also stifles ministry in another way. Out of pride, people will refuse to receive help when someone else reaches out to help bear their burden.

• It is important to understand that Paul wrote to every Christian when he said, “When he is nothing.” In the sense Paul uses the idea here, it isn’t that some Christians are something, and others are nothing, and the problem is that the nothings think they are one of the somethings. Instead, Paul writes with the same idea behind Philippians 2:3b-4: In lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. If I esteem you above me, and you esteem me above you, a marvelous thing happens: we have a community where everyone is looked up to, and no one is looked down on.

• “The meaning is more general and should therefore be expressed thus, ‘Since all men are nothing, he who wishes to appear something and persuades himself that he is somebody, deceives himself.’” (John Calvin)

He deceives himself: There are few things more self-deceptive than pride. To be proud is to be blind – blind to the freely given favor and gifts of God, blind to our sin and depravity, blind to the good in others, and blind to the foolishness of self-centeredness.

• We often get angry when someone deceives us. Yet we don’t take the danger of deceiving ourselves as seriously as we should. It is a serious and terrible thing to deceive yourself. “The misery of most men is, that their minds are as ill set as their eyes, neither of them look inwards.” (John Trapp)

• This helps explain the greatest deception of the greatest of deceivers – Satan himself. If there was anyone who thought himself to be something when he is nothing, it was Satan both before and after his fall. And if there is anyone who deceives himself, surely it is Satan – who works on and on against God in the self-delusion that he may one day triumph.

So pride keeps us from helping and keeps us from getting help for our burdens. Nothing has ruined this world more than the blindness and self-deception that pride creates. Satan himself is driven by this deception, as noted in the commentary.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Verse four of Galatians 6 tells us we are to examine our own works to see if there is a reason for boasting only within ourselves and not regarding others. Examine comes from the Greek word δοκιμάζω or dokimazo with the following Biblical usages:

1. to test, examine, prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals

2. to recognize as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy

We must be relentlessly critical of our spiritual works, testing them against God’s impossible standards. This keeps us humble and always thirsting to do more with the help of the Holy Spirit and it keeps us from self-deceived that we are “better” than other brothers and sisters in Christ. Here is what Enduring Word says about this:

But let each one examine his own work: Instead of deceiving ourselves, we must take a careful and a sober examination of our works before God. If we don’t, and if we carry on under our self-deception, then we may think our works are approved before God, when really they aren’t. We want to have our work approved before God, so that our rejoicing on the day of reward can be for our own work (himself alone), and not in the work of another.

• There is another aspect to rejoicing in himself. It means having joy at your own walk with the Lord, instead of feeling spiritual because someone around you perhaps is overtaken in any trespass.

I also like what Don Anderson, of Bible Teaching Resources, says about this examination, as quoted in Precept Austin:

Just as the Lord is going to put our works as believers to the test when we appear before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ, so in anticipation of that time we ought to be testing our own works to see whether they are wood, hay and stubble; or gold, silver, and precious stones. What the Apostle Paul is asking of us here is that we prepare ourselves for the final examination by a lot of little pop quizzes along the way....What Paul is asking us to do here is to CRITICIZE OURSELVES—put ourselves to the test rather than to spend our time criticizing others.

Photo by Ray Harrington on Unsplash

Finally, verse 5 tells us that we are to each bear our own load. Interestingly, the word load is a loaded term (no pun intended) from the original Greek. This word comes from φορτίον or phortion, with the following Biblical usages:

1. a burden, load

   1. of the freight or lading of a ship

2. metaph.

   1. of burdensome rites

   2. of the obligations Christ lays upon his followers, and styles a "burden" by way of the contrast to the precepts of the Pharisees, the observance of which was most oppressive

   3. faults of the conscience which oppress the soul

I’m going with 2b and 2c as the best descriptions metaphorically of what these personal loads are that we carry. I’m also sharing more commentary from Don Anderson found on Precept Austin:

There are certain things that each of us, just by the fact that we have life, that we can’t share with others—that we personally are responsible for. And so saying, there are things that each of us—in the body of Christ—must bear by ourselves. You say, ok Don, define it. What do you mean by packs? Well I’d say:

1. SUFFERING—God has unique tools of suffering just for you. Philippians 1:29 There are things that you’ll suffer because of the way you’re made and because of the way Christ wants you to become and for the fruit of the Spirit to be shown. I can’t bear your suffering and you can’t bear mine because there’s a unique curriculum for my life as there is for yours. And we must accept that. 

2. DEATH—We all are terminal. We’re going to die. Body function will fail. And what you do with that burden is between you and the Lord.

3. JUDGMENT—the Judgment Seat of Christ. Everyone shall give account of himself before the Judgment Seat of Christ—whether it’s good or bad. That’s your computer printout that’s laying on His desk. And mine is also there and there are things that only I can bear.

4. SIN—the consequences of sin can only be entered into with a brother and sister if restoration is involved. But as far as sin is concerned, the consequences of that sin is your burden and my burden for the sins I’ve committed. Psalm 51:4 Against thee, and thee only, have I sinned and done this great wickedness in your sight, … The family couldn’t help him. Anybody else couldn’t help him. This was something he did and so he prays: Psalm 51:10, 12 You see, all of that is PERSONAL. And that’s his own pack. Those are the things that he must personally take responsibility for.

We might feel like the poor guy in the photo above transporting hay on a bicycle in Vietnam. We are heavily burdened and can’t see where we are going. But we can do that self-examination constantly and think about those unique burdens that we now bear and will bear in the future and take responsibility for how we suffer, how we die, how we will be judged, and the consequences for our sin. Take these burdens to the Lord in prayer!

My next devotional examines Galatians 6:6-7 (share good things with those who teach the word; God is not mocked for whatever we sow we shall reap).

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Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Please help me to go beyond the casual response to other’s burdens and to commit to fully sharing in those burdens. Please help me realize that I am nothing and have nothing to boast about. Also, please help me with the loads that only I can bear myself, so that my response to those loads is pleasing to you. Amen.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 2/4/2024 to review the lexicon for burden, examine and load.

Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.

The personal testimony of Bruce Hurt, founder of Precept Austin, may be found Here.