One of the effects of our increasingly technologized society is the burden of having to form ourselves because of the loss of meaning and the deficit of a genuine sense of community. There are so many ways to “connect” but people today are lonelier than ever because technology has allowed the individual to survive. But how much meaning can there be in mere survival? Presenting an image of success and pleasure is not what generates a flourishing soul.
We are designed for community and connection, and we are called by God into communion with himself and his people. Jesus summarized this in his statement, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). That is the law of Christ that we are called to fulfill – to realize and exemplify genuine community – love relationships that are not self-seeking, but mutually investing. How is this practically realized?
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
Various senses to the word “bear” include the idea of carrying an object for another, removing or carrying something away, to endure or bear up under, or to provide or support.1 This is what community does. No one ought to be alone in their experience or isolated in their understanding of themselves.
After thirty years of marriage, British novelist Julian Barnes’ wife died from a brain tumor. He was struck by how many of his closest friends didn't know how to talk honestly about his grief. Barnes said, "Some friends are as scared of grief as they are of death; they avoid you as if they fear infection."2 The point to bearing one another’s burdens is to share the weight of the load – not just to ease the pain or difficulty, but to be mutually bonded and formed in the grace of God. “The distinctive feature in this view of suffering is that the present burden is conceived to be productive [with the end in view]. From the burden of suffering comes the fulness of glory.”3
The context shows us that the primary reference in this text to “bear one another’s burdens” is moral lapses, temptations, and guilt. Each of us in the family of God – the community of grace – is in ministry because part of following Jesus is helping others follow Jesus, and sometimes this entails messy grace. We are all flawed. If we are on the path to becoming like Christ it is a joy-producing mutual benefit to walk together.
1 Swanson, J., Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament)
2 Julian Barnes, Levels of Life (Jonathan Cape, 2013)
3 Theological dictionary of the New Testament (Vol. 1, p. 555).
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