Galatians 6:2 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5For each will have to bear his own load.
In the time of Paul, most things had to be hand carried except for those people privileged to have an animal or cart of some type. People always had things to carry: food, water, and various goods or produce. Most people could picture in their minds someone walking down a road struggling to carry a load. Paul takes this vivid image and applies it to spiritual matters.
Paul has already clearly stated the law of Christ in 5:6, 14 as love. One way to love others is to bear their burdens. Every one of us has a burden. These burdens may be physical, such as an illness or lack of necessities. The outer burdens will affect us inwardly, creating worry and stress. A person can take different “stress tests” and list the different concerns they have, supposedly adding up to a certain number which will indicate how much stress they have. The number is rather arbitrary, because any stress can become burdensome to a person. One person’s burden may seem light to another but not to him or her.
By helping others with their burdens, we are fulfilling the law of Christ. Love is more than simply an emotion but should be an action that benefits other people. We can ask the Holy Spirit to lead us and help us to be sensitive to the needs of those around us. As we help others, however, we must heed Paul’s warning in v. 1 which is restated in v. 3. Helping others can lead to pride, thinking we are something special or that we are better than the people we are helping. The fruit of the Spirit must especially be present as we help others with their burdens. Every fruit in one way or another will help us help others to grow in their own faith in Christ.
If we think we are something special because we can help others, we are only fooling ourselves because we are blind to our own spiritual needs and burdens. Essentially what Paul is writing about in this paragraph is the need for strong community that is bonded together in love. Loving God and loving others should cause us to look humbly at ourselves and see that we cannot bear our own loads very well. Jesus talked about looking at the speck in another person’s eye while missing the log in one’s own eye (Matthew 7:3). The way of the crucified life is one of humility and faith. These are crucial requirements whenever we help others because we need the help of the Holy Spirit. We cannot push our own agendas or act in any selfish way otherwise we will push people away and only open up ourselves to the temptation of pride and the flesh.
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