Third, a spiritual person carries the burdens of others and in so doing fulfills the law of Christ.
Gal 6
2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
A related verse is Gal 5:6–
Gal 5
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.
Putting those verse together, there are 2 very similar questions. The first one is, how do you fulfill the law of Christ? The second one is, what is true faith? The answer to both of these questions is basically the same. You fulfill the law of Christ by carrying another’s burdens and true faith is faith working through love. In other words, carrying one another’s burden and faith working through love for the sake of another person is the same thing.
Gal 6
15 For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.
Circumcision is a hot topic at this church because false teachers began teaching a false gospel that required the saints at Galatia to be circumcised in order to be saved. This is the complete opposite of what Christians are supposed to do. False teachers or false Christians are religious types or legalists who add burden to others while genuine, born again Christians who have experienced the new creation in their hearts will lighten the burden of others.
Is this how you conceive of Christian life? Do you look outside of yourself and see others who are burdened? That’s step one. Step two is going to that person who is burdened and looking for ways to lighten their load. This is what friends do. We lighten each other’s load so that we are not crushed under the burdens of life.
Are you lonely? Do you want a friend? Then, go and be a friend. Look at others and seek ways to lighten their burden. If this becomes the pattern of your Christian life, you will have friends. Friends like these are critical. Because we all go through seasons when we need others to carry our burdens. The more friends you have, the better off you’ll be. If you are not doing this, then you are not fulfilling the law of Christ, you do not possess true faith working through love, and therefore, you are not spiritual.
Fourth, a spiritual person considers himself nothing. Related to this, fifth, a spiritual person doesn’t compare with others to elevate himself.
Points 4 and 5 are connected so I will talk about these as one unit.
Gal 6
3 For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
What is your gut reaction to that verse? Be honest. What do you mean I am nothing? If someone went up to you and said, who do you think you are, you no good nothing. You’d be offended. I’m not nothing. I’m something. Our pride screams out, I’m somebody. Look at my family background, I’m somebody. Look at my credentials, I’m somebody. Look at the school I graduated from, look at the title on my business card, I’m somebody. Paul says, if you think you are something, you are deceived and you have no idea what it means to be spiritual.
In a Christian context, why do we fall into the deception that we are something when we are nothing? The following 2 verses shed some light.
Gal 6
4 But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else. 5 For each person will have to carry his own load.
These verses imply that some of the Christians at the church in Galatia were looking sideways and comparing themselves against others. Don’t you hate it when that happens? The whole point of coming to church is to look upward and fix our attention on God, our Heavenly Father who loved us to the point of sending His one and only Son to die on a cross for our sins. But instead of looking upward, people were looking sideways. What specifically were they looking at? They weren’t looking to ease the burdens of others. Instead, what did they do?
Gal 6
4 But each person should examine his own work…
They were focusing on who’s doing work and who isn’t. In addition, v5–
Gal 6
5 For each person will have to carry his own load.
They were focusing on work and who is carrying more of the load in terms of work.
In families, husbands and wives may start out lovey dovey in the beginning when the romantic feelings are running high. Those feelings empower you to serve the other without complaining and expecting nothing in return. But soon when the feelings come down, as they do in all marriages, it’s common for one spouse to start resenting the love of their life if he or she does all the work and the other doesn’t lift a finger. Same for companies. You have the high performers who do their work really well and have the capacity to help others do their work. They are great team players because they carry more than their share of the work load. Then, there are those who are on the verge of being fired who are not carrying their share of the work load and they create more work for others. Anyone who has worked before knows exactly what I am talking about. Nobody likes the coworkers who do the bare minimum. Everyone loves the high achievers.
Doesn’t this exact same thing happen in churches? You got the high achievers. They rise through the ranks and assume leadership and they carry more load than anyone else. What is Paul warning against? He is warning against the sideways glance. It’s one thing if you are serving others and lightening their load and shouldering most of the burden of the ministry out of a sense of gratitude because Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. And you heard his voice and you answered the call and you went to Jesus and you cast the burden of your sins to Him. And he responded by taking that burden of sin to the cross and saying, that burden is mine now. Let me carry it. In exchange, here’s my burden. You’ll find my burden to be light. Just follow me and live with me and fellowship with me. Your burdens have been lifted. You are free. It’s one thing if you take on the burdens of others because Jesus has taken all of your burdens away.
But when highly motivated Christians stop looking at Jesus and start looking sideways at others in the church, what happens? The complaining begins. How come I’m doing all the heavy lifting? What’s wrong with so and so? How come she doesn’t help? How come he’s unavailable? Paul says, that mentality of who is doing more of the work and who is shouldering the most burden has no place in the church. Spiritual life is not a performance of who is scoring the most points with God.
Gal 6
4 But each person should examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in himself alone, and not in respect to someone else. 5 For each person will have to carry his own load.
The last thing God wants is for us to boast or to become spiritually proud and self-reliant because we are doing more than others in the church and we look down on others because they are not pulling their weight.
Why does Paul advise us to examine our own work, and not look to others? The answer is given in v5–
Gal 6
5 For each person will have to carry his own load.
We will all stand before God alone on Judgment Day. And when we do, there is no more comparison. It doesn’t matter who did more. It doesn’t matter what title we had in the church. God will examine the quality of our own work, and in that sense, we are carrying only our own load. We might think, look at all I have done for others and we walk before God with a pile of other people’s burdens that we carried in this life. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is the quality of your relationship with God. Does your life bear the fruit of the Spirit? Do you know him? More importantly, does Jesus know you? You could shout all you want, Jesus, hello, remember me? I know you, I believe in you. The sincerity of our commitment will not save us. Jesus will say to many on that day, depart from me, I never knew you. The only thing that will save us is Jesus saying, brother, sister, I’ve been waiting for you.
If you never repented of your sins and never placed your faith in Jesus, then it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been to church. Jesus doesn’t know you. Don’t you want to be known by Jesus? If you haven’t given your life to Jesus, today is the day of salvation. I encourage you to begin praying right at this moment and if he calls you unto salvation, take that step to make Jesus your personal Savior and Lord today. Know him. And be known by him.
Somebody who knows they are nothing has been freed from spiritual performance and score keeping. He doesn’t look sideways but instead looks up. And because his gaze is fixed heavenward, that person will see the beauty and majesty of Jesus. I’m nothing, but Jesus, you are everything to me. Without you, I have nothing. Such a person is spiritual because he understands his self-identity and he understands the precious gift of salvation.