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Galatians 6:1-5 (NIV) Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Kind of an interesting passage of Scripture here. It seems that we may have done a bit of disservice to Paul’s letter by separating the beginning of chapter 6 from chapter 5. Back in the previous chapter, Paul is talking about a form of fundamentalism that goes to the extreme of legalism. And that makes the beginning of chapter 6 a bit more clear.
Now, if you read some of Paul’s other writings you know he talks about the grace of God and how it does not give us permission to live like hell Mon-Sat, and then be a holier-than-thou Sundays. It doesn’t work that way. And it also doesn’t work when we take the positional argument that we would rather sit at home and do all of this on our own, instead of sit on the pew with all the hypocrites that go to church. Guess what – right now if you find yourself in that camp of fundamentalism you might think you’re happy now right? No, not really - because at its heart the fundamentalism and the legalism that lead us down that pathway to isolation is filled with arrogance that leads to individualism – or more simply put it’s the thought that – I can do all of this on my own. Meaning I can live my life, pleasing God by myself.
Can I say from personal experience, that’s not how Christians live. We are a reflection of God Who lives in community – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are a reflection of this unity if we are following Christ, and that unity pulls us in together.
I found it interesting that this Scripture seems to go in two different directions when it comes to carrying our burdens. And this leads me to believe that there are those burdens we indeed can carry on our own. You know the ones that are ours. Often times there are things in our lives that we need to take ownership of, that we need to rightly carry on our own. Often times I believe there are pains and struggles that we create on our own and carry on our own. And then there are those things, those situations in life where we need to reach out for help.
You know I was reminded yesterday that often times those of us who are mature Christians forget that we need to put on our own oxygen mask before we help others put on theirs. It’s called self care – which is NOT to be confused with selfishness. I believe Jesus spoke of this when He told us that we need to love others like we love ourselves – meaning taking care of others like we take care of ourselves.
Then, there comes a time when help is needed beyond my own abilities. I can’t tell you how often I see it, and I have to even remind myself that from time to time it does me some good to check in with someone else. WHY…because we are all human.
Before I’m a pastor, I am a child of God. I am a disciple – I need to be discipled as much as I need to be discipling others. I am on this journey with God and there are times I’m going to need help just as much as the next disciple. But that kind of help only happens when we work together.
And we’re going to talk about that a bit more tomorrow. But today can you think of a time where you needed help but you didn’t want to ask for it? Can you share some insight in what helped you to ask for help? As we Re-Think Church we need to ask ourselves, how can we do this better together?