Once again, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
2Be
bearing the burdens of one another, and thus you will fulfill the law of
Christ, 3for if one is seeming to be something being nothing, he is
deceiving himself. 4And each of you should be examining his own work
and then the boast will hold only into himself and not into the other, 5for
each one will bear his own load.
As I related in my last post, the passage before us is of
particular significance as Paul is very specifically addressing the matter of
how Spirit-indwelt and led believers relate to each other. In the first five
chapters he has presented the diametric contrast between law and grace,
between, on the one hand, simply “keeping the rules” and, on the other hand,
actually being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God and living faith from the
heart. “I believe I understand it,” we might say, “but how will it make me
different? In what ways should I expect it to change me?” In this particular
context, Paul is addressing how Spirit-leading affects our relationships in our
local church.
I was struck by the simplicity of this admonition, “Be bearing
one another’s burdens, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ.” It seems
so simple. If the Spirit really controls your hearts, you’ll be sensitive to
your fellow believers and do what you can to help them when their own loads get
too heavy. Hmmmm. It seems like it would be easy to say, “Oh, sure. We’ve got
that one. What else can we do?” But have we “got it?” I’ve usually found when
God tells me something and my first response is, “I don’t think I have a
problem with that,” – usually that is a sure sign He needs to clobber me with
something I’m totally blind to. I’m still praying about this one but so far the
freight train hasn’t run over me. Will have to keep praying.
In the meantime, I want to note that this is no new idea in
the Bible. Mark 10:42-45 says,
“Jesus called them together and said, “You
know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them,
and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so
with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For
even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many.”
I’ve also always enjoyed Philippians 2:3-5,
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own
interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships
with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus …”
Clearly, throughout the Bible, to be like Jesus is to care
about others, not to be served, but to serve, to look to the interests of
others.
One might ask, “Why wouldn’t we?” The ugly answer is
probably in the very next line of the passage, “… if one is seeming to be something being nothing, he is deceiving
himself.” Pride. Evil, insidious,
self-concealing pride. This is probably precisely why my first response is to
think, “I’ve got this.” Pride. Pride, in my opinion, is the absolute worst form
of self-deception. “Seeming to be something being nothing.” I have spent so
much of my life believing I was doing so well, being so Biblical, and yet now
looking back, I realize my heart was consumed with the sin of pride. Yikes!!!
We’re so arrogant, we would say, “If I was self-deceived, I would know it.” …
Hello? That is precisely the horror of the sin of pride – I can be absolutely
consumed with it and be the last one to know it. Interesting the verse says, “he
is deceiving himself.” I would suggest that usually the people around us see
our pride quite clearly.
While I’m on the subject, could I suggest that is a big
reason why the church in America has been so utterly ineffective? While we met
together four or five times a week and sang “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” and
congratulated ourselves how “right” we were, all the rest of the world could
see was our arrogant, offensive pride. At the root of it all is that we have
been legalists and, like the Pharisees, that only fed our pride and kept us
walking in the flesh, even as we were so impressed with ourselves. Had we been
walking in the Spirit, what the world would have seen is love. They would have
known we were Christians by our love. The same thing happened to England in the
19th century. Even while men the likes of Charles Spurgeon and J.C.
Ryle preached to them, the country went to hell in a handbasket. They sat under
some of the greatest preaching in human history, congratulated themselves on
being so right, then fought like cats and dogs, ruled their colonies in
unbelievable cruelty, and played right into Satan’s hands turning an entire
empire away from Christ. In the 20th century, the church in America,
like Judah of old, only followed her sister in evil and turned legalism into
the very warp and woof of what a nation thinks Christianity is all about. So,
so sad. Our evil, arrogant legalism has almost completely eclipsed the face of
God in people’s hearts. Thinking ourselves to be something being nothing.
I suppose I’m off on a rabbit-trail, but, God help me, I
want to be a person who prays hard against the sin of pride. Only God can
deliver us from it. It is self-deceiving. That is the very problem – I don’t
see it. I desperately need God to open my eyes, to help me to see it, to help
me actually repent of it, then to protect me from being proud that I’m so
humble(!). God deliver us.
Back to our passage, let us simply write it down that,
whether we see it or not, our evil pride will prevent us from “bearing one
another’s burdens.” Let us resolve to prayerfully seek to walk in the Spirit,
that we might be delivered from our pride, and that we might in fact see
clearly to know when others need us and actually lend a shoulder to help.
The passage goes on still, but I think I will end this post
here and come back to finish in another. In the meantime, once again, my heart
is telling me I don’t “got it” yet. The freight train of this truth still hasn’t
rolled over my evil heart. I will continue praying the Lord would open my
pride-blinded eyes and see where I can change, see where somehow
Spirit-indwelling ought to make me a different person.
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