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 have been relating in my last three posts, we have
before us what would seem a very simple admonition, “Be bearing the burdens of
one another …” Once again, it seems like that shouldn’t be a difficult
assignment, but I suspect I’m not nearly as good at it as my sin-blinded heart
imagines. In the passage, the first obstacle that Paul warns against is our
pride – thinking we’re something when we’re nothing. If I want to really care,
if I really want to be a burden-bearer, then I must pray hard against that
insidious sin and be ever on the alert to pick up the tell-tale signs of its
presence.
Then Paul warns against another problem, or perhaps provides
one of the sure symptoms that pride is controlling us – comparing. Comparing
ourselves with others. Imagining that somehow it matters if I’m “better” than
someone else or someone else is “better” than me.
First of all, I want to say, the wording here to me is a bit
cryptic: “And 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.” Somehow,
the flow of thought or just the wording or something doesn’t easily make sense.
However, without laboring over it, it seems like the point is obvious: if I
would really care and be a burden-bearer, then I need to move “comparing”
high up on my radar screen. It’s a sure sign I’m being proud and likely I won’t
care like I should, anytime I catch myself pondering over who or what is better
than me.
Had the Pharisee in Luke 18:11 known this, perhaps he’d have
caught himself and humbly corrected himself, before his life became a monument
to pride. “The Pharisee stood by himself
and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people--robbers,
evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.’” First of all, his
heart was full of the sin of pride, even as he was supposedly in the act of
praying (!), secondly, in his pride it turns out he was completely wrong about
both himself and the other man, and third, obviously he could not possibly have
“cared” or had the spiritual insight to see if the man “needed” him. As his prideful
heart was busy comparing, it was impossible that anything spiritually good was
going to happen.
And so, we must understand, it is with us. It is more than
enough for my heart to spend its time holding itself accountable before God. “Each
one shall bear his own load.” “So then each of us must stand and give an
account of himself to God” (Rom 14:12). “Comparing
themselves with themselves, they become unwise” (II Cor 10:12). “Who am I to judge another man’s servant?”
(Rom 14:4). We are living, of course, in the age of “self esteem,” where
supposedly that is so important. What is needed however is not high self esteem
or low self esteem but rather an accurate self-evaluation. The esteem business,
I would suggest, is at its very root a “comparing” business. An accurate
self-evaluation is simply that – regardless of what anyone else does or thinks,
where do I stand before God?
I believe, for a Spirit-led man, an accurate self-evaluation
will produce two effects – humility and thankfulness – humility at the honest
realization of so much weakness and failure, and thankfulness for the
undeserved love of God and family and friends and for grace-enabled victories.
But, as we see in the passage before us, another benefit is that it leaves my
eyes and my heart open to actually care about others.
This all makes really good sense to me. The Holy Spirit within
me would move me to really care about others and be willing, even desirous, to
put a shoulder to their loads when I see theirs is too much for them. On the
other hand, my sinful pride and a heart caught up with “comparing” will blind me
to those needs.
It strikes me that being Spirit-led not only means trying to
be sensitive to His heart, but on guard against mine. Lord, help me be mindful
of these things as I head out into my day today. There certainly can be no lack
of people who need someone to care about them. But it will take a grace-thing
to give me the eyes to see it and really care. Against such things there is no
law. God may Your Spirit win in my heart today and may that somehow make a
difference in someone else’s too.
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