Saturday, June 1, 2013

Galatians 6:2-5 – “Really Caring 2”


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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