Thursday, June 6, 2013

Galatians 6:2-5 – “Really Caring 4”


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.

No comments: