Two Men Help a Fallen Donkey on the RoadBible World
6:2Galatians 6:2
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Bear one another's burdens means to help carry the trials, weaknesses, sorrows and troubles that press on fellow believers, and in that loving help to fulfil the law of Christ. The law of Christ is the law of love, kept by brotherly love in action toward one another and toward all. Its chief work is to restore one overtaken in fault with meekness, remembering one's own weakness and liability to fall, with pity and tender help rather than condemnation or abandonment. This is learned from Christ, who humbled Himself as a servant to suffer and die to save humanity, and it requires His Spirit and mind in lowliness, self-denial and esteeming others better than self. Each still bears his own personal responsibility and daily lot, yet all are to enter into one another's feelings with sympathy, practical care and shared labor, which unites the church as one body and brings blessing and strength to giver and receiver.
Words and Immediate Context
Believers are commanded to help carry one another's burdens through difficulty and to help a fallen person regain footing, and this mutual care fulfills the law of Christ. They are to remain joined by truth and love and to take responsibility for one another's welfare, sharing help in times of distress and trial. When a person is left alone to carry a load it shows the need for others to share it.
The burdens to be borne include trials, temptations, weaknesses, troubles, sorrows and disappointments arising from sin and frailty. Each person may be strong in some areas and weak in others, with serious faults still to overcome. Bearing one another's burdens in this way fulfills the law of Christ through compassion, patience and care rather than pride, selfishness or condemnation. Believers should remember their own weakness and need of mercy, treat others with the forbearance they need from God, show the love of Jesus to build love and unity, and exercise brotherly interest, sympathy and restoring care that forms a Christlike character. Students should also support and encourage their instructors, who face continual temptations and heavy responsibilities, and make their work lighter through faithful, attentive effort.
Obedience requires self-control, forbearance and sympathy because people differ in disposition, experience, education, understanding and the difficulty of their duties. Since human nature is frail, ignorant and liable to misunderstand, care is needed in judging others. Words and actions that seem small may have important effects on another person for good or evil, and a trial or duty that is easy for one person may be difficult and perplexing for another.
The law of Christ is the law of love, fulfilled by brotherly love, continuing love, and love in action toward one another and all people. Church members fulfill it when they are always ready gladly and cheerfully to serve one another by bearing one another's burdens, doing so in faith that believes the words of Christ without remaining in doubt and uncertainty. This burden-bearing expresses knowing and experiencing the Father's love shown in giving His Son, joining Christ in maintaining righteousness, and helping and comforting those who are carrying the burdens of the work.
Its immediate setting is restoring one overtaken in fault in a spirit of meekness while guarding self against temptation. It calls for holding a humble estimate of self and proving one's own work without comparing with another, without vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another, self-deceiving pride that thinks oneself to be something when nothing, superiority, prejudice or division. It includes sowing to the Spirit rather than to the flesh to reap life everlasting, not growing weary in well-doing but continuing to reap in due season, and using every opportunity to do good to all people especially fellow believers. Fulfilling the law means bearing one another's burdens instead of criticizing and faultfinding, with perfection of character known by love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, as those who are Christ's crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit.
Each person also remains responsible to bear his own burden and stand in his own lot and place. God has joined people together so they are not independent, but He has given every soul personal responsibility that no man may arbitrarily dictate by ordering what brethren should or should not do, what to say or where to go. A person should at least carry his own share and, if able, help others carry theirs, while each worker looks to God with a living connection with Him and learns to meet people where they are. Helping fellow workers carry their special burdens must be done without becoming an overseer over them, by encouraging and suggesting better ways to work and by speaking words of encouragement, faith and hope with improved methods of labor. Such help must strengthen and never discourage or weaken, since discouragement gives the enemy an advantage over minds that will in time react upon the discourager. This mutual help calls for sympathy, kindness, tenderness, courtesy, patience and practical care in relieving the poor, visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, advising the inexperienced and encouraging the fainthearted, and helping others in this way also strengthens the helper through love in action. Confidence is not to be put in the counsel of men with assent to all they say unless there is evidence they are under the influence of the Spirit, and those given sacred trusts must understand personal responsibility. Believers should also let others carry burdens when they need rest, and after doing their best with God's help they need not remain restless but may trust others to do their part.
This includes working steadily and industriously, economizing time, strength and means, and laying by every day to keep a surplus above expenses so that in sickness or misfortune a person sustains himself instead of falling helpless on the church. It requires being a giver of charity rather than a recipient, using means to do good to others, bless the needy and advance God's cause, while idleness, selfish closeness and living eased while others are burdened are condemned as sin and robbery toward God. Careful, independent action while seeking God's wisdom makes a person capable of bearing burdens. Faithfulness to humanity, second to honoring God, is performed by doing the duties each day brings and meeting its trials and bearing its burdens with firmness and a resolute heart. The burdens include labor, physical exertion, study, and the trials and difficulties of a life of toil, with study and work joined to keep physical and mental powers in active exercise. Those who shrink from these burdens and do not love labor cannot make life a success, while earnest and untiring effort, perseverance, constant resisting of temptation, strong purpose and trusting wholly in God bring victory, help in every emergency, qualify for a useful life in this world and give fitness for the immortal life. Serving God includes willingly taking up responsibilities and burdens in humility and lowliness with readiness to undertake the work God gives, trusting God to help.
The verse is a warning every soul must heed at the time when faith and works are needed in clear, distinct lines. Light is given amid moral darkness to substantiate the truth and lift up the third angel's message for the last days. The churches need to be set in order and the door of unbelief closed, Satan's seducing power increases to deceive the very elect if possible, and straight paths must be made for the feet lest the weak be turned out of the way so that souls in danger may be rescued.
Restoring Those Who Fall
Bearing burdens means above all restoring one who has been overtaken in fault or sin, with meekness and awareness of one's own liability to temptation, rather than abandoning, condemning, controlling, or lightly regarding him. Such restoration remembers personal weakness, little knowledge of the heart, great need of God's mercy, and liability to fall under the same temptation. It responds to one weighed down by long years of burdens with tender, patient compassion and care that helps rather than judges or condemns, and turns to God for strength to bear troubles with a Christian spirit instead of reproaching one who is weak and close to falling.
It is to be done with pity, compassion, forbearance, tender love, peace, patience, prayer, sympathy, hope and practical help, never in a proud, officious, masterly manner that asserts power, pours out accusations, destroys confidence for small indiscretions, judges even grave sins, casts the erring aside, or drives souls into hopeless discouragement and despair away from truth. Those who are spiritual bring back one caught in fault in gentleness while remembering personal weakness and liability to temptation, refusing proud self-importance that deceives, and testing one's own conduct without comparing with another. This way of helping protects the witness for Christ and guards the reputation of God's people, forbidding harm to the cause by sharp, harsh words or by unjust, unkind actions, and it calls each person to treat others as he would wish to be treated, resisting harsh speech by considering how hurtful words would feel if spoken to oneself.
It does not approve a brother's wrong course but tries to save him from sin instead of condemning him for being in sin, kindly pointing out mistakes and errors, guarding his interests as carefully as one's own, bearing with faults patiently and gently, showing kindness and love in daily actions, and helping him come from darkness to light. It patiently and kindly supports fellow believers in struggle without adding to their trials or helping bring them down, showing compassion, kindness and consideration for feelings toward the erring, tempted, and those troubled by real or imagined grievances, toward believers and unbelievers alike, and refusing to cut or wound them or to harbor hostile, suspicious or condemning thoughts. Those who recognize another's weakness have a special responsibility to help restore that person in the forgiving spirit Christ showed, with kindness, prayer, sympathy and hope rather than pushing away or treating harshly, and an unmerciful, careless spirit toward others is contrary to this duty.
It makes personal, compassionate effort to learn the truth and help the erring person and to handle difficult cases in a way God approves, rather than exposing the matter publicly, showing compassion toward all who have erred. Confession of faults brings the Lord's pardon, and learning to deal gently with one who errs prepares believers to help others in turn. When the one injured goes to the one in error and reproof is offered in the love of Christ and accepted, wrong is acknowledged with forgiveness asked from God and from the brother, restitution is made toward any others wronged, controversy ends, and friendship and confidence are restored with hearts bound together. Those thus united in Christian fellowship pray together and pledge to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, continuing repentance, confession and restitution until the breach is healed and being fully set to do good to one another, with the disease and soreness of the wrong removed by love and heart bound to heart by the Holy Spirit.
Those in responsible positions and with strength of influence must especially bear the infirmities of the weak for good and edification and not please themselves, helping those who stand most in need of help rather than taking burdens for those able to bear their own and aid others. This means helping those less favorably situated, the erring and faulty even when they have caused injury and tried patience to the utmost, because Satan has more power over them and wounds them where they are least protected while Jesus pities them and exercises His power and mercy for them. It follows Jesus, who did not shun the weak, unfortunate and helpless, did not confine visits and labors to the more intelligent and less faulty, and did not ask whether companionship with the poorest and most needy was agreeable, but sought the lost sheep and helped such as needed help. It binds those at the head of companies of workers not to lay a yoke of oppression, distrust, harshness and domineering words and manner upon fellow workers or pass by strongly tempted souls fallen into the enemy's snare, but to respect them, refuse to repress them, develop their best traits with love, patience, grace, compassion, kindness, forbearance and winning manner, and give them attention, prayer, special encouragement and earnest self-sacrificing labor lest they fall away, remembering they were bought with the life-blood of the Son of God and working together with God to break every yoke, let the oppressed go free, and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Christians must help a brother falling into decay instead of condemning and judging him, for it is sin to be idle and fold the hands; they must work with right hand and left, love neighbors as themselves, live to please others, take hold as soon as necessities around them are seen, give to those in need, and feel a burden for souls for whom Christ died. When one has been humbled by mistakes and is in need, fellow believers should come forward with Christ's love and help as they are able.
Spirit of True Burden-Bearing
Fulfilling the verse means coming into sympathy with Christ and copying the pattern He gave, when the Majesty of heaven made Himself of no reputation, came to a cursed world, toiled day and night to instruct, elevate and bring everlasting joy to a thankless people, became poor that through His poverty they might be rich, denied Himself, endured privation, scorn, contempt, suffering and death, and took the form of a servant to save humanity. It is having His tenderness for all the sheep and lambs of His fold, with care for God's heritage and tender compassion for the erring, the tempted and the tried, restoring one overtaken in fault in meekness while considering self, putting on mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing and forgiving one another as Christ forgave, putting on love as the bond of perfectness, and letting the peace of God rule in the heart. In practice this means personal labor for perishing souls, looking after orphans and not repulsing them when they seek favor, finding a place and work for needy youth among believers rather than turning them away to unbelievers, treating them in all things as one's own children, and responding to others' needs with practical help and self-denial.
It requires being endowed with the Holy Spirit, who is light and love and power, so the heart is softened to be kind and tender and thoughtful and forgiving toward one another. Those who live and walk in the Spirit help each other with heavy weights, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, against which there is no condemning law, with those who are Christ's crucifying the flesh and walking in the Spirit rather than the works of the flesh that keep evildoers from inheriting the kingdom. It rejects criticizing and faultfinding, vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another, and self-deceiving pride that thinks oneself to be something when nothing, and continues without growing weary in well doing, doing good unto all as there is opportunity, especially unto the household of faith.
It requires the mind and Spirit of Christ in lowliness, humility, self-denial, meekness, esteeming others better than self and looking to the things of others as well as one's own, showing to one another the same compassion expected from Christ, and living likeminded in love, harmony and unity without discord. Self and pride hinder this work, so exalting self, having too high an opinion of one's own ability and wisdom, censuring and condemning brethren instead of restoring them, dictating to others, and acting from strife and vainglory violate the verse and must be put away, with all haughtiness, self-exaltation, striving for supremacy and for human praise and deference, and with the heart cleansed from envy, jealousy and evil surmising. This burden-bearing flows from contemplating Christ's great condescension and humiliation in descending to the lowest depths to lift fallen man from moral defilement, so that man may be partaker of the divine nature and escape corruption through lust.
It is a lesson learned in the school of Christ as tenderness and care for one another's feelings, showing no resentful spirit in words or actions, and cultivating traits of character that add to the peace and happiness and healthfulness of each other. This begins in the family and then extends beyond the family, making believers bright and shining lights in the world who light the pathway for those in danger of missing the way through manifold temptations, led by the Holy Spirit to speak a word in season and out of season, with no selfishness but cooperating with heaven to bless others, and bearing burdens in Christ's cause helps a person grow strong in the Lord. It is fulfilled by self-forgetful love in kind words, pleasant looks, cheerful presence, thoughtful courtesies and sympathy that cheer others and lighten their loads, beginning at home and reaching beyond it, while neglecting it adds to life's misery. Kindness fulfills the law, for speaking kindly and treating others with courtesy forms beautiful characters fit for heaven.
It means praying for one another for healing, being to others what Jesus was to His disciples when He walked and talked with them on earth, showing tender regard for every soul needing help, and with painstaking effort and self-denial inspiring the erring with hope and faith through the love of Jesus, which all in positions of truth must manifest, through prayer, forgiveness, kind and thoughtful conduct, and tangible help. It requires making the most of self and not disappointing Christ, who paid an infinite price, by neglecting opportunities for self-improvement, and cultivating a calm, kind, gentle, tender spirit, which allows one to learn more rapidly because one is not troubled over what others have said. Daily conversion prepares workers for this service in bearing and forbearing with others, setting aside personal feelings and sides, and bravely taking up responsibilities while exerting an influence for righteousness and truth.
It is served by genuine simplicity rather than an emphasis on forms and ceremonies. It puts reasoning powers and capabilities to use for one another whenever believers are associated together, including in physical and mental training, making togetherness an occasion for essential missionary work one for another through Christian example in spirit, in words, and in faithful discharge of duty, watching for souls as those who must give an account, exercising every entrusted talent by watching unto prayer, and lifting others to the full extent of one's power toward character after the divine likeness.
Ways the Law Is Broken
To break the law of Christ is to meet a person crushed under pressure and struggling with discouragement with criticism, faultfinding, scolding, fretting, censuring and judging instead of practical help to lift the load. Such blame does not move or ease the burden, wastes precious time that should be spent asking how all can unite at once without delay to help, and is neither needed nor deserved by the one who feels the pressure most severely. The same violation is committed by proud self-importance and too high an opinion of one's own ability and wisdom, by vainglory, provoking one another and envying one another, and by thinking oneself to be something when one is nothing, which deceives the soul and manifests the spirit of the Pharisees rather than the fruit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Exalting self, censuring and condemning brethren instead of tenderly restoring them in meekness with compassion, mercy, pity and love, dictating to others, and acting from strife and vainglory hinder this restoring work and violate the verse.
Refusal to help breaks the law, as when those able to serve leave heavier responsibilities for others to carry, are unwilling to take any responsibility, live at ease while others are burdened, and fail to share equally in heavy labor and care. Instead of helping bear the load such persons become a burden themselves by dissatisfaction, evil surmising and jealousy toward self-sacrificing labor, by selfishness, unconsecrated conduct and bitter complaints, by expecting others to carry the load, and by an unwise course that adds overwhelming anxiety; Mary, for example, was to stop adding weight on the wrong side and take responsibility by making herself useful. The truly converted become burden-bearers and a blessing rather than a curse, no longer grieving the Saviour or the brethren, through humbling the heart, turning from wrong sympathizers and repentance that brings pardon. Help itself must strengthen and never discourage, weaken or enfeeble, but encourage by faith, hope and suggesting better ways and improved methods of work, since discouragement gives the enemy advantage over minds that in time reacts upon the discourager, while each still bears his own special burden without another becoming overseer over him. Bringing complaints in an excited manner, giving way to strong feeling, letting such words influence others to take on needless burdens, and adding weight rather than uniting anew to share the load, strengthen, bless and move forward together also breaks the verse.
To lay upon fellow workers a yoke of oppression, distrust, harshness and domineering words and manner breaks the law, which instead breaks every yoke and lets the oppressed go free by respecting workers, refusing to repress them, developing their best traits with love, patience, grace, compassion, kindness, forbearance and winning manner, and giving strongly tempted souls attention, prayer, special encouragement and earnest self-sacrificing labor. An unmerciful and careless spirit toward others, self-seeking pleasure, and refusal of self-denial and of patient forbearance that seeks to restore rather than hurt or condemn are contrary to burden-bearing, and those who are pleasure-seekers and will not be caretakers helping carry burdens are not fit for a place in God's work. Manufacturing many burdens for others to carry by a critical spirit, a desire to have control and run the work, and by always pulling on the opposite side from the course brethren desire to follow adds to their load instead of working in harmony. Even the faulty, disagreeable, hard, gnarled, warped and crooked through lack of proper education and lack of amiability must be patiently helped to see and correct their defects without impatience and irritability over faults, leading them to seek the meekness and gentleness of Christ, while time is not robbed by idleness or adornment of the body but devoted to prayer, to becoming conversant with the Bible, and to laboring for the good of fellow beings.
Practical Care for Sufferers
Bearing burdens means entering into the feelings of others and making their difficulties one's own. This includes sympathizing with the young in their joys, sorrows, conflicts and victories, meeting them where they are in order to help them. As Christ came among fallen people and shared human weakness, suffering and temptation to lift them up, so patient compassionate care is required. When young believers fall under temptation they are not to be treated harshly or indifferently, for even a compassionate look can soothe and strengthen a struggling child.
Mutual help calls for sympathy, kindness, tenderness, courtesy and patience expressed in practical care: relieving the poor, visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, advising the inexperienced and encouraging the fainthearted. The church is to seek out the Lord's children who are poor, sick, afflicted or otherwise in need and relieve their wants, while those enduring hardship are also encouraged as they comfort the hopeless and sin-stricken around them. People are not independent but joined together by God, and helping others also strengthens the helper. This is not left to personal choice but is a binding obligation of loyalty to God, fulfilled through love in action, requiring natural self-centered impulses to be changed for the impulses of Christ toward nobility and self-sacrifice, with feelings of love and goodwill cherished to bless and not curse, lightening sorrows and sharing the distresses of fellow men.
Practical care with kind words and deeds for those in trouble opens doors to help and draws them toward God. Christlike sympathy, kind words and thoughtful acts refresh and strengthen those facing hardship and ease temptation and doubt. Words of sympathy and love lighten another's troubles, and blessing others in this way also brings blessing to the helper.
The work includes sharing sound counsel with those lacking skill in managing worldly affairs, who should humbly seek trusted judgment before acting rather than only after difficulty comes. Helping early prevents greater trouble, for waiting until plans bring difficulty makes the burden heavier, and avoiding a lawsuit even by accepting some loss can keep difficulties from becoming heavier. It seeks the lost and weak, binds up wounds with love and sympathy, strengthens by faith and helps gain victory rather than driving away through suspicion or harmful speech. Christians are to warn and care for those going wrong or in spiritual danger rather than leave them isolated to sink further into unhappiness, discouragement or sin, since unselfish love for a brother is evidence of true love for God.
Thoughtful steps are to be taken to protect health and lives and improve difficult or dangerous conditions for rich and poor alike, following Christ's example and cultivating the spirit He brought to humanity. Such care may require practical effort, such as providing safe water and nourishing drink to prevent illness. Genuine Christian love and sympathy reaching out in practical care is part of doing Christ's work, fulfilled through loving labor, self-denial, sacrifice and devotion to others' good including bringing them to the truth, since mere profession of faith is not enough. Even soothing and helping the afflicted when it requires personal sacrifice fulfills the law. Applied to a physician, this means not adding to his heavy cares by unkind criticism but giving sympathy, prayer and appreciation that strengthen hope and courage. Following Christ's example, believers show compassion by helping carry one another's burdens, putting His law of love into practice to help and comfort those carrying the work.
Sharing the Work Load
Every church member is called to enter God's service as a burden-bearer, each standing in his own lot and place to carry forward the great plan of redemption. Fulfilling the law requires living the truth and imparting it to others, for truth not lived and shared loses its life-giving power and healing virtue. Every addition to the church is to become one more agency for redemption, with the whole church acting as one and blending in perfect union as a living, active missionary agency moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit, laboring in quietness and humility in meekness and lowliness with God's claims paramount over every social claim and earthly affection, learning how to minister to sin-sick souls with unceasing effort for others' good.
God has given to every person his work to live a life of usefulness, fulfilled when people learn all they can and then bless others by imparting knowledge of truth, each willingly doing according to his several ability to help bear the burdens. This burden-bearing is to be done everywhere for all classes, coming close to the poor and depraved fallen through intemperance, and at the same time not forgetting the higher classes — lawyers, ministers, senators, and judges, many slaves to intemperate habits — leaving no effort untried to show them their souls worth saving and eternal life worth striving for. It presents the total abstinence pledge to those in high positions and asks them to give money otherwise spent for liquor and tobacco to establish institutions where children and youth may be prepared to fill positions of usefulness.
Believers share the burdens of God's work by supporting every department, engaging their interest, giving of their means, and offering themselves without reserve as practical expression of grace, belonging to all believers not only ministers or hearers. They should share work and responsibilities they are able to carry instead of leaving them to ministers, for this unselfish service not for human reward brings spiritual growth and makes them a blessing to others while keeping the church living and active. Ministers must share work burdens with brother ministers and church members instead of one carrying all alone, taking mutual share, supporting one another and developing broad interest rather than leaving heaviest and most difficult duties to one person, since human strength cannot endure such strain alone. The minister should not do all the work alone but teach workers to follow Christ and work as He did, standing beside a fellow worker under responsibility and censure rather than watching him fight alone, which keeps the load from crushing and breaking down any one worker.
Ministering brethren should have carried their own responsibilities instead of leaving them to one person, which would also have given them valuable experience in caring for and building up the cause. New workers should join institutional workers as helpers and fellow workers in brotherly love, and changes should not be made abruptly to discourage faithful workers who have served successfully, but proceed with justice and harmonious cooperation. Responsibilities and heavy labor must be borne equally by all, each taking a share rather than leaving one man to put forth double energy under burdens too heavy for strength and health. Those unwilling to take responsibility, not realizing the weight carried for them and not as interested as they should be, fail to fulfil the law and become a burden themselves by dissatisfaction, evil surmising and jealousy toward self-sacrificing labor done regardless of personal interest and health, adding care and overwhelming anxiety that undermines the constitution, whereas faithful equal bearing preserves strength and saves more souls.
At Battle Creek, headquarters of the cause for twenty-five years, managing growing interests in all branches and maintaining devotion under constant fire was hardest, because forces of evil rallied there as against Washington, the seat of government most in danger and most fortified during the American war. Brethren with no practical knowledge of toils, sacrifices and difficulties let heavy burdens fall on leaders which they should have borne, crushing them until paralysis came August 15, 1865, when others were poorly prepared to bear what had crushed them because in ignorance they supposed almost anyone could fill the place. Those who devote lives to God's service and humanity's good in important positions face sharpest conflicts with darkness, while those holding no responsible position and at ease doing nothing are left alone because they do nothing to injure evil's cause, and refusal to carry share with cool selfish criticism delights the adversary who works to lay added burdens on the weary and to divide, grieve and discourage. Believers should take up responsibilities and help carry heavy burdens rather than leave them to one person and then murmur against him, risking life, health, strength, time and everything needed to advance the message.
Burdens that would crush one worker down must be shared by fellow workers instead of carried alone, requiring men in responsible positions to give strong support and encouragement to a worker laboring under trying circumstances, while the burdened must not overload himself with those shared burdens. Those in responsibility must work together in the Lord's name, yoked closely in carrying institutional burdens in dealing with physical and mental disease, with correction done by coming close to God by faith to recognize the Holy Spirit's leadings, which pleases God. Helping fellow workers carry their special burdens must be done without becoming an overseer, for every person bears his own burden, and the law is fulfilled by speaking encouragement, faith and hope and suggesting improved methods that help others bear work, never by discouraging and enfeebling, since discouragement gives the enemy advantage over minds that will react upon the discourager. It is also fulfilled by appreciating fellow workers' burdens with thankfulness and forgiving spirit, including practical help such as helping Elder Burden carry his load.
In pioneer enterprises with multiplied inconveniences, burdens, embarrassments, opposition and struggle through prejudice and obstacles in opening new fields, others must put shoulder to the wheel with interest to help bear pressure and lift the load. Those with no part in the press of battle, foresight, suffering and struggle must not with aftersight criticize, magnify mistakes, carry reports with no foundation in truth, bear false witness placing struggling efforts in wrong light, pick flaws, tell what should be done while doing nothing, sit idle because desired wages are not paid, watch others labor while claiming great knowledge, or suppose from self-esteem they would have done better, for such conduct discourages workers, retards the cause and hinders success instead of strengthening hands amid discouragement and lack of means. Duty is to give time, means, capabilities and talents unselfishly to push the work and make it a success, remembering everyone will be tested and tried.
All connected with the publishing work must be caretakers helping carry burdens for others with self-denial, following the example of taking human infirmities with compassion and practical help, and pleasure-seekers unwilling to do this are not fit for a place in that work, including supporting the institution in its distress. When one comes into trying perplexity at the foot of the hill under severe pressure needing strong helpers to cooperate in pulling up the load, others must unite at once without delay, for scolding, fretting, censuring and excited complaint do not move the load and the one feeling pressure most severely neither needs nor deserves censure. The first thought must be how all can unite in helping because too much is at stake, calling American brethren and Scandinavian brethren in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and all who love the cause to come to the rescue and relieve pressed European institutions, especially the Denmark Sanitarium, doing work as God's helping hand, lest failing now lose a rich blessing. Applied likewise, church members and officers should help pay the Battle Creek College debt rather than leave school leaders to carry the obligation alone, with united practical assistance bringing relief to heavy burdens.
Heavy loads are to be shared with helpers rather than carried alone beyond what physical strength justifies, for gathering too many responsibilities and accumulation of cares exhausts vital energies, robs capability and influence to stand as men of power, wears out health and life, and makes the God-given work for perishing souls secondary by heavy drafts from different enterprises. Those resting under such work need special help and a larger number of faithful helpers with facilities to do it without becoming worn out, and must firmly refuse added lines unless that help is provided. Togetherness should become missionary work for one another by putting reasoning powers and capabilities to use whenever associated, including physical and mental training, through Christian example in spirit, words and faithful discharge of duty, watching for souls as those who must give account, exercising every talent by watching unto prayer, and lifting others to full extent of power toward character after the divine likeness. Young people should be trained to become capable caretakers to support the worn and burdened, learning to bear share of life's burdens by useful helpful work that develops mind and character and cultivates habit of doing good, forgetting self to help others, with training from earliest childhood in order and helpfulness according to ability so as they grow they become more useful and fitted to carry their part.
Believers bear burdens by supporting those doing the work and praying for them rather than merely questioning and finding fault, treating a fellow believer's family's needs as their own with sympathy, kindness, prayer and tender care that relieves the weary and blesses givers through godly example and holy influence. This includes encouraging messengers with kind words and faithful prayer rather than adding needless difficulties, addressing own trials before God instead of making others bear responsibility for settling them, and protecting fellow workers rather than making careless selfish choices that harm or cut off influence, which fulfills mercy and love. Humbling the heart before God and opening the heart's door to let the Saviour abide leads to criticizing self rather than others and doing all in power to strengthen and encourage those for whom He gave His life. Students likewise should help teachers carry burdens and face perplexities made discouragingly heavy and trying, and help and encourage one another, creating a helpful uplifting atmosphere.
Home and Family Duties
A husband fulfills the law by helping his wife carry her burdens with sympathy, unfailing affection, kindness and loving courtesy, and his support encourages her while bringing joy and peace to his own heart. This includes helping her in training their children and in home life, showing appreciation for her and uniting with her in the work instead of leaving it all upon her, which keeps her fresh and gladsome so she is as sunshine in the home. A wife in turn is to help her husband and father carry his heavy cares rather than adding to them, refusing to bring complaints in an excited manner, give way to strong feeling, or influence others to take up needless burdens. Instead she unites anew with him to help, strengthen and bless each other and to move forward together in God's work.
Spouses are to help each other bear life's troubles through patience, kindness, tender love and practical godliness, sharing difficulties and duties with cheerfulness, kindness and forbearance rather than living only for self, with thoughtfulness, self-denial and concern for others. Parents fulfill the command by inviting their children who follow Christ to share their trials and griefs, then sympathizing with them and praying with them so they keep going in the way of life trusting God. Children, as members of God's family, are to be taught to give their abilities to God in unselfish service, sharing spiritual and physical burdens with their parents, which increases their happiness and usefulness.
Older family members are to share household work so tasks do not fall too heavily on a few, regarding this as duty not drudgery that serves their own well-being and the happiness of loved ones and prepares them for greater duties and responsibilities. Emma was to cheerfully take up her share of life's burdens by helping Edson rather than leaving him to carry the work alone, which would also benefit her. Even children can learn to lighten others' burdens by doing what they are able, using time to benefit others and bless humanity as a duty worth striving for. Learning from Christ includes doing the small duties of daily life and helping carry family members' burdens, and such service brings union with Christ.
Bearing burdens means taking fatherless children into care as one's own, willingly accepting inconvenience and care for the salvation of their souls, instructing them in divine things and fitting them for heaven. It requires gaining the orphan's confidence and affection by tangible proofs of love, encouragement, inducements and an atmosphere of tenderness and gentleness, not leaving him in perplexity about his home and future, with the church responsible in great degree for children entrusted to it by dying parents. One thus borne becomes in turn a true burden-bearer in the church, sought by the less experienced for advice and counsel, serving in true Christian humility with dignity that inspires respect and confidence. It also means carrying one's own proper share and lightening others' loads instead of laying the whole weight on them, being helpful enough to offset the burden one is to a husband and those around rather than calling forth sympathy without giving in return or expecting to be waited on by those no more able to do the extra task. This is done by ministering to others instead of wishing to be ministered unto, cheerfully performing physical labor, domestic duties and educating one's own daughter at home as the duty Heaven assigns, which is especially necessary for a minister's wife whose influence should help rather than hinder.
Unity and Blessing Resulting
Fulfilling the law means bearing one another's burdens in firm, harmonious unity that joins member to member as the different parts of the natural body are joined. Hands, head, and feet are closely united and mutually dependent, so no member can live and act independently of the other members, for all are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. This unity lives because the life and Spirit of Christ dwelling within sustains and causes every particular member to flourish, Christ living in them, as the branch cannot live or bear fruit except it abide in the vine. It calls the church to be firmly united in Christian unity by eradicating every fiber of the root of bitterness that causes disharmony and defiles many. Selfishness kills spirituality, and self-sufficiency leads to harsh treatment of those bought with Christ's blood, and unless such are converted they can never see the kingdom of heaven; in contrast, fulfilling the law means being kindly affectioned with brotherly love, preferring one another in honor, and increasing and abounding in love toward one another and toward all people, so that hearts are established unblamable in holiness before God at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wisdom from above that makes this possible is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, sowing the fruit of righteousness in peace by peacemakers, in contrast to bitter envying and strife that is earthly, sensual and devilish and brings confusion and every evil work.
Lightening sorrows and disappointments by showing the love of Jesus builds love and unity, for each person has sorrows and disappointments to be lightened. Bearing another's burden means offering help and strength rather than judging or publicizing faults, and this builds up the weak in faith and fosters love and unity among followers. Such mutual care joins followers in love and service, enabling them to work together as lights amid moral darkness. True happiness is found by helping one another and bearing burdens together, and doing so fulfills the law. Earnest, active service and labor of love take on one another's burdens, and those able to help should not leave heavier responsibilities for others to carry. Such service, self-denial, and sacrifice fulfill the law and bring spiritual strength and blessing in proportion to the good done for others; good works do not save by themselves, but they are necessary in the life of the saved, and even after doing all one can, a person has only done duty and remains dependent on Christ's righteousness.
A church that shuts itself off from helping others becomes spiritually weak, while spiritual work, toil, and burden-bearing give strength to the church. Bearing burdens includes united prayer, mutual encouragement, and working together in love and good works while also taking responsibility for the church's work, and such service fulfills the law and helps the church advance spiritually. Forgetting self in practical, caring concern for others relieves their troubles and also benefits the giver, helping to overcome personal infirmities and supporting health of soul and body. Turning from dwelling on one's own troubles to serve those who are suffering is part of the mind of Christ and fulfills his law, and makes one's own griefs less burdensome. Bearing another's burden through compassionate, practical help that supports the discouraged and those who find the way difficult can quicken one's own spiritual life, deepen devotion, and make Christian experience more earnest and real. Serving others in self-forgetful work means bearing burdens for Jesus, and doing so helps people grow in grace and gain valuable spiritual experience.
Those who share what they have received and help others become burden-bearers through united service, sympathy, and forbearance, while drawing strength from Christ the living Head through his Holy Spirit. Bearing the burdens of the cause requires being yoked with Christ and acting with kindness, compassion, and love, applied to council and board members who must learn meekness and lowliness from Christ so they can deal justly, love mercy, and treat both the work and its workers with courtesy and care. Believers carry burdens by helping where help is most needed and accepting responsibilities for the good of the church, and refusing such service weakens spiritual life, while taking on responsibilities only to carry out one's own plans is not the selfless burden-bearing taught. This shared carrying of burdens and responsibilities is needed for the church to be living and active. Young people bear burdens for one another by putting away pride and selfishness and sacrificing pleasure and inclination for the truth, and their willingness to serve brings Heaven's blessing, while wholehearted service requires yielding themselves to God.
Bear one another's burdens means to help carry the trials, weaknesses, sorrows and troubles that press on fellow believers, and in that loving help to fulfil the law of Christ. The law of Christ is the law of love, kept by brotherly love in action toward one another and toward all. Its chief work is to restore one overtaken in fault with meekness, remembering one's own weakness and liability to fall, with pity and tender help rather than condemnation or abandonment. This is learned from Christ, who humbled Himself as a servant to suffer and die to save humanity, and it requires His Spirit and mind in lowliness, self-denial and esteeming others better than self. Each still bears his own personal responsibility and daily lot, yet all are to enter into one another's feelings with sympathy, practical care and shared labor, which unites the church as one body and brings blessing and strength to giver and receiver.
Words and Immediate Context
Believers are commanded to help carry one another's burdens through difficulty and to help a fallen person regain footing, and this mutual care fulfills the law of Christ. They are to remain joined by truth and love and to take responsibility for one another's welfare, sharing help in times of distress and trial. When a person is left alone to carry a load it shows the need for others to share it.
The burdens to be borne include trials, temptations, weaknesses, troubles, sorrows and disappointments arising from sin and frailty. Each person may be strong in some areas and weak in others, with serious faults still to overcome. Bearing one another's burdens in this way fulfills the law of Christ through compassion, patience and care rather than pride, selfishness or condemnation. Believers should remember their own weakness and need of mercy, treat others with the forbearance they need from God, show the love of Jesus to build love and unity, and exercise brotherly interest, sympathy and restoring care that forms a Christlike character. Students should also support and encourage their instructors, who face continual temptations and heavy responsibilities, and make their work lighter through faithful, attentive effort.
Obedience requires self-control, forbearance and sympathy because people differ in disposition, experience, education, understanding and the difficulty of their duties. Since human nature is frail, ignorant and liable to misunderstand, care is needed in judging others. Words and actions that seem small may have important effects on another person for good or evil, and a trial or duty that is easy for one person may be difficult and perplexing for another.
The law of Christ is the law of love, fulfilled by brotherly love, continuing love, and love in action toward one another and all people. Church members fulfill it when they are always ready gladly and cheerfully to serve one another by bearing one another's burdens, doing so in faith that believes the words of Christ without remaining in doubt and uncertainty. This burden-bearing expresses knowing and experiencing the Father's love shown in giving His Son, joining Christ in maintaining righteousness, and helping and comforting those who are carrying the burdens of the work.
Its immediate setting is restoring one overtaken in fault in a spirit of meekness while guarding self against temptation. It calls for holding a humble estimate of self and proving one's own work without comparing with another, without vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another, self-deceiving pride that thinks oneself to be something when nothing, superiority, prejudice or division. It includes sowing to the Spirit rather than to the flesh to reap life everlasting, not growing weary in well-doing but continuing to reap in due season, and using every opportunity to do good to all people especially fellow believers. Fulfilling the law means bearing one another's burdens instead of criticizing and faultfinding, with perfection of character known by love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, as those who are Christ's crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit.
Each person also remains responsible to bear his own burden and stand in his own lot and place. God has joined people together so they are not independent, but He has given every soul personal responsibility that no man may arbitrarily dictate by ordering what brethren should or should not do, what to say or where to go. A person should at least carry his own share and, if able, help others carry theirs, while each worker looks to God with a living connection with Him and learns to meet people where they are. Helping fellow workers carry their special burdens must be done without becoming an overseer over them, by encouraging and suggesting better ways to work and by speaking words of encouragement, faith and hope with improved methods of labor. Such help must strengthen and never discourage or weaken, since discouragement gives the enemy an advantage over minds that will in time react upon the discourager. This mutual help calls for sympathy, kindness, tenderness, courtesy, patience and practical care in relieving the poor, visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, advising the inexperienced and encouraging the fainthearted, and helping others in this way also strengthens the helper through love in action. Confidence is not to be put in the counsel of men with assent to all they say unless there is evidence they are under the influence of the Spirit, and those given sacred trusts must understand personal responsibility. Believers should also let others carry burdens when they need rest, and after doing their best with God's help they need not remain restless but may trust others to do their part.
This includes working steadily and industriously, economizing time, strength and means, and laying by every day to keep a surplus above expenses so that in sickness or misfortune a person sustains himself instead of falling helpless on the church. It requires being a giver of charity rather than a recipient, using means to do good to others, bless the needy and advance God's cause, while idleness, selfish closeness and living eased while others are burdened are condemned as sin and robbery toward God. Careful, independent action while seeking God's wisdom makes a person capable of bearing burdens. Faithfulness to humanity, second to honoring God, is performed by doing the duties each day brings and meeting its trials and bearing its burdens with firmness and a resolute heart. The burdens include labor, physical exertion, study, and the trials and difficulties of a life of toil, with study and work joined to keep physical and mental powers in active exercise. Those who shrink from these burdens and do not love labor cannot make life a success, while earnest and untiring effort, perseverance, constant resisting of temptation, strong purpose and trusting wholly in God bring victory, help in every emergency, qualify for a useful life in this world and give fitness for the immortal life. Serving God includes willingly taking up responsibilities and burdens in humility and lowliness with readiness to undertake the work God gives, trusting God to help.
The verse is a warning every soul must heed at the time when faith and works are needed in clear, distinct lines. Light is given amid moral darkness to substantiate the truth and lift up the third angel's message for the last days. The churches need to be set in order and the door of unbelief closed, Satan's seducing power increases to deceive the very elect if possible, and straight paths must be made for the feet lest the weak be turned out of the way so that souls in danger may be rescued.
Restoring Those Who Fall
Bearing burdens means above all restoring one who has been overtaken in fault or sin, with meekness and awareness of one's own liability to temptation, rather than abandoning, condemning, controlling, or lightly regarding him. Such restoration remembers personal weakness, little knowledge of the heart, great need of God's mercy, and liability to fall under the same temptation. It responds to one weighed down by long years of burdens with tender, patient compassion and care that helps rather than judges or condemns, and turns to God for strength to bear troubles with a Christian spirit instead of reproaching one who is weak and close to falling.
It is to be done with pity, compassion, forbearance, tender love, peace, patience, prayer, sympathy, hope and practical help, never in a proud, officious, masterly manner that asserts power, pours out accusations, destroys confidence for small indiscretions, judges even grave sins, casts the erring aside, or drives souls into hopeless discouragement and despair away from truth. Those who are spiritual bring back one caught in fault in gentleness while remembering personal weakness and liability to temptation, refusing proud self-importance that deceives, and testing one's own conduct without comparing with another. This way of helping protects the witness for Christ and guards the reputation of God's people, forbidding harm to the cause by sharp, harsh words or by unjust, unkind actions, and it calls each person to treat others as he would wish to be treated, resisting harsh speech by considering how hurtful words would feel if spoken to oneself.
It does not approve a brother's wrong course but tries to save him from sin instead of condemning him for being in sin, kindly pointing out mistakes and errors, guarding his interests as carefully as one's own, bearing with faults patiently and gently, showing kindness and love in daily actions, and helping him come from darkness to light. It patiently and kindly supports fellow believers in struggle without adding to their trials or helping bring them down, showing compassion, kindness and consideration for feelings toward the erring, tempted, and those troubled by real or imagined grievances, toward believers and unbelievers alike, and refusing to cut or wound them or to harbor hostile, suspicious or condemning thoughts. Those who recognize another's weakness have a special responsibility to help restore that person in the forgiving spirit Christ showed, with kindness, prayer, sympathy and hope rather than pushing away or treating harshly, and an unmerciful, careless spirit toward others is contrary to this duty.
It makes personal, compassionate effort to learn the truth and help the erring person and to handle difficult cases in a way God approves, rather than exposing the matter publicly, showing compassion toward all who have erred. Confession of faults brings the Lord's pardon, and learning to deal gently with one who errs prepares believers to help others in turn. When the one injured goes to the one in error and reproof is offered in the love of Christ and accepted, wrong is acknowledged with forgiveness asked from God and from the brother, restitution is made toward any others wronged, controversy ends, and friendship and confidence are restored with hearts bound together. Those thus united in Christian fellowship pray together and pledge to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, continuing repentance, confession and restitution until the breach is healed and being fully set to do good to one another, with the disease and soreness of the wrong removed by love and heart bound to heart by the Holy Spirit.
Those in responsible positions and with strength of influence must especially bear the infirmities of the weak for good and edification and not please themselves, helping those who stand most in need of help rather than taking burdens for those able to bear their own and aid others. This means helping those less favorably situated, the erring and faulty even when they have caused injury and tried patience to the utmost, because Satan has more power over them and wounds them where they are least protected while Jesus pities them and exercises His power and mercy for them. It follows Jesus, who did not shun the weak, unfortunate and helpless, did not confine visits and labors to the more intelligent and less faulty, and did not ask whether companionship with the poorest and most needy was agreeable, but sought the lost sheep and helped such as needed help. It binds those at the head of companies of workers not to lay a yoke of oppression, distrust, harshness and domineering words and manner upon fellow workers or pass by strongly tempted souls fallen into the enemy's snare, but to respect them, refuse to repress them, develop their best traits with love, patience, grace, compassion, kindness, forbearance and winning manner, and give them attention, prayer, special encouragement and earnest self-sacrificing labor lest they fall away, remembering they were bought with the life-blood of the Son of God and working together with God to break every yoke, let the oppressed go free, and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Christians must help a brother falling into decay instead of condemning and judging him, for it is sin to be idle and fold the hands; they must work with right hand and left, love neighbors as themselves, live to please others, take hold as soon as necessities around them are seen, give to those in need, and feel a burden for souls for whom Christ died. When one has been humbled by mistakes and is in need, fellow believers should come forward with Christ's love and help as they are able.
Spirit of True Burden-Bearing
Fulfilling the verse means coming into sympathy with Christ and copying the pattern He gave, when the Majesty of heaven made Himself of no reputation, came to a cursed world, toiled day and night to instruct, elevate and bring everlasting joy to a thankless people, became poor that through His poverty they might be rich, denied Himself, endured privation, scorn, contempt, suffering and death, and took the form of a servant to save humanity. It is having His tenderness for all the sheep and lambs of His fold, with care for God's heritage and tender compassion for the erring, the tempted and the tried, restoring one overtaken in fault in meekness while considering self, putting on mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing and forgiving one another as Christ forgave, putting on love as the bond of perfectness, and letting the peace of God rule in the heart. In practice this means personal labor for perishing souls, looking after orphans and not repulsing them when they seek favor, finding a place and work for needy youth among believers rather than turning them away to unbelievers, treating them in all things as one's own children, and responding to others' needs with practical help and self-denial.
It requires being endowed with the Holy Spirit, who is light and love and power, so the heart is softened to be kind and tender and thoughtful and forgiving toward one another. Those who live and walk in the Spirit help each other with heavy weights, bearing the fruit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance, against which there is no condemning law, with those who are Christ's crucifying the flesh and walking in the Spirit rather than the works of the flesh that keep evildoers from inheriting the kingdom. It rejects criticizing and faultfinding, vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another, and self-deceiving pride that thinks oneself to be something when nothing, and continues without growing weary in well doing, doing good unto all as there is opportunity, especially unto the household of faith.
It requires the mind and Spirit of Christ in lowliness, humility, self-denial, meekness, esteeming others better than self and looking to the things of others as well as one's own, showing to one another the same compassion expected from Christ, and living likeminded in love, harmony and unity without discord. Self and pride hinder this work, so exalting self, having too high an opinion of one's own ability and wisdom, censuring and condemning brethren instead of restoring them, dictating to others, and acting from strife and vainglory violate the verse and must be put away, with all haughtiness, self-exaltation, striving for supremacy and for human praise and deference, and with the heart cleansed from envy, jealousy and evil surmising. This burden-bearing flows from contemplating Christ's great condescension and humiliation in descending to the lowest depths to lift fallen man from moral defilement, so that man may be partaker of the divine nature and escape corruption through lust.
It is a lesson learned in the school of Christ as tenderness and care for one another's feelings, showing no resentful spirit in words or actions, and cultivating traits of character that add to the peace and happiness and healthfulness of each other. This begins in the family and then extends beyond the family, making believers bright and shining lights in the world who light the pathway for those in danger of missing the way through manifold temptations, led by the Holy Spirit to speak a word in season and out of season, with no selfishness but cooperating with heaven to bless others, and bearing burdens in Christ's cause helps a person grow strong in the Lord. It is fulfilled by self-forgetful love in kind words, pleasant looks, cheerful presence, thoughtful courtesies and sympathy that cheer others and lighten their loads, beginning at home and reaching beyond it, while neglecting it adds to life's misery. Kindness fulfills the law, for speaking kindly and treating others with courtesy forms beautiful characters fit for heaven.
It means praying for one another for healing, being to others what Jesus was to His disciples when He walked and talked with them on earth, showing tender regard for every soul needing help, and with painstaking effort and self-denial inspiring the erring with hope and faith through the love of Jesus, which all in positions of truth must manifest, through prayer, forgiveness, kind and thoughtful conduct, and tangible help. It requires making the most of self and not disappointing Christ, who paid an infinite price, by neglecting opportunities for self-improvement, and cultivating a calm, kind, gentle, tender spirit, which allows one to learn more rapidly because one is not troubled over what others have said. Daily conversion prepares workers for this service in bearing and forbearing with others, setting aside personal feelings and sides, and bravely taking up responsibilities while exerting an influence for righteousness and truth.
It is served by genuine simplicity rather than an emphasis on forms and ceremonies. It puts reasoning powers and capabilities to use for one another whenever believers are associated together, including in physical and mental training, making togetherness an occasion for essential missionary work one for another through Christian example in spirit, in words, and in faithful discharge of duty, watching for souls as those who must give an account, exercising every entrusted talent by watching unto prayer, and lifting others to the full extent of one's power toward character after the divine likeness.
Ways the Law Is Broken
To break the law of Christ is to meet a person crushed under pressure and struggling with discouragement with criticism, faultfinding, scolding, fretting, censuring and judging instead of practical help to lift the load. Such blame does not move or ease the burden, wastes precious time that should be spent asking how all can unite at once without delay to help, and is neither needed nor deserved by the one who feels the pressure most severely. The same violation is committed by proud self-importance and too high an opinion of one's own ability and wisdom, by vainglory, provoking one another and envying one another, and by thinking oneself to be something when one is nothing, which deceives the soul and manifests the spirit of the Pharisees rather than the fruit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Exalting self, censuring and condemning brethren instead of tenderly restoring them in meekness with compassion, mercy, pity and love, dictating to others, and acting from strife and vainglory hinder this restoring work and violate the verse.
Refusal to help breaks the law, as when those able to serve leave heavier responsibilities for others to carry, are unwilling to take any responsibility, live at ease while others are burdened, and fail to share equally in heavy labor and care. Instead of helping bear the load such persons become a burden themselves by dissatisfaction, evil surmising and jealousy toward self-sacrificing labor, by selfishness, unconsecrated conduct and bitter complaints, by expecting others to carry the load, and by an unwise course that adds overwhelming anxiety; Mary, for example, was to stop adding weight on the wrong side and take responsibility by making herself useful. The truly converted become burden-bearers and a blessing rather than a curse, no longer grieving the Saviour or the brethren, through humbling the heart, turning from wrong sympathizers and repentance that brings pardon. Help itself must strengthen and never discourage, weaken or enfeeble, but encourage by faith, hope and suggesting better ways and improved methods of work, since discouragement gives the enemy advantage over minds that in time reacts upon the discourager, while each still bears his own special burden without another becoming overseer over him. Bringing complaints in an excited manner, giving way to strong feeling, letting such words influence others to take on needless burdens, and adding weight rather than uniting anew to share the load, strengthen, bless and move forward together also breaks the verse.
To lay upon fellow workers a yoke of oppression, distrust, harshness and domineering words and manner breaks the law, which instead breaks every yoke and lets the oppressed go free by respecting workers, refusing to repress them, developing their best traits with love, patience, grace, compassion, kindness, forbearance and winning manner, and giving strongly tempted souls attention, prayer, special encouragement and earnest self-sacrificing labor. An unmerciful and careless spirit toward others, self-seeking pleasure, and refusal of self-denial and of patient forbearance that seeks to restore rather than hurt or condemn are contrary to burden-bearing, and those who are pleasure-seekers and will not be caretakers helping carry burdens are not fit for a place in God's work. Manufacturing many burdens for others to carry by a critical spirit, a desire to have control and run the work, and by always pulling on the opposite side from the course brethren desire to follow adds to their load instead of working in harmony. Even the faulty, disagreeable, hard, gnarled, warped and crooked through lack of proper education and lack of amiability must be patiently helped to see and correct their defects without impatience and irritability over faults, leading them to seek the meekness and gentleness of Christ, while time is not robbed by idleness or adornment of the body but devoted to prayer, to becoming conversant with the Bible, and to laboring for the good of fellow beings.
Practical Care for Sufferers
Bearing burdens means entering into the feelings of others and making their difficulties one's own. This includes sympathizing with the young in their joys, sorrows, conflicts and victories, meeting them where they are in order to help them. As Christ came among fallen people and shared human weakness, suffering and temptation to lift them up, so patient compassionate care is required. When young believers fall under temptation they are not to be treated harshly or indifferently, for even a compassionate look can soothe and strengthen a struggling child.
Mutual help calls for sympathy, kindness, tenderness, courtesy and patience expressed in practical care: relieving the poor, visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, advising the inexperienced and encouraging the fainthearted. The church is to seek out the Lord's children who are poor, sick, afflicted or otherwise in need and relieve their wants, while those enduring hardship are also encouraged as they comfort the hopeless and sin-stricken around them. People are not independent but joined together by God, and helping others also strengthens the helper. This is not left to personal choice but is a binding obligation of loyalty to God, fulfilled through love in action, requiring natural self-centered impulses to be changed for the impulses of Christ toward nobility and self-sacrifice, with feelings of love and goodwill cherished to bless and not curse, lightening sorrows and sharing the distresses of fellow men.
Practical care with kind words and deeds for those in trouble opens doors to help and draws them toward God. Christlike sympathy, kind words and thoughtful acts refresh and strengthen those facing hardship and ease temptation and doubt. Words of sympathy and love lighten another's troubles, and blessing others in this way also brings blessing to the helper.
The work includes sharing sound counsel with those lacking skill in managing worldly affairs, who should humbly seek trusted judgment before acting rather than only after difficulty comes. Helping early prevents greater trouble, for waiting until plans bring difficulty makes the burden heavier, and avoiding a lawsuit even by accepting some loss can keep difficulties from becoming heavier. It seeks the lost and weak, binds up wounds with love and sympathy, strengthens by faith and helps gain victory rather than driving away through suspicion or harmful speech. Christians are to warn and care for those going wrong or in spiritual danger rather than leave them isolated to sink further into unhappiness, discouragement or sin, since unselfish love for a brother is evidence of true love for God.
Thoughtful steps are to be taken to protect health and lives and improve difficult or dangerous conditions for rich and poor alike, following Christ's example and cultivating the spirit He brought to humanity. Such care may require practical effort, such as providing safe water and nourishing drink to prevent illness. Genuine Christian love and sympathy reaching out in practical care is part of doing Christ's work, fulfilled through loving labor, self-denial, sacrifice and devotion to others' good including bringing them to the truth, since mere profession of faith is not enough. Even soothing and helping the afflicted when it requires personal sacrifice fulfills the law. Applied to a physician, this means not adding to his heavy cares by unkind criticism but giving sympathy, prayer and appreciation that strengthen hope and courage. Following Christ's example, believers show compassion by helping carry one another's burdens, putting His law of love into practice to help and comfort those carrying the work.
Sharing the Work Load
Every church member is called to enter God's service as a burden-bearer, each standing in his own lot and place to carry forward the great plan of redemption. Fulfilling the law requires living the truth and imparting it to others, for truth not lived and shared loses its life-giving power and healing virtue. Every addition to the church is to become one more agency for redemption, with the whole church acting as one and blending in perfect union as a living, active missionary agency moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit, laboring in quietness and humility in meekness and lowliness with God's claims paramount over every social claim and earthly affection, learning how to minister to sin-sick souls with unceasing effort for others' good.
God has given to every person his work to live a life of usefulness, fulfilled when people learn all they can and then bless others by imparting knowledge of truth, each willingly doing according to his several ability to help bear the burdens. This burden-bearing is to be done everywhere for all classes, coming close to the poor and depraved fallen through intemperance, and at the same time not forgetting the higher classes — lawyers, ministers, senators, and judges, many slaves to intemperate habits — leaving no effort untried to show them their souls worth saving and eternal life worth striving for. It presents the total abstinence pledge to those in high positions and asks them to give money otherwise spent for liquor and tobacco to establish institutions where children and youth may be prepared to fill positions of usefulness.
Believers share the burdens of God's work by supporting every department, engaging their interest, giving of their means, and offering themselves without reserve as practical expression of grace, belonging to all believers not only ministers or hearers. They should share work and responsibilities they are able to carry instead of leaving them to ministers, for this unselfish service not for human reward brings spiritual growth and makes them a blessing to others while keeping the church living and active. Ministers must share work burdens with brother ministers and church members instead of one carrying all alone, taking mutual share, supporting one another and developing broad interest rather than leaving heaviest and most difficult duties to one person, since human strength cannot endure such strain alone. The minister should not do all the work alone but teach workers to follow Christ and work as He did, standing beside a fellow worker under responsibility and censure rather than watching him fight alone, which keeps the load from crushing and breaking down any one worker.
Ministering brethren should have carried their own responsibilities instead of leaving them to one person, which would also have given them valuable experience in caring for and building up the cause. New workers should join institutional workers as helpers and fellow workers in brotherly love, and changes should not be made abruptly to discourage faithful workers who have served successfully, but proceed with justice and harmonious cooperation. Responsibilities and heavy labor must be borne equally by all, each taking a share rather than leaving one man to put forth double energy under burdens too heavy for strength and health. Those unwilling to take responsibility, not realizing the weight carried for them and not as interested as they should be, fail to fulfil the law and become a burden themselves by dissatisfaction, evil surmising and jealousy toward self-sacrificing labor done regardless of personal interest and health, adding care and overwhelming anxiety that undermines the constitution, whereas faithful equal bearing preserves strength and saves more souls.
At Battle Creek, headquarters of the cause for twenty-five years, managing growing interests in all branches and maintaining devotion under constant fire was hardest, because forces of evil rallied there as against Washington, the seat of government most in danger and most fortified during the American war. Brethren with no practical knowledge of toils, sacrifices and difficulties let heavy burdens fall on leaders which they should have borne, crushing them until paralysis came August 15, 1865, when others were poorly prepared to bear what had crushed them because in ignorance they supposed almost anyone could fill the place. Those who devote lives to God's service and humanity's good in important positions face sharpest conflicts with darkness, while those holding no responsible position and at ease doing nothing are left alone because they do nothing to injure evil's cause, and refusal to carry share with cool selfish criticism delights the adversary who works to lay added burdens on the weary and to divide, grieve and discourage. Believers should take up responsibilities and help carry heavy burdens rather than leave them to one person and then murmur against him, risking life, health, strength, time and everything needed to advance the message.
Burdens that would crush one worker down must be shared by fellow workers instead of carried alone, requiring men in responsible positions to give strong support and encouragement to a worker laboring under trying circumstances, while the burdened must not overload himself with those shared burdens. Those in responsibility must work together in the Lord's name, yoked closely in carrying institutional burdens in dealing with physical and mental disease, with correction done by coming close to God by faith to recognize the Holy Spirit's leadings, which pleases God. Helping fellow workers carry their special burdens must be done without becoming an overseer, for every person bears his own burden, and the law is fulfilled by speaking encouragement, faith and hope and suggesting improved methods that help others bear work, never by discouraging and enfeebling, since discouragement gives the enemy advantage over minds that will react upon the discourager. It is also fulfilled by appreciating fellow workers' burdens with thankfulness and forgiving spirit, including practical help such as helping Elder Burden carry his load.
In pioneer enterprises with multiplied inconveniences, burdens, embarrassments, opposition and struggle through prejudice and obstacles in opening new fields, others must put shoulder to the wheel with interest to help bear pressure and lift the load. Those with no part in the press of battle, foresight, suffering and struggle must not with aftersight criticize, magnify mistakes, carry reports with no foundation in truth, bear false witness placing struggling efforts in wrong light, pick flaws, tell what should be done while doing nothing, sit idle because desired wages are not paid, watch others labor while claiming great knowledge, or suppose from self-esteem they would have done better, for such conduct discourages workers, retards the cause and hinders success instead of strengthening hands amid discouragement and lack of means. Duty is to give time, means, capabilities and talents unselfishly to push the work and make it a success, remembering everyone will be tested and tried.
All connected with the publishing work must be caretakers helping carry burdens for others with self-denial, following the example of taking human infirmities with compassion and practical help, and pleasure-seekers unwilling to do this are not fit for a place in that work, including supporting the institution in its distress. When one comes into trying perplexity at the foot of the hill under severe pressure needing strong helpers to cooperate in pulling up the load, others must unite at once without delay, for scolding, fretting, censuring and excited complaint do not move the load and the one feeling pressure most severely neither needs nor deserves censure. The first thought must be how all can unite in helping because too much is at stake, calling American brethren and Scandinavian brethren in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and all who love the cause to come to the rescue and relieve pressed European institutions, especially the Denmark Sanitarium, doing work as God's helping hand, lest failing now lose a rich blessing. Applied likewise, church members and officers should help pay the Battle Creek College debt rather than leave school leaders to carry the obligation alone, with united practical assistance bringing relief to heavy burdens.
Heavy loads are to be shared with helpers rather than carried alone beyond what physical strength justifies, for gathering too many responsibilities and accumulation of cares exhausts vital energies, robs capability and influence to stand as men of power, wears out health and life, and makes the God-given work for perishing souls secondary by heavy drafts from different enterprises. Those resting under such work need special help and a larger number of faithful helpers with facilities to do it without becoming worn out, and must firmly refuse added lines unless that help is provided. Togetherness should become missionary work for one another by putting reasoning powers and capabilities to use whenever associated, including physical and mental training, through Christian example in spirit, words and faithful discharge of duty, watching for souls as those who must give account, exercising every talent by watching unto prayer, and lifting others to full extent of power toward character after the divine likeness. Young people should be trained to become capable caretakers to support the worn and burdened, learning to bear share of life's burdens by useful helpful work that develops mind and character and cultivates habit of doing good, forgetting self to help others, with training from earliest childhood in order and helpfulness according to ability so as they grow they become more useful and fitted to carry their part.
Believers bear burdens by supporting those doing the work and praying for them rather than merely questioning and finding fault, treating a fellow believer's family's needs as their own with sympathy, kindness, prayer and tender care that relieves the weary and blesses givers through godly example and holy influence. This includes encouraging messengers with kind words and faithful prayer rather than adding needless difficulties, addressing own trials before God instead of making others bear responsibility for settling them, and protecting fellow workers rather than making careless selfish choices that harm or cut off influence, which fulfills mercy and love. Humbling the heart before God and opening the heart's door to let the Saviour abide leads to criticizing self rather than others and doing all in power to strengthen and encourage those for whom He gave His life. Students likewise should help teachers carry burdens and face perplexities made discouragingly heavy and trying, and help and encourage one another, creating a helpful uplifting atmosphere.
Home and Family Duties
A husband fulfills the law by helping his wife carry her burdens with sympathy, unfailing affection, kindness and loving courtesy, and his support encourages her while bringing joy and peace to his own heart. This includes helping her in training their children and in home life, showing appreciation for her and uniting with her in the work instead of leaving it all upon her, which keeps her fresh and gladsome so she is as sunshine in the home. A wife in turn is to help her husband and father carry his heavy cares rather than adding to them, refusing to bring complaints in an excited manner, give way to strong feeling, or influence others to take up needless burdens. Instead she unites anew with him to help, strengthen and bless each other and to move forward together in God's work.
Spouses are to help each other bear life's troubles through patience, kindness, tender love and practical godliness, sharing difficulties and duties with cheerfulness, kindness and forbearance rather than living only for self, with thoughtfulness, self-denial and concern for others. Parents fulfill the command by inviting their children who follow Christ to share their trials and griefs, then sympathizing with them and praying with them so they keep going in the way of life trusting God. Children, as members of God's family, are to be taught to give their abilities to God in unselfish service, sharing spiritual and physical burdens with their parents, which increases their happiness and usefulness.
Older family members are to share household work so tasks do not fall too heavily on a few, regarding this as duty not drudgery that serves their own well-being and the happiness of loved ones and prepares them for greater duties and responsibilities. Emma was to cheerfully take up her share of life's burdens by helping Edson rather than leaving him to carry the work alone, which would also benefit her. Even children can learn to lighten others' burdens by doing what they are able, using time to benefit others and bless humanity as a duty worth striving for. Learning from Christ includes doing the small duties of daily life and helping carry family members' burdens, and such service brings union with Christ.
Bearing burdens means taking fatherless children into care as one's own, willingly accepting inconvenience and care for the salvation of their souls, instructing them in divine things and fitting them for heaven. It requires gaining the orphan's confidence and affection by tangible proofs of love, encouragement, inducements and an atmosphere of tenderness and gentleness, not leaving him in perplexity about his home and future, with the church responsible in great degree for children entrusted to it by dying parents. One thus borne becomes in turn a true burden-bearer in the church, sought by the less experienced for advice and counsel, serving in true Christian humility with dignity that inspires respect and confidence. It also means carrying one's own proper share and lightening others' loads instead of laying the whole weight on them, being helpful enough to offset the burden one is to a husband and those around rather than calling forth sympathy without giving in return or expecting to be waited on by those no more able to do the extra task. This is done by ministering to others instead of wishing to be ministered unto, cheerfully performing physical labor, domestic duties and educating one's own daughter at home as the duty Heaven assigns, which is especially necessary for a minister's wife whose influence should help rather than hinder.
Unity and Blessing Resulting
Fulfilling the law means bearing one another's burdens in firm, harmonious unity that joins member to member as the different parts of the natural body are joined. Hands, head, and feet are closely united and mutually dependent, so no member can live and act independently of the other members, for all are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. This unity lives because the life and Spirit of Christ dwelling within sustains and causes every particular member to flourish, Christ living in them, as the branch cannot live or bear fruit except it abide in the vine. It calls the church to be firmly united in Christian unity by eradicating every fiber of the root of bitterness that causes disharmony and defiles many. Selfishness kills spirituality, and self-sufficiency leads to harsh treatment of those bought with Christ's blood, and unless such are converted they can never see the kingdom of heaven; in contrast, fulfilling the law means being kindly affectioned with brotherly love, preferring one another in honor, and increasing and abounding in love toward one another and toward all people, so that hearts are established unblamable in holiness before God at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The wisdom from above that makes this possible is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy, sowing the fruit of righteousness in peace by peacemakers, in contrast to bitter envying and strife that is earthly, sensual and devilish and brings confusion and every evil work.
Lightening sorrows and disappointments by showing the love of Jesus builds love and unity, for each person has sorrows and disappointments to be lightened. Bearing another's burden means offering help and strength rather than judging or publicizing faults, and this builds up the weak in faith and fosters love and unity among followers. Such mutual care joins followers in love and service, enabling them to work together as lights amid moral darkness. True happiness is found by helping one another and bearing burdens together, and doing so fulfills the law. Earnest, active service and labor of love take on one another's burdens, and those able to help should not leave heavier responsibilities for others to carry. Such service, self-denial, and sacrifice fulfill the law and bring spiritual strength and blessing in proportion to the good done for others; good works do not save by themselves, but they are necessary in the life of the saved, and even after doing all one can, a person has only done duty and remains dependent on Christ's righteousness.
A church that shuts itself off from helping others becomes spiritually weak, while spiritual work, toil, and burden-bearing give strength to the church. Bearing burdens includes united prayer, mutual encouragement, and working together in love and good works while also taking responsibility for the church's work, and such service fulfills the law and helps the church advance spiritually. Forgetting self in practical, caring concern for others relieves their troubles and also benefits the giver, helping to overcome personal infirmities and supporting health of soul and body. Turning from dwelling on one's own troubles to serve those who are suffering is part of the mind of Christ and fulfills his law, and makes one's own griefs less burdensome. Bearing another's burden through compassionate, practical help that supports the discouraged and those who find the way difficult can quicken one's own spiritual life, deepen devotion, and make Christian experience more earnest and real. Serving others in self-forgetful work means bearing burdens for Jesus, and doing so helps people grow in grace and gain valuable spiritual experience.
Those who share what they have received and help others become burden-bearers through united service, sympathy, and forbearance, while drawing strength from Christ the living Head through his Holy Spirit. Bearing the burdens of the cause requires being yoked with Christ and acting with kindness, compassion, and love, applied to council and board members who must learn meekness and lowliness from Christ so they can deal justly, love mercy, and treat both the work and its workers with courtesy and care. Believers carry burdens by helping where help is most needed and accepting responsibilities for the good of the church, and refusing such service weakens spiritual life, while taking on responsibilities only to carry out one's own plans is not the selfless burden-bearing taught. This shared carrying of burdens and responsibilities is needed for the church to be living and active. Young people bear burdens for one another by putting away pride and selfishness and sacrificing pleasure and inclination for the truth, and their willingness to serve brings Heaven's blessing, while wholehearted service requires yielding themselves to God.