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• Any place that the text reads we are to “do good” to one another (e.g., Galatians 6 v
10), it is speaking of very concrete material help. It means providing money, shelter,
or other practical help.
Practice 5—Sharing One Another’s Needs and Problems
• Galatians 6 v 2 – “Carry each other’s burdens”
• 1 Thessalonians 5 v 11 – “Encourage one another”
• Hebrews 3 v 13 – “Encourage one another daily”
Sharing resources and possessions is one way to become vulnerable to others in a
community. Another way is to share with others our grief and weakness and allow them
to give us their love and support. We are to be willing to find people who are hurting and
offer whatever support they need.
Notes on specific texts:
• 1 Thessalonians 5 v 11 and many other passages call us to “encourage” one another.
The Greek means to come very close and cheer and support the person in a journey.
• Galatians 6 v 2 tells us to carry one another’s burdens. Picture how you help a
person who is trying to carry a load that is too heavy. To help with a burden, you
must first come very close to the burdened person, standing virtually in their shoes.
Next, you must put your own strength under the burden so its weight is distributed
on both of you, thus lightening the load for the original bearer. To “carry the burden”
means to come under it and let some of its weight, responsibility, and pain come onto
you.
There is a hidden reciprocity in Galatians 6 v 2 that should not be overlooked. Notice it
does not say “carry other’s burdens” but “carry each other’s burdens.” It means something
like this: “Live in a community where you don’t let others carry their loads alone, and
where you also don’t try to carry your own load alone. Help others and let others help
you.” It is a form of hypocrisy to be willing to help others with their weaknesses but to
hide your own or refuse help. It takes a gospel-changed heart to give help unselfishly to
others, and it takes a gospel-changed heart to receive help unashamedly from others.
Galatians 6 v 2 then expands this thought. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you
will fulfil the law of Christ.” Obviously, Christ is the ultimate example of burden-bearing
love. He bore the infinite burden of our guilt and sin on the cross, and it rushed him. He
did not simply share that burden with us; he completely freed us from it by bearing its
entire weight. Anyone who knows this infinite, burden-bearing love has a breath-taking
model whoinspires and empowers us into the same kind of love.