General News
13 July, 2025
In good faith
‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ’ – Galatians 6:2.
Isn’t it nice to have someone by your side who can help with the burdens you carry?
Many hands make light work they say, from stacking firewood to washing dishes.
And we don’t have to look far to find people with burdens who could do with some help!
But there’s more than just physical burdens.
Someone might indeed need help mowing the lawn.
But what about emotional or spiritual burdens?
We all have them too.
St. Paul wrote ‘Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently’ (Gal. 6:1).
Maybe you know someone who is caught in self-destructive behaviour?
If you are a Christian, maybe you know another Christian who has neglected the Word of God by not going to church.
These are the sorts of burdens St. Paul means.
So what are we to do?
We should help bear their burdens – in any way we possibly can.
‘You who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently’ (Gal. 6:1).
Not ‘all guns blazing’, but with gentleness, with care and concern!
The goal of bearing each other’s burdens is not to rebuke or chastise, but to restore someone stuck under a dangerous load!
‘Carry each other’s burdens’ St. Paul wrote ‘and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ’ (Gal. 6:2).
The law of Christ is the law of love.
Jesus Himself said ‘Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (Jn. 13:34).
Helping carry the burdens of others is one of the ways in which love for each other is played out!
Jesus Christ saw the soul-crushing burden of sin under which we were all labouring.
He enters into out world through the Word, takes our own burden off our own shoulders and puts it onto His own.
Our situation is as if we were carrying three bags of concrete on our backs all the time – but Jesus says ‘I’ll take that’ – and so He did, to the cross.
So how can we, who have been forgiven and relieved of the burden of sin, not help carry the burdens of others?
St Paul wrote ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up’ (Gal. 6:9).
May God give you – and me – a heart that is always willing to help bear the burdens of others as Christ has already borne our own!
Contributed by LUCAS MATUSCHKA