The Word says:
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
Verse Thoughts:
Believers in Christ are fellow-members of His Body, which is the Church. All are children of God and all have been born of the Spirit. All have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. All have received eternal life as a free gift of God’s grace, and all have been granted an inheritance that is kept for us in heaven.
Each member of Christ’s Body is accountable to the Lord for the way we live, but we also are responsible for the attitudes we adopt, and the actions we take towards our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We each have a responsibility to support and encourage fellow believers and are called to “bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfil the law of Christ.”
In the previous verse, the spiritual believer is instructed to help to restore a brother or sister who has fallen into sin – but to do it with gentleness and Christ-like consideration. Indeed, the spiritual one is warned against being adversely influenced by the carnal behaviours of others, or led astray by a misguided brother, lest they also are tempted into similar, ungodly ways, or fall into carnality themselves. Paul instructs those that are spiritual to restore those who are not walking by means of the Spirit – or who have been overtaken by worldly sin, the wiles of Satan, or fleshly carnality.
However, in this verse it is having a caring concern for a brother in Christ who has become heavily burdened or deeply distressed, with whom the spiritual Christian should be concerned. Every one of us has areas of life in which we are weighed down, discouraged, and deeply burdened, and the instruction to ‘come alongside and help one another’ is identified as fulfilling the law of Christ.
The Lord Jesus, Himself, explained the distinguishing qualities of this ‘law of the spirit of life’ which is found in John 13:34 where we read: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” Love for God and love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is the fulfilling of the law – but it can only be carried out by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the life of a spiritual believer i.e. a Christian, who is walking in spirit and truth.
There is much misunderstanding concerning the difference between spirituality and maturity in our Christian walk. Maturity is a life-long process, which takes place over time as we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, study His Word, and apply its principles in our life. The spiritual believer is one who abides in Christ, obeys His commands, honours His name, is growing in grace, and is becoming more Christ-like with every passing day. The more we die to our self-life, and live for Christ, the more we mature in our Christian walk, and the more Christ-like we become.
Spiritual maturity is not the same as spirituality. Spiritual maturity develops as we are conformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus through the wise choices we make. Spirituality, however, is not a process but a state. At any given point, we are spiritual OR we are not spiritual! At any given time in a believer’s life we are EITHER walking in the spirit and truth OR we are living in fleshly carnality. At any moment in time we are either honouring the Lord or dishonouring Him.
We are either spiritual or we are fleshly. We are either walking in spirit and truth or walking in the flesh. We are either living for God or living for Self. We are either in fellowship with our Heavenly Father or we are out of fellowship with Him – because the antithesis of spirituality is carnality. Jesus said, “Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters,” while Peter, who was prompted by the Holy Spirit to confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, became a fleshly tool in the hands of Satan immediately after his great spiritual revelation from God.
Christians do not progress towards spirituality in the same way that they progress towards spiritual maturity. Just as one is either saved or not saved at a given point in time, a believer is either spiritual or not spiritual at a given point and there is no middle ground. When we sin in our Christian walk, we are unspiritual and lose fellowship with our Heavenly Father – we are not fulfilling the ‘law of Christ’. However, as soon as sin is confessed, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and return us into fellowship with Himself, and spirituality is once again restored – and we thereby fulfil the law of Christ.
Let us seek to be those that are spiritual and to bear one another’s burdens in humility and gentleness. Let us die to self and live our life to the glory of God so that we may mature in the faith, grow in grace, live a spiritual, God-honouring life, and become a living testimony to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.