Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: August 26

“For every man shall bear his own burden” ~ Galatians 6:5

Is this not asking too much of us? When our own load is heavy with new sorrow or trouble, can God expect us to “bear … one another’s burdens” and also bear our own too? Wouldn’t it be only fair for us to expect someone else to bear ours as we are expected to bear theirs?

This would be “fair” as we think of fair-play. But fair-play has nothing whatever to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If it had been based on fairness, He would never have gone to the Cross at all! “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin …” There is nothing “fair” about the only sinless Person who ever walked the face of the earth, becoming sin for every other utterly sinful person in the world.

The Gospel always speaks paradoxes to our hearts from the human point of view. God paid the price for sin Himself instead of punishing the guilty sinner. Don’t hate your enemies and try to get even with them; love them and bless them that despitefully use you. Don’t strike back; turn the other cheek and let it be slapped too. “Bear ye one another’s burdens ….” But don’t expect anyone to bear yours! “For every man shall bear his own burden.”

This is madness until we have seen into the heart that broke beneath the load of the sin it received willingly and with love. Once we have seen His heart, we know something of what He means when He tells us in effect to expect nothing for ourselves and to give everything away. We don’t understand at all, but we know about it, because He did it for us. There is an entirely new dimension here. One that can only be experienced and demonstrated, never explained. When we give we find out it is a far more blessed thing than to receive. When we bear someone else’s burden even as we weep from our own, we know about the joy of His yoke.

“bear ye one another’s burdens .. my burden is light.”