Burden-bearing
(No. 2831)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 17, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST
26, 1886.
"Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ..
.Every man shall bear his own burden." Galatians 6:2,5.
OBSERVE, dear Friends, that the Apostle says in the second verse of
this chapter, "Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law
of Christ." These Galatians had been trying to bear the heavy burden of
the Law of Moses. They had, as far as they could, put themselves,
again, under the old Ceremonial Law. They had forsaken the Gospel way
of justification by faith and had sought to be made perfect by their
personal obedience to the Law of God. Now, the Apostle, as though he
would expel one affection by another, says, "You want a law? You wish
to be under a law? Well, here is the law of Christ–yield yourselves to
it! Instead of observing the outward ceremonies of the Levitical law,
here is a living law which touches the heart and influences the
life–obey that law. You are Christians. You have come under law to
Christ by the very fact that you are not your own, but have been bought
with a price by Him–now see to it that you yield implicit obedience to
the law of Christ."
It is somewhat remarkable, I think, that many of those who are
self-righteous and apparently pay much regard to the Law of Moses are
usually quite forgetful of that which is the very essence and spirit of
that Law. They are so righteous that they become stern, severe,
censorious–which is being unrighteous–for the righteousness even of
the Law of God is a righteousness of love, "for all the law is
fulfilled in one word," that is, "love." A self-righteous man is not
generally a man with a tender spirit. He looks at that which is hard
and stern in the Law and he begins to be hard and stern himself–there
is none of the softness, sweetness, gentleness and graciousness which
even the Law, itself, required when it said, "You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." Paul
did well, in the mood in which the Galatians were–as they wanted to be
under law, to remind them of what is the essence of the Law of God and
he did still better by reminding them that they were under law–to
Christ, whose law emphasizes the love which even Moses, himself, had
taught under the old dispensation!
These Galatians had most foolishly sought to burden themselves with a
load which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. After
being set free by the Gospel, they had gone back to the yoke of
bondage, so the Apostle, in effect said to them, "As you have been so
bewitched and fascinated that you want burdens to rest upon you, here
are burdens for you–'Bear you one another's burdens.' And, as you want
law, here is law for you–so fulfill the law of Christ." It was
characteristic of that sacred craftiness, that holy ingenuity, which
was so conspicuous in the Apostle Paul that he worded his argument
thus, that he might draw the attention of these Galatians to it, fix it
upon their memories and, if possible, reach and influence their
consciences.
Should there be any of you here who desire to come under the yoke of
bondage, or who wish to be burden-bearers, or who find great music in
the word, "law," I hope you will discover all these things in the text.
I see in it, first of all, community–"Bear you one another's burdens."
Then the latter part of the text teaches us immunity. You are not bound
to consider other people's burdens so much as your own, that you become
responsible for them. No, "every man shall bear his own burden." Then
the third point, which will be a further opening up of the fifth verse,
will be personality. "Every man shall bear his own burden."
I. First, I see, in the text, A MARVELOUS COMMUNITY. "Bear you one
another's burdens." What does this mean?
Well, dealing with it first, negatively, it does notmean that we are to
burden one another. There are some whose religion consists in laying
heavy burdens upon other men's shoulders while they, themselves, will
not carry them for a single yard. You recollect that sect of Pharisees
with whom our Master was always in conflict–they have their
representatives in these modern times. Why, even this text, itself, is
twisted by some into a reason for burdening others. "'Bear you one
another's burdens,'" they say –"do you not see, Friend, that you have
to help me?" Yes, friend number one, but do you not see that you are
not to go and burden that other friend? It is true that you have to
bear his burdens. Let the first application of this passage be to
yourself, and be not eager to apply it to your neighbor from whom you
want to draw something. You have begun by violating the spirit of the
text, not only by not bearing your brother's burden, but also by
thrusting upon him your own burden without taking his in exchange! I
say this because I have often found that men naturally draw this
inference–"We are to help one another, therefore, please help me." The
proper inference would be, "We are to help one another–where is the
man whom I am to help?" Is not that the most logical conclusion from
the text? Yet such is the selfishness of our nature that we begin
straightway to say, "This text is a cow, I will milk it," not, "this
text gives me something to do, so I will do it," but, "This text gives
me a chance of getting something and I am going to get it." If you talk
like that, it proves that you are out of gear with the text and have
not entered into the spirit of it at all.
The text does notmean that we are to spy out our brother's faults. Its
context shows that the word, "burdens," here means, "faults."
"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual,
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering yourself,
lest you also be tempted. Bear you one another's burdens." To a good
man, a fault is a burden. The worst burden that he has to carry is the
fact that he is not perfect–that is what troubles him. Now, you and
1 are not to go about the world spying out everybody else's faults. "He
is an excellent man," says one, "but." Now stop there! You have said
already quite enough, you will spoil it if you say another word. "Ah,"
says another, concerning someone else, "she is an admirable woman, an
earnest worker for the Savior." Stop there! I know what you are going
to say something that might make it seem that you are about as good as
she is and perhaps a little better, and you are afraid that the light
of your star would not be seen unless you first covered up that other
star! But it must not be so! "Bear you one another's burdens." Bear
with one another's faults, but spy not out one another's faults.
I think I have heard a story of Mr. Wesley going several times to a
certain town where he thought that there was a band of earnest
Christian people, but he was met by a Brother who told him how dead
they all were, what little life there was in their Prayer Meetings and
how much of inconsistency there was among them. When he got there, he
did not notice anything of this sort, so, the third time he went, he
said to this Brother, "How is it that you always meet me and tell me of
these things about the Brethren! Nobody else ever seems to say it."
"Well, you see," he said, "Mr. Wesley, I have a rare gift of discerning
spirits." "Oh," said the good man, "then wrap that talent up in a
napkin and bury it, and you will have done the best thing possible with
it. The Lord will never ask you what you have done with it if you will
only keep it to yourself." I believe that there was great wisdom in
that advice. There are still some who have only that gift of spying out
other men's faults. That is shocking, dreadful, horrible! So, after all
that, my Brother, shut your eyes and bend your back. If you know that
the burden is there, bow down to help bear it, but do not stand and
point at it, and seem as if you wished to do that Brother a discredit.
Further, the text does notmean that we are to despise those who have
heavy burdens to bear. For instance, those who have the grievous burden
of poverty. "Oh," some say, "there is a large number of persons
attending at such-and-such a place, but they are all poor people." So
you think little of poor people, do you? Then what poor souls you must
be! "Oh, but," says one, "such-and-such a person is always afflicted
and very sad." And do you despise the afflicted, especially the
mentally afflicted, the desponding, the sorrowful among God's people?
Do you turn away from them and say, "I cannot endure talking with
persons of that sort–they are so sad in temperament and disposition"?
But the Apostle says, "Bear you one another's burdens," which means–do
not run away from other people because you see that they are burdened.
If you say, "I like to be with the cheerful and the happy, I cannot go
and spend my life in comforting the mourners in Zion"–is that mind in
you which was also in Christ Jesus, who was meek and lowly, and who did
not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax? O Brothers and
Sisters, we need to be schooled in this matter of showing
sympathy with the sorrowful! No doubt it will drag our own spirits down
if we really have fellowship with those whom God has sorely afflicted
in mind, but we must be willing to be dragged down–it will do us good!
If the Lord sees that we are willing to stoop to the very least of His
people, He will be sure to bless us. I sometimes like to sing that
verse that Dr. Doddridge wrote, and I hope I can sing it truly–
"Have You a lamb in all Your flock
I would disdain to feed?
Have You a foe, before whose face
I fear Your cause to plead?'
The second half of the verse is much easier than the first half. You
might be able to stand up like young David before Goliath, himself, for
there is something grand and noble in such an action as that. But to go
looking after the poor little lambs of the flock that scarcely seem as
if they are alive, is quite another matter. Yet that is what the text
means–"Bear you one another's burdens." Carry the lambs in your bosom,
be tender to such as are afflicted. Be, as your Master was, of a
gentle, loving spirit, seeking to bear the infirmities of the weak,
especially you who are strong, for, if you are like those fat cattle
described by the Lord in the prophecy of Ezekiel that thrust the lean
cattle with side and with shoulder, and pushed with their horns those
of the herd that were sickly, then the Lord will order you to be taken
to the slaughterhouse, for that is the lot of the fed beasts that are
so big and brutal! The tall tree is uprooted in the breeze which only
bends the lowly willow. Blessed are they who never exalt themselves
over the weak and afflicted among the children of
God!
Nor do I think, dear Friends, that our text could be made to mean that
any of us may dare to live as if all things existed for our own use.
Are there not some people who seem to feel that they are the center of
all creation and that all things were created for their honor and
glory? The working people round about them are so many "hands" to be
employed by them at the lowest possible rate. The whole stream of trade
must be so directed as to conduct the golden liquid into their
capacious reservoirs. Politics and everything else must be so arranged
that they shall prosper, whoever else may suffer loss. As they go
through the world, their great concern is to mind the main chance.
"Every man for himself," is the motto of their lives and they try to
get as much as they can–and to keep as much as they can. Perhaps even
their benevolence is only self-indulgence thinly veiled, for they give
alms that they may be seen of men.
There are some Christian people–at least, I call them Christians by
courtesy–whose main thought is about saving their own souls. Their
favorite hymn is not in "Our Own Hymn Book"–
"A change to keep I have,
A God to glorify–
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky."
That is nothing but a kind of spiritual selfishness–living unto
yourself! There is something that you want to get and that something is
what you strive after. Blessed is that man who is saved beyond all fear
and who, for the love he bears his Lord, lives wholly and only to prove
the power of the Grace of God that has been bestowed upon him–and
earnestly seeks to be the means of saving the souls of others. The
Doctrines of Grace do this for us, by delivering us from all fear with
regard to the future and fixing us firmly upon the Rock of Ages. They
turn our thoughts away from self to the service and the glory of our
God. I delight to sing–
" 'Tis done! The great transaction's done.
I am my Lord's, and He is mine' and to feel that as He will never lose
me, nor permit me to lose Him, I can turn all my thoughts to the rescue
of my fellow-sinners who are going down into the Pit. If God shall
grant us Grace to enter into the true spirit of the Gospel, having been
delivered from every burden–both of this life and of that which is to
come–we shall be prepared to bear one another's burdens and so to
fulfill the law of that Christ who has set us free from the law of sin
and death which was in our members.
I have thus shown you, negatively, what the text does notmean.
But, dear Friends, to take our text positively, we can see that it must
mean, first, that we are to have great compassion upon those who are
bearing the burden of sin. You cannot bear the burden of their sins for
them–only Christ can do that–but you can help them to bear their
burden. I mean this. Here is a troubled soul who has begun to seek the
Lord and the poor creature is in great sorrow of heart. Get alongside
that burdened one and say, "Now, dear Friend, I am very sorry for you.
I feel as burdened about you as if it were my own soul, not yours, that
was in trouble." Ask the Lord to help you when you have left that
person–after speaking with much prayer and many tears, go home so
grieved that you cannot sleep and keep on crying to God in secret about
that soul. Then, when you get up in the morning with no burden
concerning your own soul, because God has saved you, still feel that
you have to carry the burden of this poor soul who does not know the
Lord and, at last, you get to feel as if you could not live if that
soul did not also live! If it will not repent, you seem to feel the
burden of its guilt. If it will not believe in Christ, you wish you
could believe for it. Of course you cannot repent and believe for it,
but you canbelieve aboutit and you can, by faith and prayer, bring it
to Jesus' feet and lay it there! The Holy Spirit often draws sinners to
the Savior by means of the love of Christians. We can love them to
Christ and if we love them as the Apostle Paul did when he travailed in
birth for them until Christ was formed in them, it will not be long
before we shall see them converted. I am sure that it is so–and that
one great secret of soul-winning lies in the bearing of the burdens of
the unconverted.
But we must take special care, dear Friends, that we do this in the
case of backsliders because the text, in its context, alludes to them
most particularly–"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault, you who
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;
considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear you one another's
burdens." If that backslider has been awakened to a sense of his true
condition, he will feel very unhappy–so be very sympathetic towards
him. He may be afraid to come back into membership with the church–if
so, go after him and encourage him to return. If he says, "I have
brought disgrace upon the name of Christ," try to bear part of the
shame that he feels. If he says, "I cannot face So-and-So," say to him,
"I will stand between you. Or I will go and plead for you." Take to
yourself, as far as you can, the shame and the disgrace which belong to
the backslider. Try to get right into his place. I am sure that there
is no other way of setting broken bones that is equal to this. There is
no way of bringing back the wandering sheep like that which the good
shepherd took when he lifted the poor creature right up on his own
shoulders. It was too worn and weak, and weary for him to lead it back,
or drive it back, so he carried it all the way! And, Brothers and
Sisters, let us carry the backsliders on our own shoulders in the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord. As far as it is possible, let us compel them
to come in once more that God's House may be filled–and let us take
the burden of their grief and of their shame, upon ourselves. Thus
shall we carry out the injunction of the text–"Bear you one another's
burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Next, the text seems to me to mean, "Be very patient with the
infirmities of your brethren." "Oh, but, So-and-So is very quick
tempered!" I hope that it is a burden to him to be quick tempered and
if so, that is an additional reason why you should bear with him. "But
So-and-So is really very bitter in spirit." Yes, alas, there are still
some people of that sort, but you are to bear with them. I hope it is a
burden to them if they have even a tinge of bitterness in their nature,
so bear with it. "I do not see why I should," says one. Well, then,
open your eyes and read the text! "And so fulfill the law of Christ."
If the Lord Jesus Christ can put up with you, you ought to be able to
put up with anybody! "Oh, but some people are so exacting!" Yes, some
of you know that I am sometimes very exacting. When I am suffering very
greatly from gout, if anybody walks heavily and noisily across the
room, it gives me pain. Well, then, what do you think happens? Why,
they go across the room on tiptoe–they do not say to one another, "We
cannot help it that he is ill and that our noise gives him pain. We
shall walk just as we always do–we have a right to walk like that."
No, no, they do not need even to be asked to move about quietly, but
they say, "Poor man, he is so ill that we must be as gentle as we can
with him." Could not you look in that kind of spirit upon Brothers and
Sisters who are not quite all that you would like them to be, and say,
"They are not well spiritually," and deal very gently with them, "and
so fulfill the law of Christ"? We who are Christians are to live
together in Heaven forever, so do not let us fall out by the way. Come,
my Brother, I have to bear a great deal from you and you have to bear a
great deal from me, so let it be give and take all the way through.
"Bear you one another's burdens," not I bear yours without you bearing
mine, but I bear yours and you bear mine–you put up with me, and I put
up with you. And in that way we shall both "fulfill the law of Christ."
Does not the text also mean that we are to bear one another's burdens
by having a deep sympathy with one another in times of sorrow? Oh, for
a sympathetic heart! Seek after it, beloved Christians! Seek to have
large hearts and tender hearts, for the world is full of sorrow and one
of the sweetest balms to sorrow is the sympathy of Christ flowing
through the hearts of His own redeemed ones. Be tender, be full of
pity, be full of compassion.
But this sympathy must show itself by actual assistance, rendered
wherever it is possible. "Bear you one another's burdens." Let the
burden of poverty be borne by those of you who have no poverty of your
own. Succor your brethren in their times of need. Light their candle
when their house grows dark. Blessed are those men and women who addict
themselves to the ministry of the saints and who seek, wherever they
can, to lighten the burdens of life for their fellow-Christians,
lending their shoulders whenever they can give support to the weak.
Brothers and Sisters, we should also bear one another's spiritual
burdens by helping one another in our soul-struggles. I am afraid that
in some places of worship Christian men and women come up to the House
of Prayer and go home again without ever speaking to one another! I do
not think that is the case, here, but it is the case in many places,
especially in very respectable places of worship. There they go in and
out as if they were all self-contained and could not speak to one
another, especially if they happen to be half-sovereign people and a
half-crown person is anywhere near– they cannot speak to him at all.
This is all contrary to the mind of Christ. In our Church fellowship,
there should be real fellowship and we should converse with one
another. In the olden times, "They that feared the Lord spoke often,
one to another," and Christian people should do the same today–and you
who are elders in the church might often say a word that would help a
poor young friend who is struggling to do right. You who are joyous
might often lend some of your sunbeams to those who are in the dark.
And you ought to do so–it would be to your own profit as well as to
the profit of others. Trade produces wealth and the inter-trading of
Christians, exchanging their good things, one with the other, would
tend to the spiritual enrichment of the entire body. God help you to do
so by fellowship with one another!
"Bear you one another's burdens" also by much prayer for the other.
When you have prayed for yourself, do not end your supplication. Keep a
little list of people to be prayed for and try to put down, on your
list, certain things which you know trouble them and which also trouble
you–and bring them before the Lord. In some way or other, bear you
those burdens which God lays upon your brethren!
II. The time flies so quickly that I can only speak very briefly upon
the second point, that is, IMMUNITY. "For every man shall bear his own
burden."
Let us always, for our comfort, remember that there is a point beyond
which we cannot go in bearing one another's burdens. After you have
prayed for anyone and conversed with him–and he still continues in
sin, you are ready to break your heart about him. Yes, it is right to
feel like that, but do not be so unwise as to take his sin actually to
yourself If you have warned, prayed, instructed and set a godly
example–and men will still sin–their sin is their own and their blood
will be upon their own head.
And, next, do not take the shame of other people's sins upon yourself
beyond a certain point. I have known a good man ashamed to come to the
House of God because his son had disgraced himself. Well, his sin does
dishonor his father, but, still, as you did not commit the sin and you
did not do anything to contribute to it, do not feel ashamed as that! I
have known some Christian people very seriously injured by the shame
which they have felt because some distant relative or some near
relative has misbehaved himself. Go to God with it, but recollect that
it is not your sin and it is not your shame, either. Bear it so as to
sympathize and pray about it, but not so as to be, yourself, ashamed
and depressed because ofit!
Remember, also, that we cannot take other people's responsibilities
upon ourselves. I am responsible for faithfully preaching the Gospel,
but I am not responsible for your reception of it. If I preach the
Truth of God and there is not a soul saved by it, I am not responsible
for that. And if you, dear teacher in the Sunday school or if any of
you Christian workers have labored in vain, if you have been faithful
to God, I do not think that will happen–but if it does and it may
happen in some measure–do not seem to bear that responsibility, for
the text says, "Every man shall bear his own burden." I find it
difficult to make young Brothers, when they begin to preach, feel
sufficiently the burden of souls. But every now and then, I have met
with a Brother who has felt the burden of souls so much that he has
scarcely been able to preach at all! That is a pity, because, after
all, the salvation of souls lies not with us, but with God. And if we
have faithfully declared the whole counsel of God and can call God to
witness that we have not kept back anything of His Truth that we knew,
or failed in faithfulness or earnestness, we must leave the matter
there and fall back upon the eternal purpose of God and throw the
responsibility of the result upon our unbelieving hearers.
III. I have not time to speak as I would like upon the last point. That
is, PERSONALITY. "Every man shall bear his own burden."
That is to say, every man, if he has any religion at all, must have
personal religion. You cannot get to Heaven by your mother's godliness,
or by your father's graciousness–there must be a work of Grace in your
own souls. No man can be a sponsor for another in spiritual things.
There is no more gigantic lie than that one person should promise that
another shall do this and that, which he cannot even do himself! No,
"every man shall bear his own burden." Everyone must come, with his own
sin, to his own Savior and, by his own act of faith, must find peace
through the blood of Jesus Christ. Do not trust to any national
religion, for it is utterly worthless. It is only personal'religion
that can save you. If the blood of saints is flowing in your veins, it
brings you nothing except greater responsibility, for salvation is not
of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of
God, and of God alone.
And every man should bear his own burden by personal self-examination.
I would never think of asking another man to give me his opinion of me
and I hope you will not do so. Search your own souls, "examine
yourselves, whether you are in the faith." "Oh, I do not like
self-examination!" says one. So the bankrupt said–he did not like
casting up his accounts. But when a man in business does not cast his
accounts up, his accounts will soon cast him up–and when a man does
not like to examine his own heart, depend upon it, the time will come
when Another will examine him and he will be found lacking and be cast
away as worthless!
Next, this text means that there must be personal service.' 'Every man
shall bear his own burden." That is, if you and I are saved, we must,
each one, have a work of his own and we must set to work and do it
personally. The Lord has put each one of us into a position where there
is something we can do which nobody else can do–and we are bound to do
it and not to begin thinking of how little others do, or how much
others do, but to say to our Lord, "What will You have me do?" Let each
Christian Levite bow his shoulder and carry some burden for the Lord's
House.
And every man should make a personal effort to bear his own burden. We
have a certain number of persons about who seem as if they never can do
anything for themselves–they have to be carried wherever they go. I
think I have told you of a set of portraits that I have at home–they
represent my two sons, taken on their birthdays while they were quite
little boys, and then taken every birthday till they had grown to be
young men. Well, at first, they are in a baby carriage and it is very
interesting to see how they have grown every year. But there are some
of you who have been in baby carriages ever since I knew you–and you
are still in baby carriages–and I have to keep wheeling you about! Oh,
I wish you would grow up! We are all pleased to have dear little
children and we do not mind how little they are at first. But if, after
they were fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, or 20 years old, our boys were
the same size as they were when they were a year old, we should feel
that we were the parents of poor little dwarfs and it would be a great
trial to us. And it is a great trial to us spiritual parents when we
are the fathers of dwarfs! Oh, that you would grow up, Brothers and
Sisters! God help you to grow out of yourselves, your inactivity and
your listlessness, that every man and woman shall say, "I am big enough
to bear my own burden. By the goodness of God, I will get so much Grace
and so much help that I will do some work for the Lord, and do it
thoroughly. I will bear my own burden–not sit on the top of it and
fret and cry, and ask somebody else to bear it for me–but I will bear
my own burden."
I will finish by saying that the text indicates that everybody has own
burden. "Every man shall bear his own burden." You look at somebody
else and you say, "Ah, I wish I had his load to carry!" I do not think
that I ever met with more than one person in the world with whom, upon
mature consideration, I would change places in all respects. I have
thought, once or twice, that I might do so, but soon there has been a
hitch somewhere, and I have said, "No, I will go back into my own
shell, after all." I think, sometimes, that I would not mind changing
places with George Muller for time and for eternity, but I do not know
anybody else of whom I would say as much as that. But I daresay that
even he has his own burden, though he has not told me about it when I
have talked with him.
And that good woman who always looks so smiling, God bless her! She has
a skeleton at home in the closet. And that good Brother who is always
so bright and cheery–yes, he has a burden, too. There is a cross for
everyone and I want you to feel that it is so, because it would take
away all thought of envy whenever you meet with another who seems so
much happier than yourself! That Bother has the sense to turn the
smooth side of his coat outside–he wears the rough side of it
inwards–a very sensible thing to do. Do not, therefore, begin to say,
"Oh, but I am so much worse off than he is!" You do not know what he
has to endure, "for every man shall bear his own burden." Let us end
the whole matter by not envying others, or caring or wishing to be
other people, but just saying, "What can I do to help somebody else?
What I can do to help anybody? I will do it by the Grace of God."
But what can some of you do in carrying burdens for other people? Why,
even while I have been talking, you have said, "I do not care to do
that. What have I to do with other people?" You are in the gall of
bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity while you talk like that! Any
man who is selfish is an unsaved man, for the chief point in salvation
is to save us from ourselves. As long as you live simply within your
own ribs, you live in a dungeon. You will never come into the palace
where the many mansions are–the liberty of our great Father's
House–until you can say, "I love others more than I love myself. Above
all, I love the great Burden-Bearer who took my burden of sin upon His
shoulders and carried it up to the Cross and away from the Cross and
now, through love to Him, the love of self is gone and I will live to
glorify His name forever and forever."
God bless you, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GALATIANS 5:13-26; 6:1,2.
Galatians 5:13. For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only
use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love, serve one
another Do not turn your liberty into license. The Apostle, in this
Epistle, had began urging the Christians of Galatia to stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and never to be,
again, entangled with the yoke of legal bondage. He warned them against
that error into which many have fallen. But you know that it is often
our tendency, if we escape from one error, to rush into another. So the
Apostle guards these Christian against that Antinomian spirit which
teaches us that freedom from the law allows indulgence in sin–"Use not
your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love, serve one
another."
14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this–You shall
love your neighbor as yourself Oh, if that "one word" were so engraved
on our hearts as to influence all our lives, what blessed lives of love
to God and love to men we should lead!
15. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not
consumed one of another When dogs and wolves bite one another, it is
according to their nature, but it is indeed bad when sheep take to
biting one another. If I must be bitten at all, let me be bitten by a
dog rather than by a sheep. That is to say, the wounds inflicted by the
godly are far more painful to bear and last much longer than those
caused by wicked men. Besides, we can say with the Psalmist, "It was
not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it." It is
natural that the serpent's seed should nibble at our heel and seek to
do us injury, but when the bite comes from a Brother–from a child of
God–then it is peculiarly painful. Well might the Apostle write, "If
you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one
of another." I have lived long enough to see churches absolutely
destroyed, not by any external attacks, but by internal contention.
16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. If your life is guided by the Spirit of God–if you
are spiritual men and women, and your actions are worked in the power
of the Spirit, "you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
17. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh. They will never agree–these two powers are always contrary, one
to the other. If you think that you can help God by getting angry, you
make a great mistake. You cannot fight God's battles with the devil's
weapons. It is not possible that the power of the flesh should help the
power of the Spirit!
17, 18. And these are contrary, the one to the other so that you cannot
do the things that you would. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under the law. The Law of God is always to you the blessed rule by
which you judge your conduct, but it is not a law of condemnation to
you–neither are you seeking salvation by it.
19-21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these–Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revel-lings and such like. The
list is always too long to be completed! We are obliged to sum up with
a kind of et cetera–"and such like."
21. Of which I tell you beforehand, as I have also told'you in times
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of
God. A very solemn, searching, sweeping declaration! Let each man judge
himself by this test! "The fruit of the Spirit" is equally manifest, as
the Apostle goes on to say.
22, 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law. Neither human nor Divine! Good men make
no law against these things, nor does God, for He approves of them.
What a wonderful cluster of the grapes of Eshcol we have here! "The
fruit of the Spirit"–as if all this were but one, after all–many
luscious berries forming one great cluster. Oh, that all these things
may be in us and abound, that we may be neither barren nor unfruitful!
24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. It is not yet dead, but it is crucified. It hangs
up on the cross, straining to break away from the iron hold, but it
cannot, for it is doomed to die. Happy, indeed, shall that day be when
it shall be wholly dead.
25, 26. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let
us not be desirous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one
another. Do Christian people need to be talked to like this? Yes, they
do, for the best of men are but men at their best–and the godliest
saint is liable to fall into the foulest sin unless the Grace of God
prevents it. Oh, that we could expel from the Church of Christ all
vain-glorying, all provoking of one another and all envying of one
another! How often, if one Christian Brother does a little more than
his fellow workers, they begin to find fault with him! And if one is
blessed with greater success than others are, how frequently that
success is disparaged and spoken of slightingly! This spirit of envy
is, more or less, in all of us, and though, perhaps, we are not
exhibiting it just now, it only needs a suitable opportunity for its
display and it would be manifested. No man here has any idea of how bad
he really is. You do not know how good the Grace of God can make you,
nor how bad you are by nature, nor how bad you might become if that
nature were left to itself!
Galatians 6:1. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in a fault. If he
travels so slowly that his faults catch up with him and knock him down.
"If a man is overtaken in a fault."
1. You who are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness. Set his bones for him if they have been broken. Put him in
his proper place again.
1. Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. What would you wish
others to do to you if you were in the position of this fallen one? The
Apostle does not say, "Considering yourself lest you also be overtaken
in a fault." No, but, "lest you also be tempted"–as much as to say,
"It only needs the temptation to come to you and you will yield to it."
2. Bear you one another's burdens, and fulfill the law of Christ.