Galatians 6:2 Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. No other law but the law of Christ ever taught this maxim; the proper discharge of social duties is regulated nowhere but in the law of Christ, which is the law of love, "for love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." All those social symptoms which rise like the foam out of the agitated elements of the present generation, disappear in rapid succession, because they have no other foundation than the wave which cannot rest; and they are at best but mere spurious imitations of that fraternity which was founded by Jesus Christ. It is some tribute to the origin of our holy religion, that men in their most extravagant aberrations, and amidst the wildest theories for promoting the happiness of the many, should appeal to the Divine founder of Christianity, as having first introduced the system which they are seeking to propagate; but, inasmuch as they know nothing of the law of love, which He taught us the moving spring of every good word and work, they do but wander on the outside of the Christian system .... In the general history of mankind, the maxim of the text, so far from being acted out, has been reversed; instead of men sharing or bearing one another's burdens, they appear to act upon the rule of laying them on each other's shoulders, with the view of getting rid of their portion of the weight. In the times of classical antiquity, which our youth are taught to hold in admiration; in the days of heroism and splendid war, which poets have sung and historians have embellished, there were the degraded classes of the community, made to bear the burdens of the rest. The helots of Sparta, and the slaves of Greece, the gladiators of Rome, and the captives of barbarian invaders, were but the beasts of burden for the more favoured portion of the community. What cared the Roman citizen for the slave that went his round of ceaseless toil? What thought had the feudal lord for the drudge that wore out his brief existence in subterranean damps to do his master's pleasure? Who, even in our Christian land for many generations, heeded the heavy burdens laid upon the slave, or the tender females working in our mines, or the helpless children in our factories? What thought or care among hundreds and thousands now, who refuse to give to the man who has done his six days' labour, the day of rest which is his due, because they will not forego one single particle of their ordinary luxury, nor bear any portion of their brother's burden? St. Paul here appears to take it for granted that every man has a burden; and shortly afterwards he says that "every man shall bear his own burden." There must be no such shifting away of the trial or hardship, which, in the course of providence, he has to bear, as will exempt him from the ordinary lot of humanity. It is not at all a question of getting everything done for us, so that we may have a smooth and easy path at others' expense and toil; but it is just that there may be a mutual succour, which will help every man to "bear his own burden," such, e.g., as the burdens of poverty, affliction, excessive labour, etc. (R. Burgess, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.WEB: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. |
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