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I BEG TO DIFFER
Sometime in the late 90s, when I was senior pastor of an east Texas Baptist church, a smug young fellow walked into my study and plopped an open bible on my desk.
“Preacher,” he declared, “I have found a contradiction in the New Testament. Within the span of three verses, Paul writes opposing instructions. It’s like he forgot what he had just written and then wrote the opposite.”
While he folded his arms on his chest, I leaned over to read the passages he highlighted. They were from Galatians 6:2-5:
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. ~Galatians 6:2-5
“See there, Preacher?” he says, “Paul can’t make up his mind. Do you bear each other’s burdens or just your own?”
The answer, I explained, is both. Though the King James Bible uses “burden” in both verses – which is correct – it is not the same word. You can translate from the Greek language two different words with the same English word and be accurate. One word may have many meanings.
The Law of Christ
In verse five, Paul writes that we ought to “bear one another’s burdens” to fulfill the Law of Christ. What is the Law of Christ? Jesus answered this when the Pharisees challenged Him on the matter of Moses’ Law:
And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question: 36“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”
Jesus declared, “”¯’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ~Matthew 22:34-39
So, the law of Christ is to love God and each other. When we bear each other’s burdens, that is love in action. When you see a coworker overwhelmed and you step into help them do their job, you fulfill the Law of Christ.
The penchant today is to look after Number One.
“Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
“That’s not my job.”
When they were young, one of my daughters was asked by her mother to help her sister with a chore that was proving too much for her sister to accomplish efficiently. She was frustrated and overwhelmed by the burden.
“But that’s not my chore!” she complained when asked to help.
“No. But she is your sister,” her mother replied.
One great thing about growing up Baptist in small-town Texas was the way church ladies responded to everything from death to marriage, from grief to celebration. With food!
“Oh, honey, I am so sorry for your loss. Here’s a casserole.”
“Congratulations on finally graduating. We thought you never would. I made meatloaf.”
“Darling, I am so happy about your marriage! I brought you this pound cake and here’s the recipe.”
They were like the Dukes of Hazzard of love, “Just good ol’ gals, makin’ their way the only way they knew how.”
Oh, yeah. They were prayer warriors, too. They would grab hold of Heaven and shake it like a vending machine refusing to yield a candy bar.
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The Law of the Jungle
Phortion is the Greek word Paul uses to say everyone should bear their own burden. It is a word that means to carry the load meant just for you. An example is a soldier carrying his pack – shield, sword, etc – into battle. Drop the “h” in phortion and you have “portion.” Do your poriton. Do your part. Carry your weight.
As Bill Belichick said to his players (and had written on a wall), “Do your job.”
If one player fails to do his job, the success of the entire team is threatened. Same with a soldier, an employee, or a household member.
The GREAT Rudyard Kipling put it in a story and in unforgettable words:
Now this is the Law of the Jungle “” as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back “” For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
Conclusion
Here it is in a nutshell:
Pull your weight and lend a hand, and so fulfill the law of Christ and the Law of the Jungle.
