Galatians 6:2

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2

In a traditional wedding ceremony, the couple vows to love each other "in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse." According to I Corinthians 13, this quality of endurance is characteristic of Agape love whether that love be for a spouse, a friend, a co-worker, family member, fellow Christian or someone to whom you are ministering. We are called to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6.2)

Within any type of relationship, difficulties will arise. Sometimes they will arise within the relationship. One or both persons will say or do things which hurt the other. For the most part such hurts are unintentional, but that doesn't always assuage the pain. More often the difficulties arise from outside the relationship itself. Sickness, persecution, financial distress, emotional pain, attacks of Satan which affect one of the people will by extension affect both.

Remember the context in which 1 Corinthians 13 appears. In Chapter 12 is a discussion of the body of Christ and how what affects one member affects all. True Agape love feels the pain of others, and in so doing, helps carry that burden. Their prayer needs become our prayer needs. Their distress becomes our distress. Their need for salvation, deliverance or healing becomes ours as well.

But, you say, that's hard. How can I carry another person's need as though it were my own? That isn't natural. Absolutely correct. It isn't natural. But neither is Agape love, it is supernatural. When you have loved as much as you can in your own strength and that strength begins to lag, step out of the way and let God love that person through you.

To bear another's burdens doesn't require that we need to be strong, it simply requires that we be willing. There will always be another pair of hands helping with that burden. And if you look closely, you will find that they have the imprints of nails in them from a time, when he carried a burden that wasn't his.

Lord, today show me someone struggling under a burden I can help carry. Amen and Amen.