The Whole Body, Part 9: The Shoulders

The Whole Body and the Meaning of the Shoulders

Well, this morning we continue our way through this rather short series on the whole body. A topical series. We often do that when we complete a rather longer stretch, expositing a certain book or chunk within a book of Scripture.

And we've been making our way down the body. Our goal, of course, is Ephesians 4 to comprehend the whole body. We see what we just read in verses 14 through 16 as the mature, the complete body, the fullness of the body.

We want to grow up in all things into Him who is the head, from whom that whole body, our whole corporate body, joined and knit together by what every joint, every member supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

And so we consider the head, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth. Over the past two weeks we've seen the importance of having the tender heart as well as the strong spine. And this morning we come to the shoulders.

We don't have many body parts left, I will say. We're well beyond the halfway point. But we're still in the upper part of the body. And the shoulders, I think, have a lot to say about bearing weight. That may be related to the strong spine, but we use the spine as a way of talking about conviction, about courage, having that strength that accords with speaking the truth of God in love.

That's combining the strong spine with the tender heart. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 13. That love that we have, a fervent and pure love that we have. But it's also borne out with a courage of conviction.

So the heart, the spine, and this morning we're looking at shoulders bearing weight. And I want to look at that bearing in three different ways.

First, a bearing off.

Something that gets borne away. A weight that gets taken off. A bearing off. And then secondly, a bearing with. And then thirdly, a bearing through. I think this is a helpful way for us to think about our shoulders, our corporate shoulders.

A bearing off, a bearing with, and a bearing through. So beginning with bearing off. By the way, I'll just say, I believe there's an order, there's a flow to this. And I hope that will become clear as we make our way through the points.

Bearing Off the Burden of Sin Through the Gospel

And it all begins here. In other words, bearing with and bearing through does not happen without this first point. Without bearing off. Jeremiah Burroughs, who wrote a wonderful little treatise based on Matthew 11, called Christ Inviting Sinners to Come to Him for Rest.

And of course you understand in the passage, it's the heavy burdens. In Acts 15, the burdens that neither we nor our fathers could bear. And Jesus is pointing to that burden. And He's saying, that's not my burden.

If you're heavy laden, if you're weary from that burden, come to Me. I will give you rest. And Jeremiah Burroughs spends some time in this exposition talking about the burden. He says, I'll just give you a few examples.

Sin is that which makes all other burdens burdensome. There's burden enough in life. Sin makes that burden even more burdensome. Sin makes that weight nearly impossible to bear. The burden of sin is so great to the godly, it makes them weary of life itself.

Their corruption seems to them more grievous than death. It's easier for a man to bear a burden on his shoulders than to bear a burden in his conscience. You see what Burroughs is getting at? There's something about the burden of guilt, something about the burden of sin, something about the burden that makes the difficulties of life the miseries of life, the toil of life, almost the plight, the very condition of death.

Who will deliver us from this body of death? These are the burdens that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 11. He doesn't say that there'll be no burden. He doesn't say that you'll be yoke free. He says, my burden is easy, my yoke is light.

So there is a yoke, there is a burden, but it's not a burden impossible to bear. It's not the sinful burden that Burroughs is describing. The sinful burden that Burroughs is describing is what John Bunyan depicts in Pilgrim's Progress.

Remember, when Christian first understands the gospel, as he's dwelling in and living like this city of destruction, and this gospel message, this invitation to travel through that narrow and difficult way to glory, to the celestial city, and he begins to cry out this great hope of mercy, and he flees from the city of destruction.

But for quite some time, Bunyan has him laboring under this burden. He has this large backpack of all of his guilt, of all of his toil, of all of his struggle. This is the burden that Burroughs is describing.

He struggles with it for quite some time, even after he's fled from the city of destruction. He still needs evangelists to come and point him to the way. It's not until he comes through the wicked gate and beholds the cross that that burden finally falls off of his back.

It was the Puritan William Williams who said, sin will always be burdensome to those who find the Savior precious. And so Christian had already heard the invitation. He was already on this narrow path to life, but he found his sin, his guilt, to be a burden that was hard to bear.

It was because this invitation, this call was so precious that he began to feel the weight of this burden. He perhaps had never felt that burden before. Maybe he, as Paul says in Romans 1, suppressed the truth of that burden and unrighteousness.

It wasn't a guilt that he felt. It was a guilt that he could evade. He could camouflage. He could try to atone for by his actions or his ambitions or his endeavors. Look how good I am. Look how hard I try.

I'm really not only as good as the rest, I'm better than the rest. But once that invitation entered his ears, once his heart began to soften, he felt the weight of his guilt in a way he never had before.

He ran headlong for some time under this burden of guilt. It was a burden because the Savior had become precious to him. It was a burden that the Savior had to take away. And it was taken away when he was brought to behold the cross.

I think Bunyan was a very wise preacher and he understood some are answering their call while they are bearing that burden of guilt. They just don't fully understand or fully have rest in the gospel. They're not in the city of destruction, but they have not fully understood and found the refuge and the joy of the gospel.

And of course, without that, the burden never falls away and Christian can't make it to glory, can't make it to the celestial city. So the heavy burden that a sinner bears is something that the Spirit reveals, the full weight of that burden, the full demand of that burden, the recognition that this burden is not no worse and perhaps not much different than anyone else.

This burden deserves hell. This guilt deserves God's wrath. That's something that the Spirit illuminates, that the Spirit reveals, and the Spirit leads us then to the cross where that guilt, that burden is borne away.

The beginning of the shoulders is this bearing off. The beginning of bearing through and bearing with one another is the bearing off that takes place as a result of the gospel. Jesus in Matthew 23 warned against the Pharisees and the scribes, do not do according to their works, because they say but they don't do.

In other words, Jesus is saying don't be like the hypocrites, don't be like the Pharisees and the scribes. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move one of their fingers.

Everything they do is to be seen. They make their phylacteries, their little scripture containers very broad. They enlarge the borders of their garments. They want to be seen. This is the very thing Jesus was condemning in Matthew 6.

But in Matthew 11 He says, Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. He reveals the burden even as He seeks to take it away from us, that burden that we could not bear, that burden that we try to bear, that burden that will be our ruin, that burden of guilt demanding justice, that burden that we try to suppress in unrighteousness.

Jesus says no, take My yoke. Learn from Me, I'm gentle, I'm lowly in heart, you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, My burden is light. So the first thing we have to understand is, what do we do with the weight that we bear?

Of course, the heavy burden a sinner bears is borne away by faith in Christ. The Gospel is not something that just begins the Christian life, it is the Christian life. That means I'm always seeking to understand the weight, the guilt, the accusation, the condemnation that lingers in my conscience, and I bring that to the cross because only there can that burden be relieved.

Which means I have to exercise faith in the Gospel. That's my life, repenting and trusting in the saving work of Christ. That's the Christian life. That's the Christian shoulder. That's how we bear the weight, the weight of our sin, the weight of our failure, the weight, the burden that so easily entangles us, it discourages us, it causes us to stumble and lose heart and turn aback.

Burroughs was writing a book to the backsliding Christian. It's an invitation, you've forgotten who it is that's called you. He invites you to take that guilt you're feeling, that burden you're bearing, and come to Him so that you might have rest.

He seeks to bear away that guilt. So it's His own faithfulness that you put your faith in. He's faithful to you in ways you're not faithful to Him. He's been faithful to the Lord and that faithfulness will be given to you as your righteousness.

It's the ground of our justification, Christ's faithfulness. Our faith, the faith that we put in Christ, is the instrument, it's the hand that lays hold of the ground. You see? Very important we understand this.

Because if we fail to understand this, we actually add to our burden. And in trying to believe in the Gospel, the Gospel becomes glossable, becomes more law. And it becomes a burden again that we cannot bear.

Somehow we've lost the cross. We've closed our hand to that free offer of God's mercy. We've tried to muster it up within ourselves. This time I'll try a little bit harder. This time I'll be a little bit purer.

Look at what Paul says. Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. This is how Christian shoulders operate.

Paul has no boast or confidence in his flesh. His confidence, his boast, is in Christ. He might have thought himself blameless in his obedience to the law, but all of that now just seems like leaves.

It's rubbish to him.

He recognized he was trying to do what Israel did when they stumbled at the stumbling stone, trying to make a righteousness of their own. That only adds to the burden. It only adds to the weight. That will crush you if you're trying to make your way to glory, if you're trying to absolve or cleanse your conscience.

It's only that which Christ has done, our laying hold of that, our putting our trust in that, an empty hand grasping the reality of that. That's what relieves all of the weight, all of the burden from the shoulders.

That becomes an easy yoke, a light burden. It's not my own righteousness that brings me into the very presence and hope of God, into the surety of His promise. It's Christ's righteousness. And you have to preach that to yourself over and over and over.

Do you want mercy to renew every morning? You better preach that gospel to yourself every morning. Because that is mercy. It's amazing the first time the Lord opens your ears, opens your eyes, gives you a new heart to believe these things.

You know what? It's amazing the thousandth time too. I choke up singing, we were just singing this morning, in my place condemned He stood, sealed my pardon in His blood. Sometimes we're just not even in the right mental space.

We sing unworthily these hymns that are beholding this reality. No wonder then we carry on the rest of our day and the rest of our week with burdens we were never meant to bear. With guilt and accusations that the evil one uses to great effect.

He trips us, causes us to stumble, causes us to grumble and wallow in self-pity. No wonder there's no joy, there's no strength, there's no vigor. We're bearing a weight we were never meant to bear, a weight that's been born for us by Christ.

Christ's faithfulness is the ground of all of our hope, of all of our stay as Christians. It's our faith that lays hold of that. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9,. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves.

It's the gift of God, not of works. No man can boast. And so again, as we say, it's the empty hand. Faith is not the one thing that merits God's grace. No, the one thing that merits God's grace is the atoning blood of a perfect Son.

That's the only thing that merits the grace of God to unworthy sinners. Faith is the empty hand that lays hold of that. It's the instrument of our salvation, the hand which receives. The Puritans are so helpful on this point.

William Gernal. With one hand, faith pulls off its own righteousness. Will you put it this way? With one hand, faith, as it were, exposes itself, exposes its guilt, exposes its shame. With the other hand, it puts on the righteousness of Christ.

Again, this is commonplace for Christians. And the struggle then is that you never allow it to be so common that you lose the depth and the richness and the wonder of the Gospel. This is music to the Christian's ear.

I remember years ago as a young man going to see a film in the theater, and it was a story about William Wilberforce and the slave trade, the Atlantic slave trade, and sort of his long toils in the English Parliament to overcome chattel slavery.

And in that, there were several little moments of interaction with John Newton, of course, this famous preacher and theologian who had formerly been a captain, I believe, of a slave ship doing that Atlantic passage and had a tremendous conversion and was a tremendous preacher of the Gospel.

And there were just a few vignettes throughout this film, and the whole theater was packed. And there was one moment where John Newton, who was there sort of mopping the floor in the church, and he commented to Wilberforce, two things I know, I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.

And half the theater went, mmm, amen. No one else had spoken the entire film. There was no little moments or oohing or aahing or whispering. Everyone was glued in, but they couldn't contain themselves.

That's music to the Christian's ear. Those are the essential truths. It has everything to do with my shoulders because I either am released from a burden or I'm carrying it day by day, slogging through the trenches of self-righteousness when I should be having an easy burden and a light yoke that comes from Christ's righteousness clothing me.

Thomas Manton says, with one hand, faith stretches out for Christ. With the other, it pushes away anything that comes between Christ and the soul. Any self-effort, any vain thought, any promised reformation or renovation, get that rubbish out of here.

It's Christ's righteousness alone. No human can boast. So it's Christ's faithfulness. That's the ground of our release from this burden that we were not able to bear. It had to be borne on our behalf.

We live by mercy. We live by the cross. We live by the blood. We live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. That is the freeing power of the gospel. Again, you are not just freed from the burden of guilt at the entrance to the Christian life, at the beginning of your conversion.

This is meant to be something that carries you through all the way. If we could, in our own experience, depict what Bunyan's getting at, it's not just that the burden falls off as we pass through the wicked gate.

I think we try to put that burden back on at several other points throughout the rest of our lives. What I mean is, Paul writes the letter to the Galatians for a reason. You want to put the burdens back on you?

Foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? You want to be burdened and weighed down again? Have you thought so little of Christ and his salvation? Have you forgotten this gospel that I've preached to you? There's nothing as freeing, as liberating, as joyous as being found in Christ and possessing simply by faith, simply by trusting in the truth and the reality of his salvation, to experience by faith all the salvation that he has accomplished.

So dealing with the burden rightly is the key then to not only bearing out the Christian life, bearing out the mercies and grace of God in our walks, but it's key to how we bear with one another in light of that.

It's key to how we bear through. In other words, how we endure temptation and trial. When we're discouraged, when we're downfallen, when we're set back, when we're slinking away, there is a weight, there is a burden, there is a pressure, there is a shame, there is a guilt, do you see?

This is what has to be dealt with first. You can't endure, you can't deal with anything unless you're dealing with it in light of the Gospel. When you're prone to wander, as the hymn says, Lord, I feel it.

Prone to leave the God I love. Prone to forsake. Prone to deny. Prone to coldness. Prone to unbelief. You're brought to the place where it seems the accuser himself is mounting up against you. And he gets you into this little game.

He causes you to look so inward and to try to produce this meager little list of fruits and virtues in your life and say, show me how you're righteous. Show me how you'll be righteous. Yeah, what can you do?

What can you improve to make you righteous? Rather than playing that little game, you go to Romans 8, 1 and you say, there's no condemnation if I'm in Christ. You're barking up the wrong tree. I have no hope in myself.

I have no confidence in my flesh. In me dwells no good thing. All of my hope, all of my confidence is in my Savior who is faithful,.

Who died for me.

In my place condemned He stood. What I could not do, in that I was weak in the flesh. It was too heavy.

I'm too weak.

I can't bear it. The burden's intolerable. God did. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. You see, we have to deal with the shoulders rightly. If we don't bear off, we'll never bear with.

We'll never bear through. There's that beautiful hymn. Caroline Noel wrote it, and Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the music to it, At the Name of Jesus. One of my top three. Maybe top. And the second stanza is talking about this Savior, this promised one who's come.

His name has been exalted above every name. But of course, the second stanza, He was humbled for a season to receive that name. Humbled for a season to receive a name. From the lips of sinners amongst whom He came.

Faithfully He bore it. Do you remember what Paul says to the Galatians? Jesus was born under the law. He was born under that crushing weight that James says in Acts 15. We couldn't bear it. Our fathers couldn't bear it.

He bore it. The perfect law in all of the holiness that it requires. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, dwelling among sinners. Faithfully He bore all of that weight on His shoulders. Spotless to the last.

You see, the bearing off is something that actually brings us to the sin bearer. And that's why we bear with, and that's how we bear through. The bearing off is simply the Gospel. He did what we could never do.

He bore what we could never bear. What shall we say to these things? If He's for us, He's against us. If God wouldn't spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, will He not also freely with Him give us all things?

Who would bring a charge against God's elect? The only thing that could be charged against God's elect is if God's elect are trying to justify something by themselves or within themselves. There's no charge to be made if we're justified by faith in Christ.

And that's the point. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

How does He justify?

By sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh to bear a weight we could never bear. To bear the burden of our sin, our shame, our guilt. So that rather than being crushed under that everlasting pressure, we could be freed from it and given a yoke, given a burden in following Him that is easy to bear.

Do you see?

The bearing off is the key to bearing with. So let's move to bearing with now. We're going to come back to bearing off at the very end. I just wanted to establish that point at the outset. If we don't understand the removal of that great burden, then we can never shoulder the burdens of one another.

If you have a pack that is bringing your collarbones down to the soil, you're going to be of very little help of bearing anyone else's burden in the congregation. But if you've been released, if you've been freed, if you've been liberated from the accusations and the guilt of the evil one, if you've been saved by grace through faith, you are in the best position to shoulder up along a brother or sister and bear with them their struggles in this walk.

Because you have the best thing to give to them.

The Gospel.

The hope of release and rest and freedom in Christ. And that's how we bear with one another. We have nothing with which to bear with one another if it's not the Gospel. I can only add to your weight if it's not the Gospel that I bring.

So that means I have to understand what weight am I bearing on my shoulders before I can seek to be of any help of bearing with someone else's shoulders, someone else's weight. Paul says in Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in you all. So for Paul, it's the Gospel call that actually corresponds to bearing with one another in love.

Because we've been called, because we've been saved by God, through grace, by faith, now we can bear with one another. Now with lowliness of mind and higher esteem for the other, in gentleness we can bear with one another.

In love we can walk in a long-suffering way with one another. We can now endeavor to keep the bond of the Spirit in peace. Maybe this is more familiar if we remember last year. Maybe it didn't mean as much to us last year.

Maybe we ticked the box a little too early. Been there, done that, green light, we're good. And then the Lord in His providence spends the next half of the year showing how far we are from the reality of it.

Colossians 3, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

We spent so much time memorizing that for the retreat. How much time did we spend practicing that after the retreat? Bearing with one another flows out of what Christ has done for us. We said it a few weeks ago, we will be to others as we believe Christ has been to us.

How can I forgive an offense, a complaint I may have against another? I can forgive it as I've been forgiven. Even as Christ forgave, so I must forgive. Even as Christ has borne, so I must bear. Even as Christ has been long-suffering, so I must suffer long.

Even Christ's meekness must become my meekness. Christ's humility, my dress. Christ's kindness, my spirit, you see. For Paul, it all flows out of the Gospel of Christ. Maybe put even more dramatically or more to effect, Galatians 6, 1 and following, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

Consider yourself, lest you also be tempted. And what immediately comes with that? Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Where does this talk of bearing burdens come from? Well, we already saw it in Colossians 3.

We see it everywhere. It comes out of this Gospel. It comes out of the saving work of Christ. Why should we, in a spirit of gentleness, seek to restore such a one?

That's how Christ was to us.

And so we fulfill His law. We fulfill His command. We fulfill His example, His desire, when we bear one another burdens in this way. Now, he'll go on to say, and it's very important we understand this, a few verses later, each man must bear his own burden.

In other words, there's limitations here about what shoulders do in a church body. We are commanded at first glance, in light of Christ's own example and command, to bear with one another in meekness, in long-suffering, with all humility, in love, to bear with one another.

That's a command. And we actually seek to, in deference to Christ, in love for His Gospel and the example that He's made alive in our lives, we're actually seeking to bear one another's burdens. That's a little bit different.

Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 says, put up with one another. It's like, all right, I guess I will. Bear with one another. Yeah, all right, it's not easy, but I will. Galatians 6 says, bear one another's burdens.

There's a difference there. What's required to bear someone else's burden? I have to know enough about their life to even know what that burden is. Maybe over time to understand what might be going into that burden.

I have to be close enough to care that that's a burden that's affecting their life. I have to understand enough about God's desire, how God has moved in their life, the trajectory that they're on to understand, how can I bear some of that?

Where are they going? Where would God have them go? So what does bearing then look like? I can't bear half the weight if we're going in two different directions. Bearing means I'm seeing them in a certain light.

I'm considering them. I'm seeking them in a certain way. It comes back to a tender heart. It may require a strong spine. You're going in the wrong way. That weight will crush you unless you turn. But verses later, Paul says, at the end of it all, each man bears his own burden.

It must be this way. In other words, everyone fully and finally is responsible for their own walk, for their own response to God's gracious call. There's no one to hide behind, no one who, well, if they had only borne my weight a little better, I would have made it.

Paul says, nice try. Each man will bear his own burden. It must be this way. Anything other is unjust. And God is a God of justice. God is a God of holiness. But He's also a God of mercy, and that's why He commands this.

Brothers, share each other's burdens.

It's hard enough to walk in this world, in this holy pattern that's been laid out for us. It's hard enough to run this race as to win. Be like some of those Olympians that they slow down so that the limping sprained ankle can actually make it to the finish line.

So we're called to bear, we're called to see, we're called to desire this kind of shouldering of one another's difficulties, one another's sorrows, one another's weaknesses. That's something that we have to bear with.

That's something that we have to bear up. We're seeking to bear one another's burdens to fulfill the law of Christ.

Why?

He became the sin bearer for our sake. A man of sorrows that in His own body bore all of our sorrows. In His own flesh bore all of our grief, all of the experiences of misery and difficulty. Not sin in His life, but the effects of sin all over His life.

And He bore that all faithfully to the last. And so it's the law of Christ, it's the example of Christ that calls us, bear in this way. How would Christ bear your brother or sister's burden? If you think in that way, then you'll think, therefore how should I bear my brother or my sister's burden?

How would Christ be meek and gracious and long-suffering with my brother or sister? Therefore, how will I be meek and patient and long-suffering with my brother or my sister? It's our own pride, our own naivete, it's our own foolishness.

We're so self-absorbed that we just don't even have eyes, we don't have ears. We're only concerned about our own burden. I don't have time for anyone else's burden. Why should I? Lord, you expect me to forgive 77 times a day?

Seven times a day is a lot. How much grace can you get? Jesus is like, have you understood enough? If you could see what I see, if you could know what I know, if you could bear what I bear, you couldn't bear it.

You couldn't bear it. When the congregation in numbers is moaning and grumbling, bread again, Moses is leading us to our death, Egypt, we had it made. Why did Moses drag us away from Egypt? We were so happy there.

Moses, they're weary, they're grumbling, they're finding it hard to bear the leadership of Moses. Moses is finding it hard to bear their grumbling and complaining. When it comes to God, oh, God, you don't know how it is.

God's like, I don't know how it is. All day long I hold out my hands to a wearisome and disobedient people. God essentially says to Moses, get in line. But remember, this is the God who revealed himself to Moses as merciful, compassionate, abounding in mercy, long-suffering, good.

This is who he is. He cannot be other. These are his perfections. This is the law of Christ we're called to fulfill. Christ had a perfect patience, a perfect ability to bear with. He had a perfect tenderness and a perfect zeal.

Enough spine to go into the temple,.

Flip tables,.

A detail that often gets forgotten. He took the time to fashion a whip. Can you imagine? This wasn't like he accidentally tripped over a table. It wasn't a fit of rage. It was a prophetic demonstration, if anything.

It was a demonstration in the temple. You have corrupted and perverted what was meant to be a house of prayer. You've made it a den of thieves. I just always picture that as the disciples are watching the money changers' tables flying over and pigeons and coins are flying everywhere.

It's like, ah, do we go near him? He seems to be calm. What is he doing? He's making a whip. If you think about it, he has this perfect zeal. Perfect zeal. He says in that passage, quoting David, zeal for your house has consumed me.

Then he climbs over the city prior to Golgotha, and he weeps over it. Tender heart. Strong spine. These are the sin-bearing shoulders that command us to bear one another's burdens. This is what we saw in Matthew.

Go the extra mile. Matthew 5. Someone takes, give them double what they've taken. This is the idea. You're actually seeking to be long-suffering, patient, winsome. You recognize there's a purpose of God that accords with all of these burdens, all of these difficulties.

There's a purpose of God, and He actually intends to use you and allow His mercy to shine through you as you bear one another's burdens. Romans 15 .1 says, We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Just to bear it. That's really the challenge. I think I could get through Romans 15 .1 if it ended just that, We who are strong ought to bear the scruples of the weak. I'm strong, and I ought to do that.

We always assume we're the strong whenever we read passages like that. No one wakes up in the mirror and says, You are the weak brother. You are the strong brother. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

But Paul says,.

When we're bearing one another's burdens, when we're bearing with one another, we ought to do it in a way that we're not trying to please ourselves. Ooh, there's the rub. Because usually I'll only bear with people because it makes me feel better about myself.

Or I'll do it to the degree.

That it works for me,.

Or it pleases me. I'll do it for my own satisfaction, my own comfort. I can actually bear with people out of my own selfishness, believe it or not. It might look to everyone else like I'm doing it selflessly, but the Lord sees my heart is more selfish than anyone else's.

Not to please myself, but to bear as Christ has borne. How has Christ borne? How has Christ been long-suffering? Spurgeon has this wonderful sermon. I have to mention him at least weekly. Spurgeon has this wonderful sermon on Galatians 6, 1 and 2.