“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (5) For every man shall bear his own burden.” Galatians 6:2, 5
The very first three things one must understand before studying the bible, (1) The entire word is God’s words, not one letter of any word is man’s own writings. (2) The entire context of the 66 books of the bible is without contradiction of any sort, God never contradicts Himself. (3.) The entire 66 books of the bible are in complete context, the entire bible always carries the same thought or meaning, it is written as one letter by one writer, all thoughts are the same. Some people use the writings of Paul and James as different context or ways of defining salvation. Some say James says works is a part of one’s salvation while Paul says salvation is of faith and omits works. If this contradiction was true, the entire bible would be worthless, and no one would know how a soul is saved. Paul omits works from salvation because works has nothing to do with salvation. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8 – 9 Please understand, James never says salvation is accomplished by words or that any part of works are involved in the salvation of a lost soul. Sadly, these people simply cannot comprehend what James is talking about or how to properly define the context of James writings. Dead faith is man’s fleshly faith, and it is dead if an unsaved person has no desire to properly serve God in their life, any Christian has some desire to serve God.
Here in Galatians chapter six, we find another instance where people claim that there is contradiction in the bible. They will ask how one must bear their own burdens, if we are commanded to help each other with our burdens? They claim God is giving us contradictory commands and therefore the bible contains errors. Again, this thinking is simply a failed understanding of God’s word. There is absolutely no contradiction in the bible, none! If you study the bible and find what you think is contradiction, you need to study deeper. The truth here in Galatians 6 is very simply to understand if you simply open a concordance and look at the Greek. In verse 2 God tells Christians “Bear ye one another's burdens…” I believe this is a commandment not an option, and this is where the ignorant thinking is in this passage and their claim of contradiction is found. The Greek word here is -baros- and the word means – a weight figuratively a load, abundance, or a heavy load- The thought here is if someone has a sharable burden then we are to help them with that burden to lighten the load. For example, if I attempted to pick up a piece of wood that was too heavy for me, then someone could help me with that burden and ought too. God said, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” Romans 15:1 Christians do not sit and watch other Christians suffer with burdens if they can help! We also see Jesus say this, “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Matthew 23:3 - 4 DO YOU HELP OTHERS WITH THEIR BURDENS?
In verse 5 we read the other side, “For every man shall bear his own burden” This Greek word carries an entirely different meaning. The Greek word here is -phortion- This is a burden that must be carried by one’s own self and cannot be shared. It is likened to a woman with childbearing, she must go through the process on her own, no one can take her place to help. It is also likened to a person in judgement, whether saved or lost we will all stand in Judgment before Jesus Christ. I will answer for myself, and you will answer for yourself, no one can carry another person’s burden in judgment.
So, these two words of burden are not contradictory at all, they simply mean different kinds of burdens that are carried. Now, in closing, one burden can turn into the other burden if Christians are not doing what God commanded. If I was to pick up something to heavy and “…but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Then my sharable burden -baros- turns into a -phortion- because no one helped it is my un-shareable burden. Therefore, Christ use the Greek word -phortion- in Mathew 3, because no one lifted a finger to help.
Folks, if someone has a burden that can be shared, then help share it and please don’t make their burden non-sharable because no one lifted a finger to help. God’s commandment is that we help each other if possible. Wouldn’t it be awful if God had left us to bear our own sin burden, give that some thought!
