Galatians 6:4-5

"If a burden is laid on my back and another immediately takes it off and carries it himself," said Meister Eckhart, "it can make no difference to me whether it is one or a hundred pounds."

In the Scriptures, there would seem to be three kinds of burdens recognized. First, the burden of loving help which we are admonished to give to others: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2)....

For Reading and Meditation:     Nehemiah 6:9-13

We continue meditating on the fact that the psalmist, though filled with doubts about the goodness of God, nevertheless refrained from expressing those doubts to others. He carefully considered what effect his action might have on the family of God. Nothing that we do in life is without consequences. Someone has put it...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 2:13-17

We continue thinking about the psalmist's decision to take himself in hand and refrain from relaying his doubts to others. I feel it important at this point to say a further word about repression and expression. Christians, we said earlier, are never to pretend about anything. Whether we worry, covet, resent, hate, we...

For Reading and Meditation:     Proverbs 12:11-28

There are people in our world who, even though they are not Christians, catch sight of the fact that the universe is made for wisdom and that to live effectively on this earth one has to search for wisdom and cultivate it. Through rational thought and intuition these people come to the conclusion that without...

For Reading and Meditation:     Galatians 6:1-18

Whenever I hear a person saying that all religions are the same, my mind runs immediately to the cross. If what is found here is true (and I believe it is), and represents the meaning of life, then clearly all religions are not the same. No authentic note of divine self-sacrifice comes from other faiths. The cross...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Another of the chief differences between Christianity and the world's religions, and something which adherents of other faiths find a major stumbling block, is the cross, which humbles all pride and dashes all hope of self-salvation. It also speaks of the tremendous and uncalculating generosity of God in...

A casual reading of these two verses might easily convince a person that they present a glaring contradiction. The first says we should bear one another's burdens, the second that we must bear our own burden.

The word translated "burdens" in verse 2 means anything that weighs a person down spiritually, physically and emotionally. In its immediate context it refers to the heavy weight of guilt and despondency that has come into the life of a man who has been overtaken in a fault (v. 1)....