𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 (𝟯) 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝗳 𝗜'𝗺 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗛𝗶𝗺?

We ask God to remove difficult people. He often asks us to carry them.
That is not the prayer we wanted answered. But look at the instruction: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2. Not avoid. Not manage. Bear. The word means to lift and carry the weight, the way you carry something heavy up a flight of stairs.
Some people in your life are not there to be enjoyed. They are there to be borne. And bearing them is how the law of Christ gets fulfilled in you.
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂.
There was a season when you were the difficult one. Slow to learn. Quick to take offence. Needy, or proud, or both. Somebody carried you through it without telling you how heavy you were. A parent. A mentor. A friend who kept showing up when you gave them every reason not to. You are standing on borne weight.
Jesus bore twelve men for three years. Slow, competitive, cowardly, confused. "How long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" Mark 9:19. He said it out loud. And then He kept suffering them, all the way to a cross they ran from.
Simon of Cyrene was pulled out of a crowd and made to carry a cross that was not his. Mark 15:21. He did not volunteer. He had somewhere to be. And his name is in the Gospel forever, because he carried a weight that belonged to Someone else.
𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗴𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿.
"For every man shall bear his own burden." Galatians 6:5
Two different Greek words. Verse 2 is baros, a crushing load, the kind no one can lift alone. Verse 5 is phortion, a soldier's pack, the normal weight of a man's own responsibility. You carry the first for people. You do not carry the second for them.
Bearing a brother does not mean becoming his excuse. It does not mean funding his laziness, absorbing his abuse, or doing his repentance for him. Wisdom knows the difference between a man crushed and a man comfortable. Carry the crushed. Let the comfortable feel his pack.
𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄.
Is this a baros or a phortion? Are they crushed, or are they coasting?
If crushed, what if you are the one God appointed to carry them through this season? Not because you are strong, but because "we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." Romans 15:1. Not to please ourselves. Bearing will cost you comfort. That is the point.
And what if the weight is doing something in you? Carrying builds the shoulders. The patience you do not have is formed in the carrying, not before it.
Sanctification is not only what happens in you when you are alone with God. It is what happens in you when you are alone with someone heavy, and you decide not to put them down.
#SanctifiedEnough #Faith #Brotherhood #Patience