Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
While the principle of this verse applies to all sorts of burdens, the context surrounding this verse shows us that God is speaking of sin burdens specifically. In 5:16-26, the apostle Paul describes the inner warfare of a Christian between sin’s desires and the Spirit’s desires. And in 6:1, Paul calls those who are walking by the Spirit’s desires to “restore” those who are “caught” in sin. Then, Paul issues the call to bear each other’s sin burdens:
It is a call to being together, to meeting with one another and giving your sin burdens to your brother.
It is a call to make your brother’s struggle against sin your own.
It is a call to fight alongside your brother against the sin he is entangled in.
It is a call to asking hard questions and giving honest answers about your struggle with sin.
It is a call to openness and confession and grieving over sin with your brother.
It is a call to wisely and ceaselessly preach the Gospel to your brother as he fights sin.
It is a call to desperate prayer on your brother’s behalf, that he would put sin to death by the Spirit.
It is a call to love as Jesus loved by laying down your life for the holiness of your brother.
The call to bear one another’s burdens is a call to accountability in its deepest sense.
Are you being obedient to this calling? Is anyone bearing your sin burden? Are you bearing anyone else’s sin burden?
Were it not for the burden-bearing of my brothers in Christ, I would be deeply entangled in sexual sin today. They loved me by bearing my sin burden, and so fulfilled the law of Christ. May we be a people who do the same, “through love serving one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (5:13-14).