Bear ye one another's burdens
Which may be understood either of sins, which are heavy burdens
to sensible sinners, to all that are partakers of the grace of
God; Christ is only able to bear these burdens, so as to remove
them and take them away, which he has done by his blood,
sacrifice, and satisfaction; saints bear one another's, not by
making satisfaction for them, which they are not able to do, nor
by conniving at them, and suffering them upon them, which they
should not do, but by gently reproving them, by comforting them
when overpressed with guilt, by sympathizing with them in their
sorrow, by praying to God for to manifest his pardoning grace to
them, and by forgiving them themselves, so far as they are faults
committed against them: or else the frailties and infirmities of
weak saints, which are troublesome, and apt to make uneasy, are
meant; and which are to be bore by the strong, by making
themselves easy with them, and by accommodating themselves to
their weakness, and by abridging themselves of some liberties,
which otherwise might be lawfully taken by them; or afflictions
may be designed, which are grievous to the flesh, and are bore by
others, when they administer help and relief under them, whether
in a temporal or spiritual way; and when they condole them, and
sympathize with them, bear a part with them, and make others'
griefs and sorrows their own:
and so fulfil the law of Christ;
which is the law of love to one another, ( John 13:34 John 13:35 ) in
opposition to the law of Moses, the judaizing Galatians were so
fond of, and by which Christ's disciples may be distinguished
from those of Moses, or any others. This is a law or doctrine
which Christ has clearly taught, and recovered from the false
glosses of the Pharisees; it is his new commandment, which he has
strengthened and enforced by his own example in dying for his
people, and which he, by his Spirit, inscribes upon their hearts.
The Jews speak of the law of the Messiah as preferable to any
other.
``The law (they say F24) which a man learns in this world is vanity, in comparison of (xyvm lv wtrwt) "the law of the Messiah", or Christ;''by "fulfilling", it is meant, doing it, acting in obedience to it, and not a perfect fulfilling it, which cannot be done by sinful creatures.