When it comes to boundaries, only you, with the help of the Holy Spirit, will be able to set them at a healthy place. Your life, time, and relationships are yours alone and they require tailor-made boundaries and limits. My boundaries and limits will not work in your life, nor your’s in mine. This is why it is crucial that we personally cooperate with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to give us clear boundaries. Tomorrow, we will talk about what the Bible says should be within our boundaries and what are non-negotiable. But today, I want to talk about this truth: just because we can do something doesn’t always mean we should.
Galatians 6:2-5 clearly outlines some boundaries, limits, and property lines we all should be operating in. Paul says in the first phrase, “Carry each other’s burdens.” The word burden here means an excessive and crushing load. It gives us the picture of a huge boulder. Paul is saying if you see someone who has a crushing and excessive boulder in their life, help them! Don’t leave them! Helping others do what they cannot do for themselves is sacrificial love and honors God. Paul is stating that we are responsible “to” each other. We are each other’s family and when someone is hurting, it is our job to help them. But only for a short time.
Verse 5 states, “Each one should carry their own load.” The word load means a burden or cargo of daily toil. It gives us a picture of a backpack. Paul is saying each of us should carry the backpack, or the daily toil, we’ve been given. He states we are all expected to carry our own load. So, when we see someone who is working hard and laboring over their daily tasks, it is what God designed them to do. Labor and hard work are part of God’s plan and it’s important we don’t step in the way of it. If carrying each other’s boulder is being responsible “to” someone, then letting someone carry their own burden and/or backpack is not being responsible “for” someone.
The Bible is saying we each are to carry our own load. But if someone gets in trouble with something that is too big to take care of on their own, we can step in for a moment and help them. But we are not created to carry everyone else’s backpack. They were created for theirs. We get in trouble when we begin to take everyone else’s load and make it ours. God specifically designed a load for you. This backpack is part of His design and it keeps us dependent upon Him for our daily happenings.
If you continue to hold someone else’s backpack for very long, you will not be able to carry your own load as well. God did not create you to carry more than you can hold. So, for some of us, it will require us being more obedient to God. It may require you understanding that you are not more productive, more valuable, and more blessed because you are doing things for others that they should be doing for themselves. In fact, you may be getting in the way of what God is trying to do in them. I know this may not have been your understanding up until this point, but now you know what God expects and it’s time to change.