Burdens

I ran across this quote by Jonathan Edwards several weeks ago, for me it was one of those quotes that just makes you stop and think, “Huh.”  Its also one of those things, at least for me, that you really can’t just walk away from and not have it seep into your thinking and how you view the relationships God allows you to enjoy and participate in.  So here it is, see if you agree with me, and ask God what He would have you do with it…

“In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be obliged to give to others when we cannot do it without suffering ourselves. . . . We should be willing to suffer with our neighbor and to take part of his burden on ourselves.  Otherwise, how is that rule of ‘bearing one another’s burdens’ fulfilled?  If we are never obliged to relieve others’ burdens except when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens when we bear no burden at all?”

Jonathan Edwards, “Christian Charity,” in Works (Edinburgh, 1979), II:171.

-Bill Christian

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