The Law of Love

"Thank you, and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message, "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes we don't have the time to listen. He has to throw a brick at us to catch our attention.

I challenge you to open yourself to carry another's burden.

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Fourth, the law of love functions with humility.

Paul writes: "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load" (Galatians 6:3-5).

In a way, it sounds like Paul is discounting what he just said about carrying one another's load. Not at all. He is reminding us that each of us has our own burdens to carry. Burdens that perhaps no one else will fully understand.

You see, my tendency is to take what we just talked about and apply it to you and expect you to help me carry my burdens. In a way, that's the ultimate in narcissism. Thank you for those moments in which you help me carry my burdens. But I ultimately am going to spiral downward if I spend my time concentrating on my burdens, waiting for you to show up. Instead, I am privileged to reach out and help you and, in the process, my burdens are lighter. Paul is dealing here with the inflated self-image, our tendency to have a big head instead of a humble heart.

Paul is dealing here with self-deception, in which I think I am pretty important. I build myself up to think of myself as more important than I actually am.

Paul is talking here about the pride of comparison versus the joy of Grace.

You see, this is what legalism is all about. The legalist is the person who relishes making a list of all the good I do, the bad I don't do, and comparing it to someone else who has a very short list of good and a very long list of bad.

Or, to put it more bluntly, I build myself up by tearing others down.

I am not preaching just at you. This text is talking to me.

Three weeks ago, I was sitting at my computer and in came an instant message from a friend, reading: "What do you think about the latest preacher to fall?" And then he typed in his name. I typed back, "I haven't heard a thing. Tell me about it." He typed back and gave me the Internet address of the newspaper and the city where this well-known, mega-church pastor quite effectively ministered until the recent scandal and forced resignation.

What did I do? I went right to that Internet site, and I wallowed in several newspaper articles revealing all the ugly mix of facts, allegations, admissions and denials.