Bear with each other …
Summary: Bearing with others means we suffer with them and put up with their differences.
What does it mean to “bear” with someone?
The word “bear,” like most words, has more than one use depending on context. What sets it apart, however, is the number of ways this word can be understood. It is extremely versatile!
You can “bear up” under adversity or “bear with” someone who is momentarily distracted. A fact can “bear on” a theory, or a theory can “bear on” a fact. Sailors on a boat can “bear away” from shore or “bear in on” their destination. Meanwhile, the tree you planted years ago might finally “bear fruit,” just like a woman “bears children.”
If you are spiteful, you can “bear ill will” toward someone you “bear a resemblance to.” If you are hauled into court, you might have to “bear witness” and, having done so, “bear a hand” in freeing or convicting someone.
Perhaps you have tried to force something back in the box so you can return it to the store, and you had to “bear down” on it. The reason that you are returning the product to the store is that you can’t “bear” to keep it.
What Paul means with the word he chose has more to do with patience than anything else. Like our study of the word “patience,” we discover that bearing with someone often means putting up with the things about them that bother us.
When it comes to our brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to look past our personal differences in order to celebrate our spiritual connections.
This can be hard.
Sometimes, believers can be hurtful to others, and we have to look past that. People can be offensive and rude, and we have to forbear their behavior. At times, the needs of a brother or sister can be demanding in ways that wear us down. Bearing with them means to endure their suffering and make sacrifices to help.
Bearing with each other is why churches are able to exist in a world of division and hate.
Application: Look at other believers as children of God instead of “other people.”
Food for Thought: How does our responsibility to “bear with” other Christians differ from our responsibility to bear with non-believers?
How does our responsibility to “bear with” other Christians differ from our responsibility to bear with non-believers?
John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
1 Corinthians 9:22, To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
Luke 19:10, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
With a brother or sister we seek to help them increase, strengthen their foundation in Christ.
With a non-believer we seek to help them establish a foundation in Christ.
Thank you, Ron!
Well said!
Thanks. Another very good devotional brother. And thank you R2T2 for the good comment.
While we should most definitely “bear with” believers and non-believers and seek to build connections, I do think there is an extra burden to bear with our brothers in sisters in Christ who we worship with, fellowship with, and serve alongside.
In Ephesians 4: 1 – 6, the Apostle Paul writes: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
The “bearing with one another” here is to be done in love and has the body of believers in mind. This allows us to make “every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace.” If we don’t love each other well by bearing with one another, it is a bad testimony to the world and it also can divide up the body that the Lord wants unified.
While bearing with all people in love is a good model, bearing with one another in Christ has a special significance.
1 John 2: 9 – 11: Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.
Thank you, Rich!
I always appreciate the encouragement!!
You mention being a “good model” for bearing with people in love and this points to something I think is important.
We communicate with how we live more than with what we say. Being a model of God’s love for us is applied differently to believers and non- believers, but it is always applied.
How does our responsibility to “bear with” other Christians differ from our responsibility to bear with non-believers?
I think Ron hit the nail on the head: bearing with our neighbors should be done through the love of Christ.
With believers we bear each others shortcomings and needs, relying on the Holy Spirit to bring us all to truth and grace. The goal is that we all share in the unity and love of Christ.
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
With non-believers we must sometimes bear ignorance, anger, hurt, and even a bad disposition. The goal is to help them find Christ.
1 Peter 4: 12-19
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
Chris,
Nice to hear from you! We’ve missed you!
What you say is true. It is also true that sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between believers and nonbelievers by how they act! Yet, we still have to bear with them!