We are commanded to bear one another’s burdens that so we may fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). We shall undoubtedly be commended, for it is according to the good will of Christ [to] bear one another’s burdens. I am confident it is a burden to many a soul that they are not in all things like-minded with their brethren. Yea, it is not without some fear and trembling that in anything they disagree with so many worthy and gracious men who are otherwise minded. Oh, help to bear, or at least bear with, the burden. You cannot keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace unless you forbear one another in love, as appears most plainly by their connection—“forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:2-3). This endeavor for unity and peace will be lost unless God, Who bears with us, teaches us also to bear one with another. Take these reasons for forbearance: 

 

 

You profess the same design--the advancement of the Gospel of peace and the peace of the Gospel. Should you not therefore in relation to this end rejoice that Christ is preached, though some should preach Him out of envy and to add to your bonds on purpose? It was Paul’s joy (Phi 1:15-18)…See that remarkable passage in which John says, “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us” (Mar 9:38). Christians, is this not a man’s language? Forbid him! silence him! out with him! Down with him! Why so? Why, “because he follows not us.” But…Jesus said, “Forbid him not” (Mar 9:39). He gives two reasons for it. First, He said, “There is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.” Second, “For he that is not against us is on our part” (Mar 9:40). Christians, can he be against you who is for Christ? What if he follows you not? Notwithstanding, he carries on Christ’s end. Blessed God, forbid that we should forbid one another to do Thy work. 

 

 

The fundamentals and essentials of religion (in which you to whom I write agree) are of far more worth, and therefore of far more concernment to engage you, than circumstantials and accidentals (the things in which you disagree) are to disengage you. 

 

 

“In many things we offend all” (Jam 3:2). Who is there that sins not? Good Lord! If Thou should be as soon angry with us as we are with one another, who could stand? I beseech you to read this Scripture with all lowliness and meekness of mind. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness” (Gal 6:1). Why so? “Considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” If you are tempted, that which you find fault with may be your fault.

 

PRINCIPLE 2: Until you are agreed, have charitable thoughts, not hard and harsh censures, of each other’s walking.

Judge it rather to be conscience than stubbornness that engages men to walk in different courses. You would have others think so of you. Why will you not think so of others?...Love thinks no evil of others as well as towards others. Love banishes jealousies and suspicions, and so consequently censures.

PRINCIPLE 3: Draw not away your love when God draws not away His love.

PRINCIPLE 4: Censure no man’s intention until his practice by either words or works reveals his meaning.

 

Provoke one another to love as much as you can, but to wrath as little as you may, nay, not at all. It is becoming of Christians to use soft words, and they turn away wrath (Pro 15:1). But many words stir up strife. Bitter words are like sharp swords: they pierce to the very soul (Pro 15:16). But let the passion of others provoke your compassion. It was sweetly said of Calvin concerning Luther, “Though he calls me devil, I will call him saint.” Oh, that Christians would learn that lesson of Christ: when you are reviled, revile not again!

 

Alas! Do not men speak bitterly against bitter speaking and write bitterly against bitter writings, becoming inexcusable thereby? “For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things” (Rom 2:1). Oh, that Christians would overcome evil with good, passion with meekness, and bitterness with sweetness, for a soft tongue breaks the bone (Pro 25:15)!...But you (ah, you Christians!) are to exceed and excel in love, to love when you are not loved (though the more you love, the less you are beloved). [You are] to speak fair when you are ill spoken of, not to render railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, knowing that you are thereunto called (1Pe 3:9)…Let us do for the future as John’s disciples did by their master when Herod slew him. They took up the body and buried it and went and told Jesus (Mat 14:12). Let us bury in oblivion all railings and injuries. Only go and tell Jesus, and say, “Lord, rebuke them.”

 

Many times the picture of the lion is more dreadful than the lion himself. Good Lord! In what black, ugly, and deformed shapes do men set forth one another, as if they were monsters and not men?...

 

We may make the same complaint as David: “They wrest, torture and wrack my words.” Alas! Men set everything on hooks and stretch and twist every principle like a nose of wax. Alas! What a pity it is to see men invert and pervert one another’s words, and at length to draw such conclusions as would make one think they meant what they never meant!...So some mistook and misreported Paul as if he had said that we might do evil so good might come thereof (Rom 3:8). So the Jews depose that Christ said He would destroy the temple at Jerusalem in three days and raise it up again, when He spoke of His body (Mat 26:61; Joh 2:21). What words thus wrested and perverted may not be called heresy and (as they said of Christ’s words) blasphemy when, if taken as meant, and in their proper sense, they may be found very sound and consistent with truth? Take heed therefore of…commenting upon another’s text.

 

We are usually better at receiving than at giving. We care not how much we receive, nor how little we give, though it is more [blessed] to give than to receive (Act 20:35)! When we are inferior and others superior, we beg (as did the servant in Matthew 18:26), “Have patience a little.” Have a little patience! But when we are superior and others inferior, we have no patience at all.

 

Jesus Christ sums up the Law and Prophets in this principle: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Mat 7:12). This is all that the Law requires: to love your neighbor as yourself. The doing of it is the fulfilling of the Law. It is indeed a golden rule, a royal law, the standard of equity, according to which we must converse with all men.

 

Ah, Christians! Did we make other men’s cases our own, we should say the case is altered. Job pleads thus with his friends: “I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief” (Job 16:4-5)…

 

The one will make you an enemy of good; the other will make you a friend of evil. Prejudice will take in nothing; partiality will take in anything. Alas! Such is our misery that men part religion and love by parties. Men love not as God loves, without respect of persons, but men love such because they take part with them and their designs and have prejudice against others because they are not their followers. Until we love one another according as Christ has given us command and example, as He has loved us, that is, as His, we cannot expect so sweet a concord as then we may.

 

Become all things to all men, if at last by any means you may win some. There is no greater way to win one another’s love as by denying ourselves to seek one another’s wealth…Oh, that there was such a heart in us to lay aside our own particular relations and interests, that there may not be so many a breach in public. Let us be weak with the weak as well as strong with the strong that we may make up breaches.

 

How Christians reproach, censure, and malign one another! The text says, “Love fervently,” but they hate fervently. Instead of the bond of love, behold the apple of strife! We live in the frigid zone, “the love of many waxeth cold.”—Thomas Watson