"Bearing With One Another"

Colossians 3:12-14

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility ,meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

We studied these verses this past Sunday in Flame and God has brought them back to my mind and laid them on my heart over and over again this week. Paul just packed SO much into these three little verses! The first thing that stuck out to me was how he calls us "God's chosen ones". What a privilege! We are scum! We don't even deserve to live and not only does God give us that but on top of that he calls us his "chosen ones"! What an honor! But it's not just an honor; it's also a responsibility. When we bear Christ's name we are responsible for our actions and ultimately all that we do reflects back on to His holy and perfect name.

With that said, we are commanded to put on "compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another" and we are to "forgive and above all these put on love". I don't know about you, but to me that's a little bit overwhelming! I struggle to even follow one of those commandments in a day let alone all of them! But that is how we are called to live.

All of these commandments hit me hard, but one that especially stood out to me was where he says, "bearing with one another". Generally when I think of this phrase I think of patience and just kinda "sticking it out" with someone even if they annoy you or you are struggling to have a good attitude towards them. And that may be the case sometimes, but one one of the girls in the group talked about it in a different perspective that I had never thought about and it really got me thinking about it and God has been bringing it up in my life this week. Dictionary.com defines the word "to bear" this way:

bear: 1. to hold up; support 2. to hold or remain firm under 6. to press or push against 7. to hold or carry 9. to suffer; endure; undergo

So really, this is telling us that we are to hold each other up and to support each other. We are to help each other remain firm. We are to help each other press or push against struggles and hard times. We are to help hold or carry others. We are to suffer, endure, or undergo hardships alongside others. What a great privilege and responsibility. God is telling us that we are supposed to be there for each other. When someone is struggling it is our job to pick them up and help them through that situation. God knew we would go through hardships and sufferings here on this earth and he has given us friends and family so that we can come alongside each other and not have to bear these things alone! So who in your life needs someone to "bear with them"? Who have you failed to life up? Stop and take the time to really ask how someone is doing and sincerely mean it and take the time to listen to their answer. And then don't just stop there..."bear with them"!