Ministry of Bearing: Advice from Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Christian theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer (born 1909, died 1945) wrote about how best to deal with others and his wisdom is applicable today. Please note, in this quote he was writing to fellow brothers in an illegal seminary during the Nazi regime in Germany. For every case of he, his, and brother add she, hers, and sister as well. This advice is good for everyone. We don't want anyone to feel excluded ... or as if they have a pass here!  

The ministry of bearing: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2). Thus the law of Christ is a law of bearing. Bearing means forbearing and sustaining ... The Christian must suffer and endure the brother. It is only when he is a burden that another person is really a brother and not merely an object to be manipulated. It is, first of all, the freedom of the other person that is a burden to the Christian. The freedom of the other person includes all that we mean by a person's nature, individuality, endowment. It also includes his weakness and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts, and collisions among us. Then, there is the abuse of that freedom that becomes a burden for the Christian. In sin, fellowship with God and with his brother is broken. To cherish no contempt for the sinner but rather to prize the privilege of bearing him means not to have to give him up as lost, to be able to accept him, to preserve fellowship with him through forgiveness ... The service of forgiveness is rendered by one to the others daily. It occurs, without words, in the intercessions for one another. He who is bearing others knows that he himself is being borne. [Emphasis is mine]

The original source of this
Bonhoeffer material
for further reading

When considering whether to implement this idea in your life, remember another of Deitrich Bonhoeffer's quotes: "One act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons." Who will you bear with today? Who is bearing with you? That last is one humbling question.