To Serve & Protectનમૂનો

6. To Protect Your Comrades

“For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” – Matthew 11:30 (NLT)

Who’s got your back? Whose back do you have?

Previously, we looked at how to be available with the attitude of Christ in your friendships. Today, we focus on being alert and on the lookout for one another. To cover each other’s backs.

When we say that men need to look out for one another, the world would often have us believe that this entails covering for each other. As in covering up one another’s mistakes, dusting it off and hiding it under the rug. But in the Biblical sense it actually means completely covering each other while in fact acknowledging the mistakes, the shortcomings, and the sin.

There’s no cover-up, just covering. Not covering the truth but being covered by the truth.

So again, we ask: Who’s got your back and whose back do you have?

Who is there that will tell you the truth about both their struggles and yours? Who will alert you about the dangers of your sins and confess their sin to you as well? Who will entrust themselves to you? And who will you entrust yourself to? Can you be the man that speaks the truth in love, with godly concern for his comrades?

This is how comrades in Christ protect one another. It is not about calling each other out but rather calling up the truth over each other’s lives. This is obeying the Law of Christ. When Jesus invited us to take up His burden and bear His yoke, He was referring to His teaching, His lifegiving, law-fulfilling and Spirit driven truth. Therefore, being yoked together with your comrades in Christ is to help unburden each other’s struggles and hold one another accountable with truth.

Paul continues with this thought in Galatians 6 by adding that each man is responsible for his own load. We are all responsible for our own conduct in Christ. We must all walk our own walk. But we must also be on the lookout for each other, warning someone when he is heading toward the cliffs or walking too close to the edge. We might even carry each other’s packs for a while, but to keep walking forward with Christ remains each man’s own responsibility.

When we keep others accountable, we must stay accountable to them as well. When we are willing to give caution to someone else, we must also be willing to receive such warnings and instructions. And if we receive another brother’s good intention, we can also share whatever goodness God gifts us with, with him in turn.

So, don’t become weary of doing good, nor being good. For goodness will return to you. When you stay alert and look out for your comrades, at the right time they will also stay alert and on the lookout for you.

Manning up does not mean we keep silent, keep our heads down and just keep on keeping on. That’s a worldly view. But manning up, in the Biblical sense, means we Step Up; we Speak Up and then become able to Stay Up amidst the struggles and temptations of life!

Your true friends are your comrades in Christ that you look out for but also allow to look out for you. Let’s keep protecting each other through our prayers, our honest conversations, our good deeds and our willingness to be mutually accountable.

Read Galatians 6:1-10 and Reflect on the following…

• What are your observations from today’s reading about carrying your own burdens and that of others?
• How can you stay alert and accountable with truth in your friendships?
• From which honest conversations do you often shy away?
• Who and what do you need to pray for today?