I started thinking about and looking into the concept when Ben emailed me and asked me what I thought about that powerful little verse. And then Miss Geter burst the thought into my consciousness with an amazing blog, and I just had to go home and look at Galatians 6. There's little I could say to compare with the power of your blog, Steph, but if I may I'd love to add a few thoughts from Galatians 6.

For starters, "bear ye one another's burdens" is a command. It is not any more a suggestion than is "walk in the Spirit," which occurs directly before it for a reason. Want to know what walking in the Spirit looks like? Walking in the Spirit, when practically lived out in Christian relationships, means loving other Christians enough to meekly help them with the sin they get tripped up by (6:1) and to help them with their burdens (6:2).
There is an unusual emphasis on the "one another," because it comes first in the Greek. That's odd, because there's a definite stress on the first concept presented, and you wouldn't expect it to be the adjective. God is focusing our attention on each other, turning our gaze from ourselves and our needs to others.
I think of yokefellow to describe "bearing" because there's something personal and relational conveyed in the idea. It's not like hauling a load in a truck or with some other mechanical means. It's you personally shouldering a weight that will strain you, and you do that work with the other party in the yoke.
This word means a heavy, burdensome weight. We're talking the oppressive, daily kind of struggle that wears you out. Temptation, the loss of a job, particularly strong emotional struggle, family pressure...the list could go on and on.
American Christians are burdened people. All Christians are. (two suggested reasons--1. we don't understand or know our God well enough. 2. we don't practice fellowship the way He intended. but those reasons don't change the reality of the burdens and our need to passionately seek solutions for hurting people who aren't living God's way. and to honestly face our own burdens. and our own failure to handle life's burdens God's way.
i think sometimes we find it...embarassing to say American Christians (or we) are burdened: however, i fail to see how telling yourself you shouldn't feel burdened, comparing yourself with the host of other Christians who have it worse, and ignoring the problem will lead to any biblical change. our God asks us to cast our burdens on Him, not make ourselves miserable that we have them.)
It's illuminating to see the results of obeying this command. You will fulfill the law of Christ. There's a lot of debate about what that means, but I think context is king again. Look at Galatians 5:13-14. You can't do the commandment Christ Himself identified as parallel to the greatest of His commands if you aren't bearing one another's burdens.
(Thou shalt love the Lord thy God...the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. there's a reason "magnifying love" appears at the top of this page. like glorifying God, it's one of those everywhere-you-look-in-your-Bible type of concepts)
A failure to obey this command can be traced to at least one source definitively--pride. How can I say that? Look at verse 3 of Galatians 6. It begins with "for," tying it directly to verse 2. You are decieved if you think you are something when you're nothing. You've been duped if you think a. you're above having burdens you can't handle yourself. b. you can ignore this command without effect on your spiritual life.
How can we "bear each other's burdens?" Several suggestions: you can't bear what you don't know about. get honestly involved in the lives of your brothers and sisters. you can't bear burdens for people you don't love. learn what 1 Cor. 13 means. you can't bear burdens without taking them to your Father (1 Peter 5:7). pray fervently for the needs of others.
This command isn't supposed to be some extremist philosophy that means you try to discover and bear the slightest needs of everyone around you. The passage goes on to say that each man will bear his own load. That's a different Greek word than "burden," and the general consensus among commentators is that load conveys the idea of a soldier's pack, or an individual burden.
We all have burdens of responsibility and need that we are meant to carry. That's healthy. For instance, if you break a struggling butterfly out of it's cacoon, you'll hurt it and not help it. The biblical command is balanced, and we should be too. Balanced does not mean ignoring, glossing over, or hiding from the burdens of others; nor does it mean frenetically heaping concerns on yourself that don't rightly belong to you.
This command is universal. That means it applies to you. That means it applies to me. This hasn't been some esoteric discussion of ideology. This passage has riveted my attention and convicted me of my sin. The issue of fellowship can (and Lordwilling will) get a lot more discussion, but this I do know--I need to get a lot better at it. (so there's another burden you can help me with. :-) Go be a Christian yokefellow today.

You bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

apelles

During some recent reading, I was profoundly struck with the thought of man's depravity, the evil that has resulted and does result in the fallen world, and the despair that results from an honest look at that evil.
I was also reminded of the amazing light, the hope, the purpose we have been given in the Person of Jesus Christ and His saving work. I don't despair
I have Christ.
I don't doubt
I have Christ.
I don't wonder at the worthlessness
unfairness
burden
of life
I have Christ. I am more than a conqueror. Death has no sting, depravation no final grasp. I have joy unspeakable.
Man is empty without God.
I am full.

But if you want to know what life is like without my worldview, observe H. G. Wells' illuminating example.

1937
Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest inspirations, that it will achieve unity and peace, that it will live, the children of our blood will live, in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of adventure and achievement? What man has done, the little triumphs of his present state...form the prelude to the things that man has yet to do."
from A Short History of the World

1939
In spite of all my disposition to a braver-looking optimism, I perceive that now the universe is bored with [man], is turning a hard face to him, and I see him being carried...along the stream of fate to degradation, suffering, and death.
from The Fate of Homo Sapiens

I think I need more context for your question, Ben. A lot depends on what you mean by earthly loves and what parameters you set and what your cycle of love means. But it did get me thinking more, so even if I depart from what you had in mind this was good for me to think through. So here you go.

Now there’s a question of the ages. Just what role does emotion, sensation, or pleasure play in the life of the Christian? Take a quick gander at church history, and you’ll see an entire gamut ranging from strict asceticism (reject all your affections) to inflamed “liberty” (let loose all your affections). So what balance can I hope to add to a century-old question? Just a few things I know to be true.

1. Man is a fallen creature. (Gen. 3) Since God declared His entire creation “very good” (Gen. 1:31) and since God doesn’t make mistakes or imperfections, I think we can safely assume that Adam’s pre-fall state included perfect emotions, desires, and loves. But after the fall all that changed. (as a side note, can you imagine the shock that coursed through Adam the first time he experienced fear, or discouragement, or bewilderment?)
2. Sanctification is meant to be entire. God’s great plan of sanctification is just as total as man’s depravity, if I may put it that way. He means it to extend to every facet of life, thought, and emotion (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3—notice the emphasis on emotion in verses 12-15). God’s plan is to restore His image in us.
3. My desires are deceitful and dangerous. Take a look at the horrible monstrosity the Bible calls lust, or refers to as desire, or typifies as flesh. Those members are to be dead (Col. 3:10). Those desires lull, lure, and bait me, and then breed and birth sin, whose end is death (James 1:14-15). We are commanded to make no allowance for the flesh in regard to its desires (Rom. 13:14). These desires are deceitful and corruptive(Eph. 4:22).

With those few ideas in mind, yes there’s a way our earthly affections can be wedded to the heavenly. It’s called sanctification. But I think it’s crucial to remember that our natural desires are liars. They promise what they cannot fulfill and cause all out war with the Spirit. (a little stronger of a term than just “competition.” :-) And my concern is that my affections do fine when they are directed at studying, or playing racquetball, or blogging, but all too often they are unmoved at the mention of God’s love and unstirred at the thought that Christ will soon return. Now that is some unsanctified earthly affection. That is earthly, sensual, devilish.
When we delight ourselves in our God He will give us the affections our heart should have. In that way I think all our earthy affections should grow from, complete, enhance, and be grounded by the heavenly. But I’m not sure the inverse can be true. I am just way to prone to be earthy, to love the world and surrender to the desires of my flesh and eyes. Those affections should always be decried. They are destructive, and I think the best way to enhance them is to kill them (mortification), and then let God make them new and afresh as He always intended (sanctification).
Sanctified affections are definitely to be exercised to their fullest. Love God passionately, enjoy your vocation, learn to be sensitive to great drama and literature. And let those experiences and loves teach you something about heavenly reality. But beware! Your natural inclination is to abuse your affections, to follow their siren song away from reality to the death of sinful action, to serve them instead of being served by them.

Summary: God gave us affections for a reason. The Fall of man perverted and twisted that reason and the goodness of the affections, and sanctification is the only way to have pure affections while we’re here on earth.

Ben, Joe, Sara, Sally, Sue. What does a name tell you? We place a lot of value and summarize all we are in our personal names. And Bill's "a rose by any other name" comment notwithstanding, we make definite associations by names.
Yet by itself, a name doesn't truly reveal a whole lot. Perhaps that's why you might be wondering about my...unfamiliar appellation. (ha-ha. get it? appellation? never mind) I'm sure you're more familiar with the import of names like Jacob, the deceiver, Joshua, Jehovah is salvation, or the wonderful names of the Son of God--Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins, Emmanuel, because He is God with us, Christ, because He is the Anointed One.
But what's with this "Apelles" thing?

In Romans 16:10, Paul is concluding his inspired treatise on salvation with some personal comments and commendations. He says, "Greet Apelles, approved in Christ."

My Pastor, David Whitcomb of Community Baptist Church in Greer, SC, brought my attention to this verse. In fact, he preached an entire message on the names in this list. Now, maybe you're more insightful than I, but I have always struggled to find meaning and instruction in the lists of names in the Bible, be they geneologies or salutations. But this name really caught my attention. Apelles...approved in Christ.

"Approved" is a word that refers to proven character, to be shown as genuine on the basis of testing (BDAG). It does not convey the concept of approval in the sense you might be thinking. Apelles, like any true Christian, was already accepted in the Beloved. He was already accepted by God just as much as Christ is. A good translation of this phrase would be "Apelles, the tried and true Christian."

I do not know what Apelles did to be approved, and so apparently what he did is not the point. The point is, what can I do to be approved in Christ?
Some other passages that use the exact same word are a good place to start.
Take James 1:12. It tells me that I can be approved by enduring temptation. 2 Corinthians 10:18 tells me that God is the only true validator of my enduring character, and 1 Corinthians 11:19 reveals that standing against heresy is a sure way for me to become tried and true. Paul's great personal fear was that, after preaching to others, he would turn from the truth and be unapproved.
But perhaps the most meaningful passage of all to me is 2 Timothy 2:15. I must study, applying diligent effort to demonstrate myself to be tried and true, becoming a worker that does not need to be ashamed, cutting the Word of God in a proper line.

And so when I see the name Apelles, I think of my need to resist temptation, to stand for and fight for God's truth, to apply my entire mind and energy to understanding God's Word. I am reminded that one man countless decades ago lived a proven Christian life through all trials. And I am stirred to meet the Biblical standard of "tried and true."

That's what I think when I see the name "Apelles." But I was wondering--what do people think when they see and hear your name? What characteristics does your name bring to the minds of your families, your closest friends, or even those who know you only from a distance? Perhaps Apelles is a good goal for us all.

david

"We are nothing if we are not in earnest about our faith, and if our wills and inclinations are not intensely exercised. The religious life contains things too great for us to be lukewarm."

"We find that people exercise the affections in everything else but religion! When it comes to their worldly interest, their outward delights, their honor and reputation, and their natural relations, they have warm affection and ardent zeal. In these things their hearts are tender and sensitive, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, and much engrossed. They get deeply depressed at worldly losses, and highly excited at worldly successes. But how insensible and unmoved are most men about the great things of another world! How dull then are their affections! Here their love is cold, their desires languid, their zeal low, and their gratitude small. How can they sit and hear of the infinite height, depth, length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of His gift of His infinitely dear Son offered up as a sacrifice for the sins of men, and yet be so insensible and regardless! Can we suppose that the wise Creator implanted such a faculty of affections to be occupied in this way? How can any Christian who believes the truth of these things not realize this?"
Jonathan Edwards

But so often I don't "realize this," so frequently I am a perfect match for the grotesque caricature of the man painted vividly here. Oh God, incite my religious affections! Turn my gaze, my infatuation, my delight away from the small and selfish pursuit of me. Set my feet on higher ground where I will not slip. Heavenly Father, there is none like You. Burn that truth deep on my divided mind, my deceitful heart, and my meager religious affections.

Apelles

Not a bad question, considering my Hebrew and Systematic Theology class load, my GA-ing in the Media Center, my wife ;-), and my assorted other time-crunching activities. So please, allow me to answer the poser of the question et al.
Assuming that the driving philosophy of the Christian life is to bring God glory (1 Cor. 1:31, 10:31), that God's summarizing requirements for me are to love Him supremely and my neighbor as myself (Mat. 22:36-40), and that all Christians everywhere comprise the body of Christ and are expected to build each other up until we attain the mature manhood that is a fit body for our Head (Eph. 4:7-16), I believe blogging is a wonderfully useful investment of my time.
1. I've been aware of Ben's site for quite a while, but have been an avid follower only since the beginning of this semester. I've been encouraged, challenged, blessed, and moved to devotion, moved to compassion, and moved to tears. I've seen that God can get glory and Christians can do the work of love and edification we are meant to do through this tool. And I want to be a part of it.
2. At the beginning of this semester, I was burdened about my need to learn to communicate better, specifically in writing. I asked the Lord for a way to learn more, a bit skeptical that the time or opportunity would present itself. (which is never a good idea, but hey, i'm a grad student. who would listen, and when would I have time?) And when Ben kept hounding me (:-) I thought, "This could be it! What a good idea!"
So here I am. (Thanks Ben. I appreciate you and your efforts so much. You add to me pieces of the puzzle that comprise my picture of Christ.) I pray God is glorified, love is magnified, and you are edified. I would love to see your comments on what I write, on how I write, and on why I write.
In pursuit of Christ,
Apelles
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.