Mutual Care is the body’s refusal to let a member carry the weight alone.
If one member suffers,
all suffer together;
if one member is honored,
all rejoice together.
Bear one another’s burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Look not only to your own interests,
but also to the interests of others.
Care is not a staff department.
It is what the members owe one another because they are one body.
Paul told Corinth the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Same care for one another is the aim so that there may be no division in the body.
Mutual means both directions.
- The strong help the weak, and the weak still have a gift the strong need.
- Weep with those who weep.
- Rejoice with those who rejoice.
- Comfort those in any affliction with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
- Widows first in their own household, then the church.
- Gifts for the common good.
- Hospitality without grumbling.
- Confess and pray.
- Visit the sick.
- Remember those in prison as if in prison with them.
The opposite is Cain: Am I my brother’s keeper? The opposite is also a crowd that watches a bent woman for eighteen years and loves the order of service more than her spine. Elders keep watch over souls. That does not retire the rest of the saints. Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. Mutual care is slow. It learns names. It shows up twice. It does not advertise the burden it carries.
- One body is the reason. Sympathy is not a temperament. It is membership.
- Suffer together and rejoice together—both are care. Do not only do funerals.
- Burdens are for bearing. Loads a man must carry himself are another verse. Learn the difference.
- Comfort received is comfort owed. God is not a dead end.
- No need of you is how the body starts to freeze.
- Patience with all keeps care from becoming a project with a deadline for other people’s pain.
- Household first, then church, then the stranger—order, not an excuse to stop.
- One Body – Same care; no leftover members.
- Burdens – Bear; fulfill the law of Christ.
- Tears and Honor – Weep; rejoice; suffer together.
- Comfort – From God; through us; for any affliction.
- The Weak – Help; visit; patience.
- The Table and the Door – Wait; hospitality; widows.
- Watch – Elders; all exhort; none abandoned.
- 1 Corinthians 12:25-26 – “That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
- Galatians 6:2, 5 – Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ… For each will have to bear his own load.
- Philippians 2:4 – Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
- Romans 12:13, 15 – Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 – The Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:14 – Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.
- Hebrews 13:3 – Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
- James 5:14, 16 – Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders… Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.
- Acts 4:34-35 – There was not a needy person among them… distribution was made to each as any had need.
- 1 Timothy 5:3-8 – Honor widows who are truly widows… If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith.
- Matthew 25:36, 40 – I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me… As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
- 1 Peter 4:9-10 – Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.
- John 13:34 – Love one another: just as I have loved you.
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Look not only to your own interests. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
He comforts us so that we may comfort those who are in any affliction.
Help the weak. Be patient with them all. Remember those in prison as though in prison with them.
Do not say you have no need of them. Do not make care a program and skip the name. Show up. Carry what they cannot. Let them carry what you cannot. The law of Christ looks like a shared weight—and a shared joy.
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