THE TWO BEARS

In an old 1873 issue of the Gospel Advocate there is a story about two bears that may be corny, but I like it. There was this old married couple that had fussed all their years together. Their neighbors in their little village were never with them but what they were quarreling about something, and they would hardly ever pass their humble abode unless they were going after each other. So it was to the amazement of all when they suddenly stopped all such foolishness and began to live in peace. It was the talk of the village and everyone wondered what had gotten into them.

When one woman could stand it no longer she went to the couple and made inquiry as to the reason for the change. The wife, who at this point would usually have been fussing with her husband about something, explained to the neighbor that it was because they had allowed two bears to come live with them. The neighbor, who took everything literally, was puzzled as to what kind of talk that was, knowing that the couple’s little cottage was hardly big enough for them, much less two bears. And besides what would bears have to do with changing people’s lives like that?

The wife explained that the two bears came to them right out of the Bible. This did not satisfy the neighbor’s curiosity, for the only bears that she could think of in the Bible were those that got after those kids for making fun of a prophet. So the wife told her about other bears in the Bible, bear and forbear, quoting the two verses that had turned their lives around:

“Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).

“Forbear one another in love” (Eph. 4:2).

Well, the inquisitive neighbor in the story may not be the only one ignorant of the two most important bears in the world, bears that can turn our lives around, transform our homes and restore peace and unity to our churches. And the wife in the story, who learned to quit feuding and fussing, points to two of the most important lessons in the Bible. If bearing one another’s burdens means to put each other up, when necessary, forbearing one another in love means to put up with each other. We have not learned either lesson all that well. Two bears. It is a good place to start in rebuilding our homes and churches.

These two bears reveal to us how important it is in God’s sight that we treat each other properly. How many commandments of God can you think of that are followed by and thus fulfill the law of Christ? Even repentance, one of the greatest commandments of all, has no such connection. Nor does faith, baptism, or prayer, as important as they are. Since love is the only commandment in Scripture that is referred to as fulfilling all the demands of the law, I take it that this is what Paul means in Gal. 6:2. Our love for each other causes us to bear each other’s burdens, and this fulfills the law of Christ, which I understand to be the law or principle of love. The law of Christ is the law of love. When I see that my sister needs me and I reach out in love and bear those burdens that are too heavy for her to bear alone, I am showing the love Jesus shows. So, I put my sister up as well as put up with her. This is what love does, bearing and forbearing love.

Eph. 4:2 must be the great undiscovered passage of the New Covenant scriptures. Oh, we may know it is there, but we have not really made it ours. It is a bear that we have not invited into our hearts, our homes, our churches. It may be that we fear its implication. By its very meaning it shows that we are to put up with things that we do not like or do not believe. It tells me that I am to put up with you and accept you, warts and all. In spite of your hangups I am to forbear. I am to put up with you in spite of your errors.

We really have the thing fouled up. We leave the impression with our brothers—“brothers in error” we call them—that they must get rid of all their errors and be exactly like ourselves, and then (and not before) we will accept them. If this is right, why would the apostle say forbear one another in love? Does that not imply that there is something to forbear, something we do not endorse or approve of? How can we insist upon conformity—seeing eye-to-eye on all the “issues”—and yet obey the command to forbear? If we demand satisfaction on all points of disagreement, what is there left to forbear?

Some of us talk too much and say things that turn folk off. Some of us are too pushy, causing others to grow weary of us. We all have prejudices that get in the way of other people’s prejudices, and we are all in error about some things, except of course the infallible ones among us. These are facts of life, and will not likely change this side of the millennium. Life is difficult for us all, and the best of us sometimes add to the miseries of others. Our churches never have and never will agree on everything, and there will always be some rather sharp differences.

We can have congregations that support the agencies, even if halfheartedly, and we can have those that do not. We can have those that use an instrument and those that do not. There can be churches that are gung-ho on the millennium or spiritual gifts, with some that even speak in tongues, and we can have those that are not, with some that do well to speak good English. We can have these differences and still more, and yet be the one Body of Christ together.

If it would be better that we believe and practice substantially alike, and I would not deny that, we are more likely to reach common ground within a context of love, fellowship, and acceptance.

The way to greater manifestation of unity and fellowship may be simpler than we have supposed. The story of the two bears gets close to an answer. Loving forbearance hides a multitude of shortcomings (another undiscovered passage) and causes us to accept each other, hangups and all.

And if you are looking for a way to bring sunshine back into your home and to put a shine on your marriage, this is it. Forbearance teaches a man that what is important is not to try to change in his wife the things he does not like, but to seek to change in himself the things she does not like. It teaches a woman that what is really important is not that she be loved but that she loves. Loving forbearance will put it all together. Nothing else will, not even lots of money.—the Editor

From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth, from the laziness that is content with half-truths, from the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, 0 God of truth, deliver us.—An ancient prayer