Christ's Yoke & Light Burden

In Jesus day, the Pharisees were notorious for adding to God’s law while refusing to obey it themselves. I remember hearing that they were so concerned about following the rules of not working on the Sabbath that they came up with rules about how far they could walk on that day. Because some of them wanted to travel farther, they ended up implementing a rule that said they had to stay within a certain distance of the dirt of their home. In order to get around that rule, some of them would then carry a bag a dirt with them and then drop that dirt on the ground allowing them to increase their distance of travel.
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The bag of dirt story shows us how easy it is for man to think that he can ignore God as long as he working hard to do something to please God. That is not how the Christian life is to be lived. Jesus said, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:29-30 NKJV)
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Even though Christ’s burden is light, He still tells us to take His yoke. In other words, God’s expectations are much easier to bear than man’s are, but God does have expectations for us. Consider Colossians 3:5-10 NKJV, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,.”
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Though Christ’s burden is easy, it still must be carried. In other words we need to be concerned about living for God’s glory and sometimes that can be a challenge. The end of the above passage (verse 10 of Colossians 3) tells us to put on the new man. In other words, once we are Christians we should be different than we were before. We should be changing to be more like Christ. The reality is that even as faithful Christians we sometimes struggle to live like we are supposed to live. It is sobering to realize that the letter that says not to lie anymore was addressed to the faithful Christians in Colosse (Colossians 1:2).
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So how is a faithful Christian to live the Christian life without having it become a heavy burden? Part of the answer is in verse 10 of Colossians 3. Notice it says to be renewed in knowledge according to the image of Jesus Christ our creator. (See Colossians 1:16). We are renewed in knowledge as we study God’s word. We are renewed in knowledge as we pray. We are renewed in knowledge as we think about God’s word. There is however a very important way that we are renewed in knowledge that is found right in the book of Colossians. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16 NKJV)
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Christians are renewed in knowledge as they come together and hear the teaching and warning of God’s word and as they sing songs that teach Biblical truth. This is one of the reasons why we should go to church. Currently there are no churches meeting regularly on Sunday mornings in Worthing, SD. We hope to soon start a church here in Worthing, so that Christians have a place to go so they can be taught and encouraged to follow Jesus Christ and to take on his yoke in a way that is not overwhelming. For more information please visit www.southtownchurch.com.