Our own individual burden.
"For each one shall bear his own burden." He is not called to glory in reference to his neighbour, for he has his own burden to carry. The "burdens" of the second verse point to the mutual sympathy; the "burden," or load, of this verse, to that burden which each one carries for himself and no one can carry for him.
I. MARK THE INDIVIDUALITY OF EACH MAN'S POSITION 1N God's SIGHT. Though God has set us in a wonderful scheme of human relations, we have an individual life that cannot be touched by man. We are individually responsible to God. This individuality sets man, as it were, in a solitude. He lives alone; he suffers alone; he dies alone. If he has pain in his body, no sympathy of friends can destroy it; it is still his pain. Our friends may soothe our dying moments by their prayers and their words of affection; but still we die alone. Thus every man carries alone, and apart from other men, his own burden of responsibility, or of frailty, or of sorrow. "Each soldier bears his own kit."
II. MARK THE INFERENCES TO BE DRAWN FROM THIS INDIVIDUALITY OF POSITION. The apostle does not mean to countenance the neglect of social concern nor to recommend a selfish isolation in human relations, but he condemns the harsh judgments pronounced upon others by men who have their own imperfections and infirmities to answer for. We cannot lighten the burden of our own responsibilities by any attempt to bear hardly upon others.