Scripture Daily

Context No. 12 of 4322 · Galatians

Context · Reflection

Galatians 6:1-5: in context

1Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. 5For each man will bear his own burden.

Galatians is one of Paul's sharpest letters. He wrote it to churches he had founded in central Asia Minor after rival teachers arrived insisting his Gentile converts had to be circumcised and keep the whole Jewish law. Most of the letter argues that trust in Christ, not the law, is what puts a person right with God. Near the end Paul turns from argument to practical counsel, and this passage belongs to that close.

He begins with how to treat someone caught in a fault: restore them gently, and keep an eye on yourself, since you could be the next one caught. Then come two lines that look like a contradiction. Bear one another's burdens (6:2), and a few sentences later, each will bear his own burden (6:5). The contradiction is only in English. Paul used two different Greek words. The first, baros, is a crushing weight too heavy to lift alone. The second, phortion, is a soldier's own pack, the load that is simply his to carry.

The rule is not one or the other but both, sorted by kind. Help carry what would crush a person. Do not hand off what is yours. Which of the two am I confusing right now: asking for help with my own pack, or leaving someone alone under a weight that needs two?

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