Galatians 6:1-5 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

VI.

(1-5) Be charitable to the fallen, for you, too, may fall yourselves. Sympathise with each other. Indulge in no delusions as to your own superiority. Look each to his own work, and see that that is sound. He will find enough to do without entering into idle comparisons with others.

Galatians 6:2-3 are a sort of repetition, with some expansion, of Galatians 6:1. Deal considerately and kindly with the fallen, for you may fall. Bear each other’s burdens, for to claim any superiority to them is mere delusion.

It has been acutely suggested that the Apostle’s tone in this passage has been affected by the recent occurrence at Corinth, where he had to warn the Corinthians against over-severity (see 2 Corinthians 2:6-8).

Galatians 6:1-5

1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

5 For every man shall bear his own burden.