‘But let each man prove his own work, and then he will have his glorying in himself alone, and not of the other. For every man shall bear his own pack.'
Rather than criticising or looking with superiority at the behaviour of others, what we should be doing is putting our own behaviour and achievements to the test. We must ask, is our behaviour satisfactory? Are we up to the mark? Then we will have something to take pride in, especially before the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10-12). For in the end each man has to bear his own pack, not someone else's. In the end we will be tested by what we are.
Notice that in Galatians 6:2 the word for burden is ‘baros', a weight, a heavy burden that wears a man down and makes him wilt (Matthew 20:12; Acts 15:28). In Galatians 6:5 it is ‘phortion', e.g. a soldier's pack or load, something to be carried without being too arduous, although in another context it can mean a grievous burden (Luke 11:46), as indeed a soldier's pack can sometimes become.