Galatians — Chapter 6

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes to the churches of Galatia, in the middle of modern Turkey, probably about AD 48–49 if these are the churches of his first journey (Acts 13–14), or in the mid-50s if they lay farther north. Teachers had arrived after Paul left, insisting that Gentile believers be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to be fully accepted by God. Chapter 5 answered them with freedom: Christ has set believers free, and that freedom is lived out by walking in step with the Spirit and serving one another in love. It ended with a warning against conceit, provoking and envy (5:26). Chapter 6 shows what Spirit-led life looks like inside a real church, with people who fall, carry heavy loads and teach the word. Then Paul takes the pen from his secretary and writes the closing lines himself, returning one last time to circumcision, the cross and the new creation.

Bear One Another's Burdens (vv1–10)

• "If anyone is caught in any transgression" (v1). "Brothers": after sharp words, Paul speaks as family. "Caught" (prolambanō) means to be overtaken or surprised. Paul pictures someone who has stumbled into sin, not a person who has hardened himself in it. "Transgression" is a false step, a slip off the path.
• "You who are spiritual" (v1). This picks up 5:25: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." The "spiritual" are not an elite class. They are believers walking by the Spirit, and the proof of it is not a gift for spotting other people's faults but gentleness in mending them.
• "Restore him" (v1). The verb is katartizō, to mend, repair, put in order. It is the word used of James and John "mending their nets" (Mark 1:19). Its classical senses include "set," and many commentators note its use for setting a broken bone. The goal is not to punish, shame or expel, but to put the person back where he belongs, working as he should.
• "In a spirit of gentleness" (v1). Gentleness (praotēs) is one of the fruit of the Spirit just named (5:23).
• "Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted" (v1). Paul switches from plural to singular: each one, personally. The person doing the restoring is not immune. The temptation may be to the same sin, or to the pride of feeling superior to the one who fell (1 Cor 10:12).
• "Bear one another's burdens" (v2). "Burdens" (baros) are weights, heavy things. In context the first burden in view is the sin and its fallout from v1, and the lexicon even glosses the word here as "one another's faults." But the command reaches wider, to any crushing weight a fellow believer is carrying: grief, need, temptation, weakness.
• "And so fulfill the law of Christ" (v2). This is a striking phrase in a letter that has spent five chapters warning against life "under the law." The Judaizers wanted law. Paul gives them one, and it is the law of Christ, summed up in love (5:14). Jesus called it "a new commandment… just as I have loved you" (John 13:34). Paul is not bringing law-keeping back in by another door. He is saying that what the law always aimed at is reached when believers carry one another's loads, as Christ carried theirs.
• "If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing" (v3). Pride is what stops a person from stooping to lift someone else's load. Thinking oneself above the struggles of others is not strength but self-deception.
• "Let each one test his own work" (v4). "Test" is the word for assaying metal, proving it genuine. Instead of measuring themselves against a fallen brother and feeling good by comparison, believers should examine their own conduct before God. Any reason for satisfaction will then rest on what God has done in them, not on someone else's failure (compare 2 Cor 10:12).
• "Each will have to bear his own load" (v5). At first this sounds like a contradiction of v2. The word is different. "Load" here is phortion, a burden or cargo, the word for a ship's freight (Acts 27:10). Jesus used it of his own "light" burden (Matt 11:30) and of the heavy loads the Pharisees laid on others without lifting a finger (Matt 23:4). Most readers take v5 to look ahead to the final judgment, where each person gives account for himself (Rom 14:12; 2 Cor 5:10). Either way, the two verses fit together. Believers help with the crushing weights, and each still answers to God for his own life.
• "Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches" (v6). "Taught" (katēcheō) means to teach by word of mouth, instruct. English "catechism" comes from it. "Share" (koinōneō) means to go shares, to be partners, the verb behind koinōnia, fellowship. The first application is material support for those who give their time to teaching, as Paul argues at length in 1 Corinthians 9:11–14 and 1 Timothy 5:17–18. It is partnership, not payment.
• "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked" (v7). "Mocked" is myktērizō, from the word for nose: to turn up the nose at, to sneer. It is the only use in the New Testament. No one can claim God while living for self and get away with it.
• "Whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (v7). This is the law of the harvest, found all through Scripture: "those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same" (Job 4:8); "sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love" (Hos 10:12); "whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (2 Cor 9:6). The context of v6 suggests money is part of the point, but the principle covers a whole life. It is not karma or a mechanical system of reward. It is the moral order of a world ruled by a God who sees.
• "Sows to his own flesh… sows to the Spirit" (v8). This is chapter 5's contrast between flesh and Spirit turned into a farming picture. To sow to the flesh is to invest life, time and resources in the self, cut off from God. Its harvest is "corruption" (phthora): decay, ruin, destruction, the opposite of "eternal life." To sow to the Spirit is to invest in what the Spirit cares about, and the harvest is life that never ends. The sower does not earn the harvest. God gives the growth (1 Cor 3:7). But no one should expect wheat after planting weeds.
• "Let us not grow weary of doing good" (v9). Paul includes himself: "let us." "Grow weary" (enkakeō) means to lose heart, the word Jesus used when he told his disciples "always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). "Give up" (ekluō) pictures something loosened, like an unstrung bow, and is used of people fainting from hunger on the road (Mark 8:3).
• "In due season we will reap" (v9). "Season" is kairos, the fixed and fitting time. God sets the date of the harvest, not the farmer. The promise is sure, and the condition is endurance.
• "As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone" (v10). "Opportunity" is the same word, kairos. There is a harvest time coming, and there is a sowing time now. Christian kindness is meant to reach "everyone," believer or not. But there is a special responsibility toward "the household of faith," the family of God (Eph 2:19).
• Commentators: All three see "restore" as the language of mending or setting a bone. JFB: "The Greek is used of a dislocated limb, reduced to its place." The lexicon confirms "mend" and lists "set" among the classical senses, without specifying bones. Henry is pointed on vv3–4: "Self-conceit is but self-deceit," and "the best way to keep us from being proud of ourselves is to prove our ownselves." Guzik and JFB both resolve vv2 and 5 by distinguishing the words. Guzik says phortion was a soldier's or traveler's pack. JFB says "weights" exceed a person's strength while a "burden" is "proportioned to the strength." The lexicon supports a real difference (a heavy weight versus a load or cargo) but does not support either specific picture, so they should not be pressed. JFB adds Aesop's fable of the man with two bags, his neighbor's faults in front and his own behind. On v6 Guzik stresses partnership rather than wages, which matches the meaning of koinōneō. JFB's note that "mocked" means "to sneer with the nostrils drawn up in contempt" is exactly what the lexicon gives. Henry: "Our present time is seed-time: in the other world there will be a great harvest," and "The charity of Christians should be extensive charity." Guzik compares the weariness of v9 to exhaustion in childbirth, but the lexicon gives enkakeō only as "lose heart, grow weary." The Tyndale notes observe that v10 closes a section begun at 5:13, with doing good to others as the bookend.

Final Warning and Benediction (vv11–18)

• "See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand" (v11). Paul normally dictated his letters to a secretary (Rom 16:22) and then wrote the closing lines himself as a mark of authenticity (1 Cor 16:21; Col 4:18; 2 Thess 3:17). Here he wants them to notice his handwriting. "Letters" (grammata) means written characters, and the ESV's reading is the natural one: Paul is writing in big letters. Why is debated. Some think his eyesight was poor (compare 4:15, "you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me"). Others think he was not a practiced scribe. Most think it is emphasis, the ancient equivalent of bold type or underlining. Some older readers, including Henry and the KJV ("how large a letter"), took it to mean the whole letter was long and handwritten.
• "Those who want to make a good showing in the flesh" (v12). "Make a good showing" (euprosōpeō) means to look good, put on a fair face. The Judaizers cared about appearances, and circumcision was an outward mark that could be counted and displayed.
• "Would force you to be circumcised" (v12). "Force" (anankazō) is the word Paul used of Titus, who was "not forced to be circumcised" (2:3), and of Peter, whose behavior was in effect forcing Gentiles "to live like Jews" (2:14).
• "Only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ" (v12). Paul exposes the motive. A message of a crucified Messiah who saves Gentiles without circumcision offended many Jews (5:11). If the Judaizers could show that their Gentile converts kept the law, they could escape hostility from their own community. Many scholars add that Jewish nationalist pressure was rising in Judea in these years, making Jews who mixed freely with uncircumcised Gentiles suspect.
• "Even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law" (v13). The Judaizers were selective. They insisted on the outward sign while falling short of the whole law (5:3; Rom 2:17–24). What they really wanted was to "boast in your flesh," to count the Galatians' circumcision as their own trophy.
• "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross" (v14). This is Paul's strongest form of denial, the same phrase he used in 2:17 and 3:21. Others boast in flesh; Paul boasts in a cross. In the Roman world the cross was the most shameful death there was, reserved for slaves and rebels, and polite people avoided even naming it. To glory in it was absurd to Greeks and offensive to Jews (1 Cor 1:23). But for Paul it is the whole ground of hope: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2; compare Jer 9:23–24, "let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me").
• "By which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (v14). "World" (kosmos) here is not the earth or the people God loves (John 3:16). It is the whole order of human life apart from God: its values, status, approval and religion, including the religion of outward marks. The cross ended Paul's relationship with all of that. The world is dead to him, and he is dead to it. This completes a line running through the letter: "I have been crucified with Christ" (2:20), and "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh" (5:24).
• "Neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation" (v15). This repeats 5:6 and 1 Corinthians 7:19, each time with a different ending: "faith working through love," "keeping the commandments of God," and here "a new creation." Together they describe the same reality. "New creation" (kainē ktisis) is the phrase of 2 Corinthians 5:17: "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." It reaches back to Isaiah's "new heavens and a new earth" (Isa 65:17). The age to come has already broken in through Christ's resurrection. Circumcision belongs to the old order.
• "All who walk by this rule" (v16). "Walk" is stoicheō, the same verb as 5:25, "keep in step with the Spirit": to walk in line, as soldiers march in file. "Rule" is kanōn, a measuring rod or straight-edge, then a standard. English "canon" comes from it. The rule is v15: the new creation in Christ, not circumcision, is what counts.
• "Peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God" (v16). The blessing echoes the Psalms' "Peace be upon Israel!" (Ps 125:5; 128:6). The phrase "the Israel of God" appears nowhere else in Scripture, and faithful readers take it in three main ways. (1) Many, from early church writers through the Reformers to many today, read the Greek kai as "even": all who walk by this rule are the Israel of God, Jew and Gentile together in Christ. This fits the whole letter, which has argued that those of faith are Abraham's children (3:7, 29) and children of the free woman (4:31). (2) Others keep kai as "and" and see a second group: Jewish believers in Jesus, singled out for blessing after a letter that might sound hard on Jewish practice. (3) Others see a prayer for ethnic Israel as a whole, looking ahead to God's mercy on Israel promised in Romans 11:25–32. The ESV keeps "and," which leaves the question open. All agree on Paul's main point: no one needs circumcision to belong to God's people.
• "From now on let no one cause me trouble" (v17). Paul is done arguing about his authority and his gospel. The case has been made.
• "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (v17). "Marks" is stigmata, the plural of stigma: a tattoo or brand. In the ancient world slaves were sometimes branded with their owner's mark, soldiers with their general's, and temple servants with their god's. Paul's marks were scars from stonings, beatings and lashings (Acts 14:19, at Lystra in Galatia itself; 2 Cor 11:23–25). The contrast is deliberate. The Judaizers wanted to mark the Galatians' bodies with circumcision. Paul carries marks in his body too, but they prove he belongs to Jesus. The later idea of miraculous "stigmata" is not what Paul meant.
• "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen" (v18). The letter opened with "grace to you" (1:3) and closes the same way. In the Greek, "brothers" comes last, just before "Amen." After all the rebukes, Paul's last word to the Galatians is family. It ends in grace, the whole message of the letter.
• Commentators: On v11 the commentators divide. Henry takes it as length: Paul "had written this large letter with his own hand," a sign of special care. JFB prefers "See in how large letters I have written," which is what the lexicon supports, since gramma here means a written character. Guzik sets aside the eyesight theory as less likely and favors emphasis. Guzik and the Tyndale notes both stress that the Judaizers were self-serving, avoiding persecution and seeking reputation. On v14 JFB writes that by the cross, "the worst of deaths, Christ has destroyed all kinds of death." Guzik explains "the world" as humanity in rebellion against God, consistent with the lexicon's ethical sense of kosmos, and kanōn as a measuring line, which the lexicon confirms. On the Israel of God, JFB is firm: "not the Israel after the flesh," but "the spiritual seed of Abraham by faith." Guzik takes the same view briefly, and the Tyndale notes lay out the "and"/"even" question before leaning the same way, suggesting the false teachers may have promised the title to Gentiles who got circumcised. On v17 JFB explains the marks as "properly, marks branded on slaves to indicate their owners," and Guzik likewise reads them as a brand of ownership, warning against turning them into mystical wounds. The lexicon supports "brand" for stigma.

Pointing to Christ

Galatians closes the way it has argued all along, with everything resting on Christ and his cross. Believers bear one another's burdens because he first bore theirs, carrying sin's whole weight to the cross (Isa 53:4; 1 Pet 2:24), and that is the "law of Christ." The only boast left is his cross, where the world's verdict and the self's ambitions were put to death. The only mark that matters is belonging to him, whether written in Paul's scars or simply in the new creation the Spirit makes. And the last word is not law, circumcision or even Paul's authority, but "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers burden-bearing, sowing and reaping, Paul's autograph, and the conclusion of the epistle.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Galatians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• Restoring With Gentleness (v.1) — Paul instructs spiritually mature believers to restore someone caught in sin gently, aware of their own vulnerability to fall. Is your instinct toward a struggling brother judgment, or humble restoration?
• Bearing One Another's Burdens (v.2) — Carrying each other's weight fulfills the law of love that Christ taught. Who around you is carrying a load you could help shoulder?
• You Reap What You Sow (v.7) — Paul warns that God cannot be mocked; whatever is sown, in the flesh or the Spirit, is what gets harvested. Looking honestly at your habits and choices, what harvest are you currently planting?
• Don't Grow Weary in Doing Good (v.9) — Paul promises a harvest will come to those who don't give up doing good. Where are you tempted to quit before God's timing brings the results?
• Boasting Only in the Cross (v.14) — Paul refuses to boast in anything but what Christ did on the cross. What do you tend to take pride in instead — achievement, morality, reputation?
• Living as a New Creation (v.15) — Paul says the only thing that ultimately matters is being made new in Christ. Are you living out of that new identity, or still trying to patch up the old one?