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Galatians

Galatianschapter 6

18 verses · BSBGalatians book hub →

Speaks with:Romans 15×32 Thessalonians 3×21 Thessalonians 5×22 Timothy 2×1John 13×1Proverbs 26×1

Summary

Chapter summary

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Let us not be weary in well doing; in due season we shall reap. Paul writes the closing with his own hand: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth, but a new creature. Henry reads the chapter as the epistle's ethical coda, anchored to the cross.

Context

Epistle · Paul — Galatians overview

  • A. 1–5 Restore Him Gently, Carrying Your Own Load
  • B. 6–10 Whatever a Man Sows: Do Not Grow Weary
  • C. 11–18 See These Large Letters: I Boast Only in the Cross

The outline

  1. A.Restore Him Gently, Carrying Your Own Loadvv. 1 to 5

    Read vv. 1 to 5 →

  2. B.Whatever a Man Sows: Do Not Grow Wearyvv. 6 to 10

    Read vv. 6 to 10 →

  3. C.See These Large Letters: I Boast Only in the Crossvv. 11 to 18

    Read vv. 11 to 18 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Crucified with Christ

Pattern

Galatians strikes the cross four times as the believer's own history: I am crucified with Christ, Christ set forth crucified before your eyes, they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, and the world crucified unto me.

The four beats carry the letter's whole argument. Liberty from law-keeping does not come by loosening the standard but by a death and a new life, Christ living in the believer.

  1. Galatians 2:20

    I am crucified with Christ

    Union stated in the first person: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

  2. Galatians 3:1

    Set forth crucified before your eyes

    The preaching the Galatians first believed placed the crucified Christ evidently before them.

  3. Galatians 5:24

    They have crucified the flesh

    They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

  4. Galatians 6:14 you are here

    The world crucified unto me

    Paul's only glory is the cross, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

The world behind this chapter

Galatians 6
When
The closing appeal, written in Paul's own hand · c. AD 48–49 or c. AD 53–56, depending on the letter's dating
Where
Restoration of the fallen, supporting teachers, and a final word about who is really boasting.
Who first heard it
Congregations that had to work out what all of this meant on an ordinary week.

The history

The instruction to support the one who teaches — sharing all good things with him — is one of the few places Paul urges paying a teacher, and it fits a settled congregation rather than a travelling apostle. He kept himself unpaid; that did not mean he thought the work was free.

"Bear one another's burdens" and "each will bear his own load" use two different words: one for a crushing weight that needs help, one for the pack a soldier or traveller carries as his own responsibility. They are not in tension.

The remark about large letters written with his own hand points to normal practice. Long letters were dictated to a secretary, and the author added a closing note personally as a signature of authenticity. Paul's handwriting was evidently big — whether from poor eyesight, from hands hardened by leatherwork, or simply for emphasis, he does not say.

His final charge that the agitators want to make a good showing in the flesh and boast in the Galatians' bodies exposes the motive he thinks is really driving them: converts as trophies to be counted.

What it meant to them

The Galatians got a rule for handling someone caught in a sin — restore him gently, watching yourself — from a letter otherwise full of fire. Paul could be fierce about the gospel and careful about a person in the same breath.

And the closing lines put the whole controversy in its place: neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but a new creation. He signs off pointing at the marks of Jesus on his own body, which in a letter arguing about a mark in the flesh was the last word.

Sources cited

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The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Galatians 6. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 1 · Written to them

Restore such an one in spirit of meekness

topics/restoration→

MannaFest topical index

v. 9 · Written to them

In due season we shall reap, if we faint not

topics/waiting→

MannaFest topical index

This page draws on J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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