Galatians 6

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught doing wrong, those of you who live by the Spirit should set that person right again, and do it gently. Watch yourself, so you are not tempted too.

1Brethren, 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.

NoteThe Greek behind "overtaken in a fault" is open two ways: caught in the act by other people, or caught out by the wrongdoing itself, taken by surprise before he saw it coming. The wording leaves both readings available. "Restore" translates a word used of setting a broken bone or mending a torn net. "Meekness" in 1611 English does not mean weakness or timidity; it is the gentleness of someone who has the standing to come down hard and does not, and it is the same word listed among the fruit of the Spirit in chapter 5.

2Carry each other's heavy loads. That is how you carry out the law of Christ.

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

Note"Burdens" here translates a word for a crushing weight, the kind of load that flattens a person who tries to take it alone. It is a different word from the one in verse 5, which is why the two verses are not saying opposite things. "The law of Christ" is a deliberate turn of phrase: Paul has spent the whole letter arguing that the law cannot put a person right with God, and now uses the word "law" for what Christ laid down.

3If someone thinks he is important when he is nothing, he is only fooling himself.

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

4Each person should test his own work. Then he can be glad about what he himself has done, without comparing himself to anyone else.

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

Note"Prove" in 1611 English means to test or assay, the way a metal is tested for purity, not to demonstrate to somebody else. "Rejoicing" translates a noun meaning a boast, or the grounds a person has for boasting. The picture is of a man who checks his own work and so has something solid to point to, instead of measuring himself against the man next to him.

5For each person has to carry his own pack.

5For every man shall bear his own burden.

NoteThe word for "burden" here is not the word used in verse 2. This one means a pack or load that one person is expected to carry, used of a soldier's kit or a ship's cargo. Verse 2 is about weights too heavy for one; this is about the load that is properly your own.

6Anyone who is being taught the message should share all the good things he has with the one who teaches him.

6Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

Note"Communicate" in 1611 English means to share something with someone, to give them a portion of what you have. It has nothing to do with talking. The Greek word is the one behind "fellowship," and "in all good things" is broad enough to cover food, money and practical support for the person doing the teaching.

7Do not be fooled. No one makes a fool of God. Whatever a person plants is what he will harvest.

7Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Note"God is not mocked" translates a verb that literally means to turn up the nose at someone, to sneer. The force is not that God's feelings are hurt but that he cannot be outwitted: nobody sows one crop and sneaks a different harvest past him. The whole verse runs on a farming image that every hearer would have known firsthand.

8The person who plants seed to please his own selfish nature will harvest ruin from that nature. But the person who plants seed to please the Spirit will harvest life that lasts forever from the Spirit.

8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

Note"Flesh" here does not mean the body as opposed to the soul. Paul uses the word for human nature left to run on its own appetites, which is why the rendering says "selfish nature." "Corruption" translates a word for rot and decay, what happens to produce that spoils, so it keeps the harvest picture running: one field yields rot, the other yields life.

9Let us not get tired of doing good. At the right time we will bring in the harvest, if we do not give up.

9And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Note"Faint not" translates a word for going slack and collapsing from exhaustion, the way a runner's legs give out. "Due season" is harvest time, the fixed point in the farming year when a crop is ready. The image is that the interval between sowing and reaping cannot be shortened, only waited out.

10So whenever we get the chance, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

10As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Note"Household" in the ancient world meant far more than a modern family living in a house. It covered the extended family, dependents, employees and slaves under one roof, all bound by real obligations to each other. Calling believers a household claims that kind of tie, not just warm feeling.

11Look at the large letters I am using as I write this to you with my own hand.

11Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

NoteThe King James wording misleads a modern reader. Paul is not saying the letter is long; he is saying the letters of the alphabet he is forming are big. Letters in this period were normally dictated to a trained scribe, with the sender taking the pen at the end to add a greeting in his own handwriting as a mark of authenticity. Paul takes the pen here and writes in outsized characters. He does not say why: poor eyesight, unpracticed handwriting and sheer emphasis have all been suggested.

12The people who want to look good on the outside are the ones pressuring you to be circumcised. They do it only so they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

12As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

Note"Shew" is the old spelling of "show," and "in the flesh" means outwardly, on the body, which is a pointed way to talk about circumcision. Circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin, performed on Jewish boys on the eighth day after birth, and it was the physical mark of belonging to the covenant people. For the adult gentile men Paul is writing to, submitting to it was a permanent and painful public act of joining Israel.

13Even those who are circumcised do not keep the law themselves. But they want you circumcised so they can brag about what was done to your body.

13For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.

Note"Glory" in King James English means to boast or take credit, not to shine. The word runs through this verse and the next. "Glory in your flesh" is blunt and physical: they would be boasting over the cut made in someone else's body, counting converts like a tally.

14As for me, may I never brag about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through that cross the world has been put to death for me, and I have been put to death for the world.

14But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Note"God forbid" is a 1611 English idiom for strong refusal. The Greek says only "may it never be," with no mention of God in it. The cross itself was a Roman method of public execution used on slaves, rebels and non citizens, designed to humiliate as much as to kill, so "boast in the cross" was a jarring pairing of words, close to boasting in a gallows.

15For in Christ Jesus it makes no difference whether a person is circumcised or not. What matters is being made new.

15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Note"Availeth any thing" means counts for anything, carries any weight. "New creature" translates a word that can mean either the thing created or the act of creating, so the Greek can be read as a person remade or as a whole new creation coming into being, and it is not clear which Paul intends.

16Peace and mercy to all who live by this rule, and to the Israel of God.

16And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Note"Walk" is the standard Jewish idiom for how a person conducts a life, not for physical walking. "Rule" translates a word for a straight measuring rod used by carpenters and surveyors, a standard you line things up against. The last phrase is genuinely disputed: the small connecting word can mean "and," making "the Israel of God" a further group receiving the blessing, or it can mean "that is," renaming the very people just blessed. The Greek allows both, and readers have divided over it for centuries.

17From now on, let no one give me trouble, because I carry the scars of Jesus on my body.

17From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Note"Marks" translates the Greek word stigmata, which meant a brand or tattoo burned or pricked into the skin. Slaves were marked this way to show whose property they were, and devotees of some gods carried marks of their god. Paul means the scars left on him by beatings, stoning and imprisonment, and the word carries the sense of ownership: the marks say whose he is.

18Brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

18Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Note"Be with your spirit" is a way of saying "be with you," the whole person, and not a comment on one part of a human being. "Amen" is a Hebrew word carried over untranslated, meaning roughly "truly" or "let it stand"; it was the word a congregation said aloud in agreement when a letter like this was read out to them.