Commentary on Galatians 6.1–6.16

“You who are spiritual.” As if to one of those who are spiritual, he set this forth so that each of them may consider, lest he too be tempted; and therefore he ought to help and instruct such a man; and, the spirit being given, to call him back by discussion to modesty and equality.

“Bear one another’s burdens.” He has returned to the plural, so that every man bears the ills of others; and what another suffers, he bears, sustains, and corrects, as far as he can: for this is to bear burdens, to bear patiently another’s fault and correct it. “And so you will fulfill the law of Christ.” For so he himself patiently bore our ills and endured for our ills. You will fulfill, he says, the law of Christ, not simply the law.

“For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” He now proves by reason that one who boasts out of desire for glory must be corrected and instructed in the spirit, since he is wretched who leads himself astray, deceives, and beguiles himself, thinking he is something when he is nothing. For if this is the sum of the law, that one be humble, cast down, lowest—for so God chooses from the lowest those whom he lifts up and makes high—every man who claims something for himself and thinks he is something is without doubt nothing. For what is something in the world, when there is nothing in the world? And to act as though one were nothing in the world, this is to be something before God. But if anyone thinks he is something in the world, whether wise or intelligent, or a lord, or a king, or rich, or any of these, whether in riches, or in mind, or in art, or in virtue, he, since the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, he, I say, is nothing; and since he is nothing, he deceives and beguiles himself.

“But let each one test his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another.” Great exhortations, great discipline too! Let no one, he says, claim anything for himself, nor hold the opinion that he is something: let him only test his own work; but let each one test his own work by his own judgment, lest, using a bad judge, he approve himself as having done well when perhaps he has not done well. So let him test, and make his work approved: and when his work has been approved, then he will have glory in himself alone, not in another. For one who thinks he is something boasts and seeks glory from another; but one who either himself approves his work or proves it to others has glory from himself, and with himself, and does not expect it from another. For I do not, he says, wish to be praised by man, nor approved by men, but by God.

“For each one will bear his own burden.” A burden is set in the middle, whether good or bad. So all, he says, will bear their own burden, each one his own.

“Let him who is catechized in the word share with him who catechizes in all good things.” The sense is this: katēchein is to sound around or to sound beside, which happens when someone at the beginning starts to be a Christian, and God and Christ are sounded to him, and it is spoken into his ears and sent into his mind: this is “who is catechized in the word”: that is, if anyone is catechized through the word, so that he is also sounded upon through invocation. He, then, who is catechized in the word, let him share in all good things with him who catechizes; that is, let him not be without sharing in anything; yet let him be in common in all things with him who catechizes in the word, so that he has all things in communion with him, but all things that are good. For since it was said above, “Instruct such a man in the spirit of gentleness,” surely what he catechizes is good; and he who catechizes in this word, so good, catechizes in good things. So let him who is catechized in the word share with him who catechizes.

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked.” He adds another precept, which is general for all things, yet pertains to what was dealt with above, that they should not follow anything besides the gospel; that is, that they should not add the discipline and works of the Jews too. “Do not,” he says, “be deceived”; for all these things taken up outside the gospel are errors. And he added the force of necessity to the precept: “God,” he says, “is not mocked.” He did not say, “for God knows all things,” lest they hope for pardon for their error or that it could be hidden: “he is not mocked,” he says. And he adds what will happen to those who keep their life on earth.

“For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” That is, whoever sows wheat will have a harvest of wheat; but if he sows tares, that too he will reap: whoever is a reaper of evil sows evil. Does he sow good? He will receive fruit from good: so the harvest is as the seed. “For he who sows in his flesh will from the flesh also reap corruption; but he who sows in the spirit will from the spirit also reap eternal life.” The Galatians, who thought they should take up the discipline of the Jews, so as to observe sabbaths and take up circumcision, and knowingly to do other such things in a fleshly way, had hope in the flesh and from the flesh. Whoever, then, has hope in the flesh and sows his hope regarding the flesh will have a harvest from the flesh; and that fruit, he says, is corruption. For the flesh is corrupted, and this is its end, to be corrupted, to rot, to perish, to die. All things, then, that are from the flesh rot and have corruption: no one ought to hope from the flesh, nor to sow in the flesh, that is, to place hope in the flesh. For if he places his hope there, he will have fruit from the flesh. What fruit? Death, corruption. For this is the fruit of the flesh. So it is better to place hope in the spirit, so that we may have hope from the spirit: which hope is from the spirit, and which fruit is from the spirit; this is to sow in the spirit, that is, eternal life. For this life is not eternal life. But whoever lives here in the spirit and acts according to the spirit, and does nothing in a fleshly way, sows eternal life for himself, and this will be his harvest: that, departing hence, he receives eternal life.

“But in doing good let us not grow weary.” It is too little that we do good, for our merit is not straightway acceptable to God if we do good, but if, doing it, we do not grow weary. For many begin, many as it were persevere, yet afterward stop, either wearied or led astray: rightly he warned that we should not grow weary in any way, lest by growing weary we abandon what we began, when we have begun to do good. “For in due time we shall reap, if we do not grow weary.” Beautifully added. For many in this kind of life which is called good, if they suffer something bad, think they act without cause when they do good, and, wearied, stop doing good. What, then, did he add? Let us not grow weary, because although today we do not obtain the fruit of doing well, afterward, he says, we shall reap; that is, we shall have the harvest of our good deeds, if we do not grow weary in doing well.

“So while we have time, let us work.” He has given the greatest necessity for doing good: time is pressing, life is quickly finished, the end of the world is now at hand. While, he says, we have time, either of our life or of this life in the world, let us work good, and work it toward all, so that there is no exception of persons, no other action; but let us work good, and work good toward all. For if love builds up, and we ought to hold every man dear, all the good we work, we work toward all. “But especially toward those of the household of faith.” He said, “let us work good toward all”; yet he makes a gradation, so that of the good we work toward all, we work good especially toward those who are of the household of faith, that is, who have taken up faith in Christ and in God. With a great conclusion he set in his exhortation what pertained above all to the Galatians: for they, adding certain things from Judaism, did not act from faith, but believed that from works and from fleshly observance they would have fruit; therefore he added, “let us work good especially toward those of the household of faith,” who have taken up faith alone in the gospel, that is, in Christ and God.

“See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!” To show familiarity, and so that it might not shame them that others know they either sin or are being corrected, “with my own hand,” he says, “I have written to you,” and he gave a sign of love. And for you the change of life is easy when it is corrected by me, since you owe your conscience to me alone.

“Whoever wish to make a good showing in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised.” He openly sets out in its particular form the very thing he was charging against the Galatians, that they transgressed the command of the gospel: that they wished to circumcise themselves. All, he says, who wish to please in the flesh persuade you to be circumcised, which lies only in the work itself of being circumcised, not in any help toward salvation. “Only so that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.” Thinking, he says, that they will not pay the penalty for having raised Christ onto the cross and persecuted him, if to the gospel, that is, to the confession of Christ, you add, or they themselves add, circumcision too. But they sin in this too, that, though all hope is from Christ and rather from his cross, we should think it also from circumcision, or they think it; and therefore they persuade, as though they would not have to suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ, that is, for having raised Christ onto the cross.

“For not even those who are circumcised keep the law.” For in Christ neither uncircumcision nor circumcision avails. What law, then, did he mean? Either that which is to be understood spiritually, or that which Christ gave, which without doubt is both spiritual and teaches spiritual things and is to be carried out spiritually. “But they want you to be circumcised, so that they may glory in your flesh.” He shows the cunning of those who persuade, so that they may seem to have persuaded you, so that they may glory in your flesh, though circumcision profits nothing; but they seek only glory for themselves, so that they think they obtain, by what is done in your flesh, that without it there is no hope; so that they may now seem to have won, that hope is not from Christ alone unless the discipline of the Jewish law in circumcision is added too.

“But far be it from me to glory in anything.” Earlier he rebuked their glorying: for their glory is to glory in the flesh: but I, he says, glory in nothing, neither in the flesh, nor in man, nor in any of these, nor in myself. And it has already been said and often advised that everyone who glories should glory in God, on which we treated above. “Except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is, so that all hope may be placed there, and from there come glory and joy: because there, in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, our salvation and eternity have been won. “Through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” This is the glory, namely the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, because by that mystery, when he hung the flesh on the cross and on it triumphed over the power of this world, the whole world was crucified through him. But since he had a catholic body for every man, he made all that he suffered catholic; that is, so that all flesh was crucified in him. So I too have been crucified, and fixed to the world. I, he says, that fleshly man, who thought from the flesh, have been fixed to the world, that is, subjected to punishment with the world.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” What we touched on above: although this thought is everywhere, he reminds us what the mystery has done: that in Christ Jesus there is no person, no distinction; all who follow Christ equally merit eternal life: for it is not because there is circumcision that one is something in Christ, nor because there is uncircumcision that one is something in Christ; but in whichever of these, whoever he may be, if only he is reborn and becomes a new man by the mystery, all will avail in Christ.

“And whoever follow this rule, peace be upon them, and upon the Israel of the Lord.” He has concluded that this alone is the rule: to hope in Christ, and not to distinguish the power of Christ by uncircumcision from circumcision, but a new creation, whoever it may be; through Christ and in Christ is full hope of salvation, eternity, and glory. This rule, he says (not as you, Galatians, wished to hold), this glory—peace be upon those who follow it. And he added, “upon the Israel of the Lord”: not upon every Israel, any Jew, but the Israel of the Lord. For Israel is truly the Lord’s if it follows the Lord, so as not to hope for its salvation from elsewhere. “From now on let no one cause me trouble.” That is, let no one any longer make me anxious, sad, and burdened with troubles by their sins. For so we said at the beginning that he took it hard and grieved that they had sinned. So at the end of the letter he warns that they should not turn to any sins, lest they cause him trouble. “For I bear the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ in my body.” That is, all the suffering, and what he endured on the cross, with the nails piercing, the body, or the wound of the spear through the side, and the rest: the marks, he says, of Jesus Christ our Lord I bear in my body; that is, I too have suffered, and in the mystery I serve together with Christ, I suffer the mystery of Christ; hence you too ought to endure many, indeed all, adversities: since he will be with Christ who suffers with Christ, both what Christ suffered, and when by his own action he has begun to suffer at the hands of hostile adversaries; from which he shows both what he himself suffers, how much he merits from Christ, and what we too ought to suffer, if we wish to be with Christ. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.” The conclusion of the letter is made: it is a prayer and blessing that there be grace; but “with your spirit,” he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; so that, since you live in Christ, the grace of Christ may be with your spirit.