Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Galatians 6:1-18

¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. ⁵For each man will bear his own burden. ⁶But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches. ⁷Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. ⁹Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up. ¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith. ¹¹See with what large letters I write to you with my own hand. ¹²As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised; just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. ¹⁴But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ¹⁶As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel. ¹⁷From now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body. ¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I wrote "caught in any transgression," the word for "caught" carries the sense of being overtaken, surprised, snared before one could brace against it — not the hardened rebel, but the one tripped up. And "restore" (Galatians 6:1) is the word a fisherman uses for mending a torn net, a physician for setting a broken bone. You do not throw away the net; you sit down and knit it whole again. That is the spirit — "a spirit of gentleness" — in which the strong go to the fallen. And "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2): the word is for a crushing weight, more than one man ought to carry alone.

Where else you say this

I take up this same restoring in gentleness when I tell the Corinthians to reaffirm their love to the one who had grieved them, lest he "be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow" (2 Corinthians 2:7). I press the same sowing and reaping when I write, "whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly" (2 Corinthians 9:6). And the weariness in well-doing I meet again with the Thessalonians: "do not grow weary in doing good" (2 Thessalonians 3:13).

The situation

Men had come into Galatia insisting that faith in Christ was not enough — that the churches must be circumcised and take up the law to be truly counted in. I saw what drove them: they wanted "to make a good showing in the flesh" and to boast in the marks on your bodies, and to "avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ" (Galatians 6:12). It cost them nothing to demand of you what spared them. So at the end I took the pen into my own hand — see the large letters (Galatians 6:11) — and set the cross against their boasting, and my own scars against their circumcision: "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" (Galatians 6:17).

The hard question

If we are saved by grace and not by works, as I have hammered through this whole letter, how can I now turn and say "each will bear his own load" and "whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:5, 7)? Does grace not undo sowing and reaping? No — and do not smooth this over. Justification is God's free gift, received by faith apart from works. But the life that faith brings is a real life, lived in a real field, and the Spirit is not mocked. A man who sows to the flesh is not condemned by a ledger; he is simply reaping what such sowing grows — corruption. Grace does not suspend the harvest; grace changes the seed. Read verses 7 and 8 again slowly, and see that it is "to his own flesh" or "to the Spirit" — the whole question is what you are planting.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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