Galatians 6: Bear One Another's Burdens, Then Carry Your Own

I think Galatians 6:2 and Galatians 6:5 only look like they disagree if you read them as separate instructions, and I don't think Paul meant them as separate. Three verses sit between them, and those three verses are the part I skipped for most of my life.

Here's the problem as it usually gets stated, with verse 2 telling us to bear one another's burdens, and verse 5 saying every man shall bear his own burden. Same word in English, opposite directions. I've heard the fix offered in Sunday School more than once: the two verses use different Greek words, one for a heavy load and one for a pack you carry yourself, so help with the first and leave the second alone. That may be right. I can't check the Greek, and the English I have in front of me already handles it without any help, which is what I'd like to walk through.

What is the burden in verse 2, exactly?

Start one verse earlier, because verse 2 isn't a free-floating motto.

Brethren, 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. (Galatians 6:1)

So the occasion is a particular one. Somebody has been caught in something. Paul tells the rest of them to restore him, and he adds a warning aimed at the restorers: consider yourself, lest you also be tempted. Then comes the line everybody puts on a plaque.

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

Read that way, the burden is at least partly the fault. The weight of the thing a person did, and the work of climbing out. It's an odd word choice if you picture casseroles, and I do think casseroles count. But the sentence sits right after "overtaken in a fault," and it would be strange for Paul to change subjects between one verse and the next.

Now the three verses I skipped.

For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. (Galatians 6:3-5)

My reading, and it's only mine, is that verses 3 and 4 are a warning to the person doing the restoring. You find a brother in a mess and go over to help, and somewhere on the way you start to feel like something. Taller than the man you're helping. Paul calls that self-deception and then gives the cure: prove your own work, and take your rejoicing in yourself alone, not in another. Don't measure yourself against the fellow you just pulled out of the ditch. Verse 5 closes the loop: everyone answers for his own load, and that includes the helper, so the other man's fall tells you nothing about how you're doing.

On that reading verse 5 doesn't take back what verse 2 gave. It stops the rescuer from using the rescue to feel good about his own account.

This won't settle it for everybody, and plenty of careful readers take verse 5 as a plain statement about final accountability, with no connection to verses 3 and 4. But the rescuer-pride reading fits the way verse 1 ends, with its "considering thyself," and that's what moves me.

Does "bear one another's burdens" mean carry them for people?

There's a passage in the Book of Mormon I put beside this one, because it shows what bearing a burden can look like when it works. Alma's people are under Amulon in the land of Helam, forbidden to pray out loud on pain of death. The Lord's answer is not that he'll remove the load.

And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage. (Mosiah 24:14)

The next verse has the burdens made light and the people able to bear them "with ease." The weight stayed on their backs and they went on carrying it, but the carrying cost them far less than it had the day before. I wrote about that chapter a while back in Alma's People and the Burdens They Couldn't Feel, and reading Galatians 6 I'd say the same thing applies to us on a smaller scale. Most of what I can do for someone is make their carrying easier. I almost never get to do the carrying. A ride, an hour, a phone call at the time they'd least want one. The load stays theirs and the cost goes down.

When it goes wrong, I think it goes wrong in two ways. One is the person who hears verse 2 as permission to take over, and ends up carrying so much of another man's life that he can no longer stand to see it put down. The other is the person who hears verse 5 and decides everybody's on their own. I've been that second person at work more than I like. A teammate's job is on fire and I say "good luck" in a friendly way and go back to my own queue.

Paul gives no formula for how much. I wish he did.

Is "whatsoever a man soweth" a threat?

Verse 6 is easy to read past. It says the person taught in the word should "communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." It reads to me like it's about supporting a teacher, probably materially, though the verse doesn't say what the good things are and I'm not going to pretend it does. What I notice is that verse 7 starts right after it with "Be not deceived." I don't know whether Paul meant 7 to follow from 6 or to open something new. The Greek could well settle it. My English can't.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)

Taken alone it sounds like a warning, and it is one. But the next two verses are what hold my attention.

For 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. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:8-9)

"In due season" is a phrase from somebody who has watched a field. Nothing comes up the week you plant. You can do everything right and see dirt for a month. And then the condition at the end, "if we faint not," which says the harvest is not automatic for the person who stops. I'd never noticed that clause until this week. The promise comes with a condition and the condition is just staying at it.

I planted tomatoes in May and I haven't seen them for six days, which tells you where my head is, because I'd like to know what the garden looks like.

I should also say what this verse isn't. It gets used to promise money to people who give to a ministry, and that's a long way from what Paul wrote. He's talking about flesh and Spirit, corruption and life everlasting. Nothing in these verses says that a good deed gets you a raise.

The harder reading, and the one I think is correct, is that sowing is mostly dull. You make the same small choice on a Tuesday that you made the Tuesday before, and nobody sees it. Verse 10 follows directly: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith." I like "as we have therefore opportunity." It's modest. It doesn't ask for a plan, just that when a chance to do some good turns up you take it, starting with whoever's closest.

Why does Paul end on circumcision and the cross?

"Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand" (verse 11) always stops me. He says he took the pen himself and he wants them to see the size of the handwriting. I read it as a man leaning across a table. Two weeks ago I wrote about how Galatians 1 opens with no thank-you at all, and this is where all of that heat arrives.

As 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. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. (Galatians 6:12-13)

The first charge is that the people pressing circumcision are doing it to avoid trouble, which is a motive and not a doctrine. The second is the one that gets me: they don't keep the law themselves. And then the reason they want the Galatians circumcised is "that they may glory in your flesh." They want a number. They want to point at the Galatians and say, these are ours.

I've sat in enough meetings where somebody reads out a figure and the room relaxes or tenses depending on the figure. I'm not saying counting is wrong. A bishop needs to know who's been missed, and an engineer needs the error rate. But there's a kind of counting that exists so the counter can feel he's winning, and Paul spots it in the opposition in a single clause.

Then the verse that stands by itself.

But 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. (Galatians 6:14)

Look at where this lands in the chapter. Verse 4 told each person to rejoice in himself alone, having proved his own work. Verse 14 says the only thing Paul will glory in is the cross. I don't think those two are at odds, since a man who has really examined his work isn't going to find much to boast about, and the cross is what's left. I notice that Paul's own boast contains no accomplishment of his.

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters, but "a new creature." Notice that uncircumcision is dismissed in the same breath. Paul isn't selling the other team's uniform.

"From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (verse 17) reads rough. He sounds tired. I don't read it as a flourish. The man has scars, and he's saying the argument is over and the evidence is on his body. Then the last line of the letter: "Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." The thank-you he left out of the beginning shows up as a blessing at the end, and I'm glad it does.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are verse 2 and verse 5 contradicting each other?

I don't think so, and I don't think you need the Greek to see it. Verses 3 and 4 sit between them and tell the helper to check his own work and not compare himself to the person he's helping. Verse 5 then says everyone answers for his own load. You help with the weight, and you don't take over the account.

What is the "law of Christ" in verse 2?

Paul names it only once in this letter, and he ties it to bearing burdens. Elsewhere in Galatians he calls love the thing the whole law hangs on, in 5:14, and I think that's the context. I wouldn't try to turn it into a new list of rules, because that's exactly what he's arguing against in this letter.

Does reaping what you sow mean good people never suffer?

No, and Paul himself is the proof, since he ends the letter pointing at his scars. "In due season" allows for a long gap, and "if we faint not" admits you can quit before it comes. I wouldn't use this verse to explain why somebody's life is hard. I'd use it to decide what to do on a flat Tuesday.

Who were the people Paul is so upset with here?

The letter describes them as people pressing the Galatians to be circumcised. Beyond what the letter says, most of what's written about them is inference from Paul's side of the argument, and we only have his side. I'd keep that in mind before assuming they were villains in every respect.

The cabin's trash goes to a dumpster at the bottom of the gravel road, and the lid sticks. Someone before us tied a strip of red yarn to the handle so you can find it in the dark. I'll take the bag down after dinner.

— D.