BOOK 48 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

Galatians 6

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Galatians 6 Overview

Paul tells spiritual believers to restore a fallen brother in meekness while watching themselves. Believers should bear one another’s burdens yet also take responsibility for their own work. Sowing to flesh or Spirit has corresponding harvest, so they should not grow weary in doing good. Paul closes by rejecting circumcision boasting and glorying only in the cross of Christ.

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18Verses

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Before you read Galatians 6

Coming from

Paul warns that seeking justification through circumcision obligates a person to the whole law and abandons the grace principle. Christian liberty is not permission for the flesh; faith works by love, the whole law is fulfilled in loving one’s neighbor, and believers are commanded to walk in the Spirit rather than fulfill the lust of the flesh.

In this chapter

Leads into

The canonical sequence continues into Ephesians.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The sow/reap section concerns consequences and harvest in Christian living; it is not a statement that eternal life is earned by good works.

‘A new creature’ is set against circumcision as the decisive identity marker, reinforcing grace rather than law-based boasting.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Restoration must combine truth and meekness

A fallen brother is helped, not crushed.

Christian life includes both mutual support and personal responsibility

Bearing burdens and carrying one’s own load are not contradictions.

The cross ends boasting in religious flesh

Paul refuses to glory in circumcision or human achievement.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

1 Corinthians 5; 2 Corinthians 2

Church discipline and later restoration illustrate the balance of holiness and recovery.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Paul also describes those in Christ as a new creation.

Ephesians 2:8–10

Salvation is not of works, yet saved people are created for good works.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not turn sowing to the Spirit into earning eternal life

Good works bring fitting harvest; justification has already been settled by faith.

Do not use burden-bearing to remove personal responsibility

Paul places both truths side by side.

Do not use restoration language to minimize serious sin

Restoration assumes a real fault that requires correction.

Read Galatians 6 watching for…

The spirit required for restoration.

Burden-bearing versus personal load-bearing.

The sowing and reaping principle.

The command not to grow weary.

What Paul refuses to glory in and what he glories in instead.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-5Spiritual believers should restore the fallen meekly and bear one another’s burdens while examining themselves 6-10Believers should support those who teach the word, sow to the Spirit, and keep doing good 11-16Paul contrasts those who glory in circumcision with glorying only in the cross of Christ 17-18Paul closes by pointing to the marks he bears and blessing the brethren

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. <<Unto the Galatians written from Rome.>>

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Galatians 6:9

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