Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16

Chapter and verse divisions in the Bible can be misleading, but perhaps no more so than in Paul’s letters. Paul often argues in long extended discourses, that tend to get artificially broken up by arbitrary (albeit helpful in locating something) chapter and verse divisions. This should be kept in mind when reading the beginning of Galatians chapter six, because it is probably most helpful to see Galatians 6:1-10 as continuing the instructions Paul begins giving in 5:13.

If Paul’s major concern in the letter is that the Galatians are abandoning the gospel of faith(fulness) to pursue one based on works of law like circumcision, then surely his secondary (but related) concern is that this pursuit has caused divisions, strife, and competition in the church. Therefore, the ethical instructions Paul offers in chapters 5 and 6 are not general ethics, unrelated to the theological arguments he presents in chapters 3 and 4. The vision of ecclesial life Paul sketches here follows directly from the community of Messiah Paul described as Abraham’s seed, the community of both Jews and gentile nations, the family created by Messiah’s faithfulness, formed in baptism, and united by the Spirit to be a blessing to the nations. It is that community that is made possible by the Messiah’s faithfulness in the cross and God’s faithfulness in raising him up to new life. And this community, Paul makes clear, is to be a community of care, where people refuse to utilize liberation for self-seeking ends, but seek the good of others. A community operating by “the Flesh” becomes competitive and self-devouring, but a community operating by the Spirit is lively and life-giving. Paul begins this differentiation of the flesh-operating community vs. the Spirit-operating community at 5:13, therefore it is fitting to see this discussion bookended in 6:10.

Therefore, the discussion in 6:1 about restoring someone who has committed a misdeed is not a general instruction about community ethics, but follows directly from the last verses of chapter 5. A community that operates according to the flesh will be competitive and grudge-holding (5:26). It is not to be so among the Galatians, who operate according to the Spirit. Rather than competing with one another and seeking advantage over others when they make a mistake or go down a wrong path, the community operating according to the Spirit will seek to good of the other who has fallen away. Paul calls upon “those who are spiritual” (a reference back to the fruit of the Spirit in 5:22, 25) to restore wayward ones in a “spirit of gentleness” (a call back to a specific fruit of the Spirit). This is where the rubber hits the road for the fruit of the Spirit. A community operating by the Spirit must bear the fruit of the Spirit not only when people are getting along, but when there are real differences in the community and threats to the common life of the community. When those divisions come, will the community respond in acrimony and self-righteousness or will it display gentleness (and love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control)?

A Spirit-generated community of care will also bear one another’s burdens, thus fulfilling the law of the Messiah. Paul follows this instruction with a common topic for him, not esteeming oneself more highly than one should (Romans 12:3; Philippians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 3:18). Paul uses a word for esteeming or considering oneself that is related to the word he used to refer to leaders in the Jerusalem church at 2:2, 6, and 9. This is likely a call back to Paul’s point that God does not esteem people as humans tend to esteem themselves and others. Salvation and honor come from God’s rescue work in the Messiah, not from one’s own efforts, and especially not one’s own efforts at the expense of others. Therefore, one must discern their own work and “carry their own cargo” (6:5). Whatever Paul means by this it is certainly not a call to bootstrap individualism, given what Paul says in verses 2 and 6. Later Paul will say that his only boast is not in anything he has done, but only in the cross of Christ (6:14).

Additionally, in a community of care, there will be a sharing of resources among teachers and those being taught, among leaders and those being led (6:6). This is an idea of shared ownership in “all good things,” meaning that leaders don’t get too puffed up in elitism or pride but also that the community benefitting from a teacher’s work ensures that the leader’s needs are provided for.

Paul bookends his discussion of Flesh and Spirit that he began in 5:13 by talking about the ends of each. The end result of sowing to the Flesh is a harvest of “decay” (a word Paul uses in Romans 8:21). The end result of sowing to the Spirit will harvest the life of the age to come. It’s clear here that Paul has in mind the idea of the eschatological new creation that is already being brought to bear among the community of the Messiah in a inaugurated way by the Spirit (see Galatians 6:14-15). Following on his discussion of reaping a harvest, the ultimate harvest in mind is one that resembles new creation. The way to farm for that harvest is in doing good, so Paul encourages them not to grow weary in doing good as they look to harvest in the proper season. In the next verse he reminds them that they do indeed have the season, so they should be about the work of doing good to all people, but especially within their own community.

Paul concludes the letter writing in the larger and probably less neat handwriting of an untrained scribe. Writing was expensive, so Paul, like most letter writers in the ancient world, probably hired a professional scribe who could write small and neatly to maximize space. Here he grabs the pen to show his own handwriting for emphasis (and as a trademark kind of signature: 1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17; Philemon 19).

Again, Paul raises the issue of circumcision. It is important to remember that the issue of not being circumcised is a gentile issue. Paul is not commanding against circumcision for Jewish people. He is merely saying here that the issue of circumcision is not a defining factor for the Messianic community of Jews and gentile nations brought together in the Spirit. What is defining for them is that they are the new creation in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Brigitte Kahl makes a convincing case that there is an anti-idolatry and anti-empire thrust to Paul’s argument here.[1] This is a bold and costly claim that Jesus is saving the world, even when his followers are persecuted for glorying in his cross. It is not Caesar who is Lord, and it is not Caesar and the Roman gods who bring together a golden age of prosperity for the world.

Rather, it is this community of the Messiah Jesus, comprised of both Jews and gentiles, who embody in their life together the life of the new creation. This is why it is important for the nations not to need to undergo circumcision for Paul, for if the nations are being rescued together with Jews by the Messiah, then the end of the ages has come and the new creation is on its way and embodied in the church. Anything less than this denies Jesus is the Lord, and Savior, and Messiah. Thus the cross is the only mechanism for boasting, for both Jews and gentiles who have been rescued into the Messiah’s people. And further, Paul can maintain that Israel remains God’s Israel.[2] Israel has not been ”replaced” as God’s people by the gentiles, nor by the church. God’s rescue mission has revealed God’s faithfulness to Israel and God’s blessing to all the gentile nations, which is why circumcision and uncircumcision can both be found in the new creation, the partial and fragmentary beginning of which is Messiah’s church.

[1] Brigitte Kahl, Galatians Re-Imagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished, Paul in Critical Contexts (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010).

[2] See Beverly Roberts Gaventa’s helpful discussion in When in Romans: An Invitation to Linger with the Gospel according to Paul (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016), 47-74.