Galatians 6

Galatians 6:1

According to the rule of Christian love, already mentioned, if any one among you, through ignorance, unwatchfulness, human frailty, plausible temptations, or enticing examples, fall into an erroneous notion or immoral act, I beseech those of you, who are more advanced and confirmed in knowledge and grace, to do your utmost, in a meek, patient, and tender, manner for convincing and reclaiming him by repentance, and reducing him to his proper place in the mystical body of Christ:—and to induce you hereto, ponder seriously your own weakness and sinfulness, and the danger of meeting with and falling before temptations yourselves; and be not therefore too severe upon others

Galatians 6:2

Instead of imposing heavy yokes on the one hand, or refusing any offices of kindness on the other, sympathize with, pray for, and assist, one another; and by lightening and relieving one another under your burdens, grievances, trials, and exercises, practise Christ’s great commandment of loving your neighbours as yourselves

Galatians 6:3

For, if any of you have high thoughts of your own abilities to resist temptations, and to do great things in religion, and so despise and insult others, ye dreadfully deceive your own souls

Galatians 6:4

But to prevent your being forward to judge and censure others and deceive yourselves, let every one of you narrowly search and try his own principles, motives, ends, temper, and behaviour; and, if they be thus found correspondent to the truth of the gospel, and your profession of it, ye will have great matter of humble joy in what God has wrought in you, and enabled you to do, and on account of the testimony which the Holy Ghost and your own consciences bear to your sincerity and God’s acceptance of you through Christ; and you need not then regard the applause of others, your number of proselytes, or that your character is more exalted than that of others

Galatians 6:5

For at the judgment seat of Christ every man will be adjudged to eternal happiness or misery; not according to what he thinks of himself, or what he is in comparison of others,—but according to what he really is, in heart and life, before God

Galatians 6:6

And, as a standing ministry is necessary for your instruction and establishment in the truths and paths of the gospel, let every church member, who receives these spiritual instructions, cheerfully and liberally contribute of his worldly substance for the comfortable maintenance of his instructor, who spends his time and strength in preaching the gospel to him, and thus brings him blessings far better than any thing temporal

Galatians 6:7

Never let a covetous temper, or plausible suggestion, seduce you from the faithful performance of this duty. God, who searches your hearts, and has a right to your obedience, will not suffer himself to be imposed on, or any of his commandments condemned. But (to allude to the crops of husbandmen and gardeners) your reward at his hand shall be according to the nature, quality, and extent, of your work

Galatians 6:8

He, who uses his temporal enjoyments, or spends his time and strength, with selfish and corrupt views, shall have, for his reward, perishing things here, and eternal destruction hereafter; but he, who, through the power of God’s grace on and in his heart, employs his substance and talents for promoting spiritual purposes, in subserviency to the work and design of the Holy Ghost, shall reap glorious fruits of holiness in this world, and eternal life as the free gift of God through Christ in the next

Galatians 6:9

Animated by these comfortable views, let us never grow remiss and negligent, far less cease from doing good to others, by every mean in our power; for, if not in this life, we shall in the next be rewarded with plentiful blessings, if we do not, through unbelief and discouragement, covetousness, impatience, or the like, desist from our duty as an irksome task. While therefore God gives us abilities and proper opportunities, let us exercise ourselves in works of beneficence towards the necessitous, and all our fellow creatures, especially to such as, in the judgment of charity, have cordially embraced the gospel of Christ, and become his children and servants

Galatians 6:11

I hope ye will seriously ponder those things which I have written to you in this affectionate letter, and that not by an amanuensis, as ordinarily, but with mine own hand

Galatians 6:12

And, believe me, your new preachers, who attempt to recommend themselves by external flourishes of profession, or zealous observation of carnal ceremonies, are not actuated, in urging you to be circumcised, by any true love to you, or concern for your salvation, but merely desire that they may escape that persecution and outrage from the unbelieving Jews, to which the preaching of a free justification through Christ’s imputed righteousness would expose them

Galatians 6:13

For, notwithstanding their being circumcised themselves, and under an obligation thereby established to keep the whole law, they are not really careful to keep that law at all, but they would have you circumcised, that they might boast of you as their proselytes, and thereby recommend themselves to the favour of the unbelieving Jews

Galatians 6:14

But God forbid that I should ever be ambitious of human applause, or boast of, or rely on, any thing as the ground of my acceptance with God, except it be the atoning sacrifice of our crucified Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith in and virtue derived from, with and whom, I am, in conformity to him, dead to all the allurements, interests, and honours, of this world, and to all its terrors, persecutions, and reproaches, so as to be little moved by the one or the other; and on account of my preaching of which, as the alone ground of justification and eternal life, the men of this world contemning, and would gladly crucify me

Galatians 6:15

For, with regard to union with Christ and justification to life through faith in him, circumcision, and all such external distinctions, are now under the gospel entirely useless. The only thing that can effectually prove our interest in him is the universal and almighty renovation of our heart and life, after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness

Galatians 6:16

And to all those professed Christians, Jews or Gentiles, who according to the directions I have given, rely on the righteousness of Christ alone for justification, and improve it in a stedfast maintenance of gospel liberties and study of gospel holiness; and to all those spiritual Israelites, whom God hath formed for himself; I earnestly wish and declare peace with God, their consciences, and one another, and all other mercies and blessings of the new covenant

Galatians 6:17

Let no one give me any further trouble with injurious reproaches and angry quarrels about circumcision and other observances of the law; the persecutions which I have already endured, and of which I retain the marks in my body, are sufficient proofs of my being Christ’s devoted servant, and faithful preacher of justification through his blood

Galatians 6:18

Finally, brethren, my hearty prayer to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is, that his free love and favour, with all its blessed manifestations, fruits and effects, may plentifully abound towards you, and sensibly rest on your souls, to lead you in the way of faith, comfort, and holiness, till ye arrive at the complete possession of eternal life

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. VI.—With meekness, humility, and compassionate sympathy, ought Christians of superior attainments to recover their offending brethren. A sense of their own sinfulness, weakness, and readiness to slip, should induce them to it. And a regard to their deliverance from the law as a covenant, and the law of ceremonies, and their being still under Christ’s law of liberty and love, should effectually animate them to it. It is dreadful to deceive our souls through self-conceit and hypocritical mocking of that God who neither will nor can be imposed upon. But it is delightful to have our consciences 2