NOTES for Gal 6:1-10

Continuing the conversation about the Kingdom and about the relationships that take shape among the inhabitants of the Kingdom, Paul formulates a fundamental rule of spiritual life, one close to the well-known saying, "You reap what you sow" (vv. 7-9). The apostle understands perfectly well that spiritual life is a process just as ordinary life is, but unlike ordinary life, it unfolds not according to the laws of our world, not yet transformed, but according to the laws of the Kingdom. And if, in the untransformed world, a person who violates the Torah and every moral norm may still succeed in certain respects, in the Kingdom this is impossible in principle. It is not because someone will specially prevent a violator of the Torah from succeeding, but because the very nature of the Kingdom does not allow it. That is why Paul reminds them of the senselessness, from the point of view of the laws of the Kingdom, of boasting and self-exaltation (vv. 3-5): the point is not only that it is deception, but also that it is useless deception. In the Kingdom, deception is not only impossible but also pointless. The very nature of the Kingdom allows a person to be only what he really is.

One could say that the Kingdom is a world where all illusions are scattered and all mirages disappear, both frightening and comforting. It is no surprise that, speaking about correction, the apostle advises those who correct others to show gentleness and to watch themselves (v. 1). Of course, it is important to watch oneself also because anyone can sin, and, once carried away by correcting a neighbor's sin, one can do so very easily: during correction, the attention of the one correcting is inevitably transferred from himself to his neighbor, so that there is usually little or no time left to watch himself. But that is not the only point. It is easy to become carried away by correction in another sense too, forgetting that in the Kingdom, where everyone is in one spiritual space, the spiritual condition of each person concerns not only himself but also all who share the life of the Kingdom with him. Another's sin in the Kingdom ceases to be merely another's; it becomes a common problem, a problem for the whole fullness of the Kingdom, which it destroys and with which one therefore cannot make peace. But the struggle against sin can also become destructive for the Kingdom, especially if it becomes a struggle not only against sin but also against the sinner himself.

Of course, if the sinner identifies himself with his sin and refuses to repent, the situation truly becomes critical: sometimes it turns out that an unrepentant sinner may lose the Kingdom altogether. But in all other cases, a person must be helped to free himself from the sin that hinders him, not pushed out merely because his presence causes everyone else too much trouble. This is evidently what Paul has in mind when he speaks of the need to bear one another's burdens (v. 2). As we can see, everything the apostle says about Christians' relationships to themselves and to one another has only one purpose: to reorient the members of the Galatian church from the laws of our world, not yet transformed, to the laws of the Kingdom.