1 Brethren, and if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
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VERS. 1.-- *Brethren, and if.* Thus far he has spoken to the whole Church, disapproving the law and commending grace, now he turns himself to prelates, how they should handle their subjects, namely gently, because they are brethren also, even if superiors. *In any fault.* A fault is to turn aside from good, a sin is to do evil; or a fault is that which is done in ignorance, a sin that which is done by one who knows. Yet they are put indifferently. An overtaking is when either for the hour it is not seen what ought to be done, or he who has seen is overcome so that evil is done, when the truth lies hid, or infirmity compels. *Of meekness.* Lest, if you do otherwise, he suffer not himself to be reproved, but begin to defend himself, lest he seem base. *Considering thyself.* Nothing so inclines to mercy as the thought of one's own danger.
2 Bear ye one another's burdens: and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ.
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VERS. 2.-- *And so you shall fulfil the law of Christ.* That is, charity; for out of charity Christ bore our sins, who also commanded that we should love one another.
3 For if any man think himself to be some thing, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
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VERS. 3.-- *Nothing.* By comparison with the spiritual man, who gives the whole to grace.
4 But let every one prove his own work: and so he shall have glory in himself only and not in another.
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VERS. 4.-- *Let him prove.* Let him diligently look into it. *But the work that is his own.* Not another's sin, as the Pharisee who said: *I am not as the rest of men*, who was just not in fact, but deceitfully. *In himself* That is, within, in his own pure conscience. *He shall have glory.* That is, he shall glory and rejoice. *And not in another.* That is, in another's praise, namely when another praises him. For he who has the consciousness of a good work ought not to glory of this before another, and to pour out his praise abroad, but to glory humbly in himself. Or thus: *And so,* that is, if he consider his own acts, knowing that no one ought to glory that he has a clean heart, *in himself,* etc. *And so in himself.* That is, if we consider our own acts, we shall prefer ourselves to no one, nor shall we judge anyone. The truly just man prefers another to himself, because he knows his own evils more than another's, the knowledge of which is glory to him. For he rejoices while he knows his own disease, which he desires to heal.
5 For every one shall bear his own burden.
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VERS. 5.-- *For every one.* No one is defiled by another's sin. *Burden.* Some are works of sharing infirmity, of which above: *Bear ye one another's burdens;* others of rendering an account to God, of which here. Against those who think that a man is defiled by others' sins, he says: *For every one,* etc. Against the negligent, who care to correct no one, secure that they are not contaminated by others' sins, he says: *Bear ye burdens one for another.* We bear one another's burdens of infirmity while by meekness we bear with the anger of another, and while we pardon him who has hurt us, if he asks. Or by burden is understood a good and an evil work. For in the Scriptures a burden is taken both in a good and in an evil sense; and so: *Every one,* good or evil, *shall bear his own burden,* that is, he shall carry back the wages of his own works.
6 And let him that is instructed in the word communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things.
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VERS. 6.-- *Let him communicate.* Let him make his goods common with him, and let him not excuse himself, because God cannot be deceived. It is a customary precept that he to whom preaching is made should furnish necessaries to the preacher of the word of God, which necessaries he has rightly marked by the name of good things. As the Lord also, speaking in the Gospel with his disciples, says: *Whereas you are evil, you know how to give good things to your children;* but foreseeing that some would plead poverty and would wish to elude the precept, he added:
7 Be not deceived: God is not mocked.
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VERS. 7.-- *Be not deceived.* As if he should say: Let no one excuse himself in vain, because God cannot be deceived. For he knows your hearts, he is not ignorant of your means. A plausible excuse can appease a man, it cannot deceive God.
8 For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit of the spirit shall reap life everlasting.
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VERS. 8.-- To *He that soweth in the flesh* he adds *his own.* But when he says, *in the spirit,* he does not add *his own,* because the carnal seed is from man, but the spiritual seed is from the Spirit of God. But the harvest here is promised at the end. And therefore in sowing there is need of perseverance. *In the flesh, in the spirit.* A Christian man consists of spirit and flesh. For man in comparison with the Holy Spirit is flesh. *But he that soweth.* That is, he who gives to the spirit an offence out of faith, serving justice with charity, and understanding the law spiritually, shall reap of the spirit, etc.
9 And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing.
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VERS. 9.-- *Let us not fail.* If a man has set no end to his work, neither does God set an end to the reward. As much as we shall have sown in works, so much shall we reap in fruits. And as much as the eagerness of him who seeks shall have enlarged itself, so much shall the hand of him who repays open itself unto the reward, because each shall so receive as he does; because he who shall be strong to sow shall be strong to reap. *For in time.* God does not at once do whatsoever is prayed for unto salvation; nor does he therefore deny because he defers, but he grants it in his own, that is, in a fitting time.
10 Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
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VERS. 10.-- *Whilst we have time.* The time of sowing is the present life through which we run. In this it is lawful for us to sow what we will. But when it shall have passed, the time of working is taken away; whence: *Work while it is day: the night will come when now no one will be able to work*. *Towards all.* Mercy is to be bestowed upon all. Wherein the just, who are of faith, are to be preferred. And that it is due to all our enemies also, who are wicked, persecuting the Church, the Lord is witness: *Do good to them that hate you. Love your enemies*; because they too are men: upon whom in this the Lord rains, and gives the sun.
11 See what a letter I have written to you with my own hand.
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VERS. 11.-- *But see.* After he has exhorted unto moral works, he returns to that which was treated of before: namely, that legal observances are not to be held. But lest anyone under his name should deceive the incautious, he takes heed, completing the end of the epistle with the notation of his own hand. For from this place he wrote it out with his own hand as far as the end.
12 For as many as desire to please in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ.
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VERS. 12.-- *These constrain.* These were the false apostles, who so preached Christ that they taught also that the law was to be kept. They preached the cross, that they might have gain from the faithful; the law, that they might please the Jews. *That for the cross of Christ persecution,* etc. Perhaps he says this for this reason, because the Roman emperors Caius Caesar, and Octavian, and Augustus, promulgated laws that the Jews, wheresoever they were, should live by their own rite and be devoted to their ancestral ceremonies. For whosoever was circumcised, although he believed in Christ, was held as a Jew among the Gentiles; but he who, being uncircumcised, showed forth by his uncircumcision that he was not a Jew, was made liable to the persecutions as well of the Gentiles as of the Jews. Those therefore who had corrupted the Galatians, desiring to decline these persecutions, urged circumcision upon the disciples for a defence. For neither could the Jews persecute them, nor the Gentiles those whom they saw both circumcise proselytes and themselves keep the things of the law.
13 For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law: but they will have you to be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
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VERS. 14.-- *The world is crucified to me.* It happens for the most part that a man does not hold the world in his mind, but yet the world binds him fast in its own occupations and the man is dead to the world, and the world as though alive beholds him, while it strives to snatch into its own acts one who is intent on another thing; but neither does Paul desire the world, nor the world him: so that, dead in both, neither of the two beholds the other. Because therefore neither did Paul seek the glory of the world, nor was he himself sought by the glory of the world, therefore he glories that both himself to the world and the world to himself is crucified. *And I to the world.* Neither do I desire anything in the world, nor does it itself recognize anything of its own in me. As the Lord says: *For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing*.
15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision: but a new creature.
16 And whosoever shall follow this rule, peace on them and mercy: and upon the Israel of God.
17 From henceforth let no man be troublesome to me: for I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body.
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VERS. 17.-- *For the rest.* He does not wish weariness to be made for himself by turbulent contentions concerning a matter set forth as much as was enough. Or as it is read in the Greek: For the rest, let no one show or offer me labour, namely that I should again have necessity of labouring among you. For he offers labour to the master who thinks otherwise than he taught. *Marks.* A mark is a point or a note driven in by some iron. He therefore calls them marks, as it were the notes of the punishments from the persecutions which he was suffering. And the sense is: Therefore trouble ought not to be made for me, because I have other conflicts and struggles, which in the persecutions that I suffer contend with me.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
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VERS. 18.-- *The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.* The conclusion of the epistle and as it were a subscription, which he uses in some others of his epistles also: as if he should say: That you may hold the things aforesaid: grace, not dissension, not the servitude of the law, not brawling, not quarrelling, etc.