Homilies on Galatians — Chapter 6

St. John Chrysostom

1. 0. Greeting

Verse 1

Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass.

Forasmuch as under cover of a rebuke they gratified their private feelings, and professing to do so for faults which had been committed, were advancing their own ambition, he says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken. He said not if a man commit but if he be overtaken that is, if he be carried away.

You which are spiritual restore such a one,

He says not chastise nor judge, but set right. Nor does he stop here, but in order to show that it behooved them to be very gentle towards those who had lost their footing, he subjoins,

In a spirit of meekness.

He says not, in meekness, but, in a spirit of meekness, signifying thereby that this is acceptable to the Spirit, and that to be able to administer correction with mildness is a spiritual gift. Then, to prevent the one being unduly exalted by having to correct the other, puts him under the same fear, saying,

Looking to yourself, lest you also be tempted.

For as rich men convey contributions to the indigent, that in case they should be themselves involved in poverty they may receive the same bounty, so ought we also to do. And therefore he states this cogent reason, in these words, looking to yourself, lest you also be tempted. He apologizes for the offender, first, by saying if you be overtaken; next, by employing a term indicative of great infirmity; lastly, by the words lest you also be tempted, thus arraigning the malice of the devil rather than the remissness of the soul.

Ver. 2. Bear one another's burdens.

It being impossible for man to be without failings, he exhorts them not to scrutinize severely the offenses of others, but even to bear their failings, that their own may in turn be borne by others. As, in the building of a house, all the stones hold not the same position, but one is fitted for a corner but not for the foundations, another for the foundations, and not for the corner so too is it in the body of the Church. The same thing holds in the frame of our own flesh; notwithstanding which, the one member bears with the other, and we do not require every thing from each, but what each contributes in common constitutes both the body and the building.

Ver. 2. And so fulfil the law of Christ.

He says not fulfil, but, complete; that is, make it up all of you in common, by the things wherein you bear with one another. For example, this man is irascible, you are dull-tempered; bear therefore with his vehemence that he in turn may bear with your sluggishness; and thus neither will he transgress, being supported by you, nor will you offend in the points where your defects lie, because of your brother's forbearing with you. So do you by reaching forth a hand one to another when about to fall, fulfil the Law in common, each completing what is wanting in his neighbor by his own endurance. But if you do not thus, but each of you will investigate the faults of his neighbor, nothing will ever be performed by you as it ought. For as in