Evaluating Your Work
Excerpt
Paul turns back again to the need for personal evaluation. Self-evaluation is necessary since there is always the danger of self-deception (v. 3). Personal evaluation must be made on the basis of a careful examination of one’s own work, not on the basis of comparison with others (v. 4). Personal evaluation should clarify one’s God-given mission in life (v. 5).
The warning against self-deception (v. 3) enlarges upon the warning against conceit (5:26) and temptation (6:1). The most serious spiritual danger of all is the self-delusion of pride: someone who thinks he is something when he is nothing. In the immediate context, Paul’s rebuke must be aimed at those who thought so highly of their own status that they were unwilling to take the role of servants to carry the burdens of others. The Jewish Christian law teachers were so impressed with the importance of their mission of imposing the Mosaic Law on Gentile believers that they had no time or interest to bear the sin-burdens of “Gentile sinners” who had come to Christ. The Gentile Christians were so intent on coming under the yoke of the law to establish their status as full members of the favored Jewish people that they did not lift a finger to help carry the burdens of their fellow Christians. More
Hansen, G. Walter. Galatians. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994. Print. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series.
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