What does it mean to be truly spiritual? Is it service, knowledge, or consistent church attendance? According to Paul in Galatians 6, spiritual maturity is best seen in how we respond when fellow believers stumble. Rather than reacting with judgment or superiority, a spiritual person steps into the mess with compassion, humility, and a desire to restore. This passage offers a quick but powerful test to examine our own walk with the Spirit. Here’s how we can evaluate our spirituality through four key principles: gentle restoration, mutual responsibility, humility, and personal accountability.
The Call to Gentle Restoration (Galatians 6:1)
Paul opens the chapter by urging, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.” The term “overtaken” suggests someone who did not plunge into sin willfully, but was caught off guard and overwhelmed by temptation.
This verse calls for action, not condemnation. Restoration is delicate, like setting a broken bone or mending a torn net. It requires those who are walking in the Spirit to act with meekness, strength under control. Correction must be done with gentleness, not harshness. Jesus modeled this beautifully when He restored Peter, not with shame, but with grace.
True spirituality is not found in the ability to diagnose someone’s sin, but in the willingness to walk with them through repentance and healing. The spiritual believer sees failure not as an opportunity to elevate themselves but as a chance to lift others up.
The Burden of Mutual Responsibility (Galatians 6:2)
Paul continues, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Spiritual life isn’t lived in isolation. The burdens here are the crushing weights of life that no one should carry alone: grief, guilt, temptation, shame, or failure.
To bear one another’s burdens is to enter into the pain of others. It’s choosing to be inconvenienced for the sake of love. It’s helping someone carry what they cannot carry alone. This is the law of Christ, the law of love. Jesus didn’t love from a distance. He entered into our suffering. He touched the leper, welcomed the outcast, and bore our sin to the cross.
When we support each other in weakness, we reflect Christ more accurately than any doctrinal precision or outward performance ever could. This is what it means to walk in the Spirit: loving actively, bearing burdens, and fulfilling the law of Christ.
The Danger of Conceited Isolation (Galatians 6:3–4)
Why do some believers withhold compassion? Pride. Paul warns, “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” Thinking too highly of ourselves causes spiritual blindness and leads to isolation. We begin to see ourselves as superior and others as projects rather than people.
Conceited isolation leads us to ignore or judge those in sin rather than help them. But Paul calls believers to “prove his own work”, to test and examine the authenticity of our spiritual life. The goal isn’t to compare ourselves with others, but to measure our lives by God’s truth.
Spiritual pride distances us from the very people God has called us to love and restore. A truly spiritual person is not one who points fingers but one who rolls up their sleeves and helps others stand again.
The Reality of Personal Accountability (Galatians 6:5)
At first glance, verse 5 seems to contradict verse 2: “For every man shall bear his own burden.” However, Paul uses a different Greek word here. This “burden” refers to a personal, daily load, like a backpack or a soldier’s pack. It’s the responsibility every believer must carry themselves.
We are called to help others with their overwhelming burdens, but we cannot delegate our personal responsibility before God. Our integrity, spiritual growth, and obedience are things no one else can carry for us.
True spirituality involves both mutual care and personal faithfulness. While we support each other in weakness, we must also be diligent in the daily responsibilities God has given each of us.
Conclusion
This passage in Galatians offers a convicting test for spiritual maturity. Do we love restoration? Do we bear the burdens of others? Are we walking in humility rather than superiority? And are we personally carrying what God has entrusted to us?
If our reaction to someone’s failure is judgment or apathy, we may not be walking in the Spirit as we think. The spiritual life is marked by a deep longing to restore, a willingness to help, and a humble awareness of our own weakness.
Let’s ask God to make us people who are known not by our critique but by our compassion. Not by our self-righteousness but by our readiness to restore. May we be faithful to bear others’ burdens and diligent to carry our own.
