Galatians 6:3–4

To bear another's burdens is proof not only of strength, but of kindness and a lowly mind. While men think highly of themselves, they cannot truly serve. The outward forms of service may still be there. Christ was meek and lowly by nature; we are proud and foolish by nature. Grace withers pride down to the dust and ashes of repentance by the power of the cross... To value himself as anything is to reckon wrongly and deceive himself. It takes away from his Saviour's glory. In practice it is a refusal of His cross.

Why do we not fulfil the law of Christ in this way? What is it that so often hinders us? We think ourselves to be something or somebody, and when we do, we feel too great and important to lift other people's burdens. All the time we are deceiving ourselves. We are nothing, as verse 3 so pointedly tells us. A man is never nearer to zero than when he fancies himself to be somebody — even a "spiritual" somebody!

The law never crushes the pride of man, and man will put up with anything that assumes he can do something. The law works on the mere nature of man and puffs him up, unless the Holy Spirit uses it to slay him in his conscience. Nature twists it into the idea that it can do something, and people love this and are all the more pleased with themselves. This is what the gospel destroys at the very roots.

The law of Sinai tells us to love our neighbour as ourselves. But it still keeps us occupied with our own works, and this too often leads a man to think himself to be something. That is what had happened with these Galatian believers. Having turned back to law, they had become conceited, so that instead of serving one another in love they were biting and devouring one another.

There was a time when Paul thought himself to be something. Recall his list of legal attainments and advantages in Philippians 3:5-6. He then thought himself the best of men and gloried in the flesh to the utmost. But how vast the change when the light of God was let into his soul! The best of men discovered that he was the chief of sinners, and nothing but sovereign grace and mercy could help him... Never afterwards did he "think himself to be something." Only grace can do this.

The Apostle speaks with real contempt for those who boast that they are something when they are nothing. The one who acts this way deceives himself, but no one else. No man is so small as the man who thinks he is great. No one can boast in the presence of Christ. Away from His presence we may argue among ourselves about who is the greatest, just as the disciples once did. In His presence the Apostle himself owns that he is "the very least of all the saints."

To accept that within ourselves we are nothing — a very condemning statement — is very hard, but it is the truth. If we accept this, that in ourselves we are nothing, then the Lord is everything, then He can use us.

Too often we seek a reputation before others for godliness, only to come under the condemnation of the word which says, "You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead." ... It is good for us to hold fast and honour the Name of Christ, and refuse to seek a name for ourselves, whether among the Lord's people or in the world. Then indeed our names will be owned in the day to come.

"But let each one test his own work" (v.4). Assumptions and claims have no place before God. Instead, let each one judge himself strictly and weigh the true value of his own work. He is to examine himself, but make no boast of it before others. "And then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor." Such self-judgment puts the believer personally and alone before God. There he judges his own work — not by comparing it with the work of others, but as God sees it.

The word "testing" means "proving," or "putting to the test." The Pharisees and Judaizers tried to boast in so many circumcisions, in what they had accomplished in connection with others. Paul, by contrast, says the thing you can really boast in is your own work — if that work can pass the test.

And what work will stand the fire? Only that which is according to the Word of God: "If anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules" (2 Tim. 2:5). He must strive by the rules of the contest, not by his own ideas. The rules for us are the Word of God. How much there is all around us, and perhaps much in our own lives, that is not according to that Word. Let us test our work. Let us test it now.

Instead of deceiving ourselves by vain boasting, let us each test our own works. Are they works of law which magnify self, or works of love after the pattern of Christ? Paul had worked in love in Galatia. The believers there were the fruit of his work, and in that he can rejoice as belonging to himself. Others were using the apostle's work to exalt themselves and exclude him.

Suppose someone examines everything and so proves his work thoroughly. Then he will have his rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. There the apostle is giving a home-thrust: let him put it to the proof. No doubt the Lord will own true service. But wherever a man honestly examines and proves his work, it never gives him grounds to congratulate himself. It is deeply humbling in every possible way.

The point before the mind of the Spirit here is that everyone should look to his own ways. Then, in the coming day, he may have rejoicing as to himself. The word is needed and wholesome beyond all doubt. The heart is so deceitful that we always tend to dwell on the ways and failings of others rather than our own. You can complain loudly about a speck in someone else's eye and never notice the log in your own.

Of ourselves as Christians we must give account. As sinners, we have given account already, and received in the rich grace of our Redeemer double for our sins. But a day is coming which will test by fire not us, but our work (1 Cor. 3:13). Our faith is tested now; our work is to be proved hereafter. But in view of that day, the call here is to prove our own work in the spirit of self-judgment... So let each believer examine and weigh two things: what he puts his hand to, and what he approves or allows.