2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.
The words 'ye who are spiritual' form a useful introduction to these verses, which describe what the spiritual man should be doing. There is still a continuity of thought from the previous chapter, as we see from the reference to fulfilling the law of Christ. It is in this work of restoration that Christ's law of love operates effectually, and this, in fact, is the burden referred to in 2. It is in the context of temptation and sin that help is needed and must be given. The truth is, every man who takes the Christian life seriously is engaged in a battle for character and integrity, and often it is a fierce and sometimes a desperate fight, against constitutional and temperamental hazards which may lead a man, even when he is responsive in the main to the Spirit's working in his life, into numerous faults. It is here that a man needs help and encouragement, here that the burden needs to be shared, here that he needs a shoulder under the burden with him, not in grudging and reluctant aid, but in willing, sympathetic sharing. This is called 'fulfilling the law of Christ', and it is well named, for this is in fact what Christ did. He came down to where we were and in His Incarnation took His stand beside us and put His shoulder under our burden of sin. The verb 'be overtaken' can be either 'to be caught doing something wrong' or 'to do something wrong on a sudden impulse'. If the first, it would mean exposure in wrongdoing, and consequently what is expressed here is the spiritual and Christlike attitude to adopt and follow in such a case (the spirit of meekness advocated is of course the fruit of the Spirit as mentioned in 5:23, and is wonderfully exemplified in Christ's own treatment of the woman in John 8). If the second meaning is adopted, the reference will be to someone who has been 'surprised' and 'seized unawares' by sin. This suggests two things; first, the waywardness of sin, hinted at in the word 'paraptoma', meaning a false step, a blunder; and secondly, the fact of Satan, who blinds men, especially to the ultimate consequences of actions, and thus deceives them into making wrong moves.