| Geneva Study Bible {4} For every man shall bear his own burden. (4) A reason why men ought to carefully watch themselves not others, because every man will be judged before God according to his own life, and not by comparing himself with other men. People's New Testament 6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden. This seems at first to conflict with Ga 6:2. The meaning of v. 2 is Bear ye one another's burden of trial and suffering; of v. 5, Every one must bear his own burden of responsibility. The first is aiding to bear the burden of another's infirmities; the second is the burden of our account before God. The Greek had two different words for burden in the two verses: baros in v. 2; phortion in v. 5 It is unfortunate that the Common Version and the Revised Version do not represent the difference by two words in the English. Wesley's Notes 6:5 For every one shall bear his own burden - ln that day shall give an account of himself to God. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 5. For (by this way, Ga 6:4, of proving himself, not depreciating his neighbor by comparison) each man shall bear his own "burden," or rather, "load" (namely, of sin and infirmity), the Greek being different from that in Ga 6:2. This verse does not contradict Ga 6:2. There he tells them to bear with others' "burdens" of infirmity in sympathy; here, that self-examination will make a man to feel he has enough to do with "his own load" of sin, without comparing himself boastfully with his neighbor. Compare Ga 6:3. Instead of "thinking himself to be something," he shall feel the "load" of his own sin: and this will lead him to bear sympathetically with his neighbor's burden of infirmity. ĘSOP says a man carries two bags over his shoulder, the one with his own sins hanging behind, that with his neighbor's sins in front. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 6:1-5 We are to bear one another's burdens. So we shall fulfil the law of Christ. This obliges to mutual forbearance and compassion towards each other, agreeably to his example. It becomes us to bear one another's burdens, as fellow-travellers. It is very common for a man to look upon himself as wiser and better than other men, and as fit to dictate to them. Such a one deceives himself; by pretending to what he has not, he puts a cheat upon himself, and sooner or later will find the sad effects. This will never gain esteem, either with God or men. Every one is advised to prove his own work. The better we know our own hearts and ways, the less shall we despise others, and the more be disposed to help them under infirmities and afflictions. How light soever men's sins seem to them when committed, yet they will be found a heavy burden, when they come to reckon with God about them. No man can pay a ransom for his brother; and sin is a burden to the soul. It is a spiritual burden; and the less a man feels it to be such, the more cause has he to suspect himself. Most men are dead in their sins, and therefore have no sight or sense of the spiritual burden of sin. Feeling the weight and burden of our sins, we must seek to be eased thereof by the Saviour, and be warned against every sin. | 
