563. Honest Self Evaluation Part 1 - Galatians 6_3-5

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry Sr. I'm grateful to have you here today. We've been talking a little bit through Galatians 6, and today we're on verses 3-5: "For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself, but each one must examine his own work, and then he will have a reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load." That's from the New American Standard Bible.

I could probably talk about verse three for the entire time today. "If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

This is a definition of me. I feel like I'm often wrong, but seldom in doubt. I often think I'm something, but I have to be reminded regularly by God that I'm nothing.

I'm not nothing because he died on the cross for me. But I believe that Paul is making a comparison here. When it comes to saving ourselves - and he will talk about this and the next two verses, and this is how I believe he completes this meaning of this word, "nothing" here. We deceive ourselves when we believe that something we do matters for our own salvation.

There's nothing about us that's a good. We do good things because God calls us to, and we make those choices and those are great things. But overall, when it comes to saving ourselves, we're nothing. We're destined to destruction.

"If we think ourselves something, when we're not, we deceive ourselves." And the different translations also talk about this. I noticed in the CSB, it says. "If anyone considers himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself."  In the New Living Translation. It says, "If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You're not that important." The Message says, "If you think you're too good for that, you're badly deceived." And the message is a little more discussional, but the point here is our job is to bear one another's burdens. We're not above bearing other people's burdens. And if we think we are above that, we deceive ourselves.

"Each one must examine his own work," it says in verse four, "and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another." Again, the New American Standard is a little forced in the translation here because it tries to get a very accurate translation of each word. I believe what we're being told is we're not better off than the people we need to bear burdens for. Our job is to bear the burdens of others. And we're not better off.

Today, let's not think better of ourselves than we ought to. Let's not deceive ourselves. I want to stop right here because there's much to be talked about with regard to this word boasting and how each one of us will bear our own load.

So, we'll pick that up in the next episode. Today, let's remember, what we think of ourselves doesn't matter necessarily. We don't want to deceive ourselves. We want to think accurately and examine our own work objectively, not compare ourselves to others. Our job is to look out for the people around us, to look for opportunities to bear other people's burdens and not think of ourselves as above or better than that situation.

Today in your workplace, I'm praying that you find an opportunity where you can bear someone else's burdens, where you can learn more about them and be in a position to help them.

Let's pay attention to the people around us so that we can make a difference in their life. We can have the opportunity to bear their burdens today. Let's not think ourselves something when we are nothing.  Today let's trust Jesus and do what he says. Thanks for being a marketplace minister.

And thank you for listening to this podcast. Please share this with one friend today, or if you didn't think this was that great of an episode, let us know what you think. Tell us what you would like us to talk about. I'll be going through Galatians 6 for a few more days. Thanks very much for your ministry.