Must we bear one another’s burdens, or every man his own?
The Greek has two words: the weights that press on a brother, which we help bear, and each man’s own load, for which he answers.
The Passages
Galatians 6:2
Galatians 6:5
See Also
Galatians 6:1
Galatians 6:3-4
The Difficulty
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Three verses on: “For every man shall bear his own burden” (Galatians 6:5).
The Answer
Paul uses two different Greek words. In verse 2 the burdens are barē, weights that press a man down, as the fault that overtakes a brother in verse 1, whom the spiritual are to restore. In verse 5 the burden is phortion, the load each man carries as his own, the account of his own work: “let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another” (Galatians 6:4). We help one another under what weighs us down; no one can answer to God for another’s work (Haley).
Sources
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The original word for “burden” is not the same in the two cases. … The first text means, “Be sympathetic and helpful to each other in the midst of infirmities and sorrows”; the second, “Every man must bear his own responsibility, under the Divine government.”
Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the 1874 edition, 2026-10-28
