Paul turns back again to the need for personal evaluation. Self-evaluation is necessary since there is always the danger of self-deception (v. 3). Personal evaluation must be made on the basis of a careful examination of one's own work, not on the basis of comparison with others (v. 4). Personal evaluation should clarify one's God-given mission in life (v. 5).

The warning against self-deception (v. 3) enlarges upon the warning against conceit (5:26) and temptation (6:1). The most serious spiritual danger of all is the self-delusion of pride: someone who thinks he is something when he is nothing. In the immediate context, Paul's rebuke must be aimed at those who thought so highly of their own status that they were unwilling to take the role of servants to carry the burdens of others. The Jewish Christian law teachers were so impressed with the importance of their mission of imposing the Mosaic law on Gentile believers that they had no time or interest to bear the sin-burdens of "Gentile sinners" who had come to Christ. The Gentile Christians were so intent on coming under the yoke of the law to establish their status as full members of the favored Jewish people that they did not lift a finger to help carry the burdens of their fellow Christians.

These zealots' pride in the law kept them from serving one another in love. And so, thinking themselves to be something, they were in fact nothing. For as Paul says in another letter, "if I . . . have not love, I am nothing" (1 Cor 13:2). Instead of loving one another, these zealots for the law were provoking one another (5:26). Their arrogance caused them to react in angry condemnation toward those who sinned, rather than to help restore sinners by carrying their burdens. No wonder then that Paul interweaves this warning against the self-delusion of pride with his call to service. Only those who are freed from delusions of their own importance will be able to serve others in love.

The only way to prevent self-deception is to examine the value of one's own work: each one should test his own actions (v. 4). The term Paul uses for test means to examine for the purpose of determining true worth. As the jeweler examines a precious stone under a magnifying glass in very bright light to determine its worth, so each Christian should scrutinize his or her actions to determine their true worth before God. The standard used for this evaluation is the law of Christ: the love of Christ expressed in his life and death and produced by his Spirit in all who believe in him. Paul has said that "the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (5:6). In other words, to examine one's work is to evaluate whether one's faith in Christ is expressing itself in Christlike actions of love.

If a Christian's careful examination of his life indicates that at least to some extent the love of Christ is being expressed through his actions, then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else (v. 4). At first reading these words seem to contradict what Paul has just said. If he has just warned against the self-deception of pride (v. 3), how can he now say that a Christian can take pride in himself (v. 4)? The NIV translation is a paraphrase of words that could be translated more literally as "then he will have a reason for boasting in himself and not by comparison with someone else." What Paul is doing here is contrasting two kinds of boasting. These two kinds of boasting are clarified a few verses later where Paul says, "They want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (vv. 13-14). The law teachers were boasting on the basis of comparisons between the circumcised and the uncircumcised. They were the circumcised, the faithful people of God; the uncircumcised Gentile sinners were despised and excluded. But such boasting on the basis of a comparison of national differences or religious practices was all passe. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value" (5:6). Paul vows never to boast in his own standing as a pedigreed member of the Jewish nation or in his zealous devotion to the Jewish traditions. But Paul the Christian continues to boast: he boasts in the cross of Christ (v. 14). That is his boast in 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul boasted in the cross because the cross was the ultimate display of the love of God for sinners. When we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, that love of God for sinners can be expressed through us by the power of the Spirit. And that is the reason for Christians to boast!

It is important to stress that the boasting of Christians is not in the "flesh" (v. 13)—racial superiority and religious practices. Such boasting is like that of the Pharisee who said, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get" (Lk 18:11-12). Notice how his boasting is based on the kind of comparison with others which Paul expressly forbids in 6:4. The boasting of Christians is paradoxical: it is a boasting in something considered shameful by the standards of the world. That the Messiah should suffer on a Roman cross was shameful. But by his cross "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (3:13). That Christians should serve each other by carrying each other's burdens was also considered shameful from the perspective of the world's values. But when the self-sacrificing love of Christ is seen in the actions of Christians, there is reason for boasting. Christians should celebrate that they can love because of their experience of the cross of Christ and the power of the Spirit.

When we engage in this kind of self-evaluation, we are renewed in our commitment to our own God-given mission: for each one should carry his own load (v. 5). Each of us has been called by God to carry our own load. There is no contradiction here with verse 2, which calls for Christians to carry each other's burdens. In fact, Paul uses two different Greek words to make a clear distinction between the burden (baros) and the load (phortion). Though these two words are basically synonymous in other contexts, the change of nouns in this context indicates a change of reference. Verse 2 refers to the need to come to the aid of others who cannot carry the crushing burden of the consequences of their sin. Verse 5 refers to work given to us by our Master, before whom we will have to give an account of how we used the opportunities and talents he gave us to serve him. It is because we desire to fulfill our God-given mission in life that we learn how to carry the burdens of others. In other words, as Christians examine their actions to see if they reflect the love of Christ, they are at the same time led by that self-evaluation to consider how to serve others in love.

My father is a Christian businessman who constantly seeks to use his business as a way to serve others in love. All my life I have heard him pray and seen him work for opportunities to be a witness for Christ to his business associates and his customers by the way he serves them. He and his partners call their business ServiceMaster, which means "servants of the Master" and "masters of service." For me he will always be one of the best examples of one who serves the Master by serving others. In Paul's words, he carries his own load by carrying the burdens of others.