The main problem posed by this verse is its relation to verse 2. Are these verses contradictory? If not, how can one explain the relation? The context in which verse 5 appears seems to point to a different interpretation from that of verse 2. In the light of verse 4, load here seems to refer to one’s own conduct, in which case Paul may be saying “Everyone is responsible to God for his own conduct.”

Another angle that can be considered is the fact that Paul uses two different words to describe what is being carried. The burden in verse 2 seems to refer to a load which is heavy and somewhat oppressive, and therefore it would be for the person’s own good if he could get rid of it. In verse 5, however, Paul uses a word (load) which is used of a ship’s cargo or a man’s pack or a soldier’s knapsack. Accordingly, some see in this verse the figure of a soldier going to battle and bearing his own kit. The emphasis then would be on everyone doing his own share of normal duty (Moffatt “Everyone will have to bear his own load of responsibility”).

One must not, however, press the linguistic difference between the two words, for no really sharp distinctions can be drawn between them. Another possibility is to understand load in verse 5 as referring to weakness and sin, and to interpret all of verse 5 as related to verse 2a, but in the form of a paradox. What Paul would be suggesting, then, is that it is only the man who knows he has to carry his own load who is able and willing to help carry the loads of others. Thus it is possible to understand “burden” in both verses as referring to the same thing, for example, weakness, sin, et cetera, and to interpret the two verses as forming two parts of a paradox.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .