[6.1] There is nothing that demonstrates better whether a man is spiritual than the way he behaves with the sin of his neighbor. It is when he thinks more about freeing him from him than throwing it in his face, more in seeking help than in insulting him, and to the extent of his possibilities, he puts his hands to work. That is why it says: Brothers, even if a man is caught in some crime, you who are spiritual, instruct such people. Then, so that no one believes that he instructs him even when he exasperates him and mocks him with insolence or when, full of pride, he despises him as an incurable one, he adds: with a spirit of meekness, turning his gaze to yourself, to avoid that you too are tempted. Indeed, nothing moves so much to mercy as to think of one's sin. That is why he did not want them to stop correcting their brother or to look for a fight. Many men, when awakened from sleep, want to alter, or go back to sleep when they are forbidden to alter. Stay, therefore, peace and love, thinking about the common danger. On the other hand, the way to address him, that is, whether it is harder or softer, must be moderated according to what the salvation of the person to whom it is corrected seems to demand. It also says in another place: It is not good for a servant of the Lord to alter; on the contrary, he must be meek, docile and patient with everyone (2Tm 2,24). And in order for no one to draw from these words the conclusion that he has to desist from correcting the error of another, he notices what he adds: Reprimanding in moderation those who think differently (2Tm 2,25). How is it done with moderation or reprimanding? If the softness in the heart is maintained and a certain dose of medicinal roughness is allowed to fall in the words with which it is reprimanded. I see no other way of understanding what is written in the same Letter: Proclaim the word, insist in time (and) at the wrong time, reprimand, exhort, recriminate with all patience and doctrine (2Tm 4,2). The opportune thing is opposed to the inopportune thing, and absolutely no healthy medicine if it is not applied in the opportune moment. It can also be scored as follows: Insist in time, resulting in this other sense: reprimands untimely, relating to the foregoing what follows: Exhorts, reproaches with all patience and doctrine. In this case, you feel that you act in time, when your insisting builds; and when your rebuke destroys, you do not have to worry if you give the impression of acting untimely, if your act is untimely for them. Thus, the two actions recommended below can refer respectively to each of the previous ones: it exhorts when insisting on time, and recriminates when reprimanding at the wrong time. And say the same of the other two recommendations, but in reverse order: With all patience you have to refer to it by enduring the indignation of those whom you destroy, and (with all) doctrine to instruct the purposes of those to whom you build. If you rate yourself in the most frequent way, namely: Insist on time and, if this way you do not advance, at the wrong time, it must be understood in this way: you must not let pass at all the act in time, and at the wrong time you have to to understand it in the sense that one who does not listen with pleasure to what you say to him seems to act at the wrong time. But know that your action is on time, and keep in love meek, moderate and fraternal love and care for their salvation. Many, after ruminating what they heard and how right it was, directed against themselves more severe and severe reproaches and, although they seemed to leave the doctor more disturbed (as they entered), thanks to the effectiveness of the word that penetrated in their interior, they were healing little by little. Something that would not have happened if you had to wait for the one who is in danger because of having gangrenous limbs to find pleasure in being cauterized or amputated. Not even the physicians of the body, who heal seeking an earthly reward, wait for this eventuality to occur. Is it possible to find a patient who has not had to be tied to suffer his scalpel or his cauterizing fire, given that even those who were tied of their own will are rarer? To many who resist and shout that they prefer to die to be healed in this way, they tied all the members with barely releasing their tongue. And (when acting like this) the doctors did not follow their criteria, nor who resisted, but that of medical science. But neither the screams nor the insults of the patients move the doctor's spirit or stop their hand. On the other hand, the ministers of celestial medicine want to see with the beam of hatred the straw in the eye of their brother (Cf Mt 7,3), or they find it more tolerable to contemplate the death of the sinner than to hear a word from someone who is indignant. Which would not happen if we applied to the spiritual healing of another person an intention as healthy as the hands with which those doctors manipulate the foreign members.

Therefore, we must never undertake the task of correcting the sin of another person but when, after having interrogated our conscience, we have responded with clarity before God that we do it out of love. Let's suppose that the insult, the threats or even the persecution of the one you reprimand lacerates your spirit. If it still seems that you can heal it, nothing will answer you until you heal before, lest, driven by your fleshly impulses, you consent to harm him and make your tongue the weapon of iniquity at the service of sin (Cf Rm 6,13), returning evil for evil or curse for curse (Cf 1P 3,9). Words that originate from a lacerated spirit are punitive onslaught, not corrective charity. Love and say what you want. If you bring to your memory and sensitivity that, by the sword of the word of God, you want to free a man from the siege of vices, even if your words have the appearance of a curse, they never will be. It often happens that you accept to perform such a work moved by love and with the love in your heart you undertake it, but, when finding resistance while doing it, you infiltrate slyly something that separates you from hitting the vice of man and makes you an enemy of him . In such a case, it will be convenient that, after washing with your tears such dust, bring to your memory -what will be much healthier- how we should not be proud in front of the sins of other people, we who sin in the same act of reprimanding them. In fact, the anger of the sinner makes us more easily angry than his misery merciful.

[6,2] Take each other's burdens, and you will fulfill the law of Christ. Of course, the law of charity. If the law fulfills the one who loves the neighbor, the love of the neighbor also makes it more expensive in the Old Testament (Cf Lv 19,18). In that love, the Apostle says elsewhere, all the commandments of the law are summarized (Cf Mt 5,17). It is also evident that the Scripture given to the first people is the law of Christ; law that was not fulfilled with fear and that he came to fulfill charity (Cf Rm 13,8-9). Therefore, the same Scripture and the same commandment is Old Testament when it oppresses slaves who long for earthly goods, and New Testament, when it raises free people who burn with desires for eternal goods.

[6,3-5] If someone imagines himself to be something, being nothing, he deceives himself. He is not seduced by those who praise him, but by himself. Despite being more present to himself than they, he prefers to look for them rather than himself. But what does the Apostle say? Examine each one's behavior, and then he will have in himself, and not in others, his glory. That is, inside, in his consciousness; and not in another, that is, when another praises him. Well, he says, everyone will carry their own burden. Therefore, those who praise us do not diminish the burdens of our conscience, and I hope they do not increase them! Often, to avoid that, feeling offended, reduce the praises that we are taxed, or forget to take care of them by reprimanding them or, overflowing with boasting, we make (occasionally) ostentation of our work before showing it to them every day. I overlook how much men pretend and praise for human praise. Is there something more gloomy than this blindness that consists in walking in pursuit of human error to obtain a vain glory in the extreme and despise God, a witness present in our hearts? As if there was some point of comparison between the error of those who judge you good and your error, you pretend to please a man with a false good and displease God with a true evil.

[6,6] What remains of the letter I judge are already very clear things. For it is also often prescribed that the recipient of the preaching of the word of God grants what is necessary to the one who preaches it. They needed to be exhorted to do good works, so that those who were going to be on their right in the group of lambs would serve Christ in need. Thus the love that comes from faith would be more active in them than the fear that the law provokes. And here no one had more titles to command such a thing than the Apostle, who, having won his bread with his hands, did not want them to do it to him (Cf Acts 18,3; 20,34; 1Co 4,12; 1Ts 2,9; 2Ts 3,8). In this way he showed everyone with great authority that his exhortation looked more at the usefulness of donors than that of recipients.

[6,7-10] Add below: Do not be deceived. God does not make fun of anyone. What one sows, that will reap. These words imply in the midst of what words, uttered by lost men, work with fatigue who are rooted in the faith of things they do not see. They see the works they sow, but not the harvest. Nor is there a promise of a hardship to the one that is usually collected here, since the just man lives by faith (Ha 2,4). For he who sows in his flesh, he says, will reap corruption from the flesh. Words that he writes referring to those who love pleasures more than God. He sows in his flesh who, whatever he does, although it seems good, he does so by seeking welfare for his flesh. On the other hand, whoever sows in the spirit, of the spirit will reap eternal life. Sowing in the spirit consists in serving justice based on faith and with charity and not obeying the desires of sin, even if they come from mortal flesh. The harvest of eternal life will take place when the last enemy is destroyed, death (Cf 1Co 15,26), and life absorbs our mortality and this corruptible body is clothed with immortality. Thus, in this third stage in which we find ourselves under grace, we sow through tears when the desires coming from the animal body appear. Not tolerating them, we oppose them to reap cheerful once, also reformed the body, no hassle or danger of temptation from any part of man importune us. Even the animal body itself is taken as seed. It says in another place: The animal body is sown, so that it adds to the harvest what it added: It will resurrect a spiritual body (1Co 15,44). To this statement fits what the prophet says: He who sows in tears, reaps in joy (Sal 125,5). But it is easier to sow well, that is, to do good, than to persevere in it. The fruit usually compensates for the effort; But as our harvest is promised for the end, perseverance is needed. For he who perseveres to the end, he will be saved. The prophet also shouts: Hold on to the Lord, behave manly; may your heart be comforted, and endure the Lord. It is the same as the Apostle says now: Let us not tire of doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as long as we have time, let us do good to all, especially to our relatives in the faith. To whom, if not to Christians, do you have to believe that it refers? Everyone must be wished with the same love for eternal life, but not all can be offered the same services of love.

[6,11-14] After having taught that the very works of the law that bring salvation and that belong to good morals can only be fulfilled by love nourished by faith and not by servile fear, it returns to the point of departure of the problem. He says: You have seen what kind of letters I have written to you from my own fist. Put on notice to prevent someone from cheating the unwary by relying on presumed letters from him. Those who want, he says, to have their complacency in the flesh force you to make them circumcise, with the sole purpose of not suffering persecution because of the cross of Christ. In effect, Jews harassed those who thought they were going to abandon traditional observances such as circumcision. That he did not fear them at all showed him when he wanted to write such letters from his own fist. It teaches that fear is still active in those who, as yet under the law, force Gentiles to be circumcised. For even those who are circumcised do not obey the law. It calls to fulfill the law not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to say false testimony, and (to fulfill) other similar precepts that belong to good morals. All precepts that, it has already been said, can not be fulfilled if it is not for the charity and hope of the eternal goods, which are received through faith. But they want you to be circumcised, he says, to find glory in your flesh. Not only to avoid the persecution of the Jews who did not bear at all that the law of non-circumcision was announced, but also to glory before them for making so many proselytes. As the Lord said, Jews travel through land and sea to become a single proselyte (Cf Mt 23,15). Far be it from me to glory, if it is not in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom the world is crucified for me and I for the world! The world, he says, is crucified for me, it does not hold me; and I for the world, so that I do not cling to it. That is, so that neither the world can harm me, nor I want anything in the world. Who, on the other hand, puts his glory on the cross of Christ does not want to have it in the flesh; he does not fear the persecutions of the carnal men that Christ suffered first, to the point of being crucified, to set an example to those who follow in his footsteps.

[6,15-16] Neither circumcision counts nor uncircumcision. It maintains until the end the indifference indicated above, to prevent anyone from thinking that he acted with simulation by circumcising Timothy, or by circumcising any other, if perhaps he had There was a similar reason. He showed that circumcision itself does not harm those who believe, but those who place their hope of salvation in such observances. In the Acts of the Apostles it is noted that they tried to induce circumcision by denying that Gentiles who had come to faith could be saved otherwise. What the Apostle rejects is not the damage of the fact itself, but that of such error. Therefore, he says, the circumcision does not count anything or the uncircumcision, but the new creature. Call new creature to the new life acted by faith in Jesus Christ. And we must pay attention to the term used. Indeed, it will be difficult for you to find a new creature even those who by faith have already come to adoption as children. Yet he also says elsewhere: Therefore, if there is any new creature in Christ, it is that the old has passed away; behold, everything has been renewed. All this comes from God (2Co 5,17-18). And where it says: And the same creature will be freed from the bondage of death, he adds later: Not only her, but also we who possess the first fruits of the Spirit (Rm 8,21-23). He distinguishes between those who believed and what he calls a creature, just as he sometimes calls them men, other times non-men. In a passage of a Letter to the Corinthians he reproaches them and reproaches them for being still men, when he says: "Are you not yet men and you live to the human?" (1Co 3,3) He does the same here as with the Lord who, after the resurrection, in some text he does not call him a man. The case is given at the beginning of this Letter, where it says: Not from men or through any man, but through Jesus Christ (Ga 1,1). In another, on the other hand, yes. For example, in the passage in which he says: Only God is unique, also the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1Tm 2,5). And for everyone who follows this rule - he says - peace and mercy, and for the Israel of God, that is, for all those who are preparing to see God, not for those who receive such a name and, because of their carnal blindness, they refuse to see the Lord, when, while they reject his grace, they want to be slaves of the times.

[6,17] Otherwise, he says, nobody bothers me. He does not want that, with turbulent disputes, he is harassed with an issue already well clarified both in the Letter to the Romans and in this same one. I carry in my body the stigmata of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, I have other struggles and combats with my flesh that fight against me in the persecutions I suffer. Stigmas are called to certain signs that remain of the punishments suffered by slaves. For example, a slave who has been subject to the stocks because of some guilt for any damage caused, or has suffered any other punishment for the style, is said to have the stigmata and, consequently, in the right of manumission conceptualized as lower category. The Apostle wanted to talk about stigmas, as signs of the persecutions he suffered. He had recognized in them the retribution for the guilt of having persecuted the Churches of Christ, as the Lord indicated to Ananias, when Ananias himself feared him as a persecutor of the Christians: I will show him what he should suffer for my name (Acts 9,16). However, due to the remission of sins, in which he had been baptized, all those tribulations did not lead him to perdition, but took advantage of him for the crown of victory.

[6,18] The conclusion of the letter is like a clear signature, which is also used in some other letters: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.