For if a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
All Commentaries on Galatians 6:3 Go To Galatians 6
Jerome
AD 420
This [verse] can be read in two distinct ways…. The sense of the first is “If someone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” The second is deeper and more meaningful to me: “If someone thinks he is something, by the very fact of thinking himself something and judging himself, not from his love toward his neighbors but from his own work and labors, contented with his own virtue, he himself becomes nothing through this very arrogance and is his own deceiver.” … The meaning of this passage is also linked to circumcision and the law in the following way: One who is spiritual yet has no compassion for his neighbor, despising the lowly because of his own selfelevation, is his own deceiver, not knowing that the spirit of the law adds up finally to loving one another. .
