Paul turns from dealing with the believer’s responsibility for sin to address the spiritual restoration of sinners (6:1) and overburdened brothers and sisters (v. 2) before further consideration of personal responsibility (vv. 3-5).

The Spirit-led believer approaches the matter of restoration in a spirit of gentleness and love, while the legalist has an attitude of pride and condemnation. The legalist does not need to consider themselves because they pretend they could never commit such a sin. But the believer living by grace realizes that no person is immune from falling. The believer has an attitude of humility because they realize their own weaknesses.

We see a couple of contrasts in this section. First, we see the contrast between the spiritual person seeking to restore a fellow believer in love, while the legalist or immature person would exploit the other Christian. A second contrast is a Spirit-led believer knowing the love of Christ in their heart, while the prideful Christian or legalist would aim to make themselves look better and deceive themselves. such comparisons are sinful and deceptive. It is easy to find somebody worse off than we are, so that our comparison makes us look better than we really are. Christian love would lead us not to expose a fellow believer’s failures or weaknesses, no matter how much better it would make us look.