Bible Strands
Galatians 6:3
If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Galatian churches, bracketing this warning between the command to carry one another's burdens (v. 2) and the call to test one's own work (v. 4). He is correcting a posture of self-sufficiency that would nullify the community ethic just stated.
The words — δοκεῖ (dokei) means "thinks" or "appears," a subjective impression, not a stated fact; it is set against the participle ὤν (ōn), "being," which marks the actual state. The verse turns on the gap between what one imagines and what one is.
The thread — 1 Corinthians 3:18 uses nearly identical language ("Let no one deceive himself… thinks he is wise"), and 1 Corinthians 8:2 applies the same logic to knowledge. Proverbs 26:12 is the Old Testament echo: self-perceived wisdom is worse than acknowledged foolishness.
Why it lands — It demands that a reader measure themselves against reality rather than against their own self-assessment, and it ties that self-testing directly to the preceding command to bear one another's burdens.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
- 1 Corinthians 8:2 The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
- 1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
- Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.
- 2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
- Luke 18:11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
- Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited.
- 1 Corinthians 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
- James 1:22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
- 1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.