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Gal_6:3. Argumentum e contrario for the preceding καὶ οὕτως ἀναπληρ . τ . ν . τ . Χρ .; in so far as the fulfilment to be given in such measure to this law is impossible to moral conceit.
For if any one thinks himself to be something, imagines himself possessed of peculiar moral worth, so that he conceives himself exalted above such a mutual bearing of burdens, while he is nothing, although he is in reality of no moral importance, he is, so far from fulfilling the law of Christ, involved in self-deception.
On εἶναί τι , and the opposite μηδὲν εἶναι , nullius momenti esse (comp. Arrian. Epict. ii. 24: δοκῶν μέν τι εἶναι , ὢ δʼ οὐδείς ), comp. Gal_2:6, and see on Act_5:36; 2Co_12:11; Locella, ad Xen. Eph. p. 143. As to μή with the participle, see Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 301. If μηδὲν ὤν be attached to the apodosis (Michaelis, Baumgarten, Morus, Jatho, Hofmann), the effect is only to weaken the judgment which is expressed in it, because it would contain the fundamental statement (since he is nothing), in which the ἑαυτ . φρεναπ . is already obviously involved, and consequently, as the first portion of the affirmation in the apodosis, would anticipate the latter portion of it and take away its energetic emphasis. This is not the case, if the “being nothing” belongs to the antithetical delineation of conceited pretension in the protasis, where it is appropriate for the completeness of the case supposed. Moreover, μηδὲν ὤν is really applicable in the case of every one, Luk_17:10; Rom_3:23; 1Co_4:7, et al.
φρεναπατᾷ ] denotes deception in the judgment, here in the moral judgment; the word is not preserved in any other Greek author. But comp. φρεναπάτης , Tit_1:10; Ignat. Trall. interpol. 6; Etym. M. 811. 3.