BIG IDEA:
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH MUST BE HELD ON TO DESPITE THE SEDUCTIVE DECEPTIONS OF ZEALOUS FALSE TEACHERS
INTRODUCTION:
Nijay Gupta: After engaging in a heavy dose of theoretical and theological discussion of the law and its place in the ongoing story of God’s redemptive work, Paul spends some time addressing the “live” issues in Galatia (vv. 8–20). He begins by trying to point out the sheer folly of their present actions—did you leave slavery to false gods behind only to erect another idol to worship? What a waste! (vv. 8–11). Paul’s tone in this passage becomes even more desperate as he seeks to heal his own relationship with them. When he first came to Galatia, they welcomed him with open arms, but later they treated him with suspicion, perhaps even resentment; what’s changed? (vv. 12–16).
And lastly, Paul turns his gaze to the meddlesome outsiders who poisoned Paul’s relationship with the Galatians. Can they really be trusted?, Paul asks. They have been up to something, hatching a nefarious plan (vv. 17–18). Paul concludes this section with a lament: You are like my own children in Christ, but you seem to need a redo on your birth, because I just can’t see the “Christ” part of your life right now (v. 19). Paul knew he was being hard on them (v. 20), and he doesn’t let up either, as the next section will make clear (vv. 21–31)!
Ben Witherington: It is no surprise that Paul’s arguments in Galatians are so emotion laden. He believes that a matter of enormous consequence lies in the balance, namely whether or not the Galatians will commit apostasy from the one true Gospel, and so he is prepared to move heaven and earth rhetorically, and pull out all the emotional stops to get them not to pursue the course the agitators are urging them to adopt. He knows that the appeals to the emotions and to the Galatians’ own experiences are more likely to move them than all the logic in the world. As an effective rhetor, then Paul adopts tactics he deems most likely to accomplish his rhetorical aims. . .
What we find in 4:12–20 is a pulling out of all the emotional stops:
(1) Paul appeals to the Galatians own feelings of kindness and fairness toward him in the past, reminding them of the kind of relationship they used to have (vs. 12, 15);
(2) he appeals to their feelings of pity for his physical condition (vss. 13–14);
(3) he reminds them he is their spiritual parent (vs. 19) and is still in the process of painful labor until Christ is fully formed in them (i.e., he is still making strenuous efforts on their behalf and giving undeserved benefits for which the audience should be grateful – a shaming device);
(4) as a parent he tells them he wishes he could change his tone with them, but he is in doubt and worrying over them, indicating his love for them but also instilling fear in them about their own condition (had they lost their former ‘blessing’? vs. 15, 20);
(5) finally he speaks of good and bad sorts of zeal or zealous courting (yet another strong emotion) which lead to either love or enmity (vss. 16–17).
This is not an erratic argument, or miscellany of ideas, it is a touching of all the major emotional bases in a masterful way, by using all the rhetorically appropriate sort of key terms listed under pathos and the tactics listed in the literature on appeals to pathos or the deeper emotions.
Scot McKnight: Paul is a good pastor; thus, he cannot wait until the end of his “sermon” to make some. While he still has one more argument (4:21–31) to go through until he has applications presented his complete case, he nonetheless jumps into the significance of his arguments thus far. He has argued from the Old Testament (3:6–14), the nature of covenants (3:15–25), and from sonship (3:26 – 4:7). Our section, the application, belongs to the argument from sonship but goes well beyond it to become an application of his entire argument.
This section can be neatly divided into two (uneven) sections:
(1) The Problem (vv. 8–11) and
(2) The Plea (vv. 12–20).
The Plea is rather random and emotional. In it Paul appeals to his own example and to his own role in their reversion to Judaism (vv. 12–16); then he explains what is actually going on at Galatia (vv. 17–18) before appealing once more in a more emotional tone (vv. 19–20).
Timothy George: The remainder of chap. 4 can be divided into three literary units.
- Verses 8–11 are an exhortation in which Paul reminded his Galatian converts of their former way of life, the great transformation that had happened to them through their adoption into God’s family, and his deep concern that they were about to exchange their spiritual heritage for a mess of pottage.
- Verses 12–20 extend the theme of Paul’s fear for the Galatians in the form of a personal expostulation. He recalled the endearing bonds of friendship and love he and the Galatians had enjoyed in days past and pleaded with them to remain faithful to the one and only gospel he had first preached among them.
- The final section, vv. 21–31, contain the allegory of Hagar and Sarah whose sons, Ishmael and Isaac, are taken as representative types of spiritual slavery and spiritual sonship.
Philip Ryken: By the Spirit of God’s Son, the Galatians had learned to call God “Father.” Yet they were in imminent danger of going from sonship right back into slavery. They were about to squander their spiritual inheritance by selling their birthright as the sons and daughters of God.
No wonder the apostle Paul was so alarmed! Why would anyone who had been adopted by God want to go back and work for the devil? It made no sense, which is why the apostle tried everything he could think of to stop them.
I. (:8-11) EXHORTATION: DON’T TURN BACK TO A LIFESTYLE OF LEGALISTIC BONDAGE = FUTILITY
Robert Gromacki: Paul wanted to prove that legalism was no better than paganism. In principle they were identical because both required strict observance of rituals and laws to gain salvation. To the apostle the Judaizers were similar to the pagan religious priests who once supervised the Galatians before their conversion.
Max Anders: As Gentiles, your new relationship as God’s sons produces maturity. You are free from the bondage of paganism. It is illogical to revert to bondage by observing the law.
Thomas Schreiner: The folly of reverting to the law (4:8–11)
- Enslaved to false gods (4:8)
- Incredulity at their relapse after conversion (4:9)
- Relapse marked by observance of Jewish calendar (4:10)
- Fear of a futile ministry (4:11)
A. (:8) Legalistic Bondage Was their Lifestyle Prior to Conversion
- Backwards Reminder of Pre-conversion days
“However at that time“
Timothy George: Paul was drawing a sharp distinction between the pre-Christian past of the Galatian believers and their present status as adopted sons in the family of God. Paul provided no details concerning the precise character of the Galatians’ former religious commitments.
- Base Deficiency = No Knowledge of the True God
“when you did not know God“
- Bondage to False Gods
“you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods“
Timothy George: There is only one God, the true God from whom all things came, the “jealous” God who brooks no competition. All other pretended deities are merely “so-called gods” (1 Cor 8:4–6). Significantly, one of the most damaging charges brought against Christians during the second century was that of atheism. By that time the majority of Christians were former Gentiles who had rejected the false gods of Greco-Roman religion. In response to this charge, the apologist Justin Martyr declared:
“We confess that we are atheists, as far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both him, and the Son who came forth from him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to him, and the prophetic Spirit we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to everyone who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.”
The Christians were persecuted for being atheists, that is, for repudiating and refusing to worship the false deities, the nongods, of the Roman Empire. This does not mean, however, that either Paul or Christians of Justin’s generation believed that these false gods were merely projections of the human mind. Clearly, they understood them to be existent beings, fallen angels, demonic spirits, the ta stoicheia tou kosmou described earlier. These elemental spirits were indeed real enough: they could appear on earth in various guises; they could perform miracles and wreak havoc in the world of nature. They trafficked in destruction and death and were especially violent in stimulating persecutions against the Christians.
Ben Witherington: Paul is drawing an analogy between going back to observing the calendrical feasts and days of the Emperor cult with going forward and accepting the calendrical observances enunciated in the Mosaic covenant. He wishes his Galatians converts to do neither, and so he throws odium on what the audience is contemplating doing by suggesting it would be similar to committing apostasy, it would be similar to going back to Emperor worship. But the Emperor Claudius, while of course a real being, was most definitely not a real god, nor were his forebears in the Julio-Claudian clan including Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, and Caligula.
B. (:9-10) Reverting to Legalistic Bondage after Conversion Is Futile
- Escape from Legalistic Bondage Marked by Conversion
“But now“
- Essence of Conversion / Salvation
a. From man’s perspective
“that you have come to know God“
Timothy George: The kind of knowledge Paul was speaking of is neither intellectual acumen nor some kind of special information available only to an inner group of initiates. “To know” in the Pauline sense also goes beyond implied acknowledgment of monotheism and intellectual assent to Christian doctrines. This sort of knowledge is necessary but not sufficient for the kind of transformation Paul described as having taken place among the Galatians. Paul’s concept of knowledge was more closely related to the Hebrew verb yādaʿ, which is frequently used in the OT to refer to the kind of personal intimacy associated with sexual intercourse, as in Gen 4:1, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” (ESV). “To know” God in this kind of experiential intensity implies a divine-human encounter in which the total self, not merely the mind or thought processes, is claimed and transformed.
b. From God’s perspective
“or rather to be known by God“
Ernest Campbell: This statement refutes the idea that man is the one who reaches out to God, and it emphasizes the fact that God is the One who does the reaching out. God is the One who draws men unto Christ the Redeemer (John 6:44).
Timothy George: Paul’s insistence on the divine initiative in salvation excludes both moralism and mysticism. We can neither keep God’s commandments nor love him purely apart from his overcoming grace and prevenient favor toward us. “ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Nor can human beings ever “find God” no matter what sort of religious techniques or spiritual exercises they may employ. We are like blinded rats lost in the labyrinth of sin until by God’s amazing grace we who were all lost in the maze of self-justification are truly and everlastingly “found.”
Thomas Schreiner: A beautiful picture of conversion is drawn here (cf. 1 Thess 1:9), as Paul contrasts “then” (τότε, 4:8) and “now” (νῦν)—their former lives and their new life in Christ. Then they did not know God, but when the Galatians were converted, they came to know God. Such knowledge is not merely abstract and impersonal but has a personal and warm dimension, for they exclaim that God is their beloved Father (4:6). They sense his nearness and love for them, since they are now his children.
Still, the accent cannot rest on their knowing God, and hence Paul qualifies his initial statement. Even though it is true that believers have come to know God, there is a deeper reality that explains why they know God’s saving love, namely, God’s knowledge of them. God’s knowledge of his people hearkens back to the Hebrew verb “know” (yādaʿ), where God’s knowledge refers to his choosing of someone—the setting of his affection upon someone.
- Hence, he “knew” Abraham by choosing him to be the father of the Jewish people (Gen 18:19).
- He “knew” Israel and chose them out of all the people groups on earth (Amos 3:2).
- He “knew” Jeremiah before he was born and hence appointed him to be a prophet (Jer 1:5).
- So too, the Galatians have come to know God because God knew them first, because he loved them and graciously chose them to be his own.
- Enigma of Reverting back to Legalistic Bondage
“how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental
things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”
C. F. Hogg: Weak in the sense of powerless to produce results, an epithet elsewhere applied to the law and in the same sense, Rom. 8:3, Heb. 7:18… Beggarly in the sense of powerless to enrich. Without spiritual wealth, without an inheritance, present or prospective, without any gift of life or of the Spirit, these religions of childhood, v. 1, and of bondage, were “poverty-stricken” indeed and could give nothing, for they had nothing to give. With this poverty contrast the riches of God.
George Brunk: The elements are thus those things that assume religious-like influence over people, but have no real power. The idols of paganism and the Jewish Law share in this impotence, even though, for Paul, the Law is God-given and not the invention of human imagination, as with pagan religion and philosophy. The Law itself is a powerless system of religious beliefs and practices. The key to Paul’s experience in Christ is that the Spirit of Christ provided the power to fulfill the just and right standard of the Law (cf. 5:14-16; Rom 8:3-4). When the Galatians submit to the Law observance being urged by the Galatian opponents, they are embracing a weak and beggarly condition instead of building on the strength of the Spirit and the riches of grace in Christ—both of which are constant themes in Pauline writings. Such a condition is tantamount to slavery.
David deSilva: Their coming to a place of knowing God—or, rather, being known by God (here Paul uses the rhetorical device of self-correction to highlight God’s taking the initiative in reversing their condition of alienation-through-ignorance)—ought to have positioned them to recognize and reject any attempt to persuade them from their position. They ought to have valued the testimony of the Spirit in their inner person more than the testimony of the rival teachers.
Ronald Fung: Ta stoicheia tou kosmou (Gal. 4:3; Col. 2:8, 20) is taken by the majority of modern scholars in a cosmological sense as the elemental powers of the universe, which are then more specifically identified with the angelic powers through whom the law was promulgated, or with the spirits particularly connected with the astral bodies, the rulers of the planetary spheres believed to exercise a controlling influence over the lives and destinies of persons. Others interpret ta stoicheia as the elementary teachings—rudimentary principles of morality and religion, more specifically the requirements of legalism by which people lived before Christ—and the kosmos, “the world,” as mankind’s habitation, which is dominated by sin. . .
[Another possible] view takes stoicheia tou kosmou as an expression contributed by Paul himself, the meaning of which is to be determined from the context: using stoicheion “in a transferred sense for that whereon man’s existence rested before Christ,” Paul includes in the stoicheia of the world “on the one side the Torah with its statutes (4:3–5 …), and then on the other side the world of false gods whom the recipients [of his letter] once served, 4:8f.” On this understanding, the elements of the world can “cover all the things in which man places his trust apart from the living God revealed in Christ; they become his gods, and he becomes their slave.” This interpretation is preferred here, if only provisionally and in full recognition that the matter continues to be keenly debated.
Douglas Moo: Paul is pulling out all the rhetorical stops to convince the Galatians not to take what he views as a disastrous step. To accomplish this, he implies that putting themselves under the law, since the era of the law has ended with the coming of the promised Seed, is akin to returning to their impotent pagan religions.
- Examples of Dependence Upon Legalistic Ritual
“You observe days and months and seasons and years.”
Ronald Fung: In this enumeration Paul apparently intends to say that the Galatians had taken over the entire Jewish system of religious observances. In his view this religious observance of sacred days and seasons according to the Jewish calendar–as an obligation imposed by the law, and not simply as a matter of custom–was a form of subservience to the stoicheia which could neither save nor justify its adherents but only cast them into bondage.
Max Anders: The Judaizers had persuaded the Galatians to observe the Mosaic calendar. These seasonal events included special days (weekly sabbaths), months (new moons), and seasons (Festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles). The Galatians kept these festivals to gain God’s favor.
Timothy George: Obviously Paul was concerned that the Galatian believers would be drawn into a religious system where adherence to certain cyclical celebrations was regarded as obtaining or maintaining a favorable standing with God. This is a recurring temptation for believers in all ages of church history. In medieval times Roman Catholics were taught that the ritual of annual confession and Easter Communion was a minimal requirement for being a member of the church in good standing. Today in many evangelical churches thousands of inactive members throng to worship services at Christmas and Easter assuming such semiannual pilgrimages are all the Lord requires of them. Whatever the context, a religion of “days, months, seasons, and years” can never lead to liberation from the weak and beggarly elemental spirits whose grasp can only be escaped through faith in the one who came “in the fullness of time.”
Bruce Barton: Paul did not condemn the celebration of the Jewish events— for he himself kept the Sabbath and still traveled to Jerusalem for certain festivals (see also Colossians 2:16). He would have condemned the Gentile Galatians celebrating the Jewish holidays in order to somehow receive more merit before God or fulfill some legal duty in doing so. The God-honoring festivals were not bad in themselves; but when used as a way to earn salvation or “score points” with God, they became nothing more than slavery.
C. (:11) Threat of Futility
“I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
John Piper: It’s not surprising then that the Judaizers should find a foothold for their false teaching in the hearts of the recent Galatian converts, just like all kinds of cults and ego-centric fads are able to gain a foothold in the church today. The teaching of the Judaizers did not oppose the pride left in the Galatian believers. It catered to that pride. They said, move on from faith to works; move on from the booster rocket of the Holy Spirit and kick in with the efforts of your flesh (Gal. 3:1-5). They offered the law as a means of enjoying one’s pride in a morally acceptable way. And so their teaching was not as radical and humbling as Paul’s was. It was very appealing to people who wanted to be religious and moral but did not want to become putty in the hands of God.
George Brunk: With this confession Paul ends the reasoned argument of the previous section to make a more personal appeal. With this reference to his intense labor on behalf of the Galatians, Paul intends to evoke feelings of shame and remorse in the readers.
Ronald Fung: We may assume that here also Paul is thinking of the Galatians’ justification and that he fears that they, by holding fast to their religious observances as a means of justification, might fail to receive the justification which is available only through faith, and that consequently all the hard toil intended for their benefit should prove to have been in vain. The issue, then, is “not the observation of religious usages as such … , but the basis of the justification before God … : Judaism with its auto-soteriological, legalistic scheme of redemption or the gospel of free grace. These two are unreconcilable.”
Douglas Moo: The various expressions of the Galatians’ commitment to Christ along with Paul’s ministry among them will prove to be “empty,” “without purpose,” if the Galatians should succumb to the message of the agitators by submitting to the law.
II. (:12-16) EMOTIONAL PLEA: DON’T REJECT THE LOVING INSTRUCTION OF YOUR ORIGINAL DISCIPLER
(3 APPEALS TO LOVE AND AFFECTION).
Max Anders: The controversy over legalism separated Paul from his close friends, the Galatians. Therefore, the law cannot be mature and true because it has separated intimates.
David deSilva: Having shared his deeply personal fear that his work among them may prove to be all for nothing (4:11), Paul continues to write in a more personal vein throughout this next paragraph, returning to the task of supporting his cause with appeals to ethos and pathos (specifically invoking feelings of friendship, shame, and indignation). He purposefully recalls his former connection with the Galatians, forged during his earlier time with them, and adds the weight of this connection to the force of his reasoning in 2:14 – 4:11. Remembering the “good old days” in their relationship before the rival teachers came along, nosing their way in to break up the relationship to their own advantage, also allows him to rouse hostile feelings toward, and undermine the credibility of, those who have broken in with self-serving intent.
Timothy George: What we have in this personal aside is a poignant witness to the indissoluble linkage between theological content and pastoral concern. All true theology worthy of the name is pastoral theology. As in the autobiographical section of his letter, so here too Paul’s concern for the truth of the gospel is bound up with his own apostolic vocation on the one hand and with his consuming burden for his “children” on the other.
In our own day these two essential aspects of balanced pastoral ministry are all too often torn asunder. It is possible, for example, for a pastor to be so preoccupied with theological ideas and doctrinal content that he appears insensitive and detached from the hurts and struggles of his people. More often, though, the imbalance goes the other way: pastors who spend most of their time trying to assuage the needs of their congregation through the techniques of self-help and secular psychology. Such a dichotomy is deadly for any ministry of pastoral care that seeks to be both biblically responsible and personally redemptive. What deeply agitated Paul in Galatians was not that certain people had misconstrued the doctrine of justification on a theoretical plane but rather that individual men and women whom he loved dearly were in spiritual jeopardy because of this deviation from the truth of the gospel. This concern, more than anything else, prompted Paul to leave “the lofty heights of theological argumentation” and address himself to the Galatians in this deeply personal and emotional appeal.
Thomas Schreiner: Live in Freedom from the Law: Argument from Friendship (4:12–20)
- Exhortation to become like Paul: free from the law (4:12a)
- Galatians received Paul as a messenger of God (4:12b–14)
- Paul’s weakness in preaching (4:13)
- His warm reception (4:14)
- Query regarding blessing of the Spirit (4:15)
- Paul’s friendship in contrast to false teachers (4:16–18)
- Paul’s anguish and perplexity (4:19–20)
A. (:12-14) Appeal to Love and Affection Based on Their Initial Acceptance of Paul — the Evangelist
“I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong; but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.”
Richard Longenecker: Here Paul begins the exhortation portion of his letter, principally by recalling his past relations with his converts and contrasting their past and present attitudes to him. Standing at the head of this section and epitomizing all that Paul wants to say in these verses is the first imperative of Galatians, which in effect is also the operative appeal of the entire letter: “become like me!” (4:12).
Ronald Fung: The point of reference is probably freedom from the law.
John MacArthur: I beg of you, . . . become as I am, he pleaded, free from trying to earn salvation by keeping the law and free from having to live by its outward symbols, ceremonies, rituals, and restrictions. “I died to the Law, that I might live to God,” he had already written (2:19). Now he implored them to confess again that death to the law as a way of sanctification, which death they, too, had experienced when they trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. While all believers are called to live in obedience to God’s moral standards that never change (such living is the evidence of salvation, as indicated in Eph. 2:6-10), they can no more live by the law than they could have been saved by it. “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (5:1).
Nijay Gupta: Here Paul was addressing the fact that, though he had certain privileges and freedoms in life, he willingly gave up some of those benefits for the sake of the gospel. In the social world in which Paul lived, a world of constant competition and one-upmanship, it was counterintuitive to seek to make oneself a slave to others. But Paul had a strong motivator: winning others to the gospel. As it applies to the Galatians in particular, Paul probably became like them by “liv[ing] like a gentile,” just as he mentioned Cephas’s initial disposition in Antioch earlier in Galatians (Gal 2:14; cf. 1 Cor 9:21). What would this have looked like? I assume it meant that he really tried to fit in when he came to Galatia; he treated them with respect and sought to appreciate their culture and social values. When Paul says he made himself a “slave” to those he ministered to (1 Cor 9:19), this metaphor seems to imply that he deferred to them culturally when he could (without compromising his own Christian morals and principles). He says to the Galatians he became like them, as if it were a matter of plain fact, something so obvious as to not need examples or defense.
Ernest Cambell: Re vs. 12 — He wants them to thoroughly understand that he holds ‘nothing‘ (ouden) against them; they have no reason to feel ashamed of the way they have treated him in the past; and there is no reason they should feel that there are any barriers hindering them from becoming like he is. This is a good example of Paul’s desire to remove all psychological hindrances that might keep others from obeying the Gospel.
Timothy George: Paul was a pioneer in what we call today contextualization, the need to communicate the gospel in such a way that it speaks to the total context of the people to whom it is addressed. Insofar as we are able to separate the heart of the gospel from its cultural cocoon, to contextualize the message of Christ without compromising its content, we too should become imitators of Paul. In the words of J. Stott: “In seeking to win other people for Christ, our end is to make them like us, but the means to that end is to make ourselves like them. If they are to become one with us in Christian conviction and experience, we must first become one with them in Christian compassion.” . . .
Whatever the nature of Paul’s physical affliction, it must have resulted in some kind of bodily disfigurement or obviously unpleasant symptoms so that his condition was a “trial” to the Galatians. In the culture of the times, such infirmity and weakness was commonly seen as a sign of divine displeasure and rejection. Paul would have stood in stark contrast to the strong, good-looking “superapostles” who boasted in their physical prowess, rhetorical eloquence, and academic achievements. The Galatians would have been tempted to reject scornfully one of whom it was said, apart from his physical malady, that “his actual presence is feeble and his speaking beneath contempt” (2 Cor 10:10 Phillips). But to their credit the Galatians had not yielded to this temptation. On the contrary, they had received Paul “as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.”
B. (:15) Appeal to Love and Affection Based on Their Earlier Willingness to Love Paul Sacrificially (Based on the Spiritual Blessing He Had Communicated in the Discipleship Process)
“Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness, that if
possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.”
Max Anders: Paul wants to know why they no longer welcome him with joy. At one time they appreciated him so much that they would have torn out their eyes and given them to him. Paul may have had eye problems and, in hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration to make a point), Paul states that the Galatians loved him so much that they would have joyously given their eyes to him.
Ronald Fung: Formerly, because they had Paul in their midst preaching the good news of salvation, the Galatians felt happy (cf. NEB, NIV) and satisfied (cf. RSV), they congratulated themselves (RV), they had “a sense of blessing” (NASB, cf. AV). In that state of mind, Paul testifies, the Galatians would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him, had that been possible. It is unlikely that the language here implies eye trouble on Paul’s part; it may be no more than a graphic description of deep affection: to have one’s own eyes torn out and given to another represents the yielding up of one’s most precious possessions (cf. Dt. 32:10; Ps. 17:8; Zech. 2:8).
C. (:16) Appeal to Love and Affection Based on Consistent Proclamation of the Truth
“Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?”
John MacArthur: Many people appreciate a preacher or teacher only as long as he says what they want to hear. The confused and defecting believers in Galatia had once greatly admired Paul, but now they looked on him as their enemy, because he confronted them with the truth about the genuine gospel of God, which had saved them, and the false teaching of the Judaizers, which led them back into the bondage of legalism.
Kathryn Greene-McCreight: At 4:16, Paul asks whether his insistence on the truth of a circumcision-free gospel for the Gentiles is now creating hostility on their part toward him. In accepting the rite of circumcision, the Galatians have put both their fidelity to the gospel and their loyalty to Paul in jeopardy. They have denied the truth of the gospel: Gentile Christians are heirs to the promise of Abraham through Christ alone apart from law observance. They have rejected Paul’s preaching and scorned his friendship. They now bear hostility toward their former friend and missionary whom they had once held in great affection. Because he has told them the truth, and because they have rejected it, they now perceive him as the enemy. He does not, however, perceive them this way.
Philip Ryken: Paul writes to the Galatians, therefore, as a wounded lover. He wonders, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Gal. 4:16). His gospel has not changed. He is still proclaiming the good news about the cross and the empty tomb. He is still preaching justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Yet the Galatians were starting to reject the one true gospel. Unwilling to hear the truth, they were treating Paul like an enemy. The very message that first created the bond of their affection for him was starting to cause a rift between them.
III. (:17-20) DON’T BE DECEIVED BY ZEALOUS FALSE TEACHERS
Max Anders: Zealous opponents should not be able to woo you away from the truth of God’s salvation in Christ, but you should trust the motives and actions of the one who first led you to Christ.
A. (:17-18) Discern the Motives of Those Desiring to Minister to You
- Beware of the Ulterior Motives of Fanatical False Teachers
“They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out,
in order that you may seek them.”
Watch out for spiritual leaders that try to make you dependent on their ministry.
Ernest Campbell: “The context indicates that with a selfish zeal the Judaizers affectionately courted the friendship of the Galatians.”
David deSilva: Paul alleges that the rival teachers are showing a great deal of interest in the Galatians, but not to the latter’s advantage. Instead, the rival teachers’ goal is to “exclude” the Galatians—to shut them back outside of the people of promise (i.e., by convincing them that, as gentiles, they have no place in the people of God) so that the Galatians will be put in the position of trying to reenter the people of promise by courting the rival teachers and becoming their followers. The rival teachers’ actions represent the antithesis of Paul’s own, a contrast implicitly supported by the parallelism between 12 and 17.
Ronald Fung: The ultimate aim of the agitators was for the Galatians to seek them (cf. NASB), not Paul, as their exclusive teachers, receiving their directions from them and obeying the law which they observed. The same Greek verb both begins and ends the verse (this is most clearly reflected in RSV), and the two instances show that the verb “may be used not only of the quest for adherents but also of the adherents’ attachment to their leaders or teachers.”
Timothy George: The Galatian Christians had been courted, seduced, and bewitched by false teachers whose true aim was to alienate their affection from Paul and to enlist them as devotees in their own campaign of self-aggrandizement.
Philip Ryken: The Judaizers were the wrong kind of zealots. In their misguided zeal for the law, they told the Galatians that they had to become Jews in order to be good Christians. This heretical teaching had the result of dividing the Jews from the Gentiles inside the church, where we are all supposed to be one in Christ. It also had the result of turning the Galatians away from Paul and the one true gospel of free grace. The Judaizers seem to have envied Paul’s missionary success. What they really wanted was their own disciples, as false teachers always do. So they tried to win the Galatians away from Paul by flattering them and courting their affections.
- Appreciate the Commendable Motives of All Godly Disciplers
“But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner,
and not only when I am present with you.”
Paul was not expressing jealousy at the fact that they would respond to other teachers … he just wanted them to be discerning in their response.
Thomas Schreiner: Zeal, of course, is a commendable quality, as long as it is directed to the right object. If one is zealous for what is good, one’s life will be pleasing to God. In other words, Paul was not jealous for his own reputation. If others had arrived in Galatia, preached the gospel, and strengthened the Galatians in the faith, he would have rejoiced.
B. (:19-20) Desire the Pastoral Care of Those Who Have Proven Genuine Love
- (:19) Paul Renews His Commitment to Lovingly Disciple Them
“My children, with whom I am again in labor
until Christ is formed in you –“
What a tremendous description of the goal of all discipleship!
John MacArthur: Speaking like a mother, Paul now addressed the Galatian believers as my children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. He was not arguing like a lawyer before a skeptical jury but pleading like a parent to a wayward child.
George Brunk: Paul portrays life in the Spirit and ministry as the bringing forth of new life in Christ through acts of death (sacrifice and suffering) in emulation of Jesus himself (2 Cor 1:5-7; 4:10-11). That is precisely how Paul sees himself in relation to the Galatians. Here at the end of the times (1 Cor 10:11), God’s new world is taking shape, and Paul’s ministry is helping to bring it to birth. As Paul’s experience with the Galatians shows, evangelism is more than a quick and simple decision for Christ. It is an extended and formative process that involves change in one’s values, character, and behavior, to which the whole self of the evangelist contributes as model.
David deSilva: Paul expresses clearly here the essential formational element of justification, namely, God’s desire to restore his image within us by conforming us to the likeness of Jesus, his Son, the perfect human bearer of that image. In this process of transformation, we become righteous (hence, are justified, brought into alignment with God’s standards and heart) as we become more like God’s Son, who comes to life within the believer by the action of the Holy Spirit. Whether Paul speaks of Christ taking shape in and among the believers (4:19) or of Christ living in the believer (2:20) or of believers being shaped into Christ’s likeness (as in Phil 3:8–11; 2 Cor 3:18), such transformation is the passionate heart of Paul’s gospel and theology.
- (:20) Paul Reiterates His Pastoral Care to Keep Them On Track
a. This Pastoral Care May Involve Discipline
“but I could wish to be present with you now
and to change my tone”
(at least it will involve saying some hard things to them in a confrontational tone)
David deSilva: Paul’s perplexity concerning the Galatians is also the cause of his desire to be present with them (and thus to learn the facts more clearly and intervene more directly), with the implied hope that such direct intervention would lessen his anxiety about them, prove the matter not to be so dire, hasten correction, and thus allow him indeed to adopt a kinder, gentler tone.
Ronald Fung: Apparently he believes that if only he could be present with them he would be able to regain their trust and allegiance, so that it would no longer be necessary to use such severe language as he has found it necessary to use in reminding them of the truth and warning them against falsehood. As it is, however, he is prevented from paying them a personal visit at the moment, and his heartfelt desire was perforce unfulfilled.
Howard Vos: Paul’s tenderness and concern for the Galatians, which extended to suffering birth pangs for their spiritual renewal, now expresses itself in his desire to be present with them if it were possible. It is hard to know exactly how their situation is when he must go on hearsay, and it is usually much more difficult to deal with a problem in writing than in person. If he were present he could change his tone of voice, either to suit the needs of the situation or to change from condemnation to praise. “For I stand in doubt of you” indicates distress of mind or perplexity or something similar in knowing how to deal with the Galatians, whether firmly or gently, to bring them back to the standards of faith and grace.
b. This Pastoral Care Includes an Element of Perplexity
“for I am perplexed about you“
Timothy George: Here Paul’s true humanity is evident. This verse echoes his earlier unbearable thought of “wasted labor” (4:11). He was exasperated, perplexed, and heartbroken. The situation was desperate, but defeat was not a foregone conclusion. The Galatians might still have been won back from the brink of disaster. The gleam of hope that later emerges in the letter (5:10) is based on the fact that the “extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.”
Nijay Gupta: Paul’s exasperation matches his deep concern for their well-being. Their decisions were not a minor matter but a matter of life and death (5:2, 4). Paul wished to change his tone, to pacify the situation and speak to them gently and warmly. But that doesn’t happen in the remainder of this passion-filled letter, and it certainly doesn’t happen in the next section, 4:21–31!