Don't Turn Back (No Other Gospel #16)

Galatia was a church on the brink. It hadn't completely fallen away but it was swaying. It was in such a state that Paul, writing from far away, didn't know for sure where they stood. He only knew that they were in danger. And he was very concerned. This passage is something a parenthesis in Paul's argument as he stops to give a very personal appeal to the people of Galatia. In the passage just before this, he speaks of how it seemed that they were beginning to turn back into the kind of bondage which God had released them from. And for that reason, he was afraid.

I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,  I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. (Galatians 4:11-20)

This is the most personal moment in this deeply personal letter. Verses 11 and 20 act as bookends for this section and really sum up the entire feeling of the apostle and the driving force of the letter. In verse 11 he says: “I am afraid of you” or, rather, concerning you, about you, fearing that all his work among them had been in vain, that all his efforts to preach the gospel to them had come to nothing because they had rejected the gospel. Robertson points out the construction of the Greek means that Paul is afraid of what may have already happened. It's not “I am afraid you may fall away” but rather “I am afraid you have already fallen away” and that therefore all his work had been for nothing.

Verse 20 is one of the most heartbreaking verses in the letter. Remember that Paul is far away from Galatia at the time of the writing of this letter. There was no form of long-distance communication. We don't know exactly how Paul learned of the problems in Galatia, but probably it had come through some messenger or letter. So here were the Galatian churches, involved in false teachings and standing on the brink of ruin--and here was Paul, countless miles away. He wanted to know exactly how things stood, how far the damage had gone, whether things were better or worse than reports stood--and he couldn't. The NET Bible translates verse 20: “I wish I could be with you now and change my tone of voice, because I am perplexed about you.” Paul just didn't know exactly how things stood. He didn't know whether he should be speaking more harshly or more gently; whether this was a time for more exhortation or more encouragement. If he had been there in person, he would have been able to judge exactly how things stood and deal with them more effectively. But he could do nothing except send this letter. These are the words of a father, in a state of fear and anxiety for his children, and not being able to be with them at the moment of crises.

This personal note shows through all that Paul says here. The overriding concern is expressed in verse 12: “Brethren, I beseech you” (I plead with you, I ask you) “be as I am; for I am as ye are.” This is a controversial verse, but it seems to mean one of two things.

(1) Paul might be speaking still of the main issue, the issue of the Jewish law. He had been raised as a Jew with all the traditional Jewish taboos and restrictions, including the restriction against meeting with and associating with Gentiles. And yet he had been willing to set aside all that in order to preach to the Galatians; he had left his upbringing in order to reach common ground, and now the Galatians were wanting to leave that common ground in order to embrace the very bondage which Paul had laid aside in order to meet them. And so he asks them to be as he is--that is, to avoid the restrictions and taboos of the Judaizers--because he became as they were--laying aside those restrictions in order to meet with them.

(2) More likely the words are to be taken in a more general sense. Paul felt great love and concern for the Galatians as if they were part of his family. He was as they were--joined with them in affection and concern. And yet now, the Galatians were cutting him off--they were refusing to listen to him and, based on what he says a little later, it seems some of them were beginning to turn on him, treating him as an enemy, a false teacher. And so he begs them to be family to him just as he was family to them; not to break the ties between them. Paul asks them not to turn away from him because he had not turned away from them.

Look at the end of verse 12: “Ye have not injured me at all.” Paul speaks vehemently and even angrily in Galatians, and yet it wasn't because he was angry with the Galatians. Paul had no wounded feelings to vent; no grudge to nurse; no wrongs to avenge. Paul was only human and he may have felt hurt to see the Galatians turn away from him, but that wasn't the point. He was upset, not because of any feeling of his own, but because of the consequences of the Galatians' actions. The point was not the impact their actions would have on Paul but the impact they would have on themselves. Paul was not concerned that Paul would be hurt, but that the Galatians would be hurt. They had not injured him, but they were injuring themselves. Paul may very likely have felt some pain from their rejection, but that feeling was swallowed up and consumed in his worry and concern for them.

It's sometimes interesting when the Bible begins a statement with “You know.” Because often we don't know. We don't know what Paul is talking about in verse 13. He is speaking of the time when he preached the gospel to the Galatians, once again (as at the beginning of chapter 3) calling them to remember their first encounter with the Gospel, but now making a more personal appeal. He says that he preached “through infirmity of the flesh.” That could be a general statement, but most of the commentators take it more specifically. The word translated “infirmity” literally means feebleness or weakness, but it often has the idea of sickness or illness. So many believe that Paul is saying he was sick when he first preached to the Galatians. In fact, the verse can be interpreted as saying that Paul preached to the Galatians BECAUSE he was sick.

William Barclay's idea is that Paul contracted malaria in the coastal regions of Pamphylia and it was for that reason that he traveled upland to Galatia, to Antioch in Pisidia. Whether or not that is true, it does seem clear that Paul's first visit to the Galatians was overshadowed by physical weakness and illness. Paul repeats this idea in verse 14 when he speaks of the “temptation which was in my flesh.”

We use the word temptation to mean a solicitation or invitation to evil. But the Greek word literally means to put something or someone to the test. And because of that, it can mean temptation in the English sense but it can also mean a time of trial or adversity. Here, Paul may simply mean that his experience of sickness at Galatia was a great trial for him. But some take it as a temptation--that Paul's sickness was the occasion of a temptation for the Galatians. This wasn't a strong, imposing man coming to them to preach--this was a man stricken by illness. He came in weakness, not in strength; in sickness, not in health. It would have been easy for them to reject him. They might even have thought that his sickness proved he couldn't be a messenger of God. It would have been easy for them to use this weakness and sickness of Paul as an excuse to turn against him--and yet “ye despised not, nor rejected”--literally, “You did not spit me out.” Instead, they received him, not just as a man but as an angel or messenger of God, “even as Christ Jesus.” In other words, they had the same respect and affection for Paul that they would have had if Jesus Himself had come physically among them, perhaps because they knew that he came in the name of Jesus and as his representative and so to receive Paul was, in that sense, to receive Jesus.

Not only did they not reject Paul, not only did they receive him as a representative of Jesus, but they were glad to do it. Verse 15 asks “Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?” In other words, at that time, when Paul preached to them, they had blessedness; and not just a feeling of blessedness but a matter of congratulation. “The blessedness ye spake of” is a single word in Greek and it means a declaration of blessedness. The idea is that they felt so blessed by Paul's presence that it was something they would talk about, declaring how blessed they were. In other words, once the Galatians considered it a matter of blessing, good fortune, something worth remarking on, something to brag about that Paul was among them. So much that they would have been willing to have given him even their own eyes. This is probably just an expression, though there is some evidence that Paul may have suffered from eye problems which would give the words a deeper significance.

That was the relationship that Paul once had with the Galatians. Paul is trying to stir up their minds to remind them of the relationship they once had. This explains his concern and acts as the basis of his appeal to them. Be as I am, for I am as ye are. This is the appeal of a friend, not a stranger.

And yet the pathos of this passage come in in verse 16: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” They had been happy to receive Paul once when everything was against him--but now they were turning on him. Those who had once received him as a messenger of God were now rejecting the gospel he taught and instead receiving and listening to other teachers, teachers who seemingly were deliberately trying to alienate them from Paul. Once they had received him because he taught the truth. And now they treated him as an enemy--because he taught the truth. This word for enemy is also used of Satan, as Satan is the universal enemy of God and of mankind. And while it may be a stretch, there is a contrast here with verse 14. Once they had treated him as Christ Jesus; now they were treating him as Satan.

And all this because of the Judaizers, the “they” of verse 17. It was their influence that was driving a wedge between Paul and the Galatians and therefore between the Galatians and the one true Gospel. I don't want to trivialize this and clearly Paul's concern wasn't personal, but what we have is almost like a romantic triangle, with the Judaizers coming in and trying to steal the love and loyalty which the Galatians had for Paul.

And that brings us down to this word Zeloo. This comes from the same root as our English word “zeal” and is connected to the word for boiling. Strong defines it as meaning: “To have warmth of feeling for or against... covet (earnestly), (have) desire, (move with) envy, be jealous over...” (#2206)

This word is used three times in verses 17 and 18. First, Paul uses it of the Judaizers. They were being zealous for the Galatians. The RSV translates it: “They make much of you.” They were very earnest in their attempts to win over the Galatians. There was nothing half-hearted about them. They were eagerly, zealously desiring the Galatians to listen to them. They were on fire, but they weren't on fire for God. They were passionate, but their intentions were not honorable. “They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you.” They were trying to build a wall between the Galatians and Paul and, by extension, the other apostles and the rest of the church. They wanted the Galatians and their loyalty all to themselves. So we come to the end of verse 17: “They would exclude you, that ye might affect them.” Affect is this word Zeloo again. In other words, the Judaizers were pretending to care about the Galatians, but in reality, they were parasites desiring that the Galatians would give them all their zeal and affection. Ultimately, their motives were selfish--they were hungry for the attention and respect of the Galatians and so were trying to lure them away from Paul with their false doctrine.

The Judaizers had a false zeal or passion for the Galatians and they were desiring that the Galatians invest their whole stock of zeal and passion in them. But there was a time when the Galatians had had zeal and passion for something else. Verse 18: “But it is good to be zealously affected” (to have warmth of feeling, covet, desire) “always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.” There is a silent rebuke in that last phrase. Paul is reminding them of the passion and zeal they had had while he was with them which all seemed to have disappeared and or turned to other objects after he left.

Notice something about zeal here. A lot of people talk as if zeal is always a good thing; they'll justify someone by saying “See how passionate they are about that.” Other people talk as if zeal is a bad thing at least if it goes too far. They are for moderation, warning about the excesses of zeal. And according to Paul, both are wrong. Zeal is sometimes good and sometimes bad, but what makes the difference isn't how much zeal we have, but the object of that zeal. It is good to be zealously affected always IN A GOOD THING. It all depends on what someone has zeal or passion FOR; that is what matters. (And also how we use our zeal, but that doesn't come into this passage.)

What exactly was the good thing which the Galatians had once been zealous for and which Paul wanted them to be zealous for again? He may be thinking of their affection for him personally since he mentioned that earlier. But I think he means the gospel itself since that was the key point of Galatians. Once, they had received the gospel joyfully and with zeal. And Paul's desire is that they would always have that attitude towards the gospel. Because that was Paul's zeal and passion. Verse 19 sums it all up. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”

Paul refers to them as his little children, an expression of tenderness and endearment in Greek. You may recognize the phrase because John uses it multiple times in his epistle, but this is the only time Paul uses it. Paul felt a genuine, fatherly interest in these people. Or perhaps, to be more accurate to his metaphor here, a motherly interest. He felt as if he had given birth to them; as if his ministry for them had been like the pangs of labor, bringing them to the point of new birth. And now--now he felt as if he was going through all that all over again. These were people who had once known God; who had had an experience with God, and now they were turning again into slavery and false religion (even if that slavery and false-religion now had a pseudo-Christian veneer) and Paul felt as if he was having to go through the process of winning them all over again.

But the important point is what it was that Paul was travailing over them about because it is the whole point of the gospel. “Until Christ be formed in you.” That is the gospel--and that is the thing the Judaizers could never do--that was what obedience to the law could never do--what, even at its best, the Old Testament economy could not do--and that was to make it possible for Jesus Christ Himself, for God Himself, to be born within the human heart through the agency of the Holy Spirit. That was what had once happened to the Galatians and what Paul desired to happen again--that was what the gospel was aimed at doing, to bring a new nature born in Christ and with that the new freedom of a new nature because the gospel is of freedom, not of bondage.