Galatians 4:8-20·~1 min

Paul’s Concern for the Galatians

Paul says that before knowing God the Galatians were enslaved to what are not truly gods, and now that they are known by God he cannot understand why they would turn back to weak and poor elemental things. Their observance of special times makes him fear that his labor among them may have been in vain.

F⁸ormerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? ¹⁰You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.

Paul urges them to become as he is, remembering that he became as they were and that they once welcomed him warmly despite the bodily weakness with which he first preached to them. They had received him almost as an angel or as Christ Jesus himself, so he asks what has become of that blessing and whether truth-telling has now made him their enemy.

¹²I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. ¹³You know that it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. ¹⁴And although my illness was a trial to you, you did not despise or reject me. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself. ¹⁵What then has become of your blessing? For I can testify that, if it were possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Paul says the zeal of the agitators is not good, because they want to isolate the Galatians in order to claim their loyalty. Against that, he speaks as a laboring parent, saying that he is again in childbirth until Christ is formed in them and wishing he could be present now because he is perplexed about them.

¹⁷Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. ¹⁸Nevertheless, it is good to be zealous if it serves a noble purpose — at any time, and not only when I am with you. ¹⁹My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, ²⁰how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.

Section summaryPaul reminds the Galatians that before knowing God they were enslaved to what are not gods, and he is bewildered that those now known by God would turn back toward weak and beggarly principles and a calendar-bound religious bondage. He then speaks with tenderness about their earlier welcome of him in bodily weakness, asks how that warmth has turned to hostility, and says that his present anguish for them is like childbirth until Christ is formed in them.

Role in the chapterThis middle section turns the argument personal and relational. It shows that the Galatians' theological drift is not abstract, but something Paul feels in grief, memory, and pastoral labor.