The Apostle’s Heartfelt Appeal to the Galatians (Galatians 4:11–20)

The demonstration of absurdity compels even the most obstinate mind to yield; and once it perceives this absurdity, it is always ready to abandon its positions. But the heart may resist. Therefore, for complete victory it is necessary to touch the heart also: this prepares the way for the decisions of the will. This is what the holy Paul now does, gathering various considerations that might erase from the heart the sympathy for Judaism that has formed there and incline it toward renunciation of the Law. This was necessary also to soften the harsh effect of the preceding rebuke of the absurdity that the Galatians allowed. The method of reducing something to absurdity is strikingly powerful; but it always reverberates with bitterness in the hearts of those it touches, and this delays the actual life-change that is required. The holy Paul now sweetens it by awakening encouraging feelings. Here each verse brings its own particular feeling. Therefore one cannot point to any particular order in this section (Gal. 4:11–20).

Gal. 4:11. I fear concerning you, lest perhaps I have labored among you in vain.

“This is a father’s voice, befitting one who remembers his labors and does not see the fruit” (blessed Theodoret).

“I fear for you”. “It is as if the Apostle sees that they have gone so far in the wrong direction that they may completely fall away from Christ” (Ambrosiaster). Evil has already begun, been taken up, and produced certain fruits: “you observe days”. What wonder that the decline into Judaism continues further? In some, decline into Judaism could even end in a fall into paganism. For Judaism, after the coming of grace, is as much a superstition as paganism is, without power or meaning. And it is a faith rejected by God.

Should something like this happen, my labor would be lost. The Apostle seems to express it even more urgently: has not my labor already been lost? Have you not become such that you cannot even be called Christians, and must be converted anew? I fear—has the matter gone that far? He does not say this decisively because he did not know definitively what their state was—he was troubled about them (v. 20).

The Apostle does not grieve for his labor, but for them, that they will again be plunged into that darkness from which it cost him so much labor to draw them out, knowing that he is obligated to all, both distant and near; he grieves also that God’s work is thereby arrested. He would have directed his labor to others, but now he must toil again over those same people who seemed already to be established.

The reminder of the labor over the Galatians, which the holy Paul undertook in converting them and establishing their churches, must produce great contrition and tenderness, given the proven love of the holy Apostle for them and the attachment they had shown to him before. He “speaks as if saying: remember how much sweat was poured out over you, and do not allow my labor to become vain” (blessed Theophylact). Needless loss is pitiable. Therefore before he had also mentioned their loss, when he said: you suffered in vain (Gal. 3:3–4). Now he speaks of the loss of his labor. Further on (v. 19) he writes that he labors again, and it is a labor of pain. Practical men well understand how impressive all such reminders are.

Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the Apostle’s genuine concern? They are troubled; but he fears and trembles for them. Therefore his words: ‘I have labored among you’ contain so much that is crushing. It is as if he said: do not make vain so many of my labors. And with the words: ‘I fear’ and: ‘lest perhaps’ he arouses anxiety in them also and at the same time breathes into them good hope. For he did not say: ‘I have labored in vain’, but said: ‘lest perhaps I have labored in vain’. That is: this is not yet shipwreck, but I see in it only a dangerous storm and therefore I fear, but I do not despair. You can still set everything right and return to your former peace”.

The same also blessed Jerome with a particular application: “If he wished to rebuke them decisively, he would have said: I have labored in vain. But now (with this form of expression; ‘lest perhaps’?), seeing that they have zeal for God but not according to knowledge, and not despairing completely in their salvation, deceived by their immaturity of faith, he leaves them also not without rebuke, so as not to give them cause to remain at ease in their delusion, and to keep others from safely giving way to a like delusion. A teacher labors in vain when he strives to lead them to what is better and higher, but they through negligence fall into what is worse and lower”.

Gal. 4:12. Be like me, for I also became like you, brothers, I ask you; you have not wronged me.

Having awakened pity for the labor spent over them, having pointed out the danger of their condition and the hope of deliverance from it, “then, as if stretching out a hand of help to those in danger of shipwreck, he presents himself to them as an example, saying: ‘Be like me’ (Saint Chrysostom). All knew the former burning zeal of the holy Paul for the Law; and all also knew his present freedom from it. If at times he did observe something lawful, he did so as an indifferent matter, only for the sake of peace and to advance the success of the Gospel. Therefore he could boldly speak thus of himself. He speaks here in imitation of military commanders who, seeing soldiers standing in indecision or wavering, cry out to them: Follow me! Nothing is so encouraging as an example, and nothing is easier than to follow in the obvious footprints of another.”

The words: “for I also became like you” are not entirely clear. For the Galatians, inclining toward the Law, were no longer as he was, and consequently neither was he as they were. Therefore various interpretations became necessary, and commentators have differed. Some think that when the holy Paul spoke thus, he had chiefly in mind the Jews, as if to say: I also was like you. “Once I too had this zeal, I loved the Law. But see how I have changed. Therefore do you also rival me in this change” (blessed Theodoret). Others think that when the holy Paul spoke thus, he had chiefly in mind the Gentiles as they were before, completely free from the Law—as if to say: I am a Jew, but I became like you, Gentiles, free from the Law, leaving everything lawful and appearing everywhere as one without the Law (1 Cor. 9:21). See what a sacrifice to God’s truth was made on my part; return to this truth and do not bind yourselves with the Law; for you this is all the easier because it requires no sacrifice on your part, given your nature unbound by the Law and your faith that obligates you to nothing in it.

But it seems that the holy Paul had in mind neither pagans nor Jews, but the Galatian Christians who had inclined toward Judaism. He persuades all the local Christians to abandon their attachment to the Law, not only Jews or pagans. Having received the faith of Christ, they were all free from the Law: Jews abandoned it, and pagans never knew it. Then they inclined toward it, seduced by false teachers. It is this condition he has in mind and urges them: abandon the Law, as I abandoned it. For I too was attached to the Law, as you are now, but I abandoned it. In this Epistle, the holy Paul has many places where the discourse is abrupt and seems to be left unfinished. Such it is here as well. To the words: “for I also, as you” the most natural completion would be: I was, as you are now, a zealot—that is, of the Law—but I fell away from it. Blessed Jerome writes: “I too was once like you are now, when I rigorously kept these [Jewish] customs and as a persecutor laid waste the Church of Christ because it did not do the same”.

Saint Chrysostom is chiefly occupied with drawing from these words all the persuasive thoughts that would move the Galatians. He says: “He speaks this (the Apostle) to believers from the Jews [one can substitute: to those inclined toward Judaism] and by his example persuades them to abandon the ancient customs. If, he says, you had no other example, it would suffice for you merely to look at me to decide fearlessly upon such a change. Look at me. I too once held the same thoughts as you and burned with intense zeal for the Law, but afterward I did not fear to abandon the Law and to change my way of life according to the Law. You know well both the zeal with which I formerly kept Judaism, and how with even greater readiness I afterward abandoned it. And it was very fitting that the Apostle offered this example after everything, for many people are more readily swayed by the example of one of their own brothers than by countless proofs, however just they may be; and when they see another doing something, they more readily incline to do the same themselves”.

“Brothers, I beseech you”. Some relate these words to what precedes: “Be like me”; others to what follows: “you have not wronged me”. Lovers of the letter spend much time determining which is better. But Saint Chrysostom turns all attention to clarifying how much these two words mean for the Apostle’s purpose in this section. Let us confine ourselves to that. “See how he again calls them by a respectful name, and thereby reminds them also of grace (that is, “of the grace of baptism, by virtue of which we are all brothers, born of one Father”). Since up to now he has attacked them from all sides—with strong rebukes, strict examination of their deeds, and conviction that they are transgressors of the Law—he now again softens his speech and comforts them, speaking in a more tender and gracious manner. For just as uninterrupted caresses weaken, so rebukes without mitigation harden. Therefore moderation and a middle way are always good. See how he justifies the rebuke he has made, showing that everything he has said to them was spoken not out of hatred but out of love for them. Having made such a deep wound, he at once pours the oil of comfort upon it. And to assure them that all that has been said to them was not spoken from hatred or enmity toward them, to remind them of his love for them (in the word: ‘brothers’), he adds in his own justification and in their praise, saying: ‘I beseech you, you have not wronged me’.”

“You have not wronged me”. He turns away the thought that might arise in the Galatians, that the Apostle is speaking so severely because of some offense, as Saint Chrysostom notes. And he turns it away by assuring them that he has seen no wrong from them, and consequently it is unfitting that he should be offended with them. “Even an ordinary man would scarcely wish to harm a person who has done him no wrong, or to offend him without cause. But you not only have not wronged me, but have also shown toward me a great and extraordinary affection. Therefore it cannot be that one who has received such comfort from you would speak to you in malice. Thus I speak not in annoyance, but in excessive love for you and concern for you. ‘I beseech you, you have not wronged me’. What soul is more gracious, more merciful, and more full of love than this holy soul!” (Saint Chrysostom).

In assuring them that there was no occasion for offense, the Apostle at the same time hints that such occasion will arise, and very strongly so, if they Judaize. You have done me no wrong so far, but things have gone such a way that you might deeply wound me. You were always attentive to my teachings, always did whatever I commanded you: and everything between us went so peacefully. Do not break this peace, do not begin strife, do not raise the barrier of Judaism between us. Given the Apostle’s love, tested by the Galatians, and their love for him, proved by deeds, this reminder is a very sharp sting, piercing and wounding powerfully. How well this worked toward the Apostle’s goal! Blessed Jerome seems to have had this thought in mind when he adds: “The disciple wrongs the teacher if through negligence he forgets his lessons and thereby renders his labor vain”.

Someone may say: they have not wronged, but will wrong. Did the Apostle stand up for himself? No, for the Lord and His work. But he had the work of the Lord so knit to himself that it was the work of his life. What harmed that work pierced the pupil of his eye. The holy Paul was not indifferent to preaching and to the progress of his disciples. What was favorable to them gladdened him; what was unfavorable grieved him…

But again: the fear of wounding a beloved person, by awakening which the Apostle wishes to act upon the Galatians, is an earthly, human feeling. Is it fitting in God’s work? This feeling is a good feeling, implanted in our nature by God as a regulator of our relations, along with other feelings. Therefore, as God’s, it could be directed also to God’s work. Devices of this kind in the holy Apostle are reduced to one rule, which he always followed: “I became all things to all, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

Gal. 4:13–14.
You know that on account of a weakness of the flesh I first preached the Gospel to you, and your trial in my flesh, you did not despise or spit upon, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

“The heartfelt concern for the Galatians causes the Apostle often to change his manner of speech, now to rebuke, now to beseech—sometimes to accuse, and sometimes to lament. Here he says to them: in nothing have I suffered wrong from you; on the contrary, I have received the greatest possible services from you. I have not forgotten the honor you showed me. Though I bore great dishonor upon my body, having been mocked, tormented, and endured a thousand ills—yet you did not regard the dishonor but honored me, ‘as an angel of God’. And why do I say: as an angel?—‘as Christ Jesus’; because you thought that in serving me, you were serving Christ” (blessed Theodoret).

Why does the holy Paul remind them of this? Partly to continue and more fully present the thought he had begun—namely, that having received no displeasure from them, he could not speak to them so sternly from a sense of offense, but speaks to them from love alone and desire for their good, as if to say: “And what do I say: ‘you have not wronged me’? On the contrary, you have shown great and heartfelt attachment to me. For ‘you know’ and the rest. Believe then that what I have said to you was spoken not from foolish anger and passionate disturbance of soul, but from care for your souls alone” (Saint Chrysostom).

But more particularly, he reminds them of this to rekindle in their souls how the first preaching went among them, how their souls changed, how, leaving all, they clung to the Lord, and received the Apostle himself as one sent from above, and in him beheld the Lord Himself who sent him, as it is customary to receive ambassadors as those who sent them. The holy Apostle knew that if that same (initial) fire of zeal for the pure faith of Christ were kindled in their souls, it would cast out from their souls everything foreign to this faith, as molten metal expels from itself all extraneous matter. Therefore he wishes to renew it, compelling the Galatians to pass through once more in their hearts the whole history of their conversion, forgotten and obscured by subsequent events. In the conversion of the Galatians, one must suppose, there was something extraordinary. For when outwardly the holy Paul appeared so humiliated that one could spit upon him, he was received so highly, and such fervent faith was shown in his word. The memory of this extraordinary manifestation of God’s power among them was powerful in sustaining, and surely did sustain, in the Galatians the same spirit of faith, both in strength and in substance, like a banner in the ranks that always inspires warriors. Surely this was so, but then gradually it was forgotten. This forgetting gave the false teachers occasion to creep into their souls. The holy Apostle now restores it, to once more cast them out and expel everything they brought in.

The words: “weakness of the flesh”—which he at once calls “trial in my flesh”—there is no great need to define with precision. The holy Apostle wishes only to say: remember what I was like before you outwardly? Such that by human relations and understanding I could be despised and spat upon. But my teaching was luminous, exalted, divine. Were you able then to discern the substance of such a precious work beneath such an unprepossessing appearance of mine? And this substance of the work—my Gospel—was it such as you now understand it? Where has your keen sight gone that saw so clearly in the darkness what now appears so dimly in the light of day?

Commentators, however, strive to determine what weakness of the flesh the Apostle had. And some think it was some bodily illness, while others think it was persecutions, mockings, wounds, which are more fittingly called “trial in my flesh”.

Blessed Jerome writes: “We can guess that the Apostle fell ill when he first came to the Galatians; but despite being afflicted with illness, he did not cease preaching the Gospel. There is a tradition that he often suffered from headache; and it was this that was the angel of Satan given to him to torment him, lest he be exalted (2 Cor. 12:7). This weakness was a trial for those to whom the Gospel was proclaimed—would they not despise one who promises such a lofty thing, yet is himself so weak in body? It is not unfitting either that when the Apostle came to the Galatians at first, he suffered mockings, persecutions, and wounds from those who resisted the Gospel. It must have been a great trial for the Galatians when they saw the Apostle being struck.”

The Eastern commentators give to the words: “weakness” and: “trial” exclusively the latter meaning. Saint Chrysostom says: “What is he trying to say by this? When, he says, I was persecuted, beaten, threatened with thousands of deaths while preaching to you, you did not despise me even then. For this is what the words mean: ‘your trial in my flesh, you did not despise or spit upon’.”

With this one can also discern here a hidden rebuke of the Galatians, which could not have been insensible to them. It must at once have come to their minds: the Apostle suffered so much for us, and we have now turned our backs on him; and is it not strange that in the beginning we received and honored the humiliated one, and afterward we fell away from him. We should be ashamed! “By this the Apostle brings them to shame,” writes Theophylact, “reminding them how much he endured for them from those who opposed the truth.” Saint Chrysostom says: “Do you see the Apostle’s spiritual wisdom? Even in his own justification he does not cease to rebuke them, when he sets before them how much he suffered for them; and when he says: yet this in no way scandalized you; you did not spit upon me in these sufferings and persecutions. For by weakness and trial he means sufferings and persecutions. ‘But you received me as an angel of God’. How then is it not strange that you receive one who was persecuted and hunted as an angel of God, but do not receive his teaching on what is necessary?”

“As an angel, as Christ Jesus you received me”. This was because of the impressiveness of their preaching, by the power of which Christ Jesus was so vividly portrayed in their mind that He seemed to hang crucified before their eyes. The word of the Apostles proceeded from their lips not by their will and deliberation, but by the moving of God’s Spirit. The extraordinary vividness of speech among the Galatians remained memorable to the holy Paul. It could not have failed to be memorable to the Galatians as well. To this the Apostle leads them with these words. For they received him so highly because of the power of the preached word. This was bound to stir up in their souls all that had happened in them at their first conversion, which, as indicated earlier, was very important for the purpose of the holy Apostle.

One also pays attention to the preposition δια—δι ασθενειαν—“on account of weakness”. It seems as if I preached because of weakness of the flesh. I had no plans to preach; but illness stopped me, and I began to preach. It may be so. But better to translate it as we say: by main force or through tears. It will mean—despite illness, if there was one; or: despite persecutions and wounds, or amid illness and wounds: they continued, and I did my work, moving amid them, through them, as one goes through thorns, through thorns.

Gal. 4:15. What then was your blessing? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.

“What then was your blessing”—not everyone understands it the same way. Some: How blessed you were then! Others: How you blessed me then! A third way: How you were blessed then? From the flow of the discourse, only the middle meaning is fitting here: How did you bless/honor me then? Μακαρισμος means: blessing, acclamation. Clear evidence of this can be found in the church service, where certain verses on the beatitudes are called μακαρισμοι—blessings: for there various virtues, essential in life, are blessed/acclaimed. And the Apostle’s discourse both before and after is entirely about how he was received, how the Galatians related to him, not about the Galatians themselves. You received me, he says, as an angel, as the Lord Himself. And how you honored me, exalted me, blessed me then! You were ready to do everything for me, to give me everything, to sacrifice everything for me. A figurative expression: to pluck out (put out) the eyes and give them to someone means: to be ready for any sacrifices for someone. The Apostle speaks of this to make them reflect on the source of the change in them, when he is still the same in himself and in his relationship to them. The words of blessed Theophylact can be thus translated: “What has become of that (former) blessing you showed? Now I do not see it, since you now relate to me in a completely opposite way.” Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle is bewildered, marveling at their change, and tries to learn from them themselves the cause of it. Who has bewitched you, he says, and changed your disposition toward me? Did you not serve me and heal my wounds and value me more than your own eyes? What then has happened? Whence such hostility? Whence this suspicion? Has it come because I spoke the truth to you? But for this you ought to honor and love me even more.”

For the purpose of the holy Paul in this section, this thought serves to awaken shame or self-shame in their inconstancy and to make them reflect whether they are doing well in turning away from the lessons of such an enthusiastically received teacher of faith, whom they did not know at all before his preaching. From this, a natural transition to suspicion of the new teachers follows: Are they perhaps not telling us the truth? Are they benefactors to us or is the first teacher of truth? Is there nothing bad in them? Therefore, right after these words the Apostle speaks directly to them about the bad intentions of the false teachers.

The interpretation: How blessed you were then!—though it does not fit the flow of the discourse, is not unfavorable to the purpose of the holy Paul in this section—to trouble the feelings of the Galatians. Therefore it is accepted by some. A mode of thinking does not remain without influence on the heart, all the more so belief, and still more so belief accompanied by action. In true faith the Lord unites Himself with the heart and blesses it. The depth of the union depends on the power of faith, its purity, and the corresponding determination on appropriate action. The purity of faith is diminished, or the life corresponding to it, the closeness to the Lord is diminished, and in proportion—the blessing of the heart. The Galatians, receiving the faith with such warmth, were in an indescribable, as it were, rapture. This rapture was not from frivolous excitement, but from the fact that they truly felt themselves blessed; and they felt themselves blessed because the Lord was in them, blessing them for their sincerity in cleaving to Him and the purity of their faith. Now their faith has been darkened by inclination toward Judaism; and Judaism has begun to distance them from the Lord and the Lord from them (v. 19). The measure of this distancing was necessarily accompanied by a corresponding measure of diminishment in the inner blessedness in the Lord. Knowing that this is so, the holy Paul says to the Galatians: Compare what is now in your heart with what was then, and you will see that you have taken a wrong step. Remember what blessing you felt then: where is it now? (Blessed Theodoret, Saint Damascus, and others read: που μακαρισμος—where is the blessing? The moderns have also adopted this reading. But not for the better.) With this he said as if to them: Remember, from what a height have you fallen?

It is needless to say how impressive and edifying such an admonition could be. Despite all this, one should consider it in this present place only as incidental and conjectured, not as the one the flow of discourse requires. One can unite these two understandings into one: the Galatians blessed the holy Paul because they felt themselves blessed with the blessedness that was given them by the faith preached to them by the holy Paul. The third interpretation, then: How you were blessed/praised?—does not fit either the flow of discourse or the purpose of this section. It appears, however, among some of the ancients as well.

Gal. 4:16. So have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

In the Slavonic translation and in holy Chrysostom, this clause is affirmative; in the current Greek text and in Russian it is a question: am I then your enemy? This does not change the thought; but the affirmative form indicates it more directly than the question. Here is the conclusion from what has been said before, as shown by ωςε, – “so that”. The Apostle speaks as though: consider the rapture into which you have fallen over the truth I have communicated to you! You have felt it and valued it properly; you have honored me as God’s messenger, so there can be no doubt of my good will toward you. Speaking the truth before you (αληθευων υμιν), sincerely, conscientiously, self-sacrificingly offering you the pure truth, I have thereby proved to you my true love for you, for the sake of the truth you received. For this you have repaid me with your love and honor shown to me. But now your attitude toward me is different, because false teachers have explained things differently to you. They have turned the truth into falsehood and turned your hearts away from me and from the truth. And it has come to pass that I have become your enemy for speaking the truth to you, while they have become your friends for leading you away from the truth. And what does this accord with? Come to your senses, look at the matter as it is. Consider who these new teachers are – and you will see that they are zealous for you and so forth.

Gal. 4:17. They are zealous for you, not in a good way; they want to cut you off so that you will be zealous for them.

With the previous verse, holy Paul was directing the Galatians only to doubt the true good will toward them of the false teachers; but in this one he speaks directly of their malicious intent. They do not wish you well, he says as though, but only try to turn you away from me, so that you would go over to their side and call them: teacher, teacher!