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always very conscious of the pitiable spectacle he presented, and remembered the more
with warmest feelings the attitude of the Galatians at such a time. Indeed said he "you
felicitated yourselves" (Gal. 4: 15) on having such a teacher in your midst, and now, am
I to understand that, seeing you on the brink of spiritual sin, I tell you plainly the truth
concerning your violent lapse from grace, that I must therefore be your enemy?
The Apostle now turns from the deceived to the deceivers. Already in chapter 1: we
became aware of the presence of a pernicious influence at work among the Galatians.
"There are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ" (Gal. 1: 7).
Was it the association of ideas that made him speak immediately after this about "an
angel from heaven"? (see the sequence in Gal. 4: 14-17). Again, in chapter 5:,
reference is made to those which "trouble" the Galatians (Gal. 5: 10, 12).
Ellicott and Alford translate the word rendered "zealously affect" as "they are
paying court" but there does not seem any evidence that the false teachers were paying
court to the Galatians. The word zeloo means to be zealous, then to covet or envy. So in
I Cor. 12: 31 "covet earnestly". These false teachers being moved with envy, had
attempted to exclude the Apostle from contact with the Galatians.
"So then, I am become your enemy, forsooth, because I tell you the truth! They who
persuade you to this effect, desire to gain you over to themselves, not by fair and
honourable means, but by artful misrepresentation. They would shut you out from--
whom? or from what? from whom, doubtless, but from their spiritual pastor and guide--
the man who, of all others, stood directly in the way of their designs, and in order to
damage him in their estimations they descended to those base and unworthy devices."
After this conciliatory and personal note, Paul returns to the serious matter that called
this epistle into being.
"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"
(Gal. 4: 19, 20).
Then follows the "allegorizing" of the story of Hagar, Ishmael, Sarah and Isaac in a
further attempt to demonstrate the "foolishness" of the backward movement of these
beloved Galatians, but this must occupy our attention in the next article.