Galatians 4

Galatians 4:1

God [is] able to make all grace abound toward you. To bestow upon you every blessing, temporal as well as spiritual. He is able to make up all you part with and more. The faithful steward will be trusted with more.

Galatians 4:2

As it is written. In Psalms 112:9. He hath dispersed abroad. It is said there of the man who feareth the Lord: He does not hold tightly but dispenses abroad by giving to the poor. His righteousness. Right doing in giving. Remaineth for ever. That is, he is supplied with means to keep it up.

Galatians 4:3

He that ministereth seed to the sower. God, who can, and does, bless charitable giving, will do so in the case of the Corinthians. The fruits of your righteousness will be increased, for your means will be increased.

Galatians 4:4

Being enriched in every thing. This explains how the fruits of righteousnesses are increased. As they are enriched it tends to “bountifulness”, and this causeth “thanksgiving to God”.

Galatians 4:5

For the administration of this service. Two things result from the bountiful giving. (1) The wants of the saints are supplied. (2) Their thanksgiving for the relief glorifies God.

Galatians 4:6

They glorify God for your professed subjection, etc. That the Corinthians had become subject to the gospel and God’s means of succoring their temporal wants. Some Judaizing Christians at Jerusalem doubted whether the Gentile churches were really churches of Christ. Such a gift would tend to open their minds and remove their prejudices, an object very dear to the heart of Paul.

Galatians 4:7

And by their prayer for you. Thus, filled with affection for you, and longing for you on account of the proof they had of God’s grace to you, they glorify God by prayer for you.

Galatians 4:8

Thanks [be] unto God for his unspeakable gift. The Corinthians were asked to give; they were cited to the example of Christ (2 Corinthians 8:9); but now Paul bursts out in thanksgiving to God for his gift, which language cannot describe–Jesus Christ and his gospel. It was that gift which broken down the old enmity and bound together Jew and Gentile in love, so that Jewish Christians would pray, thank God for, and long for Gentile Christians like those that Corinth.

Galatians 4:10

Judaizing False Teachers Rebuked SUMMARY OF II CORINTHIANS 10: Paul’s Personal Appeal. His Weapons Spiritual. What Was Said of His Bodily Presence. What He Will Be When Present. Concerning Boasting. The Saint May Glorify in the Lord Only. Now I Paul. Thus far in this epistle Paul has associated himself with Timothy and his fellow-laborers (2 Corinthians 1:1). He has spoken in the plural. Now he uses the singular, and there will be seen in the 10th and 11th chapters a tone of severity contrasted with the gentleness and love of those that precede. Those chapters are addressed to the church which had as a body cleared itself of fault. There was, however, a faction who opposed him, who disparaged his claims as an apostle, and he now speaks for the benefit of these.

This accounts for the change of style and tone. Since the opposition was to him personally, he speaks in person. I repeat what has been before said, that this opposition came mainly from the Judaizing Christians who thought Paul had gone wrong in not requiring Gentile Christians to come under the bondage of the Jewish law. Who in presence [am] base among you. Lowly. His first letter had been stern. See 1 Corinthians 5:11-13. The opposers said that he was very gentle when present, but bold when absent.

Galatians 4:11

I beseech [you]. He asks that, when he comes, he may not have to exercise that boldness which he fears he will have to use in censuring some opposers. He desires that all may so act that he can be lowly and gentle when present. As if we walked according to the flesh. Were led by worldly motives.

Galatians 4:12

We walk in the flesh. He is in the body, but though in the flesh does not use fleshly weapons in his warfare.

Galatians 4:13

For the weapons of our warfare, etc. Since these were not carnal, the might was not in human strength, but in God who gave them power to overcome the strongholds of sin.

Galatians 4:14

Casting down imaginations. The sophistries of philosophy. By these weapons the soul is rescued, delivered, and brought to the obedience of Christ.

Galatians 4:15

To revenge all disobedience. These spiritual weapons are ready to punish all disobedience at Corinth, when time had been given for all who are disposed to be obedient to show it.

Galatians 4:16

Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? The Revised Version omits the question. Perhaps his opposers claimed some external advantages, that they were from Judea, had been disciples of Christ on earth, etc. If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s. If such an one claimed to be Christ’s on this, or any ground, Paul had equal claims.

Galatians 4:17

Though I should boast . . . I should not be ashamed. A comparison of claims to privilege and authority would not put him to shame. Not for your destruction. His power and authority were given to save men; he desires not to have to use them to fulminate censures.

Galatians 4:18

That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. His enemies said that his letters were weighty and stern, but his presence was very different. In other words, he terrified by empty threats.

Galatians 4:20

Let such an one think this. Let all who make such statements know that when I come I will in presence do just as I have written.

Galatians 4:21

We dare not make ourselves of the number. This no doubt ironically alludes to teachers who had come to Corinth making lofty claims, to whom repeated allusions are made. They measuring themselves by themselves, etc. These set themselves up as the standard by which all Christian teachers were to be tried.

Galatians 4:22

We will not boast of things without [our] measure. Will not, like those just alluded to, suffer our boasting to carry us beyond all bounds. But according to the measure, etc. We confine ourselves simply to the line of action assigned to us by the Lord. To reach even unto you. The line assigned by the Lord sent Paul to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7-9).

Galatians 4:23

For we stretch not ourselves beyond [our measure]. This verse renders clearer the thought in those preceding. The Judaizers said that Paul had exceeded his commission in coming to Corinth, that he had no authority there. He asserts that not he, but they had gone beyond the measure. Others were apostles to the circumcision; he and Barnabas to the uncircumcision. When he came to Europe he was sent by the Spirit (Acts 16:9).

Galatians 4:24

Not boasting . . . of other men’s labours. It was Paul’s uniform course to preach where no one before him had preached the gospel. Having hope, etc. The passage expresses the hope that his success at Corinth and the support of the church will enable him to carry the gospel beyond. That city, at this time, was the western limit of his work. The thought is made clear by the next verse.

Galatians 4:25

To preach the gospel in the [regions] beyond you. Where no man has yet preached.

Galatians 4:26

But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Quoted from Jeremiah 11:23. It gives the true rule of boasting. Let the Lord be our boast, for we are nothing.

Galatians 4:27

Whom the Lord commandeth is the one who hath approval; not he who commends himself; a hint to every disciple and preacher. Let our works and life speak for us, not our lips.

Galatians 4:29

Paul and His Antagonists SUMMARY OF II CORINTHIANS 11: Compelled by His Opposers to Indulge in Folly. His Jealousy for the Corinthians. Compelled to Recount His Claims. His Unspeakable Sufferings. A Boast in Infirmities. Bear with me a little in [my] folly. The disparagement of his claims by the false teachers rendered it necessary that he should speak of himself in self-defense. One so forgetful of self and consecrated to Christ as Paul could only do this with a sort of sense of shame. Hence he apologizes for doing so, though compelled.

Galatians 4:30

I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. His course was induced because of his jealousy for them, not in behalf of himself, but of Christ. He had espoused them to Christ, the Bridegroom of whom the church is the bride (Revelation 21:2). He has a fear lest this bride may be led astray.

Galatians 4:31

But I fear, etc. As Eve was seduced from God by the serpent (Genesis 3:1), so he fears that the Corinthian brethren may be led from the simplicity, single-minded devotion, “that is in Christ”.