Chapter 4: Verses 16–20
The measure of love is expressed when Christ says we must love one another, as Christ loved us (John 13:34).
There is a certain case in which we must consider our neighbor, not only as a neighbor, but also as a special instrument of God. And thus are we in some respects to love and to prefer him before ourselves.
Thus a subject is more to love the life of his prince than his own life.
Thus Paul was content to be accursed for the Israelites (Rom. 9:3).
And the Galatians would have given their eyes to Paul that was so worthy an instrument of the grace of God.
In their example we are taught to be willing to forsake the dearest things in the world for the gospel of Christ, even our eyes, hands, feet, yea and our life.
Chapter 4: Verses 16–20 Verse 16.
"Because I tell you the truth." We must after Paul's example speak the truth to all men (Eph. 4:25). "Am I therefore your enemy"—the conclusion of the apostle's argument. Here we see a corruption of nature which makes us that we cannot abide to hear the truth in things that are against us. We hate them that speak the truth. Selflove makes us conceive the best things of ourselves. Here then learn:
1. To search your heart and life, that you may know the very worst by yourself. If you will not know it now, you shall know it to your shame in the day of judgment.
2. Be vile and base in your own opinion (Job 40:4).
17 They are jealous over you amiss: yea, they would exclude you, that ye should altogether love them.
18 But it is good to love earnestly always in a good cause; and not only when I am present with you.
The word "zeal" has many significations; here it is fitly translated jealousy. "They are jealous." Hereby much is signified: that there is a spiritual marriage between Christ and His church; that the church is the bride, Christ the bridegroom, or husband, the gospel an instrument drawn touching the marriage; the sacraments as seals, the graces of the Spirit as love tokens, the ministers of Christ as friends of the bridegroom and suitors for Him. In this respect they put on the affection of Christ and are zealous for Him. This jealousy is twofold: pretended jealousy and true jealousy. Pretended jealousy is when men falsely pretend the love of the church for Christ's sake.
Thus Paul says, "They are jealous," that is, they pretend a love unto you for Christ's sake, but indeed they do it "amiss." And the reason follows: "They would exclude you," namely, from loving of me.
Others read the words thus: They would exclude "us" (ἡμᾶς). The difference in the original is only in one letter. And the sense is the same, that the false apostles would exclude Paul from the love of the Galatians that they only might be honored and loved.
"It is good." These words may be understood either of the Galatians or of Paul. I rather choose to apply them to Paul, that for jealousy he may make an opposition between himself and the false teachers. The sense is this: that zeal is a good thing, if it be in a good cause—that is, if it be indeed for Christ's sake and be always the same. And Paul adds further that this kind of jealousy is in himself because he is jealous over the Galatians not only when he is present with them, but
also when he is absent. And this he further confirms in the two next verses.
The Scope. In these words, Paul meets with a conceit of the Galatians. For they might haply say that their new teachers loved them exceedingly and were jealous for their salvation. Paul therefore answers by a comparison, thus. They are jealous over you, but it is amiss. Nay, jealousy for you is good. The first part of the comparison is in the seventeenth verse; the second, in the eighteenth.
The Use. When Paul says that the false apostles were jealous over the Galatians amiss, he sets out the fashion of men in the world, which is to do things which are good in their kind, but to do them for wrong ends. It is an excellent office to preach the word, but some do it of envy and contention (Phil. 1:15). Others make merchandise of the word. It is an excellent thing to embrace the gospel. And yet many men do it amiss for fear, or for honor, or for profit, or for other sinister respect, and not for the gospel's sake. This temporal life is an excellent thing, yet few there are that know the end of this life. For men commonly spend not their time to seek the kingdom of heaven and to serve God in serving of men; but with all their might they aim at honors, profits, pleasures. And thus they live amiss, not for the honor of God, but for themselves. This must teach us not only to do good, but to do it well, and to propound good ends to ourselves, and to seek to be upright in the statutes of God (Ps. 119:80). To this end, three things must be done. First, we must set before us the will and commandment of God, and this must move us to do the good we do.
Secondly, the outward action must be conformable to the inward motions of the inward man. And they must both go together. Thirdly, we must directly intend to obey God in all things we do and to approve our hearts and doings to Him.
In that the false apostles are said to be "jealous," or zealous, we see how nature can counterfeit the grace of God, and that which the child of God does by grace, that the natural man can do by nature. Thus
Pharaoh feigned repentance (Ex. 9:27), and Ahab, that "sold himself to work wickedness" (1 Kings 21:27); and Judas in the midst of his despair is said "to repent" (Matt. 27:3). Daily experience shows the like in such persons who, in their extremity, with tears used to bewail their lives past and with many vows and protestations promise amendment. And yet afterward when they are on foot again, they return to their old bias. In a word, there is nothing that the godly man does by the Spirit of God spiritually, but a hypocrite may do the like carnally. Nature can play the part of the ape in imitating good things. Therefore it stands us in hand to pray and examine our hearts, lest we be deceived in ourselves. For there may lie a depth of deceit and falsehood lurking in the heart. And that we be not deceived, two things must be observed. One is that we must cherish in our hearts a universal hatred of all and every sin, first in ourselves, and then in others. The second is that we must be changed and renewed in our minds, consciences, and affections.
Thirdly, here we see the property of envy and ambition in these false teachers. Paul must be excluded from the love of the Galatians, that they alone may be loved. Thus Joshua would have excluded Eldad and Medad from prophesying, and he would have Moses to be the only prophet; but Moses says, "I would to God all the people could prophesy" (Num. 11:29). John's disciples would have excluded Christ from baptizing. But John says, "He must increase, and I must decrease" (John 3:30). The disciples of Christ would have excluded one that cast out devils in the name of Christ, but did not follow Him, and Christ forbad them (Luke 9:49).
Lastly, we here see the property of deceivers is to make a division between the pastors and the people.
Beside the former pretended jealousy, there is a good jealousy which the apostle takes to himself, and elsewhere he calls it "the jealousy of God" (2 Cor. 11:2).
This jealousy presupposes the office of the apostles and all ministers, which stands in three things. The first is to become suitors to the church or to the souls of men in the name of Christ, and to make the offer or motion in His name of a spiritual marriage. And this is done in the ministry and dispensation of the gospel. The second is to make the contract between men's souls and Christ. Now to the making of a contract, the consent of both the parties (at the least) is required.
Christ gives His consent in the Word (Hos. 2:20), and we give our consent to Him and choose Him for our head when we turn to God and believe in Christ. And the ministry of the word serves to signify the will of Christ unto us and to stir up our hearts to an holy consent.
The third is, after the contract, to preserve them in true faith and good life that they may be fit to be presented to Christ in the day of judgment and so be married to Him eternally. For then, and not before, is the marriage of the lamb. These duties are all noted by Paul when he says that he prepared the Corinthians that he might
"present them as a pure virgin unto Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). And because this charge and office is laid upon the apostles and ministers, therefore they are said to be "jealous."
This jealousy stands in three things. The first is to love the church in deed and truth for Christ's sake. The second is to fear, lest by reason of weakness and by means of the temptations of the devil, the church and they that believe should fall away from Christ. The third is, after the fall of the church, to be angry with holy anger and indignation for
Christ's sake. Thus Moses was jealous when the Israelites worshiped the golden calf, and Elijah with like zeal slew the priests of Baal. Thus is Paul said to be jealous in this place (Acts 14).
If the apostle be thus jealous, how much more then is Christ Himself jealous, who has espoused Himself to His church? This plainly shows that He cannot brook either partner or deputy. And therefore His sacrifice on the cross must stand without the sacrifice of the Mass;
His intercession, without the intercession of saints; His merits, without the merit of works; His satisfaction, without any satisfaction of ours. He will have the heart alone, and all the heart or nothing; and He will not give any part of His honor to any other.
This jealousy in the ministers must teach all faithful servants of God that they keep themselves as pure virgins for Christ and set their hearts on nothing in the world, but on Him. Therefore they must hunger after Christ. They must account all things dung for Him. They must have their conversation in heaven with Him and love His coming unto them by death (Ps. 45:10). Contrariwise they that set their hearts on any other thing beside Him are said "to go a whoring from him," and therefore they are accursed (Ps. 73:27). Thus many
Protestants do in their practice, whatsoever they profess. Thus does the Church of Rome both in word and deed. For beside Christ she has many other lovers. And she goes a whoring after them when she worships angels and saints, the images of God and Christ, with religious worship.
Again, by this we are put in mind to yield a universal subjection to Christ. For this is the duty of the espoused wife to her husband.
Lastly, that good things may be well done, good ends must be propounded; and we must be constant in the good which we do. And thus Paul says, "It is good to be jealous."
19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be formed in you.
20 I would I were now with you, that I might change my voice: for I am in fear of you.
Paul has said before that "his jealousy over the Galatians was good" because it was in a good cause and it was constant, not only in his presence, but even in his absence. And this he declares here by two signs: his love now in his absence, in the nineteenth verse, and his desire, in the twentieth verse.
The word ὠδίνω, translated, "I travail in birth," signifies not only the travail of the woman at the birth of the child, but also the painful bearing thereof before the birth. And the words have this sense. O you Galatians, once heretofore I bare and brought you forth when I first preached Christ unto you. And because now thou art revolted from my doctrine, I am constrained once again to bear you and to travail with you in my ministry, till by the operation of the Holy
Ghost the right knowledge and the true image of Christ defaced by the false apostles be once again reformed and restored.
In these words ("my little children"), Paul takes to him the condition of a mother, and he signifies his most tender and motherly affection to the Galatians. It is the fashion of mothers when their children prosper and do well to rejoice; when they are sick or die, to mourn exceedingly and to be moved with pity and compassion. The Galatians deserved no love at Paul's hand. For their apostasy was very foul. Yet because there were some good things remaining in them and there was hope of recovery, he enlarges his bowels towards them and shows his love with compassion. If this be the case with Paul, then great is the love and compassion of God to His children. If the child be sick and froward, the mother does not cast it forth of the
doors, but she tenders it and carefully looks unto it. Much more then will the Lord have pity and compassion. Here then a main comfort is to be remembered. If we be of the number of them that believe in Christ, hating vice and having a care to please God, our weaknesses and falls of weakness do not abolish the mercy of God, but are occasions to illustrate the same. The weakness of the child stirs up the compassion in the mother. And David says, "As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him." And mark the reason: "For he knows our frame, and that we are but dust" (Ps. 103:13–14).
When Paul says, "I travail," he signifies the measure of his ministerial pains, that they were as the travail of a woman with child; and this he shows plainly in the particulars (2 Cor. 11:23). Elijah, that was sent in his time to restore religion, was at length so wearied in this business that he desired the Lord to take him out of the world (1
Kings 19:4). The pains of the prophet Isaiah made him cry, "My leanness, my leanness." And Jeremiah cries, "My belly, my belly"37— signifying that his griefs and his pains in the ministry were as the pain of the colic. By this we see that they have much to answer for before God that are in this calling and yet take little or no pains therein. And that they which take the most pains come far short of their duty.
Again, when he says, "I travail," he signifies the dignity of the ministry, that it is an instrument appointed of God for the work of regeneration. For Paul compares himself to a woman in travail, and the work of his ministry to the travail itself whereby children are born to God. This serves very well to stop their mouths that condemn the vocal and external ministry.
When he says, "I travail again," he teaches that if men fall after their first initial repentance, there is still a possibility of mercy and place for a second repentance. We must "forgive till seventy seven times"
(Matt. 18:22). Much more will God do it. The parable of the prodigal son shows that they which fall from God after their calling and first conversion may again by new repentance be recovered.
An objection: Paul's second travail presupposes a second regeneration in the Galatians. And if they are born again the second time, then in their apostasy they fell wholly from God. Answer. When
Paul says, "I travail again," he does not presuppose any second spiritual generation. For the child of God is but once begotten to the Lord, and Paul here calls the Galatians "little children" because even in the time of their fall, the seed of God still remained in their hearts.
And because the image of Christ was again to be reformed and restored in the Galatians, in this respect he says, "I travail again with you."
The end of Paul's ministry is expressed in the words, "Till Christ be formed in you"—that is, till (as it were) the counterfeit or image of Christ be stamped and imprinted in your hearts. This image has two parts. The first is a right knowledge of Christ in respect of His natures and offices as they are set forth in the Word. This knowledge was defaced in the Galatians, when they joined works with Christ.
For then they made Him to be an imperfect savior. The second part of this image is a conformity with Christ (Rom. 8:29). It is twofold: conformity in quality and conformity in practice.
Conformity in quality is again twofold. The first is a conformity to the death of Christ, when the virtue thereof works in us a death of sin, and when we suffer as Christ suffered in silence, contentation, obedience, subjecting ourselves to the will of God. The second is a
conformity to the resurrection or life of Christ, and that is when we live not only a natural, but also a spiritual life, which is to submit ourselves to be ruled by the word and Spirit of Christ.
Conformity in practice is when we carry ourselves as prophets in the confession of the name of Christ, in teaching, exhorting, and admonishing one another, as priests to offer our bodies and souls in sacrifice to God, as spiritual kings, bearing sway over the lusts and corruptions of our own hearts. And thus is Christ to be framed in the hearts of men.
The Use. Here we see the end of all preaching is to make sinful men to become new creatures like unto Christ. This is the drift of the ministry. And the doctrine that tends to this purpose is sound and wholesome.
Again, here we see that in the New Testament, there is but one rule and order for all men, and that is the rule of Christ, "Take up thy cross and follow me." And for this cause the ministry serves to frame
Christ in the hearts of all believers. Therefore the several rules and orders of monks and friars in the Church of Rome are mere superstitions.
Furthermore, Paul here makes two degrees of God's children; one is when they are begotten of God and Christ is formed in them. The second is when they are begotten of God, yet so as they are as yet unformed. Such were the apostles when they confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God (Matt. 16), for then they knew not the article of Christ's death, resurrection, ascension at that time, nor the manner of His kingdom. Of this sort was Rahab when she received the spies (Heb. 11). For then she was not informed in the religion of the Jews, but only acknowledged the God of Israel to be the true God and had a resolution to join herself to the people of God. Of this sort
were the Corinthians at the first. For they were carnal more than spiritual, even babes in Christ (1 Cor. 3:3). This must teach us, where we see any good thing in men, to cherish it. For though as yet they be not Christians formed, yet they may be Christians in forming.
When Paul says, "Until Christ be formed," he shows that the conversion of a sinner is not wrought in one moment, but by little and little, in process of time. In the generation of infants, first the brain, heart, and liver are framed, then the bones, veins, arteries, nerves, membranes. And after this, flesh is added. And the infant first begins to live the life of a plant by growing and nourishing. Then it lives the life of a beast, by sense and motions. And thirdly, the life of a man, by the use of reason. Even so God outwardly prevents us with His word, and inwardly He puts into us knowledge of His will with the beginnings or seeds of faith and repentance, as it were, a brain and a heart. From these beginnings of faith and repentance arise heavenly desires. From these desires follows asking, seeking, knocking. And thus the beginnings of faith are increased, and men go on from grace to grace till they be tall men in Christ. And for this cause, we must with constancy use the good means in hearing, reading, praying.
Lastly, we are all here put in mind to study and to use all good means that we may be like to Christ, specially in the disposition of the inward man. There is a spiritual madness in the minds of many men.
They think of nothing but of the fashion of their apparel and of the trimming of their bodies. But let us think how to imprint the gracious image of Christ in our hearts. Thus shall we be lovely and have favor in the eyes of God.
Thus much of Paul's love. Now follows his desire in the twentieth verse. In which I consider three things: the desire itself, "I would I
were with you now"; the end of his desire, "That I might change my voice"; the occasion thereof, "For I am in doubt of you."
When Paul says, "I would I were with you now," he shows that the presence of pastors with their people is a thing most necessary. And there are two reasons thereof. One is to prevent spiritual dangers, which are manifold and continual, in that "the devil seeks continually whom he may devour." And "we fight against principalities and powers in heavenly things."43 In this respect pastors are called
"watchmen" and "overseers." Secondly, the presence of pastors with their people serves to redress things amiss and to recover them that be in apostasy, as Paul says in this place. Therefore it were to be wished that this mind of Paul were in all pastors, that with one consent they might say to their people, "I would I were with you now."
In the words, "that I might change my voice," Paul continues the allusion (which he made in the former verse) to a woman with child.
And hereby he signifies two things. The first is that he will leave further disputing with the Galatians and fall to lamenting and crying as mothers do in the time of their travail by reason of their pain. This is to change the voice. It was the manner of Paul to abase himself and to mourn for the sins of others (2 Cor. 12:21), and he reproves the Corinthians that they were puffed up and did not mourn for the incestuous person. Like was the practice of David (Ps. 119:136), of Lot (2 Peter 2:7), of Jeremiah (Lam. 2:11), of the friends of Job (Job
2:13), of the godly in the days of Ezekiel (Ezek. 9:4), of Christ in respect of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). And it has been always the practice of holy men, when there was no other help, with tears to commend the case to God.
If sorrow for other men's offences make Paul change his voice, much more are men to do it for their own. Peter, in his repentance, left his presumptuous speaking and fell to bitter and secret tears. And so did the woman that stood at the feet of Christ weeping and washed His feet with her tears (Luke 7:38). The like ought we to do for our offences and sins. The earthquake this winter past must stir us up to this duty. For it is a matter full of terror (1 Sam. 14:15), and the sickness which has taken hold of thousands as a gentle warning must be respected. And it must be considered that the changes of the great world bring with them like changes in the little world, that is, in the bodies of men.
Again, "to change the voice" is to confer with the Galatians, and upon conference to temper his voice to their manners and conditions, as nurses stammer and lisp with children. For some are with pity to be recovered; and some, with terror (Jude 22–23).
Hence I gather that the conferences of pastors and people is a thing very necessary. Paul here ascribes more to it than to his epistle. It is the life of preaching. For by it the teachers know better what to teach, and the people better to conceive things that are taught. Here then we see a common fault. Men are content to hear, but they will not confer with their teachers. And in the time of sickness, the first person that is conferred with is the physician. And the minister is last sent for. Whereas on the contrary, the cure of the soul is the cure of the body (Job 33:23, 25).
Again, here is set down the way to attain all good learning. And that is that learners be present with their teachers. And the teachers again temper their voices to the capacity of their learners. Thus Samuel was with Eli at the door of the tabernacle. Thus Christ was in the
temple among the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46).
Thirdly, Paul here sets down the way to make a pacification for religion in these last days. And the way is that the pastors of the church be assembled together by the authority of princes. And being assembled, they temper their voices one to another according to the written Word. Thus may they that lie now under the apostasy of antichrist be recovered (Acts 15:6). And the promise of God is that "when two or three come together in his name, he will be with them"
(Matt. 18).
Lastly, the ministers (as here we see) are to temper their gifts and speech to the condition of their hearts. The Corinthians were babes in Christ, and Paul feeds them with milk (1 Cor. 3:1–2). To the Jew he became a Jew; to the Gentiles, a Gentile, that he might win some
(1 Cor. 9:19–22). For this cause it were to be wished that catechizing were more used than it is of our ministers. For our people are for the most part rude and uncatechized. And therefore they profit little or nothing by sermons. A sermon to such persons is like a great loaf set before a child. And it is no disgrace for learned ministers in plain and familiar manner to catechize. For this is to lay the foundation, without which all labor in building is vain. Again, our ignorant people should be content even in their old age to learn the catechism.
For by reason of their ignorance, they lie as a prey to the atheist and papist. And in much hearing, they learn little because they know not the grounds of doctrine that are usually in all sermons. And it is a fault in many that they love to hear sermons, which are beyond their reach, in which they stand and wonder at the preacher, and plain preaching is little respected of such.