12. The relation between Paul and the Galatians
If in our study so far we have thought of Paul merely as a scholar with massive intellectual powers, all head and no heart, this paragraph will correct our first impression. For here Paul appeals to the Galatians with deep feeling and immense tenderness. First, he calls them his brothers and sisters in verse 12; then at the end of the paragraph, in verse 19, his dear children – a description of which the apostle John was very fond. He even goes on to liken himself to their mother, who is in the pains of childbirth over them until Christ is formed in them. In Galatians 1 – 3 we have been listening to Paul the apostle, Paul the theologian, Paul the defender of the faith; but now we are hearing Paul the man, Paul the pastor, Paul the passionate lover of souls.
1. Paul’s appeal (4:12)
We begin with the simple instruction of verse 12: become like me, for I became like you. What did Paul mean?
a. Become like me
In the context, following his agonized complaint that the Galatians were turning back to the old bondage from which Christ had redeemed them, this appeal can mean only one thing. Paul longed for them to become like him in his Christian faith and life, to be delivered from the evil influence of the false teachers, and to share his convictions about the truth as it is in Jesus, about the liberty with which Christ has made us free. He wanted them to become like himself in his Christian freedom. He expressed a similar outlook to King Agrippa when the latter said,
‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’ Paul replied, ‘Short time or long – I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.’
(Acts 26:28–29)
In other words, Paul said to the king: ‘I do not want you to become a prisoner like me; but I do want you to become a Christian like me.’ All Christians should be able to say something like this, especially to unbelievers, namely that we are so satisfied with Jesus Christ, with his freedom, joy and salvation, that we want other people to become like us.
b. Because I became like you
In the light of the verses which follow, it seems right to translate the verb in the past tense: become like me, for I became like you. The reference is probably to his visits to them. When Paul came to them in Galatia, he did not keep his distance or stand on his dignity, but became like them. He put himself in their place and identified himself with them. Although he was a Jew, he became like the Gentiles they were. This was in line with his principle stated in 1 Corinthians 9:20–22:
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews . . . To those not having the law I became like one not having the law . . . so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
Here we have a principle of far-reaching importance for ministers, missionaries and other Christian workers. It is that, in seeking to win other people for Christ, our end is to make them like us, while the means to that end is to make ourselves like them. If they are to become one with us in Christian conviction and experience, we must first become one with them in Christian compassion. We must be able to say with the apostle Paul: ‘I became like you; now you become like me.’
This concise appeal introduces the rest of the paragraph in which Paul writes both of their attitude to him (13–16) and of his attitude to them (17–20). It is a most enlightening passage, not only because in it we catch a glimpse of Paul the evangelist and pastor, but because we learn the proper relationships which should exist today between minister and congregation, between the people and their pastor. In each section Paul draws a contrast. First (13–16), he contrasts their attitude to him in the past, when he visited them, with their attitude to him now, as he is writing to them. Second (17–20), he contrasts his attitude to them with the attitude adopted towards them by the false teachers.
2. The Galatians’ attitude to Paul (4:12b–16)
You did me no wrong (12b). Paul has no complaint about their former treatment of him. On the contrary, their behaviour then had been admirable.
What had happened when he visited Galatia? He reminds them in verse 13 that he had first preached the gospel to them because of an illness. We do not know for certain what he meant. Luke says nothing in Acts about illness being the cause of Paul’s visit to the Galatian cities. But presumably, unless he had an attack of some chronic condition, he caught an infection on his way to Galatia, which detained him there. Probably this disease, whatever it was, is the same as the ‘thorn’ of 2 Corinthians 12:7, which was also ‘in my flesh’ (that is, in his body) and an astheneia, a physical weakness or infirmity (cf. av: ‘infirmity of the flesh’). Some people have guessed that Paul caught malaria in the mosquito-infested swamps of coastal Pamphylia, at the time when John Mark lost his nerve and returned home (Acts 13:13). If so, he would quite naturally have headed north and climbed on to the invigorating mountainous plateau of Galatia. But when he arrived in Galatia, he was in the grip of a great fever. Whatever the disease was, it evidently had unpleasant and unsightly symptoms. It seems to have disfigured him in some way. Further, if we read verse 15 in its context, it appears that his illness affected his eyesight, so that, if it had been possible, the Galatians would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him. And, indeed, there is other evidence in the New Testament to suggest that Paul may have suffered from some form of ophthalmia.
All this, Paul’s physical weakness and disfigurement, was a great trial to the Galatians. They had been tempted to despise and reject Paul, to treat him with what Bishop Lightfoot calls ‘contemptuous indifference’ and even ‘active loathing’. But, Paul says, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead of rejecting him, they welcomed him. Indeed, he continues, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself (14).
This is an extraordinary expression. It is another clear indication of Paul’s self-conscious apostolic authority. He sees nothing inappropriate about the Galatians receiving him as if he were one of God’s angels, or as if he were Christ Jesus, God’s Son. He does not rebuke the Galatians for treating him with extravagant respect, as he did when the crowd attempted to worship him in Lystra, one of the Galatian cities (Acts 14:8–18). On that occasion, after Paul had healed a lame man, the pagan multitude cried out, ‘The gods have come down to us in human form!’ Priest and people tried to sacrifice oxen to Paul and Barnabas, until they rebuked and stopped them. Here, however, Paul does not rebuke them for welcoming him as if he were God’s angel or God’s Christ. Although personally he knew that he was only their fellow sinner, indeed ‘the worst’ of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), yet officially he was an apostle of Jesus Christ, invested with the authority of Christ and sent on a mission by Christ. So they were quite right to welcome him as . . . an angel of God, since he was one of God’s messengers, and as . . . Christ Jesus, since he came to them on the authority of Christ and with the message of Christ. The apostles of Christ were his personal representatives. It was said of such individuals in those days that ‘the one sent by a person is as this person himself’. Christ himself had anticipated this. Sending out his apostles, he said: ‘Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me’ (Matt. 10:40). So, in welcoming Paul, the Galatians quite rightly welcomed him as Christ, for they recognized him as an apostle or delegate of Christ.
But that was some time ago. Now the situation has changed: Where, then, is your blessing of me now? (15). They had been so pleased, so proud, to have Paul among them in those days. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? (16). A complete turnabout had taken place. The one they had received as God’s angel, as God’s Son, they now regarded as their enemy! Why? Simply because he had been telling them some painful home truths, rebuking them, scolding them, taking them to task for deserting the gospel of grace and turning back again to bondage.
There is an important lesson here. When the Galatians recognized Paul’s apostolic authority, they treated him as an angel, as Christ Jesus. But when they did not like his message, he became their enemy. How changeable they were, and foolish! The authority of the apostles does not cease when they begin to teach unpopular truths. We cannot be selective in our reading of the apostolic doctrine of the New Testament. We cannot, when we like what the apostles teach, defer to them as angels, and when we do not like what they teach, hate them and reject them as enemies. No, the apostles of Jesus Christ have authority in everything they teach, whether we happen to like it or not.
3. Paul’s attitude to the Galatians (4:17–20)
Paul now draws a contrast between the attitude of the false teachers to the Galatians and his own attitude to them.
Take the false teachers’ attitude first: Those people are zealous to win you over (17). It is not quite certain what Paul means, because the verb here is variously translated in the different versions. But he seems to be accusing the false teachers of flattering the Galatians insincerely. In order to win them to their distorted gospel, the false teachers fawned on them and fussed over them. So Paul adds: It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good (18). But the false teachers were not sincere in their devotion to the Galatians. Their real motive was to alienate you from us (17), that is, to exclude you from Christ and from the freedom that is in Christ; and they want to do it so that you may have zeal for them. When Christianity is seen as freedom in Christ (which it is), Christians are not in subjection to their human teachers, because their ambition is to become mature in Christ. But when Christianity is turned into a bondage to rules and regulations, its victims are inevitably tied to the apron strings of their teachers, as in the Middle Ages.
Paul’s attitude to the Galatians was quite different from that of the false teachers. In verse 19 he calls them my dear children and likens himself to their mother. But is not this to tie them to his apron strings? No. The point of the mother metaphor is not to illustrate their dependence on him, but his suffering for them. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (19). He is not satisfied that Christ dwells in them; he longs to see Christ formed in them, to see them transformed into the image of Christ, ‘until you take the shape of Christ’ (neb). Indeed, in ardent desire and prayer he agonizes over them to this end. He likens his pain to the pangs of childbirth. He had been in labour over them previously at the time of their conversion, when they were brought to birth; now their backsliding has caused him another confinement. He is in labour again. The first time there had been a miscarriage; this time he longs that Christ will be truly formed in them. The Arndt–Gingrich Lexicon quotes examples of the medical use of this verb for ‘the formation of an embryo’. The picture is a bit confused, but, as Alan Cole rightly says, Paul ‘is not giving us a lecture on embryology’. No, he is expressing his deep and sacrificial love for the Galatians, his longing to see them conformed to the image of Christ. He is perplexed about them (20). He wishes he could visit them now and change his tone, ‘from severity to gentleness’.
The difference between Paul and the false teachers should now be clear. The false teachers were seeking themselves to dominate the Galatians; Paul longed that Christ might be formed in them. They had a selfish eye to their own prestige and position; Paul was prepared to sacrifice himself for the Galatians, to suffer until Christ was formed in them.
4. Conclusion
‘It is one of the high excellences of the Epistles of Paul,’ wrote John Brown, ‘that they embody a perfect directory for the Christian minister.’ In particular, we may learn from this paragraph the reciprocal relationship which should exist between people and their pastors, between ministers and their congregations. Of course Christian pastors are not apostles of Jesus Christ. They have neither the authorization nor the inspiration of apostles. They may not lay down the law like apostles. Nor should congregations defer to them as if they were apostles. Nevertheless, Christian ministers are called to teach the people the apostolic faith of the New Testament. And if they are true to this commission, the people’s attitude to them will reflect their attitude to the apostles of Christ, and so to Christ Jesus himself.
a. The people’s attitude to pastors
How is the congregation’s attitude to ministers to be determined? To begin with, it is not to be determined by their personal appearance. They may be ugly, as tradition tells us the apostle Paul was, or good-looking. They may be physically fit, or they may be ill like Paul when he visited Galatia. They may have pleasing personalities, or be quite unprepossessing. They may have outstanding gifts, or just be faithful servants of God with no unusual brilliance. But the people should not be swayed in their attitude to them by their outward appearance. They should neither flatter them because they find them attractive, nor despise and reject them because they are not. The Galatians resisted the temptation to let their attitude to Paul be influenced by his personal appearance. So should congregations today.
Next, people’s attitudes to ministers should not be determined by their private theological whims. Paul became an ‘enemy’ to the Galatians simply because they did not like the home truths he was teaching. Congregations should beware of assessing ministers according to their individual doctrinal fancies.
Instead, congregations’ attitudes to ministers should be determined by their loyalty to the apostolic message. We have already seen that no minister, however exalted that minister’s status in the visible church, is an apostle of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, if ministers are faithful in teaching what the apostles taught, godly congregations will humbly receive their message and submit to it. They will neither resent nor reject it. Rather, they will welcome it, even with the respect which they would give to an angel of God, to Christ Jesus himself, because they recognize that the message of these ministers is not their message, but the message of Jesus Christ.
In the church today there is far too little regard for the apostolic word. Frequently, what interests a contemporary congregation most is preachers’ technique, mannerisms or voice, how long they preach for, or whether they can hear them, understand them and agree with them. And often when the sermon is over, they love to criticize it and pull it to pieces.
Certainly, people have good reason to complain if preachers are unfaithful to their commission, if they make no attempt to preach biblically, or if they are not themselves subject to the apostolic word. But when the minister expounds Scripture, the Word of God, the proper reaction of the congregation should be to receive the message, rather than criticize it – not on the authority of the minister, but on the authority of Christ whose message it is. Most Christian congregations today could be more alert, more humble and more hungry in listening to the exposition of God’s Word.
b. Pastors’ attitudes to the people
Calvin wrote: ‘If ministers wish to do any good, let them labour to form Christ, not to form themselves, in their hearers.’ Christian ministers should resemble Paul, not the Judaizers. They should be preoccupied with the people’s spiritual progress and not care about their own prestige. They should not exploit anyone for their own advantage; they should seek to serve others for their benefit. They should not use anyone for their own pleasure, but be willing to endure pain on behalf of others. They long for Christ to be formed in the people; and to this end they are prepared to agonize, even to suffer real pain. As John Brown comments, ‘when such pastors abound, the church must flourish’.
Notice, finally, the references to Christ in verses 14 and 19: You welcomed me . . . as if I were Christ Jesus (14). I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (19). What should matter to the people is not the appearance of their pastors, but whether Christ is speaking through them. And what should matter to pastors is not the people’s approval, but whether Christ is formed in them. The church needs people who, in listening to their pastors, listen for the message of Christ; and pastors who, in labouring among the people, look for the image of Christ. Only when pastors and people thus keep their eyes on Christ will their mutual relations keep healthy, profitable and pleasing to almighty God.