The Book of Galatians #17
Galatians 4:12-16
The book of Galatians allows us to see something of the mind and personality of Paul. We know him to be a brilliant theologian and that certainly is seen here. He presents a masterful argument for salvation by faith using Scripture and life experience for illustration.
We think of Paul as a fiery personality and that is evident. He wastes no time in dealing with the attacks that are being made against him, even to the point of calling his listeners blockheads!
We have to respect his independence and determination. He reminds them he has stood against Peter face to face as a lone voice when even Barnabas turned against him.
But tonight we come to 4:12 and here we are provided another insight into the complexities of who Paul was.
4:12-20
“Brethren”. This is the first time that anything begins to surface with a personal concern. Maybe his anger is subsiding and his argument has been presented and his frustration is voiced and now he just kind of comes down to the personal side of it.
In fact, verses 12 through 20 are the most personal section of affection that Paul ever uses.
In fact, there is even one term that he uses for the Galatians that he never uses for anyone else, and that is the phrase there in verse 19 where he addresses them as "My little children."
Then he speaks to them like a loving mother when he speaks of the birth pains he is experiencing as they learn about Christ. What do you know? Paul is not just a frustrated preacher or a heady lawyer arguing a case, he actually cares about them as people.
I have discovered that this is often missed in the passion of a preacher. Sometimes people lose sight of the fact that the reason we preach hard and speak directly is because we desire the very best for our people. I think it is essential that there must be in the man of God, not only a strong conviction about theology and doctrine and right and wrong, but also a gentleness and love for the people of God.
Why is that true? Because the man of God must be like Christ and Jesus is that way. He could sweep out the trash in the temple and use a whip to do it, and at the same time weep over the city of Jerusalem because they would miss the Messiah.
He could give the Pharisees a tongue-lashing and also say, "Suffer the little ones to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." It is the same Jesus who is described in the book of Revelation as a lion and a lamb.
That is what we are seeing here from Paul in the book of Galatians. He isn't sermonizing in verses 12-20, he's not really even writing, he's just pouring out his heart.
In verses 12-20, we see four features of his personal word to the Galatians.
Let's look first of all at
1. His Appeal
verse 12
Notice the word “urge”. Some translations use the word “beseech”. It is actually the idea of begging. Paul begs them. "I beg you, brothers." And that's the first time he's called them that.
Then look at that next phrase. What in the world does that mean? I can promise you, commentators have rolled that one around! It seems to just talk in a circle. It shouldn’t be that complicated. Become like me because I became like you. What is he saying?
Let's take the phrase “become like me.” To interpret that, all you need to do is acknowledge what Paul is saying throughout Galatians. Be free in Christ like me. I am urging you to experience the life in Christ that I am experiencing.
That’s where the second phrase comes in. “Because I became like you”.
What does that mean? As a Jew, Paul was a legalist. Pharisee of the Pharisees, the whole thing. He had all the legal stuff going for him. He was into the law, deep. He kept all the law and observed it, he was a Pharisee, which means he was hyper-legal.
But when Paul came to Christ, he tore away from legalism.
In fact, he moved so far from legalism that he became like a Gentile. So what he is saying is, "When I came to you in Galatia, I no longer lived like a Jew. I lived like a Gentile. I became like you. Now I want you to move from living like a Jew to becoming like me.
So what he's saying is, "Look, somehow this whole deal got reversed. I got freed from the law, became like one of you, then you became what I used to be when you didn't even used to be that!"
So that’s his appeal. You who are Gentile, stop living live Jews by thinking you have to keep the Law in order to be saved.
Instead, become like me, a Jew who used to keep the Law but gave that up to live like a Gentile who is not under the law but instead is trusting Christ by faith.
Secondly, we see
2. His Remembrance
verses 12-16
I think that the sentence at the end of verse 12 actually needs to be connected with verse 13 rather than verse 12.
He’s actually encouraging them to think back to when he first arrived among them. They accepted him. They don’t injure him or resist or fight him.
So what he’s saying is, “Remember how willingly you accepted me. You heard my message, you believed it. You accepted me lovingly, openly, warmly, totally. You weren't against me then. How could you turn on me now when you didn't turn on me then when I was there? What happened?”
That must be heartbreaking for Paul; he loves these people. He's saying, "I introduced freedom to you. I was free among you like a Gentile. I was doing what you did and you loved it; you accepted me. You didn't injure me, you didn't fight me, you didn't hassle me. You accepted me. What happened?"
I suppose the greatest grief or heartbreak that a person in the Lord's service knows is that someone you’ve invested in turns their back on it. I can’t speak for other preachers, but when someone I’ve led to the Lord leaves this church and goes somewhere else it angers me. That don’t have to defect on the faith, just go to another church, it breaks my heart. I take it personal.
Have you ever thought about what the Lord must think about someone accepts salvation and then just drifts away or gets caught up in false teaching?
That's what Paul was feeling in here in Galatia and the way he expresses it is just so loving.
Notice verse 13.
He reminds them that he had preached to them because of some physical ailment. What was it? There is all kinds of speculation about that.
He may have had malaria. When he began his first missionary journey and covered Syria and Cilicia, which is just north of Palestine, he then got on a boat and went to the island of Cypress and ministered there. He left Paphos and went north across a little part of the sea there and came to a place called Pamphylia.
And it is possible that he contracted malaria in Pamphylia and then left there very quickly to escape it becoming worse or being exposed to it again by going to the higher regions of Galatia.
Once he was there, he spent time recovering and preaching there during that time. Now understand that is speculation. But whatever the disease was, it made him stay there. And whatever it was, it was a difficult time described in verse 14 as a “trial”.
And his point is, he was difficult to be around and yet they loved him through it. In fact, he says, "My particular illness was a pain in the neck to you, and I know it was, but in spite of that you didn't despise me. You didn't reject me. You received me like an angel of God, or even like Jesus Himself!"
And that just magnifies his amazement that they would now reject him and his teaching. So he says, "How can you turn against me? I came before, I lived like a Gentile, you didn't hassle me then. I came before, and I was sick. I didn't even come to stay with you; I came there by an accident, as it were. You weren't even on my plans, and you accepted me. I had a terrible sickness that manifested itself in a very ugly way physically, and it was tough to live with, but you did it.
You didn't just bear it, you received me like an angel or like Jesus Himself."
If I know anything about human nature, I'll bet Paul, when he left Galatia the first time, was probably walking down the road saying to Barnabas, "Weren't they something? Weren't those Galatians something wonderful? Barnabas, you know, we were kind of a crummy outfit. Here I am, all messed up with this disease - look at me! And everywhere we went, we brought a whole bunch of persecution. They weren't even in our plans, Barnabas, aren't they something? Look how they loved us." Can't you imagine that lingered in his mind.?
Then one day, someone came along and said, "Hey, Paul, have you heard the word? The Galatians don't like you." What? "What do you mean they don't like me?" Oh, they've gone into circumcision and legalism.
So he sits down to write, and he's mad at the Judaizers and just lets it fly. But in the middle of his anger toward the Judaizers, he stops and says, "Hey people, what happened to our love affair? I came there and you loved me. What happened? You took me like I was; I lived like you did, as a Gentile. What happened? Why don't you just throw that off and be like I am? I became like you and you accepted me then."
Hank Williams could have written, “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do” about them!!
People are fickle. There are a lot of people who will like you until you say what they don't want to hear. But you can't pick and choose. The Word of God speaks and you can't pick what you like and leave out the rest. The Galatians once knew joy unspeakable and full of glory and had loved Paul. What happened?
That’s what he asks in verse 15
"What happened to your satisfaction?" Or, "Where is your joy? Remember how good it was then? I came, you accepted me, you loved me in spite of all the problems.
Notice how he continues in verse 15
The word 'plucked' means 'dug out'. You say, "Why does he say that? Why use a statement like, 'You would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me'?"
Well, there are two possibilities. In most cultures, the eyes are the most prized possessions; they're irreplaceable. So to say, "We would have given our eyes," may be saying, "I would give you that thing which is most precious and irreplaceable to me, that costs me the most, if you needed it. Paul is saying, "You were like that. If I had needed it, you would have given it."
That’s a possibility. The other possibility is that Paul needed new eyes. Many historians and scholars believe Paul to have had vision problems.
Some believe that was his thorn in the flesh.
We know it was something that bugged him, and he couldn't get rid of it. He prayed about it and the Lord let him keep it. He finally said, "Alright, Lord, if you want me to keep it, I'll keep it." Some say it was eye problems. Why would they say that?
There are a couple of indications in Scripture. One is found in Acts 23 when he was taken before the high priest, Ananias. Ananias had some of his soldiers smack Paul around. Paul responded by saying, “God smite you, you whitened wall!"
Those watching all this happen couldn’t believe it! You’re going to talk to the high priest like that? Paul said, "Oh, was that the high priest?" What does that prove? Unless he was blind or near to it, he could have told it was the high priest just by looking at his robe. He was right in front of him! So maybe he couldn’t see.
There is another indication here in Galatians at 6:11 where he talks about what large letters he has used to write with his own hand. Again, that may indicate the possibility of poor vision.
If that's true, then back in Galatians 4:15 where he says, "You would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me," it may have been that he couldn't see very well and there were some who loved him enough they would have torn out their own eyes and given them to him.
Then notice verse 16
In verse 16, you can almost sense the pain in his heart.
Paul says, "Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" That verse indicates that, apparently, on the first trip, everything was great. But the second time he came back, he must have sensed that this was beginning to happen, that the Judaizers were beginning to work there. He comes down hard on the truth, the truth of grace, and that's when they began to turn against him.
The implication of verse 16 is that somewhere along the line, he had exposed the Judaizers to them.
But they didn't want to hear it anymore. I told you the truth. Does that make me your enemy?
You do realize that it is the person that tells you the truth that is your friend, don’t you?
A pastor in California told about a prostitute who came by one time and wanted to talk to him. He brought her in the office and talked to her about Jesus Christ. She said she was a professional prostitute. She was a high-class hooker, charging a lot and making a lot of money.
But she was having tremendous guilt and all kinds of anxiety. She couldn't stay sober; she was taking drugs; just a torn-up life. I told her all the things Christ could do in terms of altering her life and giving her purpose, if she'd invite Jesus Christ into her life to forgive all the sin and guilt.
So I went through all of this, and she said, "I think that's what I want. I really need Christ to change my life."
The preacher said, "Good. There's one more thing I'd like you to do." She said, "What is that?" I said, "Give me your little book." She had told me she had a little book with all the customers in it. She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "I want to have it. I have a match here. I want to burn it, right in front of you."
She said, "What?" I said, "I want to burn it. You don't need it." She said, "Do you know what that book is worth? Not only to sell to another prostitute, but in blackmail? Do you know? It's worth thousands and thousands of dollars!" I said, "Good. Let's burn it."
I'll never forget what she said to me. She said, "I guess I don't really want Jesus Christ, do I?" She walked out and never came back. I was her friend as long as I was giving her answers to her problems, but when I demanded something, I wasn't her friend.
Paul looked back at their relationship and when he did he had a clear conscience.
Paul's appeal, his remembrance.
Next week we’ll look at his warning and his desire.
Let’s pray.
