But ye know that in weakness of the flesh I announced the glad tidings to you at the first;
The Galatians first heard the gospel from Paul because something was wrong with his body. That detail becomes an argument in Paul's hands, and it raises two questions: what was this weakness, and why did God work through it?
Paul had been heading somewhere else. Sickness held him in Galatia, and one writer sees more than bad timing in it:
We do not know what this weakness was. But it clearly hindered the Apostle in his journey and kept him in the place where he "happened" to be. This was one of those interruptions to our plans that annoy us so much. But let us remember: God orders these interruptions. Paul, no doubt, was pressing on to some field of work for the Lord ahead. Instead, he falls sick.
Scripture does not say. One writer leaves the gap open and looks instead at how Paul came to them:
So far from coming in anything that suggested confidence in the flesh, or authority, he came as a suffering man. He only touches on it here; 2 Corinthians 12 says much more. We are not told what it was. It might have been some peculiarity in his speech, or his appearance. We know it was something to do with his body: it was "in his flesh." But one thing is clear, and moving. The more God led the apostle on and blessed him, the deeper the marks of suffering, weakness and shame he wore in his person. The thorn in the flesh followed his being caught up into the third heaven.
Commentators differ on the cause. One writer traces it back to an earlier attack on Paul:
The stoning of Paul, even to the point of death, took place near the end of his first journey, as recorded in Acts 14:19. It is more than likely that there is a connection between the two events, and that this "temptation … in my flesh" resulted from the ill-treatment that he received, and is the same as the "thorn in the flesh," of which he writes in 2 Corinthians 12:7.
Paul says the gospel came to them because of his weakness. One writer weighs what that small word carries:
The force seems to be the moral source of the character of what is produced. So in Galatians 4:13, "in weakness." Weakness of the flesh was the moral source of the character of his preaching. In Philippians 1:15, envy was the moral source of the character of the preaching for some, and goodwill was for others.
The Galatians' own memory of how Paul arrived answers the question of flesh and status:
How had he appeared among them when he first came as an ambassador of Christ? Was there anything in his teaching, or in his presence and condition, to suggest — much less enforce — differences between one person's flesh and another's? He preached God's gospel to them. But in his own presence and manner he was to them, as he was also to the Corinthians, a spectacle of personal weakness — more likely to stir contempt than admiration. But they had thought only of his words, which fell like the dew of God upon their souls.
The weakness was not an obstacle God worked around. It showed whose power was at work:
What was the apostle Paul's subject of glory? Not what he was, nor what he had done, but his weaknesses. In fellowship with God he had learned that his strength was in God. If, in weakness of the flesh (Gal. 4:13), he had been the means of many conversions, it was because the power of God was with him. So for Christ's sake he took pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities.
- Weakness detained him. An illness stopped Paul's journey and kept him in Galatia. God ordered that interruption, and the Galatians heard the gospel.
- Weakness stayed hidden. Scripture never names the illness. Some link it to the stoning in Acts 14:19 and to the thorn in the flesh, but commentators differ.
- Weakness shaped the preaching. His weakness was the moral source of the character of the preaching he brought them.
- Weakness silenced boasting. He came as a spectacle of weakness, more likely to stir contempt than admiration. Nothing in the messenger suggested differences between one person's flesh and another's.
- Weakness carried the power. The deeper the marks of suffering, the clearer it was that God's power did the work. That is why Paul made his weaknesses his glory.
and my temptation, which [was] in my flesh, ye did not slight nor reject with contempt; but ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.
Paul reminds the Galatians how he first came to them: sick, weak, and unimpressive — and they welcomed him anyway. The question behind the verse is why people who once received him as heaven's own messenger later turned against him.
Older Bibles call this trial a "temptation," but the word means a test. It points to a real physical affliction that Paul carried.
"God did tempt Abraham" when He told him to offer up Isaac. Gen. 22:1. God tried him, putting his faith to the test. Paul speaks of his thorn in the flesh as his 'temptation': it was a trial or test. Gal. 4:14.
What is clear is not what it was, but when it came and why.
Far from arriving with any air of self-confidence and authority, he came as a suffering man... We are not told what it was. We know it was something connected with his bodily state: it was "in his flesh." But this is clear, and moving: the more God led him on and blessed him, the deeper the marks of suffering, weakness and shame he wore in his person. The thorn in the flesh came after God took him up into the third heaven. This messenger of Satan struck him, and God turned it to excellent account: it kept the apostle low in his own eyes, and even in the eyes of others.
The weakness may well have been the reason he stopped in Galatia at all. It also put the people who took him in to the test.
It seems Paul had not intended to preach the good news to the Galatians. But sickness of some kind kept him among them... We do not know what this weakness was. But it clearly hindered the apostle in his journey, and kept him in the place where he "happened" to be. It was one of those interruptions to our plans which often make us so cross. But let us remember that God orders these interruptions... It was a trial to them — "your trial in my flesh," he calls it — but that made no difference to their love and their welcome.
His condition gave them every excuse to look down on him. They did not, and that points to what held their attention.
His thorn in the flesh was a real trouble to the devoted apostle, and made some people look down on him as a speaker. But when the Spirit is at work, souls are occupied with the message, not with the messenger. So it had been in Galatia. Had he been an angel straight from heaven, or even Christ Himself, they could not have welcomed him more warmly or with more thanks.
Nothing in his appearance drew them. What drew them was the love that reached them through a frail man.
No show of personal strength or ability had attracted them. Yet they received him as an angel of God, and more, "as Christ Jesus" (v.14). He came to them in grace, as Christ had come to the world. They received him, not because of power, but because of love and grace. The energy and warmth of the love of God only shone the more brightly in the weakness of the vessel.
Writers have wondered what his trouble was. The Galatians looked past it to the One who sent him.
Paul ended the letter with some words in his own hand, which may suggest a problem with his eyesight, but Scripture gives us no further word on this. There are also signs that he may have had a speech difficulty, and that people would naturally tend to despise him for it, but we cannot be sure about this either. When Paul came to Galatia, they did not reproach him. They did not reject or despise him. They received him "as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus." Paul was truly there as Christ's representative.
Paul brings up this memory because the welcome had collapsed. That collapse was more serious than a broken friendship.
The apostle starts by expressing his amazement at the inconsistency of the Galatians. There was a time when they had received him "as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus" (Gal. 4:14). Now their attitude had changed completely. They were questioning his authority. But something even more serious was happening. In rejecting him they were also rejecting the gospel he preached — the only true gospel.
- Trial. The word translated "trial" means a test. Abraham faced the same kind of testing. Paul's was physical, real, and never named for us.
- Timing. The thorn came after the greatest revelation of his life. The more God blessed him, the deeper the marks he carried — and they kept him low in his own eyes.
- Interruption. Sickness, not planning, seems to have kept him in Galatia. God orders the interruptions that wreck our plans.
- Reception. His condition tested them, yet they welcomed him. Strength and ability never drew them; love did. God's love shone brighter, not dimmer, through a weak man.
- Reversal. A welcome fit for Christ's own representative turned into suspicion. In turning against the messenger, they turned against his gospel.
What then [was] your blessedness? for I bear you witness that, if possible, plucking out your own eyes ye would have given [them] to me.
Paul is not scolding the Galatians. He is reminding them of what they have lost: a gladness they once talked about, and a love for him so warm that no sacrifice seemed too great. His question asks them to compare what they were with what they have become, and to name what caused the change.
The word is not vague happiness. One commentator ties it to Paul's own use of the same term in Romans:
That had been a happy situation, "blessedness." This is the same word Paul used in Romans 4:8, where he spoke of the blessedness of the believer: "blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." That is the blessedness the Galatians had when they believed the gospel.
Another writer points to what produced it:
What then was this blessedness of which their hearts and lips were once so full?… With grateful and joyful gladness these Galatians gave voice to the peace and happiness that filled their hearts. It was the effect of the righteousness that Paul had preached.
Paul asks where it went. Something took its place.
"What then has become of your blessedness?" Paul asked his Galatian converts. Ah, where has it gone? They had bartered the blessedness of grace for the blight of legal observances. They traded liberty for bondage, joy for sorrow, and Christianity for Judaism — a sad exchange indeed. How easily the power of life is frittered away, and the Spirit of God slighted.
Paul points to how they once treated him. He arrived weak and unimpressive:
He then reminds them of their love to him when he first came among them preaching the gospel. In those days they received him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. They did so even though he was among them in weakness, without "lofty speech or wisdom" to appeal to the natural man (1 Corinthians 2:4)… Their love for him was so great that, if possible, they would have given him their own eyes to meet his bodily weakness.
Did that weakness involve his eyes? One writer leaves the question open and hears the words first as strong feeling:
The apostle's strong, unusual words fit the very expressive and excitable character of the Gaulish people. There may or may not be a reference to eye disease in them, as a feature of the "weakness of the flesh" he had mentioned. People speak like this in ordinary life when they feel deep gratitude and personal attachment. Outbursts of real feeling are seldom limited to literal truth, and the more eager the speaker's nature, the more extravagant the words.
So where did the gladness go? One writer names what they exchanged, and what it cost:
The cause was all too clear. They had exchanged God for man in turning back from grace to law, and the natural consequences followed. Love is of God, and it lasts only while we know and enjoy Him. In other words, only faith can produce it or keep it alive. And the law is not of faith… They spoke of blessedness no longer, because the dew of God's blessing was no longer on their souls.
The question is not an accusation but a summons back. It belongs with other places in Scripture where God recalls His people to what they once knew:
He makes us know that as we cannot do without His love, so neither can He do without ours. It is truly wonderful; yet so it is. He will keep the soul up to the old terms. Listen to those touching appeals of the Spirit of Christ to His people in earlier days. "You have abandoned the love you had at first." "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first" (Revelation 2). "Recall the former days" (Hebrews 10:32). "What then has become of your blessedness?" (Galatians 4:15).
What they lost was no small thing:
We do not know the power of the thought that God's favour is toward us — the greatest lever that can be put under the soul. The Galatians knew it at the time the apostle looked back to.
- Received. The blessedness is the one Romans describes: the gladness of a person whose sin God does not count against him. It came from the righteousness Paul preached.
- Spoken. It was so real that their hearts and lips were full of it — a joy they talked about, not just held.
- Given. It overflowed into love for the messenger. They welcomed a weak, unimpressive preacher as an angel of God, and would have handed him their own eyes.
- Bartered. Nothing stole it; they traded it. Grace went for law, liberty for bondage, joy for sorrow — and love does not last once we stop knowing and enjoying God.
- Recalled. God holds the soul to the old terms. His question wins wandering hearts back to His favour — the greatest lever under the soul.
So I have become your enemy in speaking the truth to you?
The Galatians once counted Paul their dearest friend. Now they treated him as an enemy, and nothing had changed except that he kept telling them the same truth.
False teachers had come into the churches of Galatia. Notice where their attack landed.
Their attack was upon the truth, but the method used was not to face the truth, but to attack the teacher of the truth. They tried to persuade the saints that the Apostle Paul had not been sent by Peter and the other apostles, and therefore had no divine authority for his apostleship. If he came without divine authority, they could no longer accept the gospel he preached as being the truth. So instead of facing the truth that was in question, they fell back on personal abuse of the Apostle.
The word "enemy" may not even have been Paul's own choice of insult. One writer suggests he was quoting back at them a label already circulating.
These false teachers from Jerusalem who had come to Galatia had very probably called Paul an enemy. Paul seems to have heard about it, and so he reproaches them... He asks it as a question, to leave room for doubt and to give the Galatians a chance to answer, "No, Paul, you are not our enemy! You are our best and dearest earthly friend."
Paul had told them the truth twice, and love moved him both times.
A friend's wounds are faithful. But at first their sharpness usually drives people apart, and only one thing overcomes it: a careful comparison of the earlier and the later beliefs that have each in turn ruled the soul. Paul had dealt truly with these people twice. The first time was when, as an ambassador of Christ, he brought the words of eternal life to their thirsting ears. The second is now. He rejoices alone in what had once been their shared joy, and he proves his love by his eagerness to call them back to their former selves. To do this he is even willing to be hated for a time, if only his words will do their work in the end.
The same writer explains why a change of mind is so hard to reverse. New teaching appeals to the flesh and pushes out the old, "while the mind that has strayed is unwilling to admit its error."
Their warm feelings for Paul did not simply cool on their own. One writer names the cause.
Their affection for Paul had died completely! — that is always what happens when false teachers work on the mind. The hostility grows, and every circumstance tends to swell it... it was really shutting the apostle out from the saints — making a barrier between him and them.
Why do such teachers want a following of their own?
It will always be so that those who seek a following will selfishly preach a system of works as the way of salvation. Such a system attaches importance to the flesh, and so to themselves.
People also use this verse to excuse harsh words. But if our bluntness wounds someone, that alone does not prove we spoke the truth in love.
Sometimes we say offensive things on purpose, while pretending to expose some evil and to tell a brother the plain truth for his good. We may be perfectly sure that malice in the heart lies behind those offensive words. How often people excuse the most malicious words by quoting the scripture, "Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend." How few could quote the words just before those. They warn us not to use this scripture lightly, for they ask, "Who can stand before jealousy?"
The safeguard is a life that gives no cause for offence of its own.
As an ambassador of Christ he spoke for God, and in the authority of His great Name. So he would try to behave in a way that gave no one a just reason to set his teaching against his life... He acted in everything by the enabling grace of God. Then if anyone took offence, it would not be at him, but at the truth he preached so fearlessly and constantly.
- Cause. They could not answer the truth, so they attacked the man who taught it. Personal abuse took the place of argument.
- Cost. Telling the truth wounds first. Paul was willing to be counted an enemy for a time, if his words would do their work in the end.
- Motive. Those who want followers preach works. Works exalt the flesh, and so exalt them. They also build a barrier between people and the man who told them the truth.
- Tone. Paul asked a question instead of making an accusation. That left the Galatians room to answer that he was their dearest friend.
- Caution. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend" is no licence for cutting words. If offence comes, let it come from the truth, not from us.