Galatians 4:14, commentary and pictures

Paul's trial in the flesh was a bodily infirmity that afflicted him while he preached to the Galatians and might have led them to despise and reject him, yet they welcomed him with the honor due a messenger from God, even as Christ Jesus himself. The affliction lay in his eyes, leaving him weak-sighted and outwardly unattractive and hindering his labor unless God's power sustained him, but the gospel made him beautiful to them, for the Lord's beauty was in him and his gracious words outweighed his unsightly appearance. Those who trace its origin further teach it was the lasting bodily weakness left by the blinding glory of Christ on the Damascus road, never fully restored, so that he generally preached and wrote under difficulty in unusually large letters, employing an amanuensis and adding only the signature with his own hand. Their love sympathized so deeply that they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him, and their hospitality in receiving him as they would Christ became the occasion through which they learned the gospel and were willing to make sacrifices for him as for the Lord. The warning around the verse against returning to weak and beggarly elements and desiring to be under the law does not condemn keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as part of the law of God spoken and engraved on stone and placed in the ark, but refers to the law written by Moses and placed beside the ark, the law of commandments in ordinances taken out of the way at the cross, whose keeping would put a person where Christ's atonement profits nothing.

Affliction, Reception, and Setting

The temptation in the flesh was Paul's bodily infirmity or affliction while he was preaching to the Galatians, which could have tested them and tried their response to him. They did not despise or scorn him for it, nor treat him with contempt or reject him and turn away from him because of it. They welcomed him with honor, regard and care, receiving him as they would an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. They welcomed him as a messenger from God, and their hospitality became the occasion through which they learned the gospel.

The affliction made him personally unattractive, with the difficulty evidently in his eyes, yet they received him as God's messenger as they would have received Christ. The gospel he brought made him beautiful to them, because true beauty belongs to the soul rather than the body. The Lord's beauty was in him, and his gracious words outweighed his unsightly appearance. They were willing to make sacrifices for him as they would for the Lord.

The infirmity was defective eyesight, in some accounts possibly weakness of vision caused by the blinding glory of Christ on the Damascus road. The trouble began when he was blinded there and his eyes were never fully restored, leaving a lasting bodily weakness from that loss of sight. He therefore generally preached and wrote under difficulty, employing an amanuensis and adding only the signature with his own hand, his impaired sight making him write in unusually large letters. His condition was weak eyes that hindered his work unless God's power sustained him and made it necessary for someone to assist him and write for him. He preached to the Galatians while suffering under this difficulty, and they did not look down on him but gave him the highest honor and welcome, sympathizing so deeply that they would have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him if possible, which showed their love for him. This same eyesight affliction was his thorn in the flesh, which he begged God to remove, receiving the assurance that God's grace was sufficient for him. His writing the whole letter by hand despite this affliction also showed his continuing tenderness toward them and his concern that they not lose the salvation they had received.

The verse was written to the Christians in Galatia, a mixture largely composed of Gauls in a comparatively small district of Asia Minor called the Gaul of the East. The Gauls had dwelt there from about the third century before Christ and were subjugated by the Romans in B.C. 189. Living on a great highway of commerce, they became mixed with Greeks and Romans, and to some extent with Hebrews. The church there was founded in A.D. 52 by Paul. The verse belongs to the part of the chapter where Paul pleads with the Galatians to become as he was and warns them against those who sought to profit from their apostasy. It stands in Galatians 4-6, part of the letter written to correct the difficulty brought by Judaizing teachers who taught salvation by human doing and human works and that man must do something to save himself. It carries the key-note of the letter, salvation through faith in Jesus Christ with the emphasis upon Christ, parallel with Romans which argues more fully that men are saved by faith, justified by faith, and kept by faith. Only those who are transgressing the law are under the law, and those who are walking in Jesus Christ, who is the personified law, have peace.

Doctrine and Christian Life

Galatians 4:9-21 does not condemn keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as part of the law of God. Its warning against turning again to weak and beggarly elements and desiring to be under the law refers to the body of law written by Moses and placed beside the ark, not the law spoken by God, engraved on tables of stone and placed in the ark, of which the Sabbath is a part. That Mosaic law is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, the law of enmity that was contrary and was taken out of the way at the cross. To keep that law would be to return to weak and beggarly elements and to place oneself where the atonement of Christ profits nothing.

Against the claim that Galatians 4 makes keeping the Ten Commandments bondage, there is no bondage in keeping them while nine of them are still expected to be kept. The Sabbath is not oppressive, for God made it for humanity and calls it a delight, holy and honorable. Only the carnal mind finds God's requirement burdensome.

Paul applies Thy Maker is thine husband of Isaiah 54:5 to the New Jerusalem, so the union of God's people with their Lord that has existed since Adam is not the marriage of the Lamb. The meaning and force of the fourth chapter of Galatians are better grasped by reading the epistle as a whole rather than in separated daily fragments.