And the churches were confirmed in faith and increased in number daily.
αι μεν ουν εκκλησιαι εστερεουντο τη πιστει και επερισσευον τω αριθμω καθ ημεραν
5 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Do you see the benefit of this circumcision? After this he no longer remains with them, as if he had only come to visit them. What then? He goes farther. And observe: from an action contrary to the decree of the Apostles, a great good comes here. “And they increased in number daily,” the writer says. Do you see that circumcision not only did no harm, but also brought great benefit?
While visiting the churches founded earlier, the evangelists everywhere announced the decision of the council of Jerusalem. This was done to remove perplexities that had arisen from the converted Jews and to make the path easier for Gentiles turning to Christianity.
After visiting in this way the churches founded earlier, Paul set out for Phrygia. Naturally, on this journey or on the next he could not preach the Gospel in all sixty-two cities of the populated province of Phrygia.
Therefore he had to entrust much to his disciples, Col 2:1. Indeed, it is known that one of them, Epaphras of Colossae, was the founder of the churches of Colossae, Hierapolis, and Laodicea, Col 4:12-13.
From there Paul went north into Galatia. Many Jews lived in this province. Therefore it is very probable that Paul first addressed his preaching to them and to the proselytes among them.
But the poor reception he met among the Jews opened the way to the Gentiles. The Gentiles received him with great goodwill, Gal 4:13-14: "you received me as an apostle of God, as Jesus Christ."
The infirmities in the flesh, the trial in the flesh, which the Galatian Christians did not despise, were probably his recent sufferings for the cause of Christ. He speaks of them in detail in 2 Cor 11:23-26.
Or else they were an illness of the flesh, from which he asked God three times to deliver him, but received no relief. This was so that the power of God might be made more clearly perfect in his weakness.
In the present case, his weakness was not an obstacle to the spread of the Gospel. Rather, it drew the hearts of the converts to him still more.
Seeing his zeal in the work of the Gospel, despite illness and suffering, they became all the more attached to Christ's teacher. As the apostle says, they were ready to give their own eyes for him.
Paul struggled greatly with bodily ailments, as can be seen from certain hints in his epistles. There he speaks of how the feeling of human weakness weighed upon him.
This should not seem strange. Even when he was a Pharisee, striving to attain legal holiness, he did not spare his body. His new calling allowed him still less to spare himself.
At one and the same time he had to earn his food by the labors of his hands and strain all his strength according to the duty of apostolic ministry. He had to endure so many dangers, insults, and beatings.
Even a strong body could soon have fallen beneath such a weight. Yet with the feeling of human weakness, the consciousness of a higher power became stronger in him. This power rose above everything human strength can do.
He knew how to distinguish it from everything he recognized in himself as merely human. It was that victorious power of God which appeared through his preaching of the Gospel.
Feeling his human weakness, he nevertheless rose still more above himself through inner revelations and communications with the higher world, of which he was deemed worthy.
He had one especially grievous illness, which even checked the impulses of his exalted spirit. He regarded it as an instruction in humility sent by God. It was a balancing means against the moments of inner illumination allotted to him.
He said that three times he asked the Lord to free him from this grievous illness. But the voice of God answered that he should not ask to be delivered from the feeling of human weakness.
It should be enough for him to know the grace given to him. For the power of God shows itself as such precisely where human weakness also makes itself felt.
This was revealed especially during his activity in Galatia. His body was weighed down by illness. Yet the divine power of his words and actions stood in complete contrast to the weak organ that served as its instrument.
For this reason it made an even stronger impression on hearts already disposed toward it. The fiery zeal of love, sacrificing everything, compelled him to endure all things joyfully in his very sufferings for the salvation of others.
This had to draw hearts to him with still greater power. Therefore he could speak of the Galatians' disposition toward him as he does, 4:14-15.
The Galatian churches consisted chiefly of natural Gentiles. Some were proselytes, for whom Judaism was a transition to Christianity. Others had turned to Christianity directly from paganism.
To this fundamental composition of the Church were added certain Jews, who differed from the greater mass of their unbelieving countrymen by their receptivity to the Gospel.
Through proselytes and Christians from among the Jews, relations with the Jews did not cease in this Church. From this source we must derive the movements that we later see in the Galatian churches.
When Paul left Galatia, he wanted to take a southwesterly direction into proconsular Asia, where Ephesus lay on the Aegean shore. But by an inner voice, or in a vision, the command of the Spirit of God was announced to him. It restrained him from this direction.
Passing through Syria and Cilicia, the Apostle Paul reached Derbe and Lystra. In the latter city, he called to his aid a new companion, a certain Timothy. Since Timothy had a Gentile father and had not been circumcised, the Apostle Paul circumcised him. This was to make it possible for him to preach among the Jews, who were numerous in those places. Yet among those who had already believed, Paul did not cease here also to proclaim the decrees of the apostolic council. He called Christians to observe them strictly (verses 1-5).
“The churches were strengthened,” and so forth. Both inwardly, through strengthening in faith and in Christian life, and outwardly, through an increase in members, the communities visited by the Apostles were fortified and grew. This was undoubtedly aided by the Apostles’ very visitation of these communities and their activity among them.
The strengthening of the Church in places already instructed proceeded steadily. Conversions also took place quickly there, for the soil was evidently sufficiently prepared. The Spirit of God, Who dwelt in the Church, multiplied it with new converts.
It was otherwise in new places. There, adherents of Judaism and paganism had evidently stirred up blind devotees of antiquity. The soil had hardened. And so God the Spirit Himself, by His unsearchable judgments, prevented the evangelists from going where their preaching might be little fruitful.
"Why they were not permitted, the writer does not say. He only says that they were not permitted. By this he teaches us to submit and not to investigate the reasons. He also shows that they did many things in a human way."
Blessed Theophylact thinks that "the Spirit forbade the apostles to preach in Asia and Bithynia because He foresaw that the heresy of the Pneumatomachi would take possession of the inhabitants there."
Bishop Michael writes: "This happened when they had reached one of the provinces belonging to proconsular Asia, Mysia. As a result, they intended to go into Bithynia, the northwestern region of Asia Minor bordering Mysia, but the Spirit again did not permit them to go there.
In this situation they were on the borders of Mysia and Bithynia. In neither region did the Holy Spirit permit them to preach. As is clear from what follows, they were being called to labor in Europe.
This was pleasing to the Holy Spirit. Of course, not without His special inspiration, they decided to move closer to the borders of Asia Minor with Europe.
Therefore, having passed by Mysia, that is, having gone through it or along its border without preaching, they came down to the coastal city of Troas, in Mysia. From there it was not far to cross by sea into Europe."
The account here of the journey through Phrygia and Galatia is brief. Yet there is a supposition that at this very time the Apostle Paul founded those churches in Galatia to which he wrote one of his most important epistles. The Phrygian churches in Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis were likewise founded then.
"After the death of Amyntas, king of the Galatians, Galatia was understood to include Galatia proper, Pisidia, and Lycaonia. But Acts is hardly following the political division here rather than the ethnographic one.
One may rightly think that in verse 6 Galatia means not the Roman province, but Galatia in the proper sense. It is also clear why it is mentioned after Phrygia, for it lies beyond Phrygia.
The author of Acts had to mention Lystra and Derbe because they lay on the road from Cilicia to Phrygia.
One may also reasonably conjecture why the author of Acts describes Paul's intermediate passage from Cilicia to Derbe not by the name of the region, Lycaonia, but by the cities belonging to it.
The author's intention was to report that Saint Timothy joined Paul during his passage through Lycaonia, and to give rather detailed information about him. It was natural for the author to indicate more precisely Saint Timothy's homeland, the city from which he came, and not be limited to naming the country.
"That the Spirit mentioned in verse 6 was the Third Person of the Holy Trinity is proved most clearly by this. The prohibition received from Him by Paul and his companions was wholly unexpected to them and contrary to their desire.
The reason for this prohibition cannot be sought either in the religious and moral condition of this province, or in its political condition. Yet taking into account that, after being refused entry into Asia, Paul preached in Phrygia and Galatia, one may think that the prohibition against going to Asia was given to Paul and his companions for the sake of these churches' arising."
With the reference to the apostle's preaching in Galatia in mind, D. Glagolev cites, as far as possible, everything said about the enlightenment of the Galatians in the Apostle Paul's Epistle to them.
Since the Apostle Paul endured great sorrows and illnesses there in his labors, D. Glagolev examines in detail the apostle's well-known saying: "a thorn was given me in the flesh" (2 Cor 12:7).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 13 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS