Galatians 1:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore he said this, almost as if saying: "Is my affair with you? Will men judge me? My affair is with God, and I do everything so as to be justified there, before His judgment. I have not fallen into such misery that, while preparing to give account of my preaching before the Master of all, I would corrupt the dogmas."

Thus he spoke the words cited above partly in defense of himself, and partly because he wished to withstand them. Those who are taught ought not to judge their teachers, but to believe them.

"But since the order has already been overturned," he says, "and you have seated yourselves in the place of judges, know that I care very little about being justified before you. I do everything for God, so as to be justified before Him in the dogmas I preach."

Whoever wishes to win the favor of men uses much malice and craft. He uses deception and falsehood in order to incline his hearers to his side and dispose them toward himself. By contrast, whoever wishes to win favor with God and strives to please Him needs only a sound and pure mind, since the Godhead is not subject to deception.

"From this it is evident," he says, "that we too write these things not from love of rule, not in order to have disciples, and not because we seek glory from you. For we strive to please not men, but God. If I wished to please men, I would even now be on the side of the Jews. Even now I would still be persecuting the Church.

"But since I despised a whole people, friends, relatives, and high renown, and preferred to all this persecutions, enmity, conflicts, and daily death, it is evident that everything I now say, I say not to gain human glory."

He said this because he was about to recount both his former life and his sudden change. He was about to prove plainly that he stands for the truth, so that they would not think he was doing this because he wished to justify himself before them, and so that they would not become proud.

Therefore he said beforehand, "For do I now persuade men?" He knew that, for the correction of those being taught, it is sometimes timely to put forward something lofty and great.

Although he could present proofs of the truth of his preaching from another source, for example, from signs, wonders, dangers, prisons, daily deaths, hunger, thirst, nakedness, and the like, he does not do so here. For he is now speaking not of the false apostles, but of the Apostles, and the latter themselves shared in these dangers.

Therefore he approaches the solution of the question from another side. In other cases, when he directs his speech against the false apostles, he uses comparison. He sets forth his endurance in afflictions and says: "Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool; I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often" (2 Cor 11:23).

For if I wished to please men, I would certainly do what you say. "If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." He proves that he does not care to please men. Why would he flatter them, or preach one thing to some and another thing to others? For if he cared about this, he would not have departed from Judaism and turned to Christ. He would not have disregarded relatives, friends, and such glory, and chosen persecution, danger, and dishonor.

We must not think that the Apostle teaches us, by his example, to despise the judgment of men. Elsewhere he says: "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are manifest to God" (2 Cor 5:11). And there is the well-known word: "Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I also please all in all things, not seeking what is profitable for myself, but for many, that they may be saved" (1 Cor 10:32-33).

But if it is possible for us to please God and men equally, then men should be pleased. If we please men only through what displeases God, then we must please God rather than men.

On the other hand, the Apostle himself adds the reason why he pleases men, saying, "not seeking what is profitable for myself, but what is profitable for many, that they may be saved." Whoever. Moved by love, which does not seek its own but another's good, pleases all so that they may be saved, undoubtedly pleases God, who cares for the salvation of men.

There is also a special word in his speech: "now only," modo, deliberately added here. It shows whether, according to circumstance, pro tempore, one should or should not please men. Thus one who is now displeasing to men because of the preaching of evangelical truth will later be pleasing to them because of the salvation of very many.

At one time Paul was pleasing to the Jews, as a true zealot of the traditions of the fathers. For he previously fulfilled the Law blamelessly and had burning zeal for the rites and customs of the ancestors. He even took part in the stoning of Stephen and, in Damascus, strove to deprive of freedom those who had renounced the Law (Acts 7:58; 8:1; 9:1-2).

But after his transformation from persecutor into a chosen vessel, and after the beginning of his preaching of that faith which he had once persecuted, he became hateful to the Jews who had formerly loved him.

This is what his words mean: Am I seeking to please the Jews, because through their hatred toward me I have become pleasing to God? For if I were pleasing to them, I would not be a servant of Christ, since I would be affirming the Law and destroying the grace of the Gospel. For this reason also I do not strive to preserve the Law.

I cannot please God and the Jews equally, because one who is pleasing to them is not pleasing to God.

The word suadere itself is taken from ordinary human usage. It is used when someone tries to suggest to others what he possesses and has once appropriated to himself. This word is used in very many places of Scripture, among them the following: "This persuasion, suasio, is not from Him who called us" (Gal 5:8).

The same appears in the Acts of the Apostles: "Many Jews came to him in the lodging, to whom he explained and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets until evening" (Acts 28:23).

He did all this because a rumor had been spread about him, that he secretly observed the prescriptions of the law and in Jerusalem joined himself to the Judaizers.

The Greek peitho and the Latin suadeo mean to urge, persuade, and thus incline to one's side.

It is as though he says: after such words, which appoint anathema to anyone who changes the Gospel or anything in the Gospel, judge for yourselves whether I myself can be changeable for the sake of pleasing men.

Am I adapting myself to men? Am I trying to please men in my preaching? If this were in me, if I had a people-pleasing disposition, I would not even have become Christ’s servant.

Therefore stop believing slanders, as though I teach the Gospel one way today and another tomorrow. The Gospel is as unchangeable in me as it is unchangeable in itself.

He expressed the same thing in the Epistle to the Thessalonians: ‘As we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts’ (1 Thess 2:4).

I am the same in thoughts and feelings before God as I am in words and deeds before men. As I received the Gospel from God, so I hand it on. God sees that this is so.

‘Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are manifest to God’ (cf. 2 Cor 5:11).

Such is the thought of this text. Yet defining the meaning of some of its expressions presents difficulties, especially the first words: ‘For do I now persuade men, or God?’

The difficulty depends on what sense should be given to the word ‘persuade.’ In Greek the word is peitho. It means to convince, to draw someone to one’s side by persuasion.

In order to draw someone more successfully to one’s side, one uses clever speech and various evasions. Hence it can mean to deceive.

Someone who wishes to convince another sets forth his own arguments and refutes those of the other. He contends, defends himself, and exposes the other, as happens in speeches of defense.

Whoever maintains his position and convinces all gains general approval and favor. Which of these meanings should be taken?

Following Saint Chrysostom, take whichever you wish. Only bring everything to this, that the sincerity of Saint Paul’s preaching may be visible. He preaches as before God.

Saint Chrysostom takes all the meanings and draws this one point from all of them.

He takes the word in the sense of deceiving and says: ‘If, says the Apostle, I could deceive you with my words, I could not deceive God, who knows secret thoughts. To please Him always is my sole desire.

Do you see the apostolic spirit and the evangelical height?’

He also takes the word in the sense of defending oneself and says: ‘The teacher is forced to defend himself before his disciples. Though he bears this insult with good spirit, he is also indignant.

Yet he is indignant not from pride, God forbid, but because of the levity of those deceived and their distrust toward their own teacher.

Therefore, after saying this, it is as though he said: my business is not with you. Men will not judge me. My business is with God, and I do everything in order to be justified there, before His judgment.

We have not yet come to such misfortune that, while preparing to give account before the Master of all in our preaching, we would corrupt the dogmas.

Thus he said the words cited above both for his own defense and for their exposure. For it is not the task of those instructed to judge their teachers, but to believe and obey them.

But since order has already been overturned by you, and you have sat in the place of judges, know, he says, that I care very little about justifying myself before you.

Since we do everything for God, before Him also we shall be justified in the dogmas we preach.

He said the same when he wrote to the Corinthians: With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by a human day (1 Cor 4:3).’

He also takes the word in the sense of gaining favor and goodwill, and says: ‘Whoever wishes to gain the favor of men uses many schemes and much cunning. He uses deceit and falsehood to incline and draw his hearers to himself.

By contrast, whoever wishes to gain favor with God and strives to please Him alone needs only a sound and purified mind. For God cannot be deceived.’

Thus Saint Chrysostom does not constrain himself by the meaning of the word. He directs everything toward clarifying that the Apostle sincerely preached the one evangelical truth, having God as the witness of his conscience.

Oecumenius and Theophylact imitate Chrysostom. The latter writes: ‘Since they slandered him as though he preached one thing to some and another to others, changing in words and teaching according to people, he speaks here against this.

Do I adapt myself to men and try to please them, or to God? If I wished to please men, I would certainly do as you say.’

Judging from this, ‘now,’ according to Saint Chrysostom, means at one time, now when I write the Epistle. At another time it means the whole period of his preaching labors.

That is, now, when I have abandoned Judaism and begun to preach the Gospel. Or again, it is an inferential particle: judge now after what has been said.

Blessed Jerome understands ‘now’ as meaning after conversion and the abandonment of Judaism.

‘Or do I seek to please men?’ They said that Saint Paul gave the Gentiles freedom from the Mosaic law in order to accommodate himself to them and draw them more easily.

For the Gentiles were not well-disposed toward the religious customs of the Jews. From this it followed that he was acting deceitfully and not preaching the pure truth.

Against this Saint Paul now says that this is untrue. He is not such in his convictions as to change the truth through people-pleasing.

This already followed from the sentence he pronounced upon those who change the Gospel.

Saint Chrysostom says: ‘We do not write this from love of rule, nor in order to have disciples, nor desiring glory and praise for ourselves. We do not strive to please men, but God.’

Oecumenius continues: ‘I do not wish to please men. Therefore I do not wish to please you either. I did not speak this way in order to flatter you and please you.’

‘For if I yet pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ.’ This is another proof that Saint Paul did not distort the truth in order to please men.

The strict judgment upon those who preach beyond the Gospel, under which he also placed himself, had already proved this. Now, as proof of the same thing, he points to his conversion from Judaism to Christianity.

It is as though he says: if I did not love the truth and changed my thoughts according to the persons to whom I spoke, surely to enjoy their goodwill, then I had no reason to abandon Judaism.

There I enjoyed great honor and had even greater prospects for the future. If I cast all this aside, it was undoubtedly because I was convinced that I should no longer remain in Judaism.

Its time, appointed by God, had passed. The truth about Christ was revealed. I cleaved to it with all my heart and preach it alone to all, both Gentiles and Jews.

To this truth I sacrificed all my earthly advantages.

Saint Chrysostom speaks in Paul’s person: ‘If I wished to please men, I would still be on the side of the Jews and would be persecuting the Church even now.

But I despised my people, my friends, my relatives, and high glory. I suffer from them persecutions, enmities, wars, and daily death.

This plainly shows that whatever I now say, I say not to acquire human glory. He said this because he wishes to recount his former life and sudden change, and to prove by the facts themselves that he stands for the truth.’

Ambrosiaster draws this inference from it: ‘Saint Paul, who taught with all reverence that one must please God, was not afraid to go against men when the glory of God required it.

Before the coming of the Lord, the law was preached by the will of God. But when the Lord promised in the law had come, the law had to cease, as the Prophets also foretold.

Therefore the Lord says: The law and the Prophets were until John (cf. Lk 16:16). It was no longer fitting that the law should retain its force in the presence of the Lord.

Consequently, whoever after this thinks to keep the law is not obeying the Lord’s will, but resisting Him.’

Someone may object: how then does the Apostle write elsewhere, ‘I please all men’ (1 Cor 10:33), and ‘I became all things to all men’ (1 Cor 9:22)? He also advises every Christian to please his neighbor (cf. Rom 15:2).

Saint Paul says this to show that he used every method found useful anywhere, if only to dispose people to accept the one truth which he preached everywhere.

He did not change the truth while adapting himself to people. He changed his methods and approaches, so that people might more easily accept the one truth for all.

His pleasing of men could touch everything except the truth. With the truth he fearlessly went against the whole world.

Therefore in the cited passages he says: ‘I became all things to all men,’ but adds, ‘that by all means I might save some.’ He says, ‘I please all men in all things,’ but adds, ‘not seeking my own profit, but that of many, that they may be saved.’

He counsels others to please their neighbor only ‘for good, unto edification.’

Blessed Augustine writes: ‘Whoever strives to instill the truth in men does not care how he himself may receive a favorable welcome from them. He cares that the truth he instills may become pleasing to them.

When someone is pleasing to men for the sake of truth, he is not the one pleasing to them. The truth itself is pleasing.’

Jerome adds: ‘The Apostle himself shows why he pleases all in all things. He says, not seeking my own profit, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Whoever, out of love that does not seek its own but what belongs to the neighbor (1 Cor 10:24), pleases all so that they may be saved, pleases God more than men. For the salvation of men is precious to God.’

In the Apostle’s counsel to please one’s neighbor, blessed Jerome sees this meaning: ‘If it is possible to please both God and men, then one must please men also.

But if it is impossible to please men except by not pleasing God, then we must please God more than men.’

In the words, ‘For if I yet pleased men,’ the word ‘men’ does not mean only Jews, but all men in general. The thought is this: if I had a people-pleasing disposition.

By this he denies people-pleasing in himself even before his conversion. Then he was zealous for the law, but not from people-pleasing. He was convinced that he was zealous for the truth of God.

As soon as he was assured of the contrary, he immediately withdrew his zeal from the former object and turned it to another.

This again was not from pleasing any people, but because he was completely assured of the evangelical truth.

By the words, ‘I would not be a servant of Christ,’ Saint Paul expresses that he would not even have become a Christian if he did not love the truth, but merely pleased men.

Some understand it thus: I would not be a servant of Christ, that is, an Apostle. But the first thought is more fitting.

Saint Paul strengthens the statement. He would not only have failed to become an Apostle, but even a Christian. He would not have turned to Christ, received His holy Gospel, or submitted to it.