Galatians 3:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What will those who reject repentance now say? The Galatians received the Spirit, worked signs, and were confessors, having endured countless dangers and persecutions for Christ.

After such good deeds they fell away from grace. "And yet," the Apostle says, "if you wish, you can again attain your former state."

Now they hear the accusation that they endured these things in vain, if only they turn away from the grace of Christ.

At the same time, hope remains. One who has suffered for faith in Christ and afterward falls into sin, while he sins, is as though he suffered without cause.

Yet this hope does not make his former sufferings fruitless, if he turns again to his former faith and returns to his former conduct.

Another meaning is this: If you think that circumcision must come after grace, then by living until now without circumcision, you have made fruitless all that you endured.

Yet it seems to me that you did not endure it in vain, since I know that the Law has no force after the Gospel.

Or perhaps this is the meaning. It was no small harm that, by following the Law of circumcision, you destroyed such great former labor in faith.

Now, to this loss is added responsibility for inconstancy. Thus in the past you suffered without cause, and in the future you will endure torments.

Some, to explain this place, force the meaning in this way: "Think on the former freedom of grace and on the heaviness of present observance of the Law. Then you will see how much you have done in vain.

"Yet surely the fruit of this error should not be considered lost, for you were brought to it by zeal for God.

"Indeed, indulgence may be shown to the ignorant, if, turning to what is better, you show that your knowledge wavered, and not your resolve for struggles."

According to Saint John Chrysostom, the Apostle Paul "again rebukes them at the proper time.

"With the passing of time, he says, you ought to have increased your progress in faith. But you not only added nothing, you also turned back.

"Even if you had begun with what is fleshly, you would still have had to rise to what is spiritual. But you, having begun with what is spiritual, returned to what is fleshly.

"Working signs is spiritual, but being circumcised is fleshly. You passed from signs to circumcision. Having touched the truth, you turned to rites. In the light of the sun, you seek a lamp.

"He did not say, 'You continue in the flesh,' but, 'You end in the flesh.' By this he shows that the false teachers caught them and slew them like irrational animals, while they themselves consented to suffer whatever those men wished.

"Everything that you suffered for Christ, they wish to take from you, and so deprive you of the crown that belongs to you."

They multiply the inflowings of grace and thereby elevate still more the inner spiritual perfection found in Christianity.

As they elevate in this respect, they also exalt one in the opinion of all believers. They attract God’s good pleasure and prepare crowns in eternity. How many blessings sufferings provide!

But by turning to the law, you lose all this. Your sufferings no longer have any value. You suffered in vain. How can you allow all this to perish for nothing?

Do you not grieve that you make your sufferings fruitless?

“This ought to touch them still more strongly than what he said above. The recollection of signs could not affect them as much as pointing to the struggles and sufferings they had endured for Christ.

For everything you have suffered for Christ, he says, they wish to take away from you, and thereby deprive you of the crown that belongs to you” (St. Chrysostom).

“Unless indeed it was in vain,” ειγε και εικη, that is, if indeed you allow them to perish in vain. All the ancient interpreters hold that by these words the holy Apostle expresses hope that they will not permit their sufferings to perish in vain.

They would do this precisely by casting off the law and again receiving wholly the one unmixed faith. In our manner of speaking: perhaps not in vain; I hope it will not be in vain.

St. Chrysostom says: “But so as not to strike their souls too severely and entirely weaken their strength, he did not wait for their answer. He immediately added: ‘if indeed it was in vain.’

For if you become sober-minded, he says, and correct yourselves, it will not be idle or in vain. What will those who reject repentance now say?

Behold, the Galatians received the Holy Spirit, worked signs, were confessors, and endured countless afflictions for Christ. After such gifts they fell away from grace.

Yet the Apostle says that, if you wish, you can recover everything.”

Here is the judgment of Blessed Jerome: “In vain, he says, you suffered afflictions for the faith, if you depart from the grace of Christ, for whose sake you endured them.

At the same time another thought is also set forth here. If someone suffers for the faith of Christ and afterward falls into sin, he is considered to have suffered in vain when he falls into sin.

Yet he will lose none of this if he returns again to his former faith and to his former zeal to live according to faith.”

Some of our interpreters understand these words thus: only in vain? Would that it were in vain! “Is it not also with harm? In vain means neither gaining nor losing anything.

But one who began in the Spirit and for this underwent great temptations, and then changed, did not merely bear what he endured in vain.

He also suffered loss, being deprived of what had been laid up for him as a reward for afflictions and deprivations for Christ” (Oecumenius).

Blessed Augustine says similarly: “What is said to have been done in vain neither harms nor benefits. But one must see, he says, whether what was done might not lead to perdition.

Not rising is not the same as falling after rising. Although they had not yet fallen, they had already inclined toward a fall. For the Holy Spirit was still working in them, as the following verse shows.”

After the judgment already cited, Jerome adds: “Or thus: the harm is not small for you if, inclining toward circumcision, you lose only the former labor of faith.

But to this harm may also be added punishment for betrayal. Thus you both suffered the former things in vain and will also be tormented in the age to come, if, of course, you do not correct yourselves.”

This understanding of the final words gives occasion to look differently at the first words also. It allows “you suffered” to refer not to sufferings, but to what they imposed upon themselves, the yoke of the law.

“You suffered so many things” would mean: you laid upon yourselves such bonds as even the Jews themselves could not bear: circumcision, Sabbaths, new moons, washings, sacrifices, and the rest.

Did you bear, or begin to bear, all this thinking it would be in vain? Would that it were only in vain! But it is with harm, because you are falling away from grace.

The Greeks today say, for example, τι επαθες?, meaning: What is the matter with you? What happened? What has become of you?

Applying this to the present passage, we get: did this happen to you for nothing? Or will this pass for nothing? Such an understanding appears in Blessed Jerome.

“Let us imagine,” he says, “the wretched Jews, and with what labors they live among other nations, trying to observe their ordinances: Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle.

Then you will see how truly it is said: ‘You suffered so many things.’” The thought is evident that the Galatians, bowing under the yoke of the law, are laying an afflictive burden upon themselves.

Therefore he adds further: “Think of the former freedom of grace and the present yoke of observing the law, and you will see how much useless labor you are taking on.”

It seems that this thought is more natural, especially since throughout the whole Epistle there is no direct indication of the Galatians’ sufferings for the faith.

Yet the authority of the greater number of Fathers must prevail.