Galatians 4:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore what he said earlier came not from irrational anger or from passionate disturbance of soul, but from great care.

"And why do I say, 'You did not injure me'? On the contrary, you showed me great and heartfelt affection."

Therefore, since such a distinction exists between them, the angels worship the Son and serve Him. He sits upon the throne in the rank of King, Son, and Master, while they are sent for ministry.

How, then, will He not be God, Whom even the angels acknowledge as such by nature?

For if, according to the senseless opinion of the heterodox, He is a creature, then one might perhaps say that not only we, but the heavenly powers themselves, are deceived.

They would be serving a creature instead of the Creator.

But this is absurd. No one has ever said that the holy angels can be deceived. Rather, they have true knowledge of God and worship the Son as being such by nature.

Therefore He is not a created thing or a creature. For what is created cannot be God by nature at all.

I promised nothing great except the preaching of the Crucified." Therefore, when you saw me clothed with a body and subject to weaknesses, you did not mock a man promising the Kingdom of Heaven. Nor did you deem him worthy of contempt. You understood the humiliation of my flesh, and that poverty of clothing was intended for your testing. Of course, we may also think that when the Apostle first appeared among the Galatians, he was ill and possessed by some bodily weakness. One may also say the following in explanation of this text. In the first period after his arrival among the Galatians, Paul endured insults, persecutions, and bodily blows from those who opposed the preaching of the Gospel. This was a very great test for the Galatians, when they saw that the Apostle of Christ was being beaten. The ending on verse 12 and on verse 13: "Brethren, I swear to you that you have offended me in nothing, but you know that in weakness of the flesh I preached the Gospel to you at first." To the thought stated earlier, add the following. To make this clearer, let the order of words be that which we introduce: "I adjure you, brethren, become as I am, because I also am as you are." This is like the well-known saying, "We beseech you in the name of Christ: be reconciled to God" (2 Cor 5:20). Likewise elsewhere: "I exhort, first of all, that prayers, supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made" (1 Tim 2:1). So also are the words of the Apostle Peter: "I exhort the elders among you, I who am myself a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ" (1 Pet 5:1). These words also call us to humility and strike at the pride of those bishops who are set as if on some lofty watchtower. They scarcely deign to notice mortals or greet them as their fellow servants, conservos suos. Let them learn from the Apostle to call the erring and foolish Galatians brothers. Let them learn, after a rebuke, the tender words of him who says, "I adjure you" (1 Cor 11?). His adjuration means that they ought to imitate him as he imitates Christ. At least, to follow the present passage, ut praesentem locum sequar, he does not ask for anything great. As he became lesser from greater things for their sake, so they should pass from lesser things to greater. "You have offended me in nothing," he says. A disciple offends his teacher if by his negligence he reduces, disperdat, the teacher's instructions and labor to nothing. The Galatians had not offended the Apostle, because even up to the present they had kept his commands and followed his Gospel. Or surely it may be understood thus. "When I first proclaimed the Gospel to you, because of the weakness of your flesh, I preached to you as to infants. You could not receive the higher mysteries, sacramenta. I showed myself as though weak, that I might gain you, the weak. Did you not then receive me as an angel, as Jesus Christ Himself? Since you never offended me, and in your cause looked upon me as rejected and humbled like the Son of God, how do I now meet with offenses from you when I call you to higher things? My labor is being lost, and you lament as useless the condescension in which I presented myself as a little child." Nevertheless, it was because of the weakness of the flesh, not his own, but that of his hearers, that Paul preached to the Galatians. They could not subject the body to the word of God. Being carnal, they were incapable of spiritual understanding. To make this evident, we will present an example. He teaches in view of the weakness of the flesh who says, "If they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry," and, "A woman, if her husband dies, is free to marry whom she wishes, only in the Lord" (1 Cor 7:39). But he in no way teaches in view of the weakness of the flesh who reminds us of this: "Having been separated from a wife, do not seek a wife," and, "The time now is, tempus est, that those who have wives should be as though they had none" (1 Cor 7:27-29). Indeed, one set of commandments is given to the spiritual, and another to the carnal. One thing is commanded by precept, and another is permitted by condescension.

The holy Apostle only wishes to say: "Remember what I was outwardly among you. Judging by human relations and notions, I was such that one could have treated me as nothing and spat upon me.

"Yet my teaching was light-bearing, exalted, and divine. Then you knew how to discern the essence of a precious matter beneath my unattractive appearance" (Bishop Theophan).

He himself is full of that blessedness, desiring and asking that they also be filled with the same spirit of mutual trust and affection which they had before. St. John Chrysostom says, "Do you see the Apostle's sincere concern? They are storm-tossed, and he fears and trembles for them. Therefore his words, 'I have labored among you,' contain much that is heart-rending. It is as though he said, 'Do not make my labors vain.' By the words 'I am afraid' and 'lest perhaps,' he awakens anxiety in them, and at the same time breathes good hopes into them." "As though stretching out a helping hand to those in danger of shipwreck. He sets himself before them as an example, saying, 'Become as I am.'" "By his own example he persuades them to abandon the ancient customs. I too once burned with mighty zeal for the Law, but afterward I was not afraid to leave it." "To assure them that everything said to them was not spoken from hatred or hostility, he reminds them of his love for them. Then, in his own defense, he adds praise for them, saying, 'I beseech you; you have wronged me in nothing.'" "What soul could be more kindly and more full of love than this soul?" Blessed Theodoret writes, "This is a paternal voice, fitting for one who remembers his labors and does not see their fruit." "The Apostle's heartfelt grief for the Galatians causes him often to change his manner of speech. At one time he rebukes, at another he entreats. Sometimes he accuses, and sometimes he laments. So here also he says to them, 'I suffered no wrong from you at all. On the contrary, I was deemed worthy of the greatest services you could render. Though I bore great dishonor in my body, being insulted, tortured, and enduring countless troubles, you did not look upon the dishonor. You honored me as an angel of God. And why do I say, as an angel? As Christ Jesus, so that when you served me, you thought you were serving Christ.'" Blessed Jerome says, "There is a tradition that the Apostle often suffered from headache. This was the angel of Satan given to him to afflict him, lest he be exalted. Yet it is also not out of place to say that when the Apostle first came to the Galatians, he suffered reproaches, persecutions, and wounds from those who opposed the Gospel." Explaining the former blessedness of the Galatians, His Grace Theophan says that they felt blessed because the Lord was in them. He made them blessed for the sincerity of their attachment to Him and the purity of their faith. Now their faith had been darkened by an inclination toward Judaism. Knowing this, the Apostle says, "Compare what is now in your heart with what was there then, and you will see that you have taken a false step. Remember whence you have fallen. By speaking truth before you, I thereby proved my true love for you. For this you repaid me with your love and honor. But now you have a different attitude toward me, because the teachers of falsehood have explained things to you differently. And with what is this consistent? Come to yourselves. Look at the matter as it is. Consider who these new teachers are."

Why does Saint Paul remind them of this? Partly to continue the thought he had begun and to present it more fully. Since he had received no unpleasantness from them, he could not be speaking so sternly from resentment. He speaks only from love and a desire for their good. It is as though he said, “And why do I say, ‘You did not wrong me’? On the contrary, you showed great and heartfelt attachment to me. For you know, and so forth. Believe, then, that what has been said to you has not been said from irrational anger or passionate disturbance of soul, but only from care for your souls” (Chrysostom).

More than this, he reminds them in order to raise up in their souls the memory of how the first preaching went among them. He recalls how their souls were changed, how they left everything and cleaved to the Lord, and how they received the Apostle himself as one sent from above. In his person they saw the Lord Himself Who had sent him, as envoys are ordinarily received as the one who sent them.

The holy Apostle knew that if the same initial fire of zeal for the pure faith of Christ were kindled in their souls, it would cast out of them everything foreign to that faith. So molten metal drives out every alien substance from itself. Therefore he wants to renew that fire by compelling the Galatians to pass again in heart through the whole history of their conversion, which they had forgotten and which later events had obscured.

In the conversion of the Galatians, one must suppose, there was something extraordinary. Outwardly, Saint Paul appeared so humbled that one might even spit upon him. Yet he was received so highly, and such ardent faith was shown toward his word. The memory of this extraordinary manifestation of the power of God among them could powerfully sustain, and surely did sustain, the same spirit of faith in the Galatians, both in power and in content, just as a banner in regiments always inspires soldiers.

Surely this was so, but later it was little by little forgotten. Forgetfulness made it possible for the false teachers to creep into their souls. The holy Apostle now restores that memory in order to cast them out again from there, together with everything they brought in.

There is no pressing need to define precisely the words, “because of infirmity of the flesh,” which he immediately also calls “my trial in the flesh.” The holy Apostle only wishes to say, “Remember what I was like outwardly among you. Judging by human relations and notions, I was such that one might despise and spit upon me. But my teaching was luminous, exalted, and divine. Then you were able to distinguish the essence of a precious matter under my unattractive exterior. Was this essence, my Gospel, what you now understand it to be? Where has your keen sight gone, so that what you clearly saw in the twilight is now seen dimly by you in broad daylight?”

The interpreters nevertheless try to determine what infirmity of the flesh the Apostle had. Some think it was some bodily illness. Others think it was persecutions, reproaches, and wounds, which are more fittingly called “the trial in the flesh.”

Blessed Jerome writes: “We may suppose that the Apostle fell ill when he first came to the Galatians. Yet, although he was seized by illness, he did not cease preaching the Gospel. There is a tradition that he often suffered from a headache. This was the angel of Satan given to him to buffet him, lest he be exalted (cf. 2 Cor 12:7). This infirmity was a trial for those to whom the Gospel was proclaimed, whether they would despise the one who promised such lofty things while he himself was so weak in body. Nor is it inappropriate that, when the Apostle first came to the Galatians, he endured reproaches, persecutions, and wounds from those who opposed the Gospel. It must have been a great trial for the Galatians when they saw blows inflicted on the Apostle.”

The Eastern interpreters, however, all give the words “infirmity” and “trial” exclusively the latter meaning. Chrysostom says, “What does he wish to say by this? When I was preaching to you, he says, I was persecuted, scourged, and threatened with a thousand deaths. Even then you did not despise me. For this is what the words mean: ‘My trial which was in my flesh you did not despise nor reject.’”

At the same time one may also understand here a hidden reproach of the Galatians, which could not have remained unfelt by them. The thought must at once have come to them: “The Apostle suffered so much for us, and now we have turned our back on him. Is it not strange that at the beginning we received and honored him when he was despised, and afterward we withdrew from him? Shame on us!” “By this the Apostle also puts them to shame,” writes Theophylact, “reminding them how much he endured for their sake from those who opposed the truth.”

Chrysostom says, “Do you notice the Apostle’s spiritual wisdom? In the very act of justifying himself, he does not cease to reproach them, when he sets before them how much he suffered for them, and when he says, ‘Yet this did not scandalize you in the least. You did not spit upon me in these sufferings and persecutions.’ By infirmity and trial he means sufferings and persecutions. ‘But you received me as an angel of God.’ How, then, is it not strange now to receive one persecuted and pursued as an angel of God, but not to receive him when he teaches what is necessary?”

They received him as an angel, as Christ Jesus. This was because of the impression made by the preaching among them. By its power Christ Jesus had been so vividly portrayed in their mind that He seemed to hang crucified before their eyes. The word of the Apostles came from their mouths not according to their own desire and reasoning, but by the movement of the Spirit of God.

The extraordinary vividness of the word among the Galatians remained memorable to Saint Paul. It could not but remain memorable to the Galatians also. The Apostle leads them toward this with these words. For they had received him so highly because of the power of the preached word. This was to raise up in their souls everything that had taken place in them at their first conversion. As was already indicated above, this was very important for the holy Apostle’s aim.

Attention is also drawn to the preposition dia, in di’ astheneian, “because of infirmity.” It seems to mean that he preached because of infirmity of the flesh. He had not planned to preach, but illness detained him, and so he began to preach. Perhaps this was so. But it is better to translate it as we say, “through force,” or “through tears.” The meaning will be, despite illness, if there was illness, or despite persecutions and wounds, or amid illness and wounds. They continued, and I did my work, moving among them and through them, as one walks through thorns.