6 I am surprised that you are being so quickly turned away from him whose word came to you in the grace of Christ, to good news of a different sort;
For if anyone comes preaching another Jesus from the one whose preachers we are, or if you have got a different spirit, or a different sort of good news from those which came to you, how well you put up with these things.
You were going on well; who was the cause of your not giving ear to what is true? This ready belief did not come from him who had made you his.
And the Lord said, because this people come near to me with their mouths, and give honour to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule given them by the teaching of men;
You are cut off from Christ, you who would have righteousness by the law; you are turned away from grace.
Because, not having knowledge of God's righteousness, and desiring to give effect to their righteousness, they have not put themselves under the righteousness of God.
The man said in answer, Why, here is a strange thing! You have no knowledge where he comes from though he gave me the use of my eyes.
Because by his power he has given us everything necessary for life and righteousness, through the knowledge of him who has been our guide by his glory and virtue;
But be holy in every detail of your lives, as he, whose servants you are, is holy;
And the grace of our Lord was very great, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
It was my desire, when I went on into Macedonia, that you might make a stop at Ephesus, to give orders to certain men not to put forward a different teaching,
But now that you have come to have knowledge of God, or more truly, God has knowledge of you, how is it that you go back again to the poor and feeble first things, desiring to be servants to them again? You keep days, and months, and fixed times, and years. I am in fear of you, that I may have been working for you to no purpose. My desire for you, brothers, is that you may be as I am, because I am as you are. You have done me no wrong; But you have knowledge that with a feeble body I was preaching the good news to you the first time; And you did not have a poor opinion of me because of the trouble in my flesh, or put shame on it; but you took me to your hearts as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where then is that happy condition of yours? because I give you witness, that, if possible, you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me.
O foolish Galatians, by what strange powers have you been tricked, to whom it was made clear that Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross? Give me an answer to this one question, Did the Spirit come to you through the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having made a start in the Spirit, will you now be made complete in the flesh? Did you undergo such a number of things to no purpose? if it is in fact to no purpose. He who gives you the Spirit, and does works of power among you, is it by the works of law, or by the hearing of faith?
But we have faith that we will get salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they.
And he was greatly surprised because they had no faith. And he went about the country places teaching.
Be full of wonder, O heavens, at this; be overcome with fear, be completely waste, says the Lord. For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Galatians 1
Commentary on Galatians 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 1
In this chapter, after the preface or introduction (v. 1-5), the apostle severely reproves these churches for their defection from the faith (v. 6-9), and then proves his own apostleship, which his enemies had brought them to question,
Gal 1:1-5
In these verses we have the preface or introduction to the epistle, where observe,
The apostle, having thus taken notice of the great love wherewith Christ hath loved us, concludes this preface with a solemn ascription of praise and glory to him (v. 5): To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Intimating that on this account he is justly entitled to our highest esteem and regard. Or this doxology may be considered as referring both to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom he had just before been wishing grace and peace. They are both the proper objects of our worship and adoration, and all honour and glory are perpetually due to them, both on account of their own infinite excellences, and also on account of the blessings we receive from them.
Gal 1:6-9
Here the apostle comes to the body of the epistle; and he begins it with a more general reproof of these churches for their unsteadiness in the faith, which he afterwards, in some following parts of it, enlarges more upon. Here we may observe,
Gal 1:10-24
What Paul had said more generally, in the preface of this epistle, he now proceeds more particularly to enlarge upon. There he had declared himself to be an apostle of Christ; and here he comes more directly to support his claim to that character and office. There were some in the churches of Galatia who were prevailed with to call this in question; for those who preached up the ceremonial law did all they could to lessen Paul's reputation, who preached the pure gospel of Christ to the Gentiles: and therefore he here sets himself to prove the divinity both of his mission and doctrine, that thereby he might wipe off the aspersions which his enemies had cast upon him, and recover these Christians into a better opinion of the gospel he had preached to them. This he gives sufficient evidence of,