ff than those who lapse from grace
into idolatry. Without Christ all religion is idolatry. Without Christ
men will entertain false ideas about God, call their ideas what you
like, the laws of Moses, the ordinances of the Pope, the Koran of the
Mohammedans, or what have you.

VERSE 9. But now, after that ye have known God.

"Is it not amazing," cries Paul, "that you Galatians who knew God
intimately by the hearing of the Gospel, should all of a sudden revert
from the true knowledge of His will in which I thought you were
confirmed, to the weak and beggarly elements of the Law which can only
enslave you again?"

VERSE 9. Or rather are known of God.

The Apostle turns the foregoing sentence around. He fears the Galatians
have lost God altogether. "Alas," he cries, "have you come to this,
that you no longer know God? What else am I to think? Nevertheless, God
knows you." Our knowledge of God is rather passive than active. God
knows us better than we know God. "Ye are known of God" means that God
brings His Gospel to our attention, and endows us with faith and the
Holy Spirit. Even in these words the Apostle denies the possibility of
our knowing God by the performance of the Law. "No man knoweth who the
Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." (Luke
10:22.) "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for
he shall bear their iniquities." (Isaiah 53:11.)

The Apostle frankly expresses his surprise to the Galatians that they
who had known God intimately through the Gospel, should so easily be
persuaded by the false apostles to return to the weak and beggarly
elements of the Law. I would not be surprised to see my church
perverted by some fanatic through one or two sermons. We are no better
than the apostles who had to witness the subversion of the churches
which they had planted with their own hands. Nevertheless, Christ will
reign to the end of the world, and that miraculously, as He did during
the Dark Ages.

Paul seems to think rather ill of the Law. He calls it the elements of
the world, the weak and beggarly elements of the world. Was it not
irreverent for him to speak that way about the holy Law of God? The Law
ought to prepare the way of Christ into the hearts of men. That is the
true purpose and function of the Law. But if the Law presumes to usurp
the place and function of the Gospel, it is no longer the holy Law of
God, but a pseudo-Gospel.

If you care to amplify this matter you may add the observation that the
Law is a weak and beggarly element because it makes people weak and
beggarly. The Law has no power and affluence to make men strong and
rich before God. To seek to be justified by the Law amounts to the same
thing as if a person who is already weak and feeble should try to find
strength in weakness, or as if a person with the dropsy should seek a
cure by exposing himself to the pestilence, or as if a leper should go
to a leper, and a beggar to a beggar to find health and wealth.

Those who seek to be justified by the Law grow weaker and more
destitute right along. They are weak and bankrupt to begin with. They
are by nature the children of wrath. Yet for salvation they grasp at
the straw of the Law. The Law can only aggravate their weakness and
poverty. The Law makes them ten times weaker and poorer than they were
before.

I and many others have experienced the truth of this. I have known
monks who zealously labored to please God for salvation, but the more
they labored the more impatient, miserable, uncertain, and fearful they
became. What else can you expect? You cannot grow strong through
weakness and rich through poverty. People who prefer the Law to the
Gospel are like Aesop's dog who let go of the meat to snatch at the
shadow of the water. There is no satisfaction in the Law. What
satisfaction can there be in collecting laws with which to torment
oneself and others? One law breeds ten more until their number is
legion.

Who would have thought it possible that the Galatians, taught as they
were by that efficient apostle and teacher, Paul, could so quickly be
led astray by the false apostles? To fall away from the Gospel is an
easy matter because few people appreciate what an excellent treasure
the knowledge of Christ really is. People are not sufficiently
exercised in their faith by afflictions. They do not wrestle against
sin. They live in security without conflict. Because they have never
been tried in the furnace of affliction they are not properly equipped
with the armor of God and know not how to use the sword of the Spirit.
As long as they are being shepherded by faithful pastors, all is well.
But when their faithful shepherds are gone and wolves disguised as
sheep break into the fold, back they go to the weak and beggarly
elements of the Law.

Whoever goes back to the Law loses the knowledge of the truth, fails in
the recognition of his sinfulness, does not know God, nor the devil,
nor himself, and does not understand the meaning and purpose of the
Law. Without the knowledge of Christ a man will always argue that the
Law is necessary for salvation, that it will strengthen the weak and
enrich the poor. Wherever this opinion holds sway the promises of God
are denied, Christ is demoted, hypocrisy and idolatry are established.

VERSE 9. Whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage.

The Apostle pointedly asks the Galatians whether they desire to be in
bondage again to the Law. The Law is weak and poor, the sinner is weak
and poor—two feeble beggars trying to help each other. They cannot do
it. They only wear each other out. But through Christ a weak and poor
sinner is revived and enriched unto eternal life.

VERSE 10. Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

The Apostle Paul knew what the false apostles were teaching the
Galatians: The observance of days, and months, and times, and years.
The Jews had been obliged to keep holy the Sabbath Day, the new moons,
the feast of the passover, the feast of tabernacles, and other feasts.
The false apostles constrained the Galatians to observe these Jewish
feasts under threat of damnation. Paul hastens to tell the Galatians
that they were exchanging their Christian liberty for the weak and
beggarly elements of the world.

VERSE 11. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in
vain.

It grieves the Apostle to think that he might have preached the Gospel
to the Galatians in vain. But this statement expresses more than grief.
Behind his apparent disappointment at their failure lurks the sharp
reprimand that they had forsaken Christ and that they were proving
themselves to be obstinate unbelievers. But he does not openly condemn
them for fear that oversharp criticism might alienate them altogether.
He therefore changes the tone of his voice and speaks kindly to them.

VERSE 12. Be as I am; for I am as ye are.

Up to this point Paul has been occupied with the doctrinal aspect of
the apostasy of the Galatians. He did not conceal his disappointment at
their lack of stability. He had rebuked them. He had called them fools,
crucifiers of Christ, etc. Now that the more important part of his
Epistle has been finished, he realizes that he has handled the
Galatians too roughly. Anxious lest he should do more harm than good,
he is careful to let them see that his criticism proceeds from
affection and a true apostolic concern for their welfare. He is eager
to mitigate his sharp words with gentle sentiments in order to win them
again.

Like Paul, all pastors and ministers ought to have much sympathy for
their poor straying sheep, and instruct them in the spirit of meekness.
They cannot be straightened out in any other way. Oversharp criticism
provokes anger and despair, but no repentance. And here let us note, by
the way, that true doctrine always produces concord. When men embrace
errors, the tie of Christian love is broken.

At the beginning of the Reformation we were honored as the true
ministers of Christ. Suddenly certain false brethren began to hate us.
We had given them no offense, no occasion to hate us. They knew then as
they know now that ours is the singular desire to publish the Gospel of
Christ everywhere. What changed their attitude toward us? False
doctrine. Seduced into error by the false apostles, the Galatians
refused to acknowledge St. Paul as their pastor. The name and doctrine
of Paul became obnoxious to them. I fear this Epistle recalled very few
from their error.

Paul knew that the false apostles would misconstrue his censure of the
Galatians to their own advantage and say: "So this is your Paul whom
you praise so much. What sweet names he is calling you in his letter.
When he was with you he acted like a father, but now he acts like a
dictator." Paul knew what to expect of the false apostles and therefore
he is worried. He does not know what to say. It is hard for a man to
defend his cause at a distance, especially when he has reason to think
that he personally has fallen into disfavor.

VERSE 12. Be as I am; for I am as ye are.

In beseeching the Galatians to be as he is, Paul expresses the hope
that they might hold the same affection for him that he holds for them.
"Perhaps I have been a little hard with you. Forgive it. Do not judge
my heart according to my words."

We request the same consideration for ourselves. Our way of writing is
incisive and straightforward. But there is no bitterness in our heart.
We seek the honor of Christ and the welfare of men. We do not hate the
Pope as to wish him ill. We do not desire the death of our false
brethren. We desire that they may turn from their evil ways to Christ
and be saved with us. A teacher chastises the pupil to reform him. The
rod hurts, but correction is necessary. A father punishes his son
because he loves his son. If he did not love the lad he would not
punish him but let him have his own way in everything until he comes to
harm. Paul beseeches the Galatians to look upon his correction as a
sign that he really cared for them. "Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." (Heb. 12:11.)

Although Paul seeks to soften the effect of his reproachful words, he
does not take them back. When a physician administers a bitter potion
to a patient, he does it to cure the patient. The fact that the
medicine is bitter is no fault of the physician. The malady calls for a
bitter medicine. Paul wants the Galatians to judge his words according
to the situation that made them necessary.

VERSE 12. Brethren, I beseech you...Ye have not injured me at all.

Would you call it beseeching the Galatians to call them "bewitched,"
"disobedient," "crucifiers of Christ"? The Apostle calls it an earnest
beseeching. And so it is. When a father corrects his son it means as if
he were saying, "My son, I beseech you, be a good boy."

VERSE 12. Ye have not injured me at all.

"I am not angry with you," says Paul. "Why should I be angry with you,
since you have done me no injury at all?"

To this the Galatians reply: "Why, then, do you say that we are
perverted, that we have forsaken the true doctrine, that we are
foolish, bewitched, etc., if you are not angry? We must have offended
you somehow."

Paul answers: "You Galatians have not injured me. You have injured
yourselves. I chide you not because I wish you ill. I have no reason to
wish you ill. God is my witness, you have done me no wrong. On the
contrary, you have been very good to me. The reason I write to you is
because I love you."

The bitter potion must be sweetened with honey and sugar to make it
palatable. When parents have punished their children they give them
apples, pears, and other good things to show them that they mean well.

VERSES 13, 14. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached
the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my
flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of
God, even as Christ Jesus.

"You Galatians were very good to me. When I began to preach the Gospel
to you in the infirmity of my flesh and in great temptation you were
not at all offended. On the contrary, you were so loving, so kind, so
friendly towards me, you received me like an angel, like Jesus
Himself."

Indeed, the Galatians are to be commended for receiving the Gospel from
a man as unimposing and afflicted all around as Paul was. Wherever he
preached the Gospel, Jews and Gentiles raved against him. All the
influential and religious people of his day denounced him. But the
Galatians did not mind it. That was greatly to their honor. And Paul
does not neglect to praise them for it. This praise Paul bestows on
none of the other churches to which he wrote.

St. Jerome and others of the ancient fathers allege this infirmity of
Paul's to have been some physical defect, or concupiscence. Jerome and
the other diagnosticians lived at a time when the Church enjoyed peace
and prosperity, when the bishops increased in wealth and standing, when
pastors and bishops no longer sat over the Word of God. No wonder they
failed to understand Paul.

When Paul speaks of the infirmity of his flesh he does not mean some
physical defect or carnal lust, but the sufferings and afflictions
which he endured in his body. What these infirmities were he himself
explains in II Corinthians 12:9, 10: "Most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when
I am weak, then am I strong." And in the eleventh chapter of the same
Epistle the Apostle writes: "In labors more abundant, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five
times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods,
once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck," etc. (II Cor.
11:23-25.) By the infirmity of his flesh Paul meant these afflictions
and not some chronic disease. He reminds the Galatians how he was
always in peril at the hands of the Jews, Gentiles, and false brethren,
how he suffered hunger and want.

Now, the afflictions of the believers always offend people. Paul knew
it and therefore has high praise for the Galatians because they
overlooked his afflictions and received him like an angel. Christ
forewarned the faithful against the offense of the Cross, saying:
"Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." (Matt. 11:6.)
Surely it is no easy thing to confess Him Lord of all and Savior of the
world who was a reproach of men, and despised of the people, and the
laughing stock of the world. (Ps. 22:7.) I say, to value this poor
Christ, so spitefully scorned, spit upon, scourged, and crucified, more
than the riches of the richest, the strength of the strongest, the
wisdom of the wisest, is something. It is worth being called blessed.

Paul not only had outward afflictions but also inner, spiritual
afflictions. He refers to these in II Corinthians 7:6, "Without were
fightings, within were fears." In his letter to the Philippians Paul
makes mention of the restoration of Epaphroditus as a special act of
mercy on the part of God, "lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow."

Considering the many afflictions of Paul, we are not surprised to hear
him loudly praising the Galatians for not being offended at him as
others were. The world thinks us mad because we go about to comfort, to
help, to save others while we ourselves are in distress. People tell
us: "Physician, heal thyself." (Luke 4:23.)

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