PART II (NASB)

Paul begins this section urging the Galatians to become as he as, as one who has set aside the legal practices of the Law of Moses—as someone who has stopped seeking to be justified through his own merit. In this way, he has become like the Galatians: He now lives by faith—by Christ. 

"12 I beg of you, brothers and sisters, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong; 13 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; 14 and you did not despise that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition, nor express contempt, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself. 15 Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I testify about you that, if possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17 They eagerly seek you, not in a commendable way, but they want to shut you out so that you will seek them. 18 But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable way, and not only when I am present with you. 19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you— 20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone of voice, for I am at a loss about you!"

Paul ends verse 12 by telling the Galatians, “You have done me no wrong,” but in verse 16 he asks, “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” So the issue here is that the Galatians seem have come to view Paul as their enemy because he told them the truth concerning circumcision—specifically—and the legal works of the Law. 

In verses 13-15, we get a glimpse of the visit where Paul preached the gospel. The opportunity to preach arose because of some unidentified ailment—perhaps something to do with his vision since the Galatians, “would have torn out [their] eyes and given them to [him].” (15) But whatever this condition, it seems that it would have normally been considered off-putting; Paul calls it “a trial” to the Galatians. Nevertheless, instead of shewing him off as a demon, they welcomed him as an angel and his message as gospel truth. But now, at verse 16, they consider him an enemy. 

This reversal has happened because the agitators—the preachers of the different gospel—have been courting the Galatians. Paul says these teachers want to cut the Galatians off from the rest of the Church that lives by faith so that they will become the Galatians’ only source of instruction. Still, Paul says in verse 18, it’s good to be courted—just make sure that those who are courting you do so with the truth, do so commendably. 

"19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you— 20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone of voice, for I am at a loss about you!"

Paul gave birth to the church in Galatia; he put all of himself into bringing them into life through Christ and through faith. It seems that like any parent, he had let the church go about its way, certain that it would continue in the way of truth, the way of faith. Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he grows older he will not abandon it.” Paul had cut the apron strings, and they had trapped themselves in the pantry, and he considers if he must go and give birth to them again.

I can hear him ask, “Am I going to have to start all over again with you, and this time stay until ‘Christ is formed in you’? Do I have to spoon-feed you the gospel until it pours forth from your hearts?”
He is frustrated, and I feel him. I’m sure every natural, adoptive, and spiritual parent knows exactly what Paul is thinking—knows what he is going through internally. 

These Gentiles, the Galatians, Paul considers his children, and I am sure when he was with them, he taught them that they were brothers and sisters—a spiritual family closer than blood relations. 
How different from our Church today in the twenty-first century—where we come and go as we please and our time together is founded on convenience. 

How desperately Paul wants to return to them; his family is in need—even though they don’t think that they are. I guess he assumes he’d calm down if he saw them face to face, but he knows that he’s being harsh in his letter, since he ends verse twenty with, “for I am at a loss about you!” Paul begins the final section of the chapter presenting his children, the Galatians, with a choice much like Moses did with Israel in Deuteronomy 30:

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster…But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed…Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. No I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (NLT)

He first examples Abraham’s first two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and he distinguishes between the two according to how they were born: one is born from Sarah’s plans—from the flesh—and the other is according to the Promise of God. This is found in Genesis 16. 

In the final verses of the chapter Paul uses their births as an allegory for the Old and New Covenants, for slavery to the legal works of the Law and for the freedom of faith. And Paul reminds the Galatians that they are children of the Promise because of Christ, reborn in Him to be free and no longer born into sin and slavery. 

"21 Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the Law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. 23 But the son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise."

Blessing only originates through the free woman—that is, Sarah. Ismail was born to be Abraham’s descendant through his parent’s efforts and by their merit. Since this son was “born according to the flesh” his life would be subject to those principles of the flesh that we talked about last episode. Accordingly, his life would be one of chaos and struggle (See Genesis 16 for more on this.)

"24 This is speaking allegorically, for these women are two covenants: one coming from Mount Sinai giving birth to children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is enslaved with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother."

In providing this explanation, we are reminded that Paul is writing to Gentiles, to people unfamiliar with the Hebrew scriptures. He here gives the Galatians a choice to attempt to live by the sweat of their brows—Ismael, Adam, and the Mosaic Law—or to live in the Spirit through faith—through believing in God’s promises, acting accordingly, and being forced into trusting in someone other than themselves. Freedom is only found through Sarah. 

"28 And you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But as at that time the son who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, so it is even now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? 'Drive out the slave woman and her son, For the son of the slave woman shall not be an heir with the son of the free woman.' 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave woman, but of the free woman."

Paul says here that there is no room in the Galatians’ hearts for both the old and new covenants—or to put it more broadly and in keeping with this chapter—no room for both the principles of the flesh—slavery—and the life of the Spirit in the same hu...