Galatians 4:13-15 - You received me as an angel

4:13,14

When Paul first preached the gospel to them it was done in weakness. There is no agreement on what “bodily ailment” or “physical infirmity” means. Some think it was an illness such as malaria, others that it was general weakness. Whatever the case, Paul came in weakness, and there was nothing about him that would prove attractive. Despite this, the Galatians welcomed him. People with illness or infirmity were often viewed as being under judgement from God or the gods. Conversely, physical well-being was highly regarded. Culturally it would have been easy for the Galatians to despise Paul. Instead they received him as “an angel of God”. They welcomed him as Christ’s representative.

4:15

“What has happened to you?” Paul is getting them to look back to those days when they welcomed him so openly. Why did they welcome him then? Because he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit was at work among them. One way of distinguishing between good and false teaching is to consider how we react, and the “atmosphere”. Now we need to be careful here, for false teachings and false teachers can and do seduce. But if God is genuinely working through someone, genuinely communicating His message through them, there will be a “godly atmosphere”. There will, of course, be glorification of Christ, this is absolutely essential, but there will also be a promotion of right attitudes towards people. Valuing people for the right reasons. We will see later that the false teachings of the Judaisers was leading to back-biting. The reference to “gouging out your eyes” has been taken by some to imply that Paul had a sight problem. It is perhaps more likely that this is just a proverbial statement of affection, like saying “I’d give my right arm for ...”