Galatians 4:15
What then has become of your blessing? For I can testify that, if it were possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.
What then has become of your blessing?
This phrase reflects Paul's deep concern and bewilderment over the Galatians' spiritual state. The Greek word for "blessing" here is "makarismos," which can also mean happiness or a state of blessedness. Historically, Paul had a close and affectionate relationship with the Galatians, who initially received him with great joy and gratitude. This rhetorical question underscores a shift from their previous state of spiritual joy and acceptance of the Gospel to a current state of confusion and deviation, likely due to the influence of Judaizers. It serves as a call for self-reflection, urging the Galatians to consider how they have strayed from the truth that once brought them such joy.

For I can testify
Paul uses the phrase "I can testify" to assert his personal witness and authority. The Greek word "martyreo" means to bear witness or to affirm that one has seen or heard something. In the context of the early church, personal testimony was a powerful tool for establishing truth and credibility. Paul is reminding the Galatians of his firsthand experience with their initial reception of the Gospel, reinforcing his authority as an apostle and the authenticity of his message.

that, if it were possible
This conditional phrase introduces a hypothetical scenario, emphasizing the depth of the Galatians' previous commitment and love for Paul. The Greek word "ei" (if) sets up a situation that is contrary to fact, highlighting the extremity of their former devotion. It suggests that their past willingness to go to great lengths for Paul was not just theoretical but was a genuine expression of their faith and affection.

you would have torn out your eyes
This vivid metaphor illustrates the Galatians' profound dedication and willingness to sacrifice for Paul. The act of "tearing out your eyes" is hyperbolic, symbolizing the ultimate sacrifice and selflessness. In the ancient world, the eyes were often seen as the most precious part of the body, essential for life and well-being. This expression underscores the depth of their love and the extent to which they valued Paul's presence and teaching.

and given them to me
The phrase "and given them to me" completes the metaphor, emphasizing the Galatians' readiness to give up something invaluable for Paul's sake. This act of giving is rooted in the Greek word "didomi," which means to bestow or present. It reflects the early Christian community's spirit of generosity and self-sacrifice, inspired by Christ's own sacrificial love. Historically, this level of devotion would have been seen as a profound expression of loyalty and commitment, both to Paul as their spiritual leader and to the Gospel he preached.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul
The apostle who wrote the letter to the Galatians, addressing the churches in the region of Galatia.

2. Galatians
The recipients of the letter, early Christians in the region of Galatia who were struggling with the influence of Judaizers.

3. Judaizers
A group of Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentile converts must adhere to Jewish law, including circumcision.

4. Galatia
A region in modern-day Turkey where Paul established several churches during his missionary journeys.

5. Paul's Illness
An unspecified physical ailment that Paul refers to, which led to the Galatians' initial compassion and care for him.
Teaching Points
The Value of Sacrificial Love
The Galatians' willingness to "tear out their eyes" for Paul exemplifies the depth of Christian love and sacrifice. We are called to love others selflessly, even when it requires personal sacrifice.

The Danger of Losing Spiritual Zeal
Paul questions what happened to the Galatians' initial blessing and zeal. This serves as a warning to guard against spiritual complacency and to maintain our fervor for the Gospel.

The Importance of Remembering Past Blessings
Reflecting on past spiritual experiences and blessings can reignite our faith and commitment. We should regularly recall how God has worked in our lives to strengthen our current walk with Him.

The Role of Physical Weakness in Ministry
Paul's physical ailment did not hinder his ministry; rather, it became an opportunity for the Galatians to demonstrate their love. Our weaknesses can be used by God to reveal His strength and to foster community.
Bible Study Questions
1. What does Paul's reference to the Galatians' willingness to "tear out their eyes" reveal about their relationship with him, and how can we cultivate such deep relationships within our church community?

2. How can we guard against losing the spiritual zeal and blessing we once experienced, as the Galatians did?

3. In what ways can reflecting on past blessings and spiritual experiences help us in our current faith journey?

4. How can we view our physical or personal weaknesses as opportunities for God to work through us, as Paul did?

5. What practical steps can we take to demonstrate sacrificial love to others in our daily lives, following the example of the Galatians' initial response to Paul?
Connections to Other Scriptures
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul speaks about his "thorn in the flesh," which may relate to the physical ailment mentioned in Galatians 4:15.

Philippians 1:29
Discusses the privilege of suffering for Christ, which can be connected to the Galatians' willingness to sacrifice for Paul.

Acts 14:19-20
Describes Paul's experiences in Galatia, including being stoned and left for dead, highlighting the challenges he faced in the region.

Matthew 5:29
Jesus speaks about the seriousness of sin and the lengths one should go to avoid it, paralleling the Galatians' willingness to sacrifice for Paul.
A Missing TreasureNorman Macleod, D. D.Galatians 4:15
BlessednessGalatians 4:15
Feeling: its Place and Power in ReligionJ. Parker, D. D.Galatians 4:15
Happiness and DutyS. Pearson, M. A.Galatians 4:15
InstabilityS. Pearson, M. A.Galatians 4:15
Lost BlessednessGalatians 4:15
Mere Feeling: its WorthlessnessCanon Liddon.Galatians 4:15
The Backslider's MiseryBritish Messenger.Galatians 4:15
Personal AppealR. Finlayson Galatians 4:12-20
The Appeal of the Suffering ApostleR.M. Edgar Galatians 4:12-20
People
Agar, Galatians, Hagar, Isaac, Paul
Places
Galatia, Jerusalem, Mount Sinai
Topics
Bear, Blessedness, Blessing, Condition, Enjoyed, Felt, Gratulation, Happiness, Happy, Plucked, Plucking, Possible, Record, Satisfaction, Self-congratulations, Sense, Spake, Spoke, Testify, Testimony, Torn, Witness, Yours, Yourselves
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Galatians 4:15

     5134   blindness, natural

Galatians 4:13-15

     5296   disabilities

Galatians 4:14-15

     5565   suffering, of believers
     5781   affection

Library
May 7. "I Travail in Birth Again Until Christ be Formed in You" (Gal. Iv. 19).
"I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. iv. 19). It is a blessed moment when we are born again and a new heart is created in us after the image of God. It is a more blessed moment when in this new heart Christ Himself is born and the Christmas time is reproduced in us as we, in some real sense, become incarnations of the living Christ. This is the deepest and holiest meaning of Christianity. It is expressed in Paul's prayer for the Galatians. "My little children, for whom I
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Fourth Sunday in Lent
Text: Galatians 4, 21-31. 21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewomen. 23 Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. 24 Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Allegories of Sarah and Hagar
We shall attempt this morning to teach you something of the allegories of Sarah and Hagar, that you may thereby better understand the essential difference between the covenants of law and of grace. We shall not go fully into the subject, but shall only give such illustrations of it as the text may furnish us. First, I shall want you to notice the two women, whom Paul uses as types--Hagar and Sarah; then I shall notice the two sons--Ishmael and Isaac; in the third place, I shall notice Ishmael's conduct
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

Adoption --The Spirit and the Cry
The divinity of each of these sacred persons is also to be gathered from the text and its connection. We do not doubt tee the loving union of all in the work of deliverance. We reverence the Father, without whom we had not been chosen or adopted: the Father who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We love and reverence the Son by whose most precious blood we have been redeemed, and with whom we are one in a mystic and everlasting union: and
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 24: 1878

God's Inheritance
GAL. iv. 6, 7. Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. This is the second good news of Christmas-day. The first is, that the Son of God became man. The second is, why he became man. That men might become the sons of God through him. Therefore St. Paul says, You are the sons of God. Not--you may be, if you are very good: but you are,
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Luther -- the Method and Fruits of Justification
Martin Luther, leader of the Reformation, was born at Eisleben in 1483, and died there 1546. His rugged character and powerful intellect, combined with a strong physique, made him a natural orator, so that it was said "his words were half battles." Of his own method of preaching he once remarked: "When I ascend the pulpit I see no heads, but imagine those that are before me to be all blocks. When I preach I sink myself deeply down; I regard neither doctors nor masters, of which there are in the church
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume I

The Faithful Steward
We are now prepared to present in detail that general system of beneficence, demanded alike by Scripture and reason, and best fitted to secure permanent and ever-growing results. While universal, it must be a system in its nature adapted to each individual, and binding on the individual conscience; one founded on, and embracing, the entire man,--his reason, his heart and will, including views and principles, feelings and affections, with their inculcation, general purposes and resolutions, with corresponding
Sereno D. Clark—The Faithful Steward

"Ye are not in the Flesh," Says the Apostle...
"Ye are not in the flesh," says the apostle, "but in the Spirit"; but then he adds, as the only ground of this, "if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you"; surely he means, if so be ye are moved, guided, and governed by that, which the Spirit wills, works and inspires within you. And then to show the absolute necessity of this life of God in the soul, he adds, "If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." And that this is the state to which God has appointed, and called all
William Law—An Humble, Affectionate, and Earnest Address to the Clergy

Here are Two Most Important and Fundamental Truths Fully Demonstrated...
Here are two most important and fundamental truths fully demonstrated, First, that the truth and perfection of the gospel state could not take place, till Christ was glorified, and his kingdom among men made wholly and solely a continual immediate ministration of the Spirit: everything before this was but subservient for a time, and preparatory to this last dispensation, which could not have been the last, had it not carried man above types, figures and shadows, into the real possession and enjoyment
William Law—An Humble, Affectionate, and Earnest Address to the Clergy

But one Sometimes Comes to a Case of this Kind...
24. But one sometimes comes to a case of this kind, that we are not interrogated where the person is who is sought, nor forced to betray him, if he is hidden in such manner, that he cannot easily be found unless betrayed: but we are asked, whether he be in such a place or not. If we know him to be there, by holding our peace we betray him, or even by saying that we will in no wise tell whether he be there or not: for from this the questioner gathers that he is there, as, if he were not, nothing else
St. Augustine—On Lying

Introductory Note to the Epistle of Barnabas
[a.d. 100.] The writer of this Epistle is supposed to have been an Alexandrian Jew of the times of Trajan and Hadrian. He was a layman; but possibly he bore the name of "Barnabas," and so has been confounded with his holy and apostolic name-sire. It is more probable that the Epistle, being anonymous, was attributed to St. Barnabas, by those who supposed that apostle to be the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and who discovered similarities in the plan and purpose of the two works. It is with
Barnabas—The Epistle of Barnabas

The Gospel Message, Good Tidings
[As it is written] How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! T he account which the Apostle Paul gives of his first reception among the Galatians (Galatians 4:15) , exemplifies the truth of this passage. He found them in a state of ignorance and misery; alienated from God, and enslaved to the blind and comfortless superstitions of idolatry. His preaching, accompanied with the power of the Holy Spirit, had a great and marvellous effect.
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

How Can I Obtain Faith?
May the Spirit of God assist us while we meditate upon the way by which faith cometh. This shall be followed by a brief indication of certain obstructions which often lie in that way; and then we will conclude by dwelling upon the importance that faith should come to us by that appointed road. I. First, then, THE WAY BY WHICH FAITH COMES TO MEN. "Faith cometh by hearing." It may help to set the truth out more clearly, if we say, negatively, that it does not come by any other process than by hearing;--not
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

The Blood of Sprinkling
Our apostle next tells us what we are come to. I suppose he speaks of all the saints after the death and resurrection of our Lord and the descent of the Holy Ghost. He refers to the whole church, in the midst of which the Holy Spirit now dwells. We are come to a more joyous sight than Sinai, and the mountain burning with fire. The Hebrew worshipper, apart from his sacrifices, lived continually beneath the shadow of the darkness of a broken law; he was startled often by the tremendous note of the
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886

"But Ye have Received the Spirit of Adoption, Whereby we Cry, Abba, Father. "
Rom. viii. 15.--"But ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God," 1 John iii. 1. It is a wonderful expression of love to advance his own creatures, not only infinitely below himself, but far below other creatures, to such a dignity. Lord, what is man that thou so magnified him! But it surpasseth wonder, that rebellious creatures, his enemies, should have, not only
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"For as Many as are Led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God. For Ye have not Received the Spirit of Bondage
Rom. viii. s 14, 15.--"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." The life of Christianity, take it in itself, is the most pleasant and joyful life that can be, exempted from those fears and cares, those sorrows and anxieties, that all other lives are subject unto, for this of necessity must be the force and efficacy of true religion,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Moral Reactions of Prayer
The Moral Reactions of Prayer All religion is founded on prayer, and in prayer it has its test and measure. To be religious is to pray, to be irreligious is to be incapable of prayer. The theory of religion is really the philosophy of prayer; and the best theology is compressed prayer. The true theology is warm, and it steams upward into prayer. Prayer is access to whatever we deem God, and if there is no such access there is no religion; for it is not religion to resign ourselves to be crushed
P. T. Forsyth—The Soul of Prayer

Christ's Humiliation in his Incarnation
'Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.' I Tim 3:16. Q-xxvii: WHEREIN DID CHRIST'S HUMILIATION CONSIST? A: In his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross. Christ's humiliation consisted in his incarnation, his taking flesh, and being born. It was real flesh that Christ took; not the image of a body (as the Manichees erroneously held), but a true body; therefore he
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Her virginity Also Itself was on this Account More Pleasing and Accepted...
4. Her virginity also itself was on this account more pleasing and accepted, in that it was not that Christ being conceived in her, rescued it beforehand from a husband who would violate it, Himself to preserve it; but, before He was conceived, chose it, already dedicated to God, as that from which to be born. This is shown by the words which Mary spake in answer to the Angel announcing to her her conception; "How," saith she, "shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" [2031] Which assuredly she would
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

But if Moreover any not Having Charity, which Pertaineth to the Unity of Spirit...
23. But if moreover any not having charity, which pertaineth to the unity of spirit and the bond of peace whereby the Catholic Church is gathered and knit together, being involved in any schism, doth, that he may not deny Christ, suffer tribulations, straits, hunger, nakedness, persecution, perils, prisons, bonds, torments, swords, or flames, or wild beasts, or the very cross, through fear of hell and everlasting fire; in nowise is all this to be blamed, nay rather this also is a patience meet to
St. Augustine—On Patience

Therefore at that Time, when the Law Also...
27. Therefore at that time, when the Law also, following upon the days of the Patriarchs, [2010] pronounced accursed, whoso raised not up seed in Israel, even he, who could, put it not forth, but yet possessed it. But from the period that the fullness of time hath come, [2011] that it should be said, "Whoso can receive, let him receive," [2012] from that period even unto this present, and from henceforth even unto the end, whoso hath, worketh: whoso shall be unwilling to work, let him not falsely
St. Augustine—On the Good of Marriage

Letter xiv (Circa A. D. 1129) to Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln
To Alexander, [15] Bishop of Lincoln A certain canon named Philip, on his way to Jerusalem, happening to turn aside to Clairvaux, wished to remain there as a monk. He solicits the consent of Alexander, his bishop, to this, and begs him to sanction arrangements with the creditors of Philip. He finishes by exhorting Alexander not to trust too much in the glory of the world. To the very honourable lord, Alexander, by the Grace of God, Bishop of Lincoln, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, wishes honour more
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Eighth Sunday after Trinity Living in the Spirit as God's Children.
Text: Romans 8, 12-17. 12 So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh: 13 for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

No Sorrow Like Messiah's Sorrow
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow! A lthough the Scriptures of the Old Testament, the law of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophecies (Luke 24:44) , bear an harmonious testimony to MESSIAH ; it is not necessary to suppose that every single passage has an immediate and direct relation to Him. A method of exposition has frequently obtained [frequently been in vogue], of a fanciful and allegorical cast [contrivance], under the pretext
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Links
Galatians 4:15 NIV
Galatians 4:15 NLT
Galatians 4:15 ESV
Galatians 4:15 NASB
Galatians 4:15 KJV

Galatians 4:15 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Galatians 4:14
Top of Page
Top of Page