Paul Is Perplexed

Galatians 4:17-20

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What We’ll See

• False Teachers weren’t making much of the Galatians for a good reason.

• It’s good to make much of other people for a good reason.

• Paul is longing for the Galatians to learn to live by Faith.

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Context

There are False Teachers who are teaching that people need to put their trust in a law, the Old Testament Law, in fact, in order to be right with God and to the live the way that God wants; Paul has been showing how living trusting in Jesus is what God now wants for believers. In the past few verses, he's said that he's afraid for the Galatians' sake. They seem to think that he is their enemy for telling them what God actually wants.

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Galatians 4:17–20 (ESV)

17. They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you,

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Galatians 4:19-20

19. my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20. I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

(Prayer)

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Sermon Introduction

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Galatians 4:17–20 (ESV)

17. They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you,

17. They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

By "they", Paul is talking about the teachers who are saying that the Galatians need to follow the Old Testament Law in order to please God.

The phrase “make much” of here can also mean to be “interested in” or even passionate, or, as the Holman Christian Standard says, enthusiastic. The idea behind this phrase could be that

This can also mean “they make much of you, but not in the right way,”

Notice how the verse also says, “shut you out”. This could mean that they wanted to shut the believers out from other people in their lives, such as Paul; or even to shut the Galatians out from the truth of the Gospel. Because they cared more about the Galatian believers making much of them, anybody or anything that stood in their was an enemy, whether it was Paul or even the Gospel itself.

Another way this verse could be read is that they created an in-crowd; a club, if you will. By saying “shut you out”, Paul means that these false teachers have an inner group of people and not everyone is allowed in. Why do exclusive clubs exist? Because they work. The grass is greener on the other side, or so they say. We all know that this is wrong, but isn’t there a part of ourselves that wants to check. Trust but verify, as the old proverb goes.

What is probably happening is here is that the false teachers made much of people when they talked to them at church: they showed genuine interest, but it was a strategy. They were enthusiastic about talking to the Galatian church goers, at first. And then, after a period of time of friendship, these false teachers started ghosting people, or created that in-crowd: that clique we’ve talked about, and when it came time to this inner group, many of the Galatians weren’t let in, unless they did something, an and that something is trusting in a set of Laws rather that in Jesus to live the way that God wants.

It’s like Paul is saying here, “believers, don’t fall for it!”. Why? Because look at why they are doing this?

So that people would make much of them. It wasn’t to help the believers to question and then strengthen their faith. It wasn’t to help believers to live like God. Remember, this isn’t just Paul’s opinion here. If we believe that God wrote through Paul, then we also believe that God pulling back the curtain. What is the motivation? These false teachers what to be made much of. If you pinned these false teachers to wall, they probably did want people’s lives to get better, and they might somewhere inside have wanted the Galatians to do what God wanted, but what came first? People making much of them. That means that they were okay with good teaching, a little bit of Jesus and living by faith, as long as it fit within their own goals. Do we have wants or desires that are more important to us than what God wants?

We can bring that to God today. As long as we’re still breathing, there is no reason for a sad ending with God. If He can raise people from the dead, He can change you and me when we’re being hard-hearted.

Now, is it a bad thing to make much of people, or be passionate about winning them over? Never, as long as it’s for a good reason. Look at verse 18.

18. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you,

Paul states here that it’s always good to be made much of: when someone is either doing it the right way, or for a good purpose.

Other people are made in God’s image, and they all have value before him. It’s good to receive compliments, or have people show genuine interest in your week.

You know, some people never hear compliments, some people never have people ask them simple questions out of love, such as “how has your week been,” or say, “it sounds like you’re doing a good job,” and they feel like they will do almost anything to continue to feel or hear that encouragement.

What does Paul say? It’s good for someone to make much of others! Notice what Paul says afterwards, “and not only when I am present with you.”

What Paul seems to be saying is that making much of believers is exactly what he does when he is with people; but he does it for the right reasons: to encourage and disciple people.

Paul could be saying a couple of things here. By sayings, “Not only when I am present with you,” he could be saying, “I really wish others were there to encourage you for a good purpose,” or he could be saying, “hey, Galatians… there is a need here.”

Are there good things that we see people doing that we could make a bigger deal over? Why wait? There is no law against saying kind or encouraging things to other people for the good things that they do. You never know, God might be nudging you to say something nice because someone else needs to hear it.

Paul’s point is that making much of people is good when done the right way. But these false teachers have bad intentions; they are “bad actors”.

Paul didn’t just “make much of” the Galatian believers, he was passionate about them following the truth; living in a healthy way. He didn’t want to see them suffer. Look at verse 19:

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19. my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

Paul uses a word picture that every culture can understand, that of childbirth, so that I don’t feel that I have to really explain why “anguish” and “childbirth” are in the same sentence.

By saying “anguish of childbirth,” Paul is saying that this situation is causing him anguish. Paul calls them “little children”. In this word picture, Paul is stating that instead of a mother in labor with a child, he is feeling labor pains for the Galatians. He wants them to finally understand the idea of living by faith in Christ, and it’s painful. This could mean that there are Galatians who aren’t believers yet, or that there are Galatians believers who aren’t living by faith, or, he is talking about a mixture of both.

If a person isn’t a believer, what do we tell them? Trust in Jesus for Eternal Life.

If a person is a believer, but is giving into sin or evil, what do we tell them. Put that action to death while trusting in Jesus to make it happen.

Trust or faith is the answer for how a Christian should live their lives. Paul wants the Galatian believers to understand this. What we see here is the heart of Paul; he truly loves the Galatians and it can be painful! Because believers are a family, it can be painful to see other believers who seem to throw their lives away and follow harmful teachings. It’s not good when this happens, but don’t ever feel like there’s something wrong with you when it pains you to see this. Other believers are our family; Us suffering when we watch believers live harmful ways is us watching our family members suffer.

This seems to be how Paul feels. Look at verse 20.

20. I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

We see something else about Paul here, and in other places. Paul doesn’t like conflict. In fact, he’s going to end this whole letter by saying that he doesn’t want people to “cause him anymore trouble.” He says here “I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone.”

Remember what he said in Galatians 3:1? He said that the Galatians were “foolish”, and he had to rebuke them. He doesn’t enjoy this though. The Greek phrase for “Change my tone”, can refer to musical instruments changing their notes. Even if we are not musically incline, we all understand that there is happy music, sad music, angry music, scary music and dramatic music. Dramatic or scary music appears in plays warn the audience that something bad is happening or about to happen. When the hero and heroine are about to kiss, generally there is happy, very happy music, that plays. What has Paul’s tone been for most of the letter? It’s been Sad, Scary, and Dramatic; the music that plays in a movie when someone is about to drive off a cliff! If you think that Paul likes writing to people to tell them that they are doing something wrong, if you think Paul likes being confrontational, he doesn’t. I think he’d much rather write a letter than says, “My beloved Galatians, your so loving; good job on that; now Let me tell you about how cool the rapture will be!” By the way, this is almost exactly what he says to the Thessalonian believers in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.

So, by Paul’s tone, he means the content of what he’s saying. Paul doesn’t like being so negative and having to call out false teachers. He doesn’t like thinking that the Galatians, who he cares about, are turning to useless and harmful teachings.

Paul then says,

“For I am perplexed about you.”

What does Paul say he wants in this verse? He wants to be present with the Galatians and Change his tone with them. Why? Because he is perplexed about them.

This phrase can also mean, “because I am perplexed about you,” or ‘because I am confused about you.”

This word in the Greek can mean to be uncertain, or at a loss for how to proceed.

This verse could mean that maybe if he could be present in the Galatia, he could see exactly what was happening and then tell them what they were doing wrong from a more knowledgeable position or he would know the correct action to take to help the Galatians. Since letters contain only a certain number of words, he had to focus on exactly what the problem and the solution was.

This verse could also mean that if he was present and had a conversation with the Galatians, maybe he could say what he wanted to in a less harsh way. We all know that it is much harder to write a letter than it is to speak to people in person most of the time. Maybe it would be easier to correct the Galatians if he were there in person.

What ever the reason, Paul was perplexed by the Galatians. Again, seeing people you love and care about live in a harmful way can be hard.

As Paul has done before in this book, he is going to remind the Galatians about the truth of living by faith by using an example from the Old Testament. He’s going back to the life of Abraham, specifically, his children. We’ll look at that next week.

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What We’ve Seen

• False Teachers weren’t making much of the Galatians for a good reason.

• It’s good to make much of other people for a good reason.

• Paul is longing for the Galatians to learn to trust Christ.

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Application

• Don’t forget to encourage the people in your lives.

• Put your faith in Jesus.

• Look for opportunities to disciple the people around you.

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Prayer