The Pleas of Paul Perplexed and his Tale of Two Cities (Galatians 4:12-31)

Introduction: When I am weak, then I am strong…

We love being strong. For us, strong is good, weak is bad. The creed in our society is Darwin’s Survival of the fittest. That’s why people drive 4 wheel drives. That’s why the big kids get chosen in the first 15 rugby team, or for the A grade League team. It makes sense. Success is in strength and size. Big is beautiful.

But so often it is not the way God works. God loves to work in weakness. The apostle Paul learned this. He learned it from Jesus, and from his own experience.

Paul had some impressive spiritual experiences. God revealed many things to him. Some things even that he was not permitted to tell. Of course, these things could make a person proud. And perhaps they would have made Paul proud. Except, God decided to torment Paul with a ‘thorn in his flesh’. We don’t know what it was, except it was a messenger of satan. And it tormented him, or tortured him. We read that:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. … For when I am weak, then I am strong.(2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NIV).

What is your weakness? Is it a physical weakness? Failing strength, immobility, inability to see and hear? Chronic illness, pain or fatigue. In God’s sovereignty, you seem to have had more sickness and poor health than most? Or is it a mental weakness? Timidity, anxiety, mental illness, depression? Is your mental health likely to go downhill before your physical health?

No matter what species your weakness, we should remember that God’s power is made perfect through weakness.

Hudson Taylor was throughout his life a sickly man. He seemed to have a weak constitution. Yet God used him to take the gospel to the interior of China.

Charles Spurgeon endured long periods of depression. Yet he spoke gospel words of consolation and comfort to thousands.

Joni Eareckson went to the beach one day, and was carried out of the water a quadraplaegic. She remains so to this day. Yet she writes (with a pen in her mouth’, ‘Jesus is alive and his power is available to you … He proves himself daily in my life…” Joni, 127.

A Christian man I know got to age 25 until it was discovered he couldn’t read. So he had to learn how to read. A while later, he applied to study at Bible College. But they knocked him back. Never mind. He decided to do ministry anyway. And he started doing gospel ministry with Muslims. He taught them to read the bible. And he developed great ways to help them read the bible. Eventually, the man ended up going to the Bible College, but not as a student. He ended up being a teacher. He now teaches students about Muslim ministry. And he said to me, He would never have been able to do the ministry he now does if he had gone to bible college.

God’s power made perfect in weakness, in sickness, in disability, in mental illness, in failure to master basic skills. God loves to work that way.

A personal appeal from a frustrated father (4:12-20)

Paul is frustrated with the Galatian Christians. They are Fully Grown Sons of God, heirs of the Universe. And here they are, going back into the rumpus room to play with the toys of their infancy. Circumcision necessary to be saved? That’s childishness, once Jesus has come. A sabbath here, a passover there. After Jesus comes, it’s all bubby stuff.

Listen to Paul’s frustration:

Verse 11: I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you…(NIV)

Verse 20: how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you…(NIV)

The thing that frustrates Paul is their change of attitude. He can’t understand how the Galatians have turned so quickly against him. He compares their treatment of him then and their attitude to him now. Paul reminds them of the whole embarrassing start of their relationship.

Chapter 4 verses 13 to 16:

13As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you. 14Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Paul first came to preach the gospel to the Galatian’s because of a personal weakness. Paul was sick. It may be he had a problem with his eyes. This might be because he says in verse 15, they would have dug out their eyes and given them to him. It is possible this problem with his eyes might have been a result of seeing Jesus on the Damascus Road, because he was blind for 3 days.

Now, sickness and disease had a certain stigma attached. It still does today, particularly for some Christians who think that it is a lack of faith that means you aren’t healed. And if you don’t have enough faith to be healed, maybe you don’t have enough faith to be saved.

But sickness and death and weakness is part of our world. We live in a world which God has subjected to frustration. It groans in the pains of childbirth. That means there is sickness and pain in our world. And that is God’s will.

Friends, Paul used to take a doctor around with him. His doctor’s name was Luke.

Friends, Paul had a gift of healing. He could miraculously heal people, at least at times. He did miraculous works among the Galatians (Galatians 3:5; cf Acts 13-14)

Yet even Paul in the midst of preaching the gospel became sick. Elsewhere the Apostle Paul leaves his beloved co-worker Trophimus sick in Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20). Clearly he didn’t or couldn’t heal all the time. He says of Epaphroditus that he was sick and almost died. And that Epaphroditus came close to death because of the work of Christ, and thus should be honoured (Philippians 2:25-30). Indeed, he himself says he had a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of satan to torment him (2 Corinthians 12:7).

If you are sick, friends, understand that it is part of our world. Pray for healing, yes. But understand, even the great saints, like Paul became sick. And the gospel moves forward not only with Paul’s great works of power. It also moves forward with their suffering, their sicknesses, and their death. Because, as Jesus said to Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthians 12:9). And Paul boasts about his sicknesses.

But the thing that Paul is upset about is their change in attitude. The Galatians loved Paul. They accepted him despite his sickness. They did not despise Paul for his sickness or spit him out. Oh, look at that weak, sick, pathetic, hop-along minister. He claims the gospel is God’s power for salvation. But look at him! He clearly doesn’t have faith to be healed.

But now, the Galatians regard Paul as an enemy.

And why? Because of the Judaizer’s have come along and poisoned the well. They have slandered Paul and his gospel. In verse 17, Paul uncovers their motives.

17Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.

Divide and conquer. Divide the Apostle from his People. Make the church want circumcision and food laws and all kinds of ceremonies. Point out the weakness of the Apostle Paul. Show that the Apostle’s message is weak. And he is a sick person, clearly not blessed by God. After all, he is sick, and sick people cannot be blessed by God!

A tale of two cities (4:21-31)

Now, we come to verses 21 to 31. Though the style of argument is difficult for us, the point is not difficult to understand. Paul is just bringing another argument in to support what he has been saying. That Christians, whether Jew or Gentile, are free. Christians are children of the promise. They have received the Spirit. And it is those under the law who are slaves. Those under the law will not inherit the promises of God.

The argument seems strange to us. But that might be because we don’t know exactly what the false teacher’s arguments were[1]. A good case can be made that the false teachers were saying that those who were under the law were the true children of Abraham by Sarah, Isaac. By contrast, the Gentiles were just the children of Hagar through Ishmael. In fact, I’ve heard that some Arabic people say that they are descended from Ishmael.

Fill in the gaps in the following table from the passage to trace the argument and the analogy that Paul is using:

Argument and Analogy Summary

So then, what Paul does is turn the argument around against the false teachers. They are saying that the Gentiles are just physical children of Hagar. They claim to be the children of Sarah, Isaac.

Well it’s the other way around. Paul says, it is the current Jewish people who reject Jesus who are slaves. They are under the law, so they are slaves. And therefore their mother is Hagar, the slave woman. In fact, when Hagar and Ishmael were sent away from Abraham, she went to Arabia, near where Mt Sinai was thought to be located[2]. So Hagar went to Arabia. The slave woman went to the place where Israel received the law. And the law made them slaves. So Hagar and Mount Sinai actually stands for the present city of Jerusalem. They stand for Jewish people who are in bondage to the law, who are under the curse of the law and cut off from the Christ to which the law points. They remain slaves under the Old Covenant, the covenant which failed because of disobedience.

But all who are justified by faith apart from their works are children of Sarah. They are represented by Isaac. Isaac was born as a result of the promise, as a result of the power of the Spirit. Isaac was born free. And all who have faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour are free, like Isaac. Whether they are Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, they are Abraham’s children.

We who trust in Jesus Christ inherit the promises of God to Abraham, even though we aren’t Jews. We have received the Spirit by faith, by whom we call God 'Father'. And we are free from both the obligation to do the whole law of Moses to be saved, and also from the curse of the law which we deserve because of our disobedience to its righteous commands.

And so our mother is not the present city of Jerusalem. Verse 26:

But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

Our Jerusalem is heaven. Our city, our Zion is heaven. That is the country we await. That is our mother. The heavenly Jerusalem, which on the Day of the Lord Jesus will come down from heaven as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband (Revelation 21:1-4).

Some Christians are really intent on the political situation of Jerusalem. They talk about how the re-establishment of Israel is an important sign of the times. And of course, many Americans bolster their foreign policy position on the state of Israel with the bible. So that for them the Christian position is to support modern day political Israel.

I want to say that all this is a fascination with the earthly Jerusalem in bondage with her children. Remember that the slave woman’s son persecuted the free woman’s son. That’s what happened in Paul’s day, when it was the Jewish people, with their allegiance to Jerusalem, who wanted to rid the earth of Paul, because he was not fit to live (see Acts 22:22). That is what happens even now, when for example, Mordechai Vanunu had to seek refuge in the Anglican Cathedral. Mordechai Vanunu became a prisoner in his own country. For he is a Jewish Christian who wants peace and freedom from nuclear weapons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu).

So enough childish playing with toys. We are Christians. Our citizenship is in heaven. The Jerusalem that is above is our mother. And we look forward to a heavenly country. Our Mount Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem. We await for the Jerusalem from above, to come down as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Translation

A personal appeal from a frustrated father (4:12-20)

12You (pl) became as I, because also I became as you, brothers. I beg of you, you were unjust [to] me [in] nothing

13But you know that through sickness of the flesh we preached the gospel to you the first time,

14and you did not despise nor spit out your test in my flesh; rather, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

15Where, therefore, [is] your blessedness? For I bear witness for you that if possible, digging out your eyes, you would have given [them] to me.

16So then, have I become your enemy have I become, through speaking truly to you?

17They are zealous for you not [for] good [reason]; rather, they wish to exclude you, so that you might be zealous for them. [Playing hard to get!]

18But it is good to be zealous at all [times] always, and not only when I am present with you.

19My children, for whom again I have birth pains until Christ is formed in you!

20But I wish to be with you now and to change my [tone of] voice, because I am at my wits end with you!

A tale of two cities (4:21-31)

21Tell me, you wanting to be under law, do you not listen to the law?

22For it has been written that Abraham had two sons, one from the slave woman and one from the free woman.

23However, the one from the slave woman had been born according to flesh, but the one from the free woman through the promise,

24which is allegorical/figurative; For they are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, being born into slavery, which is Hagar,

25but Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, but corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for [she] is in slavery with her children,

26but the above Jerusalem is free, which is our mother.

27For it has been written, Rejoice, the sterile, those not bearing children, break free and cry aloud, those not having labour pains, because many [are] the children of the desolate woman, better than the one having her husband. [Isaiah 54:1]

28But you, brothers are, according to Isaac, children of promise.

29However, just as then the one born according to flesh persecuted the one [born] according to the Spirit, thus also now.

30However, what says the scripture? Throw out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman he will not inherit with the son of the free woman.

31Therefore, brothers, we are not the slave woman’s children, rather, we are of the free woman. For your freedom Christ freed [you]

[1] See Barrett in Fung, p220

[2] See P Kerns notes NT4.