He wondereth that they have so soon left him and the Gospel; and pronounceth a sacred curse on those that preach any other Gospel than he did: he learned the Gospel not of men, but of God: and sheweth what he was before his calling, and what he did presently after it.
Anno Domini 49.
BECAUSE the false teachers had called St. Paul an Apostle of men, and had said that he was made an Apostle by the church at Antioch, or at best by the Apostles in Jerusalem, he began his letter with affirming, that he was not an Apostle of men; but an Apostle appointed by Jesus Christ himself, and by God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead, Galatians 1:1—By mentioning the resurrection of Jesus, St. Paul glanced at the miraculous manner in which he himself was made an Apostle by Christ after his resurrection; and of which St. Luke has given an account, Acts 9:3-9. He alluded to it likewise Galatians 1:5 where he calls it God's revealing his Son to him. So that St. Paul, both in respect of the time and of the manner of his being raised to the apostolic office, instead of being inferior, was superior to the other Apostles: Christ came from heaven to qualify him for that office, and to confer it on him.—Next he told the Galatians, that all the brethren who were with him joined him in this letter; by which he insinuated that they attested the whole of the facts he was going to relate, Galatians 1:2.—Then expressed his surprise, that the Galatians were so soon removed from his doctrine to another gospel, Galatians 1:6.—which he told them was no gospel at all, Galatians 1:7.—And because the false teachers affirmed, that after conversing with the Apostles in Jerusalem, Paul had become sensible of his error, and now enjoined circumcision, chap. Galatians 5:11 he twice anathematized every one who preached contrary to what they had heard him preach, though it were himself, or an angel from heaven, who did it, Galatians 1:8-9.—Then asked his opponents, whether in so speaking he endeavoured to please men or God, Galatians 1:10.—It seems, the Judaizers had represented him to the Galatians, as one who suited his doctrine to the inclinations of his hearers. Besides, the Judaizers were for the most part bad men, and capable of affirming any falsehood which they thought would promote their views.
Farther, the Apostle's enemies pretended not only that he was an Apostle sent forth by men, but that he was taught the Gospel by Ananias, or by the brethren at Antioch, or by the Apostles at Jerusalem: But he solemnly averred, that he received the Gospel from no man, nor body of men whatever, but from Christ himself, Galatians 1:11-12.—And in proof of that asseveration, he appealed to his manner of life both before and after his conversion, as a thing well known: that before his conversion he furiously persecuted the church, Galatians 1:13.—And was exceedingly zealous of thetraditions of the fathers, Galatians 1:14.—In that period of his life, therefore, he had neither opportunity nor inclination to learn any thing from the Christians. And being so great a zealot for the law, if he afterwards taught that no man could be justified by the law, nothing but the strongest evidence had induced him to take up that opinion.—He told them farther, that when it pleased God to make him an Apostle, he consulted with no person in Damascus, no Jewish doctor concerning his commission as an Apostle, nor any of the brethren concerning the things that he was to preach, Galatians 1:15-16.—Neither did he go to Jerusalem, to receive the Gospel from them who were Apostles before him; but he went into Arabia, and again returned to Damascus; and there, acting as an Apostle, he preached the Gospel, which he had received by revelation from Christ, in the synagogues, where, as St. Luke informs us,Acts 9:22 he confounded the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, proving that Jesus is the very Christ, Galatians 1:17.—And did not go to Jerusalem till three years after his conversion: and then abode fifteen days with St. Peter, lest, keeping any longer at a distance from the Apostles, it might be suspected that he was acting in opposition to them, Galatians 1:18.—On that occasion St. Paul saw no other of the Apostles except James, the Lord's brother, Galatians 1:19.—Having related these facts, he solemnly appealed to God for the truth of them, because they effectuallyestablished his apostleship, and confuted the calumnies of his enemies. For if it was true, that in his first visit to Jerusalem, after his conversion, he saw none of the apostles but Peter andJames, (supposing it had been in their power to have made him an apostle,) it is not probable that without the knowledge and consent of the rest they would confer that office on him, a new convert, of whose sincerity they had not as yet sufficient proof, Galatians 1:20.—After spending fifteen days with St. Peter, which was too short a space of time for him to be instructed by St. Peter in the complete knowledge of the Gospel, he went into the countries of Syria and Cilicia, whither he was sent by the brethren, because the Jews in Jerusalem, exceedingly enraged against him for having deserted their party and gone over to the Christians, sought to kill him, Galatians 1:21.—And from Cilicia, where he abode several years, he went I suppose into Galatia. Thus it came to pass, that for a long time after St. Paul's conversion, he was personally unknown to the churches in Judea; who had heard nothing or little more concerning him, but that he who formerly persecuted the Christians, now preached the faith and facts concerning Christ, which he had formerly endeavoured to disprove. Galatians 1:22-23.—This so great a change of behaviour in so violent an enemy, occasioned the churches to glorify God on account of his conversion, Galatians 1:24.
From these things it is evident, that when St. Paul went into Cilicia, and from Cilicia into Galatia, he had seen none of the Apostles, except St. Peter and St. James; and that he had never been at any general meeting of the Apostles to receive from them, either the office of an apostle, or the doctrine of the Gospel. And therefore if, through divine grace, he was the favoured instrument of converting the Galatians in some journeywhich he made into their country from Cilicia, the doctrine that he preached and the miracles which he wrought, must have been bestowed on him, not by man, but by the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Father, as he himself has affirmed.
Galatians— The subject and design of this epistle is much the same with that of the epistle to the Romans; but treated in somewhat a different manner. The grand business of it is, to dehort and hinder the Galatians from bringing themselves under the bondage of the Mosaical law. The two epistles indeed have particular relation to different sorts of Jews; that of the Romans, to Jews who opposed and rejected the whole Gospel, as unnecessary; this of the Galatians, to Jews who, while they believed the Gospel, urged that a submission to the law of Moses was at the same time necessary. But as the principles of those Jews did in some things coincide, and their sentiments were the same with regard to the perpetual obligation of the law of Moses; so there may be an affinity and agreement in the arguments which the Apostle advances in confutation of the one and the other. The Galatians were descended from those Gauls who had formerly invaded Greece, and afterwards settled in Lower Asia. St. Paul was the first who preached the Gospel among them; and therefore, referring ch. Galatians 1:8-9 to what he had before taught them, he does not in this epistle lay down at large the doctrines of the Gospel, as he does in that to the Romans. He also speaks with greater freedom and pathos to the Galatians than he does to the Romans; to whom, being a stranger, he writes not in so familiar a stile; nor in his reproofs and exhortations uses so much the tone of a master. The following disorders had crept into the churches of Galatia: First, Some zealots for the Jewish constitution had very nearly persuaded the Galatians out of their Christian liberty, and made them willingto submit to circumcision, and all the rituals of the Jewish church, as necessary under the Gospel, ch. Galatians 1:7 Galatians 3:3 Galatians 4:9-21 Galatians 5:1-10. Secondly, Their dissentions and disputes in this matter had raised great animosities among them, to the disturbance of their peace, and the setting them at strife one with another, ch. Galatians 5:6-15. The reforming them in these two points seems to be the main business of this epistle; wherein St. Paul endeavours to establish them in a resolution to stand firm in the freedom of the Gospel, which exempts them from the bondage of the Mosaical law; and labours to reduce them to a sincere love and affection one of another: concluding with an exhortation to liberality and general benevolence, ch. Galatians 6:1-10. These being the matters, about which he had it in his mind, under the infallible direction of the Spirit of God, to write to them, he seems here as if he had finished; but upon mentioning Galatians 1:11 how large a letter he had written to them with his own hand, the former argument concerning circumcision, which filled and warmed his mind, broke out again into what we find Galatians 1:12-17 of the 6th chapter.