Thursday, October 24, 2013

Galatians 4:13

Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Galatians 4:13

13  [de] Ye know [eido] how [hoti] through [dia] infirmity [astheneia] of the flesh [sarx] I preached the gospel [euaggelizo] unto you [humin] at the first [proteron]. KJV-Interlinear

13 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; NASB

Paul makes a clear statement here in opening this verse, that, the Galatians knew, or that they are well aware, or otherwise stated, that this is common knowledge that need not even be restated.  You know.

And what is well known, is that Paul taught them these truths, the last time he was in Galatia, as he states here.

The point of his mentioning his illness at that time, was to point out that his last visit was memorable, in that he was very ill during that visit.

The next verse indicates that his illness was somewhat repulsive, so much so that it would not be easily forgotten.

The point of this whole statement is to make it very clear that the Galatians had good and truthful and clear instruction, that his visit was something that could not be easily forgotten, and that their ease of switching from his teaching, for false teaching, was clearly a flaw and fault on their part, in rejecting truth and pursuing false teachings.

There would be no room for excuses.  I didn’t know.  I was fooled.  We were confused.  And so forth.

When doctrine is lacking in the soul, then faith is weak.  When faith is weak, then ones resolve and courage to stand up to the false things of life is limp or non-existent.  Excuses come easy as ones courage fades in the fog of a weak spiritual life.  Being led astray comes easy.

There is only one way to battle spiritual weakness, and that is by possessing spiritual preparation.  And spiritual preparation requires a daily study, a daily exposure to instruction.

Each individual believer is a soldier on the front lines of the angelic battlefield.  Being on that frontline, requires one to be on constant alert, never sleeping while on duty.  The soldier who is alert is always at the ready.  A soldier that falls asleep, dies.


Being at the ready means always being in fellowship, always engaging in a daily study.  That is spiritual readiness, spiritual alertness.  A sleeping believer is one who is lax in his daily studies, lax in the mandates of God, lax in his habit of confession, failure in his obligations to self, to others, to God.  Being easily captured by an enemy of false ideas.