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Galatians 4:11 11<\/span><\/sup>I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. Truth to Learn Someone was faithful and diligent in preaching the gospel to you when you got saved. You should be grateful to them and to God.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI am afraid<\/span><\/em>\u201d is translated from the Greek \u201cphoboumai,<\/span><\/em>\u201d which is a verb form of the noun \u201cphobos<\/span><\/em>\u201d (from which we get our English word phobia) meaning fear<\/em>. The verb \u201cphobouai<\/span><\/em>\u201d means to frighten, to terrify, to put in fear, or to cause to run away.<\/em> This is a very strong word for Paul to have used implying a grave concern for the Christians in Some translations have rendered this as \u201cI am afraid of you<\/strong>.<\/span><\/em>\u201d This phrase in the Greek only has a verb (I am afraid) and a direct object (you, plural). Hence, it could be interpreted as I fear you<\/em> or I am afraid with respect to you<\/em>. The latter interpretation seems more reasonable in the context of what Paul is telling the Galatian Christians.<\/p>\n The word \u201clabored<\/span><\/em>\u201d is translated from a form of \u201ckopia\u014d<\/span><\/em>\u201d meaning to be weary, worn-out, or faint<\/em>. The use of this word implies that Paul previously put great effort into his ministry to the churches in Meaning Explained Some would read this as Paul declaring his fear that his labor on the Galatians was a waste of his own time, which could have been put to use on someone else. This is not what he is saying at all. Paul\u2019s concern is not for himself or the effort that he has expended; his concern is for the spiritual condition of the Christians in the churches in Paul is more concerned for the spiritual welfare of these church members than he is for himself. He clearly believes them to be genuinely saved because he refers to them as \u201cbrethren\u201d several times in this letter. This is a term of fellowship that he only uses with true members of the body of Christ.<\/p>\n The observance of Jewish rites and ritualistic practices, however, is so counter to what true faith in Jesus Christ is that Paul cannot conceive of a genuinely saved Christian believing that these are necessary. His conviction on this point is so strong that he not only expends the effort of writing this lengthy letter to them, but he also risks offending them by using very direct and very strong language with them.<\/p>\n Galatians 4:20<\/span><\/strong> <\/span>20<\/span><\/sup><\/strong>I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Paul obviously has a great love for these people, but he is not willing to soften his stance or compromise his beliefs regarding salvation by grace through faith and faith alone.<\/p>\n Application Do you remember who it was that preached the gospel message to you the day you got saved? Do you have a parent, a grandparent, or a friend who prayed for you without ceasing until you got saved?<\/p>\n Have you ever told them thank you for their own effort and faithfulness?<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2007 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to: Galatians 4:11 11I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. Truth to Learn Someone was faithful and diligent in preaching the gospel to you when you got saved. You should be grateful to them and to God. Behind the Words \u201cI am afraid\u201d is translated from the Greek \u201cphoboumai,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/signature.gif\")
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