Paul Writes Galatians From Macedonia; Acts 18:3, Acts 20:1-6

Church History: Date: A.D. 53–57

This epistle of Paul is directed not to the church or churches of a single city, as some others are, but of a country or province, for so Galatia was. It is very probable that these Galatians were first converted to the Christian faith by his ministry; or, if he was not the instrument of planting, yet at least he had been employed in watering these churches, as is evident from this epistle itself, and also from (Acts 18:23), where we find him going over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples. While he was with them, they had expressed the greatest esteem and affection both for his person and ministry; but he had not been long absent from them before some Judaism teachers got in among them, by whose arts and insinuations they were soon drawn into a meaner opinion both of the one and of the other.

The chief aim of these false teachers was to draw them off from the truth as it is in Jesus, particularly in the great doctrine of justification, which they grossly perverted, by asserting the necessity of joining the observance of the law of Moses with faith in Christ in order to achieve it. They did all they could to lessen the character and reputation of the apostle, and to raise up their own at the expense of his. They represented him as one who, if he was to be accepted as an apostle, was much inferior to others, particularly when compared to Peter, James, and John, whose followers, it is likely, they pretended to be. In both of these attempts they had been all to successful.

This was the reason for his writing this epistle, wherein he expresses his great concern that they had allowed themselves to be turned aside from the faith of the gospel. He vindicates his own character and authority as an apostle against the accusations of his enemies, showing that his mission and doctrine were both divine, and that he was not, upon any account, behind the very chief of the apostles, (2Corinthians 11:5). He then sets himself to assert and maintain the great gospel doctrine of justification by faith without the works of the law, and to alleviate some difficulties that might be apt to arise in their minds concerning it. Having established this important doctrine, he exhorts them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, cautions them against the abuse of this liberty, gives them several very needful counsels and directions and then concludes the epistle by giving them a just description of those false teachers by whom they had been ensnared, and, on the contrary, of his own temper and behavior. In all this his great scope and design were to recover those who had been perverted, to settle those who might be wavering, and to confirm such among them as had kept their integrity.