GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GALATIANS 4:15-16
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15 What happened to that blessed feeling of yours? I can testify that, if it would have been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Am I your enemy now for telling you the truth?
What happened to your joy? What happened to the works of blessing that you lavished on me when I first came? Or to put it another way, “You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.” Paul is not really confused by the Galatians’ change in their attitude. He knows what happened. He knows that false doctrine has twisted their faith into something other than faith in Christ and the love of Christ.
He takes them back to what happened when they first met. His illness brought him there, or kept him there. What was the illness? Here he testifies that “you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.” We don’t need to have the keenest insight to know that his illness had something to do with his eyesight. Is that something you do for an enemy? Why are they treating him like an enemy? Does an enemy speak the truth even when it may hurt? Oh, an enemy might speak the truth in order to mock, or to frighten, or to bully, but not to help. “Wounds from a friend can be trusted” (Proverbs 27:6).
Commentators, ancient and modern, are not unified about what this illness might have been. We can give a quick look at some of the theories.
1, Hyperbole. Jerome (Commentarius §408) thought that Paul was just letting his words get out of hand.
2, Luther thought that Paul meant something deeper that is going unsaid, perhaps that they “gave up their understanding” to his preaching, or that they would have given up their very lives for him out of love.
3, A figure of speech, such as “You’d’ve have given me the shirt off your backs!”
4, Malta fever. Brucellosis (also called Mediterranean fever) can cause fever, headaches, pain in the back and other areas, and general weakness. It has also been known to affect the eyes. Paul could have contracted it from sailors long before he himself was shipwrecked on Malta (Acts 28:1).
5, Epilepsy. Known as “falling sickness” in the ancient world, and which was suffered by Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, epilepsy is accompanied by seizures that can affect the eyes.
6, Convulsive attacks. Not all convulsions or involuntary muscle movements are the result of epilepsy. Paul might have suffered from some less well-known condition that also gave him occasional eye trouble.
7, MS, or Multiple Sclerosis. Eye trouble is often an early symptom of this disease due to inflammation.
8, Ophthalmia. This inflammation of the eyes can cause many problems like blurred vision, loss of vision, pain, and other things.
9, Malaria. Asia Minor has a long history of malarial infection, especially in the summer months. It is possible that in ancient times, swamps that have since disappeared were breeding places for mosquitoes that carried the disease; serious eye problems are possible. Paul might have contracted Malaria when he arrived in Asia Minor and was taken upland into Galatia to recover.
10, Damage from the many physical beatings he suffered. An early but mostly rejected document, the “Acts of Paul,” describes the Apostle as having a “somewhat hooked nose” (Acts of Paul 2:3). Sometimes there is a speculation that his face or nose had been badly broken from being stoned almost to death (Acts 14:19) that he was disfigured for the rest of his life. “A pastor may have an affliction [even an ugliness] which truly puts his hearers to the test of being offended. But under the Lord’s blessing, rather than reject him the hearers receive him as an angel of the Lord” (Buhls’ Notes on Galatians, p. 47).
R. Alan Cole’s calm observation is worth repeating: “Certainly with smoky fires, lack of chimneys, and oil lamps, one would expect a high incidence of eye-trouble in the first-century Mediterranean world” (Galatians, Tyndale New Testament Commentary, p. 172).
Whether Paul suffered from one of these conditions or something else, we can’t even say for certain whether his eye trouble in Galatia was at all related to his thorn in the flesh that he so casually brings up in 2 Corinthians 12:7. His point is that the Galatians showed him overwhelming kindness on account of his physical trouble, and he is still being a friend to them even though he is pointing out an error. A true friend does that. “He who rebukes a man will, in the end, gain more favor than he who has a flattering tongue” (Proverbs 28:23). And David says: “Let a righteous man strike me– it is a kindness; let him rebuke me– it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it” (Psalm 141:5).
When a wicked man speaks against the righteous, or when he simply speaks about anything at all, there will often be those who are so enamored of some element of his charisma that they will let him say anything without question (this happened a lot in the courts of the Caesars)– often because they think that they will profit by letting him do whatever he wants. They would kiss the feet of the man who killed their father or who raped their mother. Such a man will never let himself be corrected by anyone. Such a man’s voice will become synonymous with lies, abuse, and other attacks. Rome suffered under a whole series of such freaks and maniacs (Paul may have stood before one of them personally later in his life). “They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
But when a true friend speaks to correct a brother, he will not lie or exaggerate; he will not pour out abuse. He will speak the truth in love, as a brother, as a friend (Ephesians 4:15). He won’t hide the truth of God’s will and salvation from the whole church (Psalm 40:10) and he won’t hide it from you in private. This is a true friend, and one to praise God about. “Love,” Paul says, “does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Never speak against the truth, and be mindful of your own ignorance, as I try to be of mine. Don’t be ashamed to confess your sins, in the same way that you don’t try to stop the current of a river. “Truth is great, and stronger than all things.” Speak the truth to one another, and thank God when such speech sifts away your sins.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Galatians 4:15-16 You’d’ve torn out your eyes