Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 1:24
And they glorified God in me.
24. The conduct of the Judan Christians is noteworthy, not only as in marked contrast with that of the Judaizing party in Galatia, but as testifying to the soundness of the Apostle’s teaching. The Gospel which he preached, though independent of them as to its source, was identical with that which they had themselves welcomed. And they ascribed the glory to God in the grace given to His servant.
This is a sure test of the reality of our faith and love: when we read or hear of men being raised up to “preach the faith” in days that are past, or in distant lands (as, for example, in the great missionary work of the Church), do we glorify God in them? This was well understood by the English Reformers.
In the Commemoration Service (dating from the time of Q. Elizabeth, and not improbably drawn up by Abp Parker) which is used in the University, and some, if not all of the Colleges of Cambridge, there is a prayer commencing, ‘O Lord, we glorify Thee in these Thy servants our Benefactors departed out of this present life.’ No better commentary on the expression can be found than the Collect for the Conversion of St Paul. Compare also our Lord’s words, “All mine (neut. but including masc. and fem.) are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they glorified God in me – They praised God on my account. They regarded me as a true convert and a sincere Christian; and they praised God that he had converted such a persecutor, and had made him a preacher of the gospel. The design for which this is mentioned is, to show that though he was personally unknown to them, and had not derived his views of the gospel from them, yet that he had their entire confidence. They regarded him as a convert and an apostle, and they were disposed to praise God for his conversion. This fact would do much to conciliate the favor of the Galatians, by showing them that he had the confidence of the churches in the very land where the gospel was first planted, and which was regarded as the source of ecclesiastical authority. In view of this we may remark:
(1) That it is the duty of Christians kindly and affectionately to receive among their number those who have been converted from a career of persecution or of sin in any form. And it is always done by true Christians. It is easy to forgive a man who has been actively engaged in persecuting the church, or a man who has been profane, intemperate, dishonest, or licentious, if he becomes a true penitent, and confesses and forsakes his sins. No matter what his life has been; no matter how abandoned, sensual, or devilish; if he manifests true sorrow and gives evidence of a change of heart, he is cordially received into any church, and welcomed as a fellow-laborer in the cause which he once destroyed. Here, at least, is one place where forgiveness is cordial and perfect. His former life is not remembered, except to praise God for His grace in recovering a sinner from such a course. The evils that he has done are forgotten, and he is henceforward regarded as entitled to all the privileges and immunities of a member of the household of faith. There is not on earth an infuriated persecutor or blasphemer who would not be cordially welcomed to any Christian church upon the evidence of his repentance; not a person so debased and vile that the most pure, and elevated, and learned, and wealthy Christians would not rejoice to sit down with him at the same communion table upon the evidence of his conversion to God.
(2) We should glorify or praise God for all such instances of conversion. We should do it because:
(a) Of the abstraction of the talents of the persecutor from the cause of evil. Paul could have done, and would have done immense service to the enemies of Christianity if he had pursued the career which he had commenced. But when he was converted, all that bad influence ceased. So when an infidel or a profligate man is converted now:
(b) Because now his talents will be consecrated to a better service, they will be employed in the cause of truth and salvation. All the power of the matured and educated talent will now be devoted to the interests of religion; and it is a fact for which we should thank God, that he often takes educated talent, and commanding influence, and an established reputation for ability, learning, and zeal, and devotes it to his own service.
(c) Because there will be a change of destiny; because the enemy of the Redeemer will now be saved. The moment when Saul of Tarsus was converted, was the moment which determined a change in his eternal destiny. Before, he was on the broad way to hell; henceforward, he walked in the path of life and salvation. Thus, we should always rejoice over a sinner returning from the error of his ways; and should praise God that he who was in danger of eternal ruin is now an heir of glory. Christians are not jealous in regard to the numbers who shall enter heaven. They feel that there is room for all; that the feast is ample for all; and they rejoice when any can be induced to come with them and partake of the happiness of heaven.
(3) We may still glorify and praise God for the grace manifested in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. What does not the world owe to him! What do we not owe to him! No man did as much in establishing the Christian religion as he did; no one among the apostles was the means of converting and saving so many souls; no one has left so many and so valuable writings for the edification of the church. To him we owe the invaluable epistles – so full of truth, and eloquence, and promises, and consolations – upon which we are commenting; and to him the church owes, under God, some of its most elevated and ennobling views or the nature of Christian doctrine and duty. After the lapse, therefore, of more than 1,800 years, we should not cease to glorify God for the conversion of this wonderful man, and should feel that we have cause of thankfulness that he changed the infuriated persecutor to a holy and devoted apostle.
(4) Let us remember that God has the same power now. There is not a persecutor whom he could not convert with the same ease with which he changed Saul of Tarsus. There is not a vile and sensual man that he could not make pure; not a dishonest man that his grace could not make honest: not a blasphemer that he could not teach to venerate his name; not a lost and abandoned sinner that he cannot receive to himself. Let us then without ceasing cry unto him that his grace may be continually manifested in reclaiming such sinners from the error of their ways, and bringing them to the knowledge of the truth, and to a consecration of their lives to his service.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 1:24
And they glorified God in me.
Gods glory in the soul
I. In the act of conversion God is glorified. It is strange how many misapplications of this word conversion prevail in the world and the Churches. It is used to express the change from one civilization to another; the Chinaman is converted when he becomes an American. It is employed to tell the story of a change of philosophical thought, when one begins to believe in the existence of spirits after having all his days supposed that God had nothing in this universe like unto Himself, but all was dead, inert matter. It is introduced, again, as the explanation of a persons change of ecclesiastical relations. One passes from your church into the church opposite to yours, and he is converted, according to the usage of many. He has changed the mere form of his profession, whilst he holds to the same great essential truths. Yet not one nor all of these are here meant by the words in the sacred Scriptures. It tells the story of a Divine impulse upon our affections, to turn them from the things they have loved before; upon our will, to entirely change the purposes and desires which have prevailed before; upon our life, to make perfect the contrast of that it had been theretofore. It is the impulse of God upon man, turning him away from the things that tempt him further from God unto the things that attract him into nearer associations and relationship. And every part of the act of conversion is Divine. This act of conversion includes several facts.
1. The sense of estrangement from God is its first feature. Now you will admit that this is not a common experience among men. God produces this sense of estrangement. All conversions begin here, and no power but that which is Divine can make a man realize that great truth.
2. Instantly the desire for reconciliation springs up in the heart of him whom God is converting. This has God wrought. No human being can pump up such a desire out of his estranged heart. It is like the spring in the soil which God feeds from the clouds–it would run dry if He did not give the early and the latter rain and the morning and the evening dew.
3. Now comes the determination to return. It may have occupied only minutes, but what a journey it is of soul!
II. But I want to speak, secondly, of the influence of conversion. This is the glory of God. Both our conscious and unconscious influence as converted men and women is continually crying, Let God be glorified.
1. In this influence of a converted soul, the first fact is the withdrawal from dishonouring associations. Conversion to God, says one of the old seventeenth century divines, begins with aversion from sin.
2. A second fact in this influence is the attachment of ones self to Gods people. Let God be glorified, is the desire and the expression of the soul. There is a ministry to which this influence impels him. The convert seeks his brother to save him.
III. Now, lastly, I want to point out some aspects of Gods glory that converted lives do testify. God does it all, and it takes all that there is in God to do it. It is no light work, Wherever you see a converted man, brother, there has been an Omnipresent God, there has been an Omniscient God, there has been the exercise of the omnipotence of God. Every natural perfection of God is engaged in the conversion of a soul. Now, it is very difficult to conceive of God in our times of thought, still less in our times of devotion. The eye is made for taking in the things of beauty in this world; the reason is adapted to comprehend principles. But the eye cannot look at the full meridian sun, and the reason is blinded when it searches the depths of Gods glory. Yet, when He manifests Himself in the works of His hands; when He brings the soul out of darkness into light; when He transforms a backsliding infidel into a true and accepted and faithful child of His; we testify, God has been here. The Arab was asked how he knew that there was a God; and he answered, When I look out of my door in the morning, how do I know it was a man, and not a camel, that passed my tent? We know Him from the marks of His presence. A converted soul glorifies all the natural perfections of God. The moral attributes are equally engaged in a souls conversion. Justice, mercy, love, fidelity, holiness; all these are rays of His glory. Take that prism, to-morrow, and let the sun shine through it, and you will see marvels. The white, pure light is divided into many colours. Even so this gospel of Gods grace analyzes the glory of God, and shows how justice and mercy have met together; how righteousness and peace have kissed each other. At Bethlehem! see God condescending; in Galilee I see God obeying; in Gethsemane I see God struggling and agonizing; on Golgotha I see God bowing his head in the substitution for mans sin. What glorious rays of beauty! But when, with Peter and James and John, we stand on Mount Hermon to view a transfigured Christ, whose face did shine as the sun, we behold the glory of God in marvellous combination. Each ray may be contemplated in itself, but all blend in the glory of God a Saviour. All that each event of life testifies is there, and far, far more than the mind of man can ever conceive. But then, more than that, the covenant relations of God are glorified. The converted man finds a Father–meets a Saviour–is welcomed by a Friend. Now, it is sometimes the experience of children in this world, who never go away from home, that they find their parents in a new and better sense than they had ever met them before. If they have doubted them, if they have been disobedient to them, if they have suspected them, and if, at length, the dark cloud between child and parent passes away, the little one comes with new confidence to bury his head in his fathers bosom, or on his mothers neck, to say, I never knew you until now; I never understood you till now. The love has been deep down in my heart, but now I have found my father, I know the one with whom I have so long been living. Even so is it here, dear friends. The converted man finds the fatherhood of God, who has been his father in Jesus Christ, ever since he was born; realizes the Saviourhood of God, who bought him with a price before his first returnings were ever experienced; and rests in the friendship of God, who is his abiding, faithful supporter and strength. This is my subject–the glory of God in the conversion of a soul. Now, dear brother, let us bring it down to one single point. Has any one glorified God on your behalf? (S. H. Tyng; D. D.)
Gods glory incapable of addition
The God whose glory is in the heavens, revealed in the history of earth, and declared by the experience of every sincere and trusting soul, has perfections impossible of addition as they are evasive of all analysis. He is the standard of holiness, the source of life, the saviour from wrong. His glory belongeth unto Him; He will not give it to another; yet every soul, every life, every home, every Church, dwelling in the brightness of the beauty of God, declares, extends, exalts His glory. Before the eye and in the ear of rational creatures, theology cannot make God either more or less than He is. The panegyric does not add one virtue to the person about whom it is told; the picture that is true cannot make the portrait more beautiful than the face; the window, translucent, does not create, but lets in, the light; even so our relation to God in His glory. It belongs unto us to declare–it does not belong unto us either to diminish or increase the majesty of God. All our consecration cannot add one ray, all our scorning cannot detract aught from Him. (S. H. Tyng; D. D.)
They glorified God in me
I. THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD IN MAN. God is manifested–
1. In nature.
2. But this is surpassed by His manifestation in man.
(1) Physically;
(2) mentally;
(3) morally; and because this latter is based on the manifestation of God in Christ–
(a) in the New Testament;
(b) in the believer;
(c) in ministerial gifts and fruit.
II. The glorification of God for this manifestation. In the way of–
1. Gratitude.
2. Imitation.
3. Trust that God will maintain the succession. (J. Stoughton, D. D.)
He does not say they marvelled at me, they praised me, they were struck with admiration of me, but they glorified God in me. (Chrysostom.)
They praised God, and took courage to believe the more in the mercy of God for that He had mercy on such a great sinner as he. In me. They wondered that grace should be so rich as to take hold of such a wretch as I was, and for my sake believed in Christ the more. (Bunyan.)
Christ glorified in Pauls conversion
I am sure there was never a man who had more hurtful thoughts of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, than Paul had, for he could not endure to hear of His name, nor to hear of any that professed His name, but persecuted them all most cruelly. And yet our Lord, He did no more but speak a word or two to him, and with these same few words He cast him off his high horse, whereupon he rode so triumphantly, and lays him down upon his back and under his feet, to make him say, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? That is a cast of the power of our Lords right arm. (S. Rutherford.)
Divine grace seen in the life
Can I see the dew of heaven as it falls on a summer evening? I cannot. It comes down softly and gently, noiselessly and imperceptibly. But when I go forth in the morning, after a cloudless night, and see every leaf sparkling with moisture, and feel every blade of grass damp and wet, I say at once, There has been a dew. Just so it is with the presence of the Spirit in the soul. (Bishop Ryle.)
That the conversion of an immortal soul is cause of great joy and thanksgiving to the God of grace
I. This will appear if we consider the nature of the human soul, and the misery from which it is rescued.
II. If we contemplate the felicity to which a saved soul is exalted.
III. It will further appear if we consider the price paid for the salvation of the soul.
IV. This is evinced by the perfect nature of salvation. (The Pulpit.)
They glorified God in–
I. The subjection of the persecutor.
II. The conversion of the sinner.
III. The zeal and success of the preacher.
IV. The dignity of his office. (J. Lyth.)
God glorified in Paul
I. In his conversion–a persecutor and a Pharisee–yet called by special grace (verses 13-15).
II. In his call to the ministry–Divinely qualified (verse 16)–and instructed (verses 11, 12, 17).
III. In his labours–incessant–widely distributed–unsupported by human influence–yet abundant to the glory of God. (J. Lyth.)
God glorified in Christians
It should ever be the end of the Christian man, not only to promote the glory of God by his works, but to illustrate the glory of God in his character; in this, as in nothing else, are the goodness and power of God seen most strikingly. An architect rears a building. It is admired for its beauty in detail, and its grandeur as a whole; but the praise belongs not to the building, but to the builder. A tutor takes a youth under his care, and sends him forth to attain eminence and distinction in the early struggles and in the highest positions of life, but the tutor is glorified in the pupil. So the creation is the result of the Almighty hand, and He is glorified in it. Impressions of His glory are left upon the largest and upon the least; upon the stars in their courses discovered to the telescope; and on the minutest specimens of organized life which the microscope opens to our startled eye. And shall my God be less glorified in the new creation than He is in the old? Shall He not be glorified by the humblest Christian, just as He was glorified by the great apostle? All stars shine by His will, and one star differs from another star in glory, for this is His will; but each renders to Him its measure of praise. God, who is glorified in Saul of Tarsus pre-eminently, must be glorified in each of us, as Christians, according to our position and opportunity. If we have a Christians hope, it is to the glory of His name; if we have a Christians life, it is to the glory of His cross; if we have performed a duty, it is to the glory of His grace; if we have borne a trial, it is to the glory of His support; if we have overcome a sinful habit, or the lust which led to it, it is to the glory of His power which gave us self-mastery. (C. J. P. Eyre, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. They glorified God in me.] Hearing now that I preached that faith which before I had persecuted and endeavoured to destroy, they glorified God for the grace which had wrought my conversion. I owe nothing to them; I owe all to God; and they themselves acknowledge this. I received all from God, and God has all the glory.
1. IT appeared of great importance to St. Paul to defend and vindicate his Divine mission. As he had none from man, it was the more necessary that he should be able to show plainly that he had one from God. Paul was not brought into the Christian ministry by any rite ever used in the Christian Church. Neither bishop nor presbyter ever laid hands on him; and he is more anxious to prove this, because his chief honour arose from being sent immediately by God himself: his conversion and the purity of his doctrine showed whence he came. Many since his time, and in the present day, are far more anxious to show that they are legitimately appointed by MAN than by GOD; and are fond of displaying their human credentials. These are easily shown; those that come from God are out of their reach. How idle and vain is a boasted succession from the apostles, while ignorance, intolerance, pride, and vain-glory prove that those very persons have no commission from heaven! Endless cases may occur where man sends and yet God will not sanction. And that man has no right to preach, nor administer the sacraments of the Church of Christ, whom God has not sent; though the whole assembly of apostles had laid their hands on him. God never sent, and never will send, to convert others, a man who is not converted himself. He will never send him to teach meekness, gentleness, and long suffering, who is proud, overbearing, intolerant, and impatient. He, in whom the Spirit of Christ does not dwell, never had a commission to preach the Gospel; he may boast of his human authority, but God will laugh him to scorn. On the other hand, let none run before he is sent; and when he has got the authority of God, let him be careful to take that of the Church with him also.
2. The apostle was particularly anxious that the Gospel should not be corrupted, that the Church might not be perverted. Whatever corrupts the GOSPEL, subverts the CHURCH. The Church is a spiritual building, and stands on a spiritual foundation. Its members are compared to stones in a building, but they are living stones-each instinct with the spirit of a Divine life; Jesus is not only the foundation and the head-stone, but the spirit that quickens and animates all. A Church, where the members are not alive to God, and where the minister is not filled with the meekness and gentleness of Jesus, differs as much from a genuine Church as a corpse does from an active human being. False teachers in Galatia corrupted the Church, by introducing those Jewish ceremonies which God had abolished; and the doctrine of justification by the use of those ceremonies which God had shown by the death of his Son to be of none effect. “If those,” says Quesnel, “are justly said to pervert the Gospel of Christ, who were for joining with it human ceremonies which God himself instituted, what do those do, who would fondly reconcile and blend it with the pomps of the devil? The purity of the Gospel cannot admit of any mixture. Those who do not love it, are so far from building up that they trouble and overturn all. There is no ground of trust and confidence for such workmen.”
3. If he be a dangerous man in the Church who introduces Jewish or human ceremonies which God has not appointed, how much more is he to be dreaded who introduces any false doctrine, or who labours to undermine or lessen the influence of that which is true? And even he who does not faithfully and earnestly preach and inculcate the true doctrine is not a true pastor. It is not sufficient that a man preach no error; he must preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
4. How is it that we have so many Churches like those in Galatia? Is it not because, on one hand, we disturb the simplicity of the Christian worship by Jewish, heathenish, or improper rites and ceremonies; and on the other, corrupt the purity of its doctrines by the inventions of men? How does the apostle speak of such corrupters? Let them be accursed. How awful is this! Let every man who officiates as a Christian minister look well to this. His own soul is at stake; and, if any of the flock perish through his ignorance or neglect, their blood will God require at the watchman’s hand.
5. St. Paul well knew that, if he endeavoured to please man, he could not be the servant of Christ. Can any minor minister hope to succeed, where even an apostle, had he followed that line, could not? The interests of Christ and those of the world are so opposite, that it is impossible to reconcile them; and he who attempts it shows thereby that he knows neither Christ nor the world, though so deeply immersed in the spirit of the latter.
6. God generally confounds the expectations of men-pleasing ministers; they never ultimately succeed even with men. God abhors them, and those whom they have flattered find them to be dishonest, and cease to trust them. He who is unfaithful to his God should not be trusted by man.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And they praised God on his behalf, for working so great a change in him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. in me“in my case.””Having understood the entire change, and that the former wolfis now acting the shepherd’s part, they received occasion for joyfulthanksgiving to God in respect to me” [THEODORET].How different, he implies to the Galatians, their spirit fromyours!
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they glorified God in me. Or “for me”; on his account; for the wonderful grace bestowed on him and wrought in him; for the surprising change that was made in him, that of a persecutor he should become a preacher, which they ascribed, as he himself did, to the abundant grace of God; they were greatly thankful and blessed God, who had given him such large gifts, and made him so greatly useful in the cause, and among the churches of Christ. And by observing this, how much the churches in Judea were affected with the grace of God vouchsafed to him, though they had never seen him nor heard him, he tacitly strikes at and rebukes the false teachers, and the Galatians that adhered to them, for their different treatment of him; to whom he was not only known by face, but had preach among them so fully, clearly, and powerfully, the Gospel of the grace of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
They glorified (). Imperfect, kept on doing it.
In me ( ). In my case as in 1:16.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
In me. The sense is different from that in verse 16, see note. Here the meaning is that they glorified God as the author and source of what they saw in me.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And they glorified,” (kai edoksazon) “and they, the churches of Judea, glorified, gave adoration and praise to or toward;” that God could change avenge-bent murderer to a caring Christian character, as he had in Saul of Tarsus, stirred praise of grace-gratitude in these Judean brethren.
2) “God in me,” (en emoi ton theon) “The God in me;” because of the mighty change wrought in Paul’s life and work, Act 21:18-20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24. And they glorified God in me (37) This was an evident proof that his ministry was approved by all the churches of Judea, and approved in such a manner, that they broke out into admiration and praise of the wonderful power of God. Thus he indirectly reproves their malice, by showing that their venom and slanders could have no other effect than to hide the glory of God, which, as the apostles admitted and openly acknowledged, shone brightly in the apostleship of Paul.
This reminds us of the light in which the saints of the Lord ought to be regarded by us. When we behold men adorned with the gifts of God, such is our depravity, or ingratitude, or proneness to superstition, that we worship them as gods, unmindful of Him by whom those gifts were bestowed. These words remind us, on the contrary, to lift up our eyes to the Great Author, and to ascribe to Him what is his own, while they at the same time inform us that an occasion of offering praise to God was furnished by the change produced on Paul, from being an enemy to becoming a minister of Christ.
(37) “He does not say, They praised or glorified me, but, They glorified God. He says, They glorified God in me; for all that belongs to me was from the grace of God.” — OEcumenius.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(24) They glorified God in me.This verse represents the proper attitude of Christian hero-worship. An eminent Christian is like a city set on a hill. But the admiration which he attracts does not rest in him; it is made the occasion for giving praise to God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Glorified God Rendered thanks and praise that the persecutor had become a preacher. But this was the Church from which, under pressure of the temple hierarchy, Paul’s Judaizing troublers came. Fourteen years afterwards, as he will soon say, he came to meet them at Jerusalem and settle accounts.
In me Rather, upon me; as the basis upon which their glorifying of God was founded.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gal 1:24. In me. On my account. Doddridge.
Inferences.With what entire satisfaction may we depend upon the divine authority of the Gospel which was delivered by the Apostle Paul, who has testified, even upon oath, that he received it, together with his commission to preach it, not from any mere man, but immediately from Jesus Christ, who is God-man! He is evidently God, as all apostolic and ministerial authority, spiritual blessings, and the whole of the Gospel revelation, proceed jointly and equally from the Father and him, in distinction from, and in opposition to, all that is derived from men; and he is as evidently Man, as he died and rose again from the dead: and O how infinitely important and beneficial is his death, who gave himself an atoning Sacrifice for our sins, that he might deliver us from them, and from all the evils of this present world; and whose resurrection is a high demonstration of the acceptableness and efficacy of his death for these great and holy purposes! On this ground we may, if we be real believers or genuine penitents, comfortably hope for grace and peace from the Father and the Son. But with what holy detestation should we reject those who would corrupt the Gospel of Christ, and substitute another pretended gospel in its stead, for justification in any other way than alone through faith in him! How grievous and astonishing is it, that any, who once seemed to embrace this blessed Gospel, should be turned aside from it to some other scheme of doctrine, which, in reality, is no gospel at all, and never can bring salvation to them! And how heavy is the curse that lies upon those who pervert them! But O, what a wonderful and happy change does the grace of our Lord Jesus make, when it effectually reaches the heart! It reveals Christ in them who were utter strangers to him before; and makes them ready to confess the ignorance and error, in which they formerly gloried; it turns the greatest bigots for superstition and human traditions, and the most inveterate enemies to Christ, into sincere believers; it changes the most furious persecutors of his people into true lovers of him and them, and frequently into zealous preachers of that Gospel which they before sought to destroy: and it makes those, who preserve this union with the Lord Jesus, such faithful servants of Christ, that they no longer seek to please men by any sinful compliances with them: and when he calls such faithful souls to his work, they yield obedience to him, without consulting the interests of the flesh, or the opinion of men. And O what matter of thanksgiving and joy is it to his churches, whenever they hear of such monuments being raised to the praise of the glory of his grace, whether they have ever seen their faces or not! They glorify God for his power and mercy exercised in their behalf, and for all the service to his people and cause, which is done and may be further hoped for by them. And for the encouragement of such ministers, if they be faithful unto death, they have the glorious promise, that “they shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.” Dan 12:3.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Among, the heaviest burdens which lay on the great Apostle Paul, was the care of all the churches, where many errors soon crept in, and Judaizing teachers sought to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel, and therewith to decry him who was the zealous defender of its glorious privileges. Nowhere had these seducers practised with more success than among the Galatians; for whose recovery to the purity of the faith, the Apostle writes this epistle.
1. He begins with his apostolical address. Paul an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, not assuming a character to which he had no title, nor acting under any ordination merely human, but immediately called to this high office, and commissioned by Jesus Christ himself, who personally appeared to him; and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, declaring thereby his perfect satisfaction in the great atonement of his Son: and therefore St. Paul’s commission bore this eminent distinction, that while the chief Apostles were only ordained by Jesus in the days of his humiliation, the great Apostle of the Gentiles received his call and office from the glorified Redeemer, exalted on his mediatorial throne.
2. All the brethren who were with him, joined the Apostle in his address to the churches of Galatia, concurring with him in sentiment, and declaring thereby their approbation of the doctrines which he maintained, and of the just reproofs that he was about to give.
3. He wishes that the best of blessings may attend them. Grace be to you, in all its happy effects of pardon, comfort, strength, purity, and peace, the consequence thereof; all proceeding of free grace and unmerited love from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the meritorious cause of all our mercies; who gave himself for our sins, in infinite compassion to our wretched state, humbling himself to take our nature upon him, and, as our substitute, to bear our sins in his own body on the tree; that he might obtain eternal redemption for his faithful saints, and deliver us from this present evil world, from the guilt and condemnation under which it lies, and from the power of iniquity by which it is enslaved; and this has our adored Redeemer done for his faithful followers according to the will of God, and, or even, our Father; who is reconciled to his believing people by the blood of the cross, and regards them as dear children. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen! Both to the Father and his co-equal Son, for such a contrivance of infinite love and grace, in order to the redemption of lost souls, be all praise and honour ascribed by men and angels, in time and to eternity! Note; 1. The oblation of Jesus, once for all, is the only substantial foundation of the sinner’s hope towards God. (2.) This world in which we dwell is full of evil: we must in spirit and temper be delivered from it, or we shall be condemned with it.
2nd, Abruptly the Apostle hastens to his point, and expresses,
1. His astonishment at their defection from the faith. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, from the blessed God himself, and from us his ministers, unto another gospel, different from that which we preached to you, wherein the glorious grace of a Redeemer was exalted; which new doctrine is not indeed another gospel, bringing no glad tidings to the sinful soul of free pardon and salvation by Jesus Christ; but the truth is, there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ, destroying the riches of the grace thereof, and adulterating the truth with the base alloy of error. Note; there is but one way to regain the lost favour of God, and that is by grace through faith; and they who propose any other must perish with a lie in their right hand.
2. He expresses his detestation of any other pretended gospel besides that which he had preached to them. But though we, or an angel from heaven, if we could suppose it possible, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed, and lie down under the most dreadful anathemas of divine vengeance. As we said before, with the deepest solemnity I repeat it, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received from us, let him be accursed.
3rdly, To vindicate himself from the aspersions of the Judaizing teachers, who affected to set up St. Peter and the other apostles as far his superiors, he enters into a detail of his divine mission and miracles.
1. He declares the scope of his preaching. Do I now persuade men, or God, endeavouring to engage the Galatians to obey human inventions, or to submit to the gospel of the blessed God? (see the Annotations;) or do I seek to please men, and ingratiate myself with you, as the Jewish zealots? No. For I am well persuaded, that if I yet pleased men, and made that my study, to accommodate the gospel to their prejudices, I should not be the servant of Christ, and with fidelity and simplicity discharge the trust committed to me. Note; (1.) To please God, not men, must be our great design. (2.) It is impossible that our fidelity in preaching the gospel should not offend those, who, in pride and self-sufficiency, cannot bear the humbling truth of the necessity of submission to the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ for our acceptance before him.
2. He demonstrates so them the divinity of his mission. The gospel that he preached was not after man, a human invention, or received at second-hand from men’s information, but immediately by revelation from the exalted Jesus, now entered into his glory. They knew his past conversation; what a bigot he had been for Judaism; how greatly he had excelled many of his fellow-students in rabbinical knowledge, exactly skilled in all their laws and traditions: to propagate these, he had exerted all his zeal, and, with rage approaching to madness, had persecuted the professors of the Christian name with the savage fury of the most barbarous foe. No prejudices of education, therefore, could have led him to embrace Christianity; but, on the contrary, such a riveted enmity against it could be only overcome by some very extraordinary method of conviction. But when it pleased God, who, of his rich grace, separated me from my mother’s womb to serve him in the gospel, and called me by his grace, in such a distinguishing manner, when I was going with the most implacable enmity to persecute the disciples at Damascus; when, I say, God was graciously pleased then to reveal his Son in me, making my inmost soul, by divine irradiation, acquainted with the fulness of the redemption which is in him, that I might preach him among the heathen, as peculiarly ordained to be their apostle,immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, consulting no longer my own worldly ease, interest, or honour, or asking advice about what God had so clearly determined: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, as if I needed instruction, or a confirmation in my office; but, divinely taught and ordained, I immediately entered on my work, and went into Arabia, where the gospel had not been preached before, and returned again unto Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, not to learn of him, but to communicate the success of my labours, and enjoy the comforts of Christian fellowship with him and other brethren there; and abode with him only fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother, or near kinsman; so that I received not my knowledge or commission from them. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not, but with the deepest solemnity appeal to him for the truths that I advance. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, preaching the gospel; and was, during many years, unknown by face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, and professed faith in his name; so that from them I could not have received any knowledge of the truth. But they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me, ascribing to him praise for my wondrous conversion. Note; Christ must be revealed by his Spirit in us, as well as by his word to us, if we would know him to the saving of our souls.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
SWEET testimony to my Lord in the account here given by his servant, of his call to the Apostleship! No man could commission to the office, Paul knew. And it was Paul’s joy to consider, that he neither received it from man, nor was called to it by man, but by God his Savior! Jesus! who miraculously called to him from Heaven, made him an Apostle, and sent him to preach his Gospel. Oh! precious testimony, both to Paul’s Apostleship, and to Paul’s preaching; and to the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Reader! listen to what Paul hath here again related, of his original state of nature, and unregeneracy. Oh! who to all appearance, more unpromising, more unlikely to be called by sovereign grace, when breathing out threatenings, and slaughter, against the disciples of the Lord! Listen to what he hath said of the Lord’s call to him! See what God can accomplish, on the stoutest hearts of sinners! Behold him preaching the pure, unadulterated Gospel, of the Lord Jesus Christ! Ask Paul, from whence the wonderful change? A Persecutor, Blasphemer, Injurious! And now behold him, preaching the faith which once he denied. What cannot God accomplish? What will He not accomplish, to bring home his own to himself; and to rescue his whole Church from the hand of the enemy?
Reader! let you and I glorify God, in him, and for him, and for all the mercies and blessings the Church hath derived, and will derive from Paul’s ministry, to the latest period of time. And, oh! for grace to keep always in remembrance, as the conclusion of all Paul’s discourses, which he himself made, as the end, and consequence of his conversion: For this cause, (said he,) I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering, for a pattern to them, which should hereafter believe on him, to life everlasting.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24 And they glorified God in me.
Ver. 24. And they glorified God ] “Whoso offereth praise, he glorifieth me,” Psa 50:23 . God accounts himself as it were to receive a new being, by those inward conceptions of his glory, and by those outward honours that we do to him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gal 1:24 . They glorified God in Saul, ascribing the change entirely to the grace of God working on his heart.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
glorified, &c. = were glorifying (Greek. doxazo, See p. 1511) God in me, i.e. finding in Paul cause for glorifying God,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gal 1:24. , they glorified) And in the present day the Church glorifies God in Paul. [Remember thou to observe the same thing (to glorify God) as often as a good report (about some one converted from ungodliness), has been brought to thee.-V. g.]- , in me) comp. note to Gal 1:16. They glorified God previously, they now glorified Him also on account of Paul.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 1:24
Gal 1:24
and they glorified God in me.-Praised and honored God because he had changed the bitter persecutor into an earnest, self-denying apostle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They claimed no part in the conversion, but glorified God for it.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Num 23:23, Luk 2:14, Luk 7:16, Luk 15:10, Luk 15:32, Act 11:18, Act 21:19, Act 21:20, 2Co 9:13, Col 1:3, Col 1:4, 2Th 1:10, 2Th 1:12
Reciprocal: Exo 18:1 – heard Psa 50:23 – Whoso Mat 5:16 – and Mat 9:8 – and Luk 5:26 – and they Luk 8:38 – saying Luk 18:43 – followed Joh 17:10 – and I Act 9:20 – straightway 2Co 4:15 – the abundant 1Pe 4:14 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 1:24. -And they glorified God in me. The is not (Photius), on account of me (Brown), as if it were for (Beza), or de me, vel propter me (Estius). The preposition marks the sphere in which the action takes place. Winer, 48, 2, ; Bernhardy, 210; Exo 14:4, ; Isa 49:3, . To glorify God is a favourite Pauline phrase: Act 11:18; Act 21:20; Rom 1:21; Rom 15:9; 1Co 6:20; 2Co 9:13. In him-and the change wrought within him, with its marvellous and enduring effects-they glorified God. Not only did his conversion give them occasion to glorify God, but they glorified God working in him, and in him changing their malignant and resolute persecutor into a bold enthusiastic preacher. They were thankful not simply because persecution had ceased, but they rejoiced that he who did the havoc was openly building up the cause which he had laboured to overthrow. On hearing of a change in so prominent and terrible an adversary-a change not leading merely to a momentary check or a longer neutral pause, but passing into unwearied activity, self-denial, and apostolical pre-eminence-they glorified God in him, for in him God’s gracious power had wrought with unexpected and unexampled might and result. They did not exalt the man, though they could not but have a special interest in him; but they knew that by the grace of God he was what he was. If the churches even in Judea were so grateful to God for His work in Paul, were they not a rebuke to the Judaizers, who now questioned his apostleship and impugned his teaching? Eph 3:7-8; 1Ti 1:16. Chrysostom adds, he does not say , , , . . . .
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Gal 1:24. Glorified God in me means they gave God the glory for all of the good results of Paul’s conversion. This glorification toward God was not in words only, as may be seen in the passage cited at the close of the preceding paragraph.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 1:24. In me, in my case, or example, not on my account. The Christian hero-worship gives all the glory to God. Chrysostom: He does not say, they marvelled at me, they were struck with admiration of me, but he attributes all to grace. They glorified God, he says, in me. This truly Christian conduct of the Jewish converts in Palestine contrasts favorably with the envy and calumny of the Judaizers in Galatia.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
and they glorified God in me. [The term “three years” may be taken to mean three full years, or one year and parts of two others. Assuming that Paul was converted in A. D. 37, the visit to Jerusalem took place somewhere between A. D. 38 and 40. Luke describes this same period as “many days” (Act 9:23). For a curious parallel see 1 Kings 2:38, 39. Persecution drove Paul from Damascus (Act 9:22-25; 2Co 11:31-32), and the desire to form the acquaintance of Peter led him to Jerusalem. The James whom he met was, as described, “the Lord’s brother,” and was neither James, the son of Zebedee, nor James, the son of Alphus. In fact, he was not properly an apostle, but was called such probably because of his nearness to Jesus and his great influence. Paul’s reasons for leaving Jerusalem are found at Act 9:29-30; Act 22:17-21 . Cilicia was commonly coupled with Syria in popular phrase; for, though part of Asia Minor, it was cut off from that district by the high ridge of Mt. Taurus, and so formed social and commercial affinities with Syria. The gist of Paul’s argument is this: My gospel did not come to me from Jerusalem, for,
1. I was in no haste to go there.
2. I did not go there for the purpose of perfecting my knowledge of the gospel.
3. I was not there long enough to perfect such knowledge.
4. Leaving there, I was conscious of no deficiency of knowledge, but went at once to localities far distant, and was not personally known in the regions contiguous to Jerusalem, as I must have been had I lingered in that city long enough to learn the gospel history.
5. But I was known to them by my repentance, and by works for which they praised God, which facts show that I was recognized by them as proficient in a gospel which I did not learn from them.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 24
The design of this whole passage (Galatians 1:11-24) is, to vindicate the views of religious truth which the apostle had inculcated, and which he was about to inculcate in this Epistle, by showing that they rested on no human authority, but on revelations made directly to him from the Lord Jesus Christ.