October 7, 2025 - Galatians 4:16-19 - "Steadfastness in the Gospel of Christ"

Galatians 4:16-19

"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,"

“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” Paul speaks as one who loves the souls of men. He is not their adversary, but their friend. He will not flatter nor deceive; he tells them the truth, even when the truth cuts deep. True love speaks plainly. It is never cruelty to tell men the truth about themselves, about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment. The man who loves Christ and loves His people must speak what God says. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6).

Paul’s heart is heavy. He has preached Christ crucified among them, and they received him as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. They once rejoiced in the Gospel, but now they have turned cold, drawn away by those who “zealously affect you, but not well.” These false teachers make much of them, not for their souls’ good, but to shut them out — to isolate them from the truth, that they might glory in their flesh. Yet Paul will not compete for their affection. He only desires that Christ be formed in them.

The Truth he proclaims is not a system, not a form, not a ceremony, but a Person — Christ Jesus the LORD. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). This is the essence of the Gospel. The believer’s life is Christ. To have Him formed within is the great work of Grace. It is not merely to hear of Him, nor to attempt to imitate Him, but to have His life, His mind, His Spirit within. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” What language of tenderness! He had once travailed in the pains of spiritual birth when he preached the Gospel to them at first. Now he labors again, not for their conversion, but for their conformity — that Christ may be inwardly revealed and fully formed in them. This is the labor of a true shepherd. He feels their coldness, he mourns their instability, he weeps over their spiritual decline. Yet he does not despair. He travails again, in prayer and in preaching, until Christ is formed in them.

This travail is not fleshly striving, but the burden of love for the glory of Christ and the good of their souls. It is the heart of Christ Himself beating in His servant. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep, and His ministers share His heart. The apostle’s concern is not for his reputation, not for numbers, nor for outward success, but for the reality of Christ in the heart. He desires that they live no longer unto themselves, but unto Him Who died for them and rose again.

Truth has enemies. The carnal mind is enmity against God. When the Gospel exposes pride and self-righteousness, men turn away. They once rejoiced, but when the cross cuts across their flesh, they count the preacher an enemy. Yet the servant of Christ cannot soften the message. He tells the truth — that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. No law, no ritual, no human merit can form Christ within. Only the Spirit of God gives life. “The flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63).

Those who are born of the Spirit know this travail. They hunger for the reality of Christ, not merely for religion. They are not content with outward forms; they long for inward life. And where Christ is formed, there is humility, love, peace, and faith. There is rest in His finished work. There is joy in the knowledge that “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:12).

Paul’s words echo the voice of the Savior Himself. Christ travailed in Gethsemane; He labored upon the cross; He bore the curse for His people that they might be born again. Every pang of Paul’s heart for these Galatians flows from that greater travail of the Son of God. It is Christ laboring through His servant, Christ forming His own image in His own redeemed.

And when Christ is formed in a soul, there is no question of enemy or friend. There is only love — love for the truth, love for the brethren, love for the Savior Who gave Himself for us. To know Him is life eternal (John 17:3). To have Him formed within is glory begun. To be conformed to His image is the purpose of God’s eternal grace (Romans 8:29).

So the cry of every true minister, every true believer, is this: that Christ be formed in our mind, heart, and soul, where the heart and soul are His temple, and that His abiding presence be ALL our Hope of glory, and Christ's Person and work as all their salvation. Though the world counts the Gospel an offense, though men turn away, still Christ must be preached as the only Hope of Glory of His chosen ones. When He is fully formed in the heart of His children, they see Him as He is, and are satisfied.

These words of Paul pierce with both tenderness and truth. This travail, as Paul describes, is not the labor of the flesh but the deep groaning of grace that longs to see Christ’s image renewed in His redeemed ones. Sovereign grace alone can accomplish this work; no law, no human effort, no self-righteous zeal can bring it forth. It is the Spirit of adoption, working through the Truth of the Gospel, that conforms the hearts and minds of God's elect unto the likeness of the Son. Therefore, though the faithful preacher is misunderstood, maligned, or rejected, he must continue to proclaim Christ crucified — for only in Him do sinners die to the law and live unto God. And when Christ is formed within, all reproach is turned to rejoicing, for the travail of grace ends in the triumph of life.