Galatians 4:18

Zealously affected. Zeal itself is to be commended if it reflects worthy motives.

At one time Paul had commended the Corinthians for their zeal because it had encouraged others to good deeds (2 Cor. 9:2). His own former zeal for Judaism had led him to persecute the Christian church (Phil. 3:6). The Galatians had apparently mistaken their zeal in their new course as evidence of the genuineness of their zeal, unaware that zeal can never be a substitute for sanctified, straight thinking. The zeal of Judaism and the Judaizers was not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2). Paul was greatly distressed about the zeal of the Jews toward Christianity when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans. Their blindness was not occasioned by a lack of opportunity to know, but by unwillingness to appropriate what they had been taught (see Hosea 4:6; Vol. IV, pp. 30-33). Now the same unreasoning state of mind prevailed among the churches of Galatia.

When I am present. Paul was not jealous lest the Galatians become more zealous in his absence than when he had been with them.