Galatians 4:19 - Printer Friendly

ESV: my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

NIV: My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

NASB: My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

CSB: My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you.

NLT: Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.

KJV: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

NKJV: My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,

Paul is in anguish. He has said clearly that the false teachers, the ones trying to convince the Galatians that faith in Christ is not enough (Galatians 2:4), are just using the Galatians to make much of themselves (Galatians 4:17).

In contrast, Paul now compares himself to a mother in childbirth. He calls the Galatians his dear, little children. His concern for them is genuine, not a ploy to get them to honor him. In fact, his heart is breaking for them as he is once again attempting to give birth to them, in a sense.

This metaphor of childbirth is not meant to communicate that Paul is the one who has saved the Galatians. Only faith in Christ can cause a person to be born again. Instead, Paul is describing his own emotional experience in suffering and celebrating for the birth of the Galatians when they believed in Christ when he was with them. Now he suffers for them again to escape the false teaching of the Judaizers and fully trust the good news about their status in Christ.

More specifically, Paul describes the moment of childbirth as being when Christ is formed in them. This is a picture Paul paints in his other letters, as well. "Christ in you" is the "hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). "…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:17).

The picture is of Christ becoming so prominent in us that He begins to do His work in the world through us, along with all the others in whom He is formed. It's not about us and our works, as the false teachers said; it's about Him and His work in us. Even in our own hearts, Christ must increase and we must decrease (John 3:30).

Galatians 4:8–20 reveals that the Galatian Christians have already begun legalistically following the law of Moses, by observing special days. Why would they want to go back to slavery by following the law to be justified by God, Paul asks? Why have they gone from blessing him and trusting in Christ to rejecting him for telling the truth? The false teachers are only using them to bring glory to themselves, Paul insists. Paul is in anguish for them as a mother in childbirth. He longs to see Christ formed in them.

In this chapter, Paul uses three new methods to teach his Galatian readers an important lesson. It is futile to follow the law of Moses in order to be made right before God, since justification comes only by faith in Christ. First, Paul shows that the arrival of Christ made it possible for all people to become God's children through faith in Him. Next, Paul makes a more personal appeal, asking what has changed to cause the Galatians to turn on Paul's teaching of the gospel. Finally, Paul builds an allegory from Scripture, illustrating the difference between being born into slavery and being born into the promise by faith in Christ.

Galatians 3 ends with Paul stating, once more, that those who are in Christ are Abraham's offspring, just as He is, making us heirs along with Him. Galatians 4 continues that idea, showing how Christ's arrival signaled the moment all people could receive the inheritance with Him and be adopted as God's children. Paul makes his appeal personal, asking why the Galatians moved from blessing him to rejecting the message of Christ. The chapter ends with Paul's allegory about the difference between being born into slavery under the law and being born into freedom by the power of the Spirit through faith in Christ. Chapter 5 will continue by expanding on the freedom we have in Christ.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.