Galatians 4:16-17 – Don’t Make It About You
When someone leaves a church, it would be so easy to take it personally. But notice here that Paul doesn’t. He calls them brothers in v12. He begs, urges, entreats – but he doesn’t lash out. He says ‘You did me no wrong’. And that’s an amazing thing to say. Because they had done things that Paul could legitimately have held against them. They had accepted a false teaching which said that Paul was a false Apostle. That he had managed to mess up the true gospel that the real Apostles in Jerusalem were teaching. He could very easily have said: ‘How dare you!’. But he doesn’t.
Paul also does the same thing when the situation is completely different and people are trying to make him into a party leader and set him up against other preachers. In 1 Corinthians 3, some were saying: ‘I follow Paul’ and others were saying ‘I follow Apollos’. And it would have been easy for Paul to say nothing. But what does he say? ‘What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth’.
When he’s being personally attacked, Paul says – it’s not about me. You did me no wrong. And when he’s being personally praised, Paul says – it’s not about me. It’s all about God, and the work he’s doing in your lives through me.
It’s also possible for the person who’s considering walking away to make things personal that never were. We see that here in v16. The Galatians had begun to treat Paul as their personal enemy. Paul has simply told them the truth and they’ve made it personal. In effect they’re saying: Paul, you’re only saying that because you don’t like us. You’re saying that because you’re jealous of these new people that we’re listening to. In Galatia, the false teachers take advantage of these sinful tendencies. Paul says in v17: ‘They make much of you’. They go out of their way to butter up the Galatians. They make it all about them. But as the verse goes on to say – it’s for no good purpose. It’s not out of a genuine care for their souls. It’s not the sort of love that will say hard things when required. So the warning is: Just because someone tells you a hard truth, it doesn’t make them your enemy. If people make much of you and tell you what you want to hear, it isn’t necessarily because they have your best interests at heart. Don’t make it about you.
Questions
- How does Paul respond to the Galatians’ accusations?
- How do the false teachers take advantage of the situation?
Prayer Points
- Pray that we would not make things about us but about God and what He says.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.