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Galatians 4:19
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17 They azealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.  
18 But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you.
19 aMy little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,  
20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

Two Covenants

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: athe one by a bondwoman, bthe other by a freewoman.  
23 But he who was of the bondwoman awas born according to the flesh, band he of the freewoman through promise,  
24 which things are symbolic. For these are1 the two covenants: the one from Mount aSinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—  
25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—
26 but the aJerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.  
27 For it is written:
a“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”  
28 Now awe, brethren, as Isaac was, are bchildren of promise.  
29 But, as ahe who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, beven so it is now.  
30 Nevertheless what does athe Scripture say? b“Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for cthe son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”  
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
<< Galatians 4:18   Galatians 4:20 >>


Galatians 4:19

I am in travail (wdinw). I am in birth pangs. Old word for this powerful picture of pain. In N.T. only here, verse Galatians 4:27; Revelation 12:2.

Until Christ be formed in you (mexriv ou morfwqh Xristov en umin). Future temporal clause with mexriv ou (until which time) and the first aorist passive subjunctive of morfow, late and rare verb, in Plutarch, not in LXX, not in papyri, only here in N.T. This figure is the embryo developing into the child. Paul boldly represents himself as again the mother with birth pangs over them. This is better than to suppose that the Galatians are pregnant mothers (Burton) by a reversal of the picture as in I Thessalonians 2:7.




Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Galatians 4:19:

2 John 1:1
Revelation 12:1

 

<< Galatians 4:18   Galatians 4:20 >>

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