Galatians 4:11 - Homiletics

The apostle's apprehensions for his converts.

"I am apprehensive of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."

I. THE GALATIANS COST THE APOSTLE MUCH LABOUR . He was their spiritual father; he had paid them a second visit which was full of effort and anxiety; and this Epistle represented effort and anxiety in a very extreme form. The apostle never spared himself. He laboured more abundantly than all the apostles.

II. HIS UNCERTAINTY AND CONCERN FOR THEM . It was doubtful whether he would succeed after all in repelling the attack of the Judaists and rescuing his converts from their injurious influences. But, though he labours in uncertainty, he works in hope. "Other work-folks find their work as they left it, but a minister hath all marred many times between sabbath and sabbath" (Trapp). Yet it is manifest that it is not his own interest, but that of his converts, which is his supreme anxiety at this moment of crisis in Galatia.