Verses 19-20
Paul’s loving affection for the Galatians comes through more strongly here than before. The tender expression "my [dear] children" (Gr. tekna mou) occurs only here in Paul’s writings. Paul felt as if he was going through labor pains again for them. He had done that when he had evangelized Galatia, but now he had to repeat his work for them.
"This is a striking metaphor without parallel in any other Pauline writing. . . . Only here in Galatians does he appear in the role of a mother, a mother who willingly undergoes the ordeal of pregnancy and delivery all over again in order to secure the well-being of her children.
"The Galatians who a moment ago were described as being formed in the womb were now spoken of as expectant mothers who themselves must wait for an embryonic Christ to be fully developed (morphoo, a medical term for the growth of the fetus into an infant) within them." [Note: George, pp. 329, 330.]
Paul wished he could be with them personally to communicate the nuances of his feelings better. Their irrational desire to become slaves to the Mosaic system and followers of the legalistic false teachers perplexed him.
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