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William Hendriksen · Citado em PreceptAustin
Gálatas 1
Hendriksen has a dramatic introductory comment to Galatians writing that "The spiritual atmosphere is charged. It is sultry, sweltering. A storm is threatening. The sky is darkening. In the distance one can see flashes of lightning; one can hear faint muttering sounds. When each line of Galatians 1:1-5 is read in the light of the letter’s occasion and purpose the atmospheric turbulence is immediately detected. The apostle, though in perfect control of himself, for he is writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is greatly agitated, deeply moved. His heart and mind are filled with a medley of emotions. For the perverters there is withering denunciation springing form holy indignation. For the addressed there is marked disapproval and an earnest desire to restore. For the One who has called him there is profound reverence and humble gratitude. (Exposition of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon) Martin Luther points out that one reason the Apostle Paul so adamantly and boldly defends his apostolic authority is "because people need to be assured that the words we speak are the words of God." (Galatians 1 Commentary) Notice that Galatians is unusual for Paul's epistles because he does not open his letter with his usual praise to God and prayer for the saints.
Gálatas 1
Hendriksen has a helpful paraphrase of verse 8 - "Even if we or a holy angel must be the object of God's righteous curse, were any of us to preach a gospel contrary to the one we humans previously preached to you, then all the more divine wrath must be poured out on those self-appointed nobodies who are now making themselves guilty of this crime." (Exposition of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon) There is only one Gospel as this 1906 hymn by Jessie Pounds emphasizes... I must needs go home by the way of the cross, There’s no other way but this; I shall ne’er get sight of the Gates of Light, If the way of the cross I miss. Refrain: The way of the cross leads home, The way of the cross leads home; It is sweet to know, as I onward go, The way of the cross leads home. I must needs go on in the blood-sprinkled way, The path that the Savior trod, If I ever climb to the heights sublime, Where the soul is at home with God. Then I bid farewell to the way of the world, To walk in it nevermore; For my Lord says, “Come,” and I seek my home, Where He waits at the open door.
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Hendriksen - They were not suspicious, as those of Jerusalem had been at one time. (Acts 9:26), nor indifferent (cf. Rev. 3:16), nor unforgiving, nor even merely happy. On the contrary, fully realizing that whatever comes from God must be returned to him in the form of praise and thanksgiving, and that this circle must never be broken, they declared the glorious character of God’s marvelous attributes: power, sovereignty, wisdom, grace, mercy, etc., shown in saving a wretch, a relentless persecutor, and transforming him into a flame-tongued herald of the gospel! What depth of feeling must have overwhelmed Paul’s soul as he wrote these last words: “They were glorifying God on my account (literally “in me”)!” Vine comments that "they ascribed the credit for the transformation of an erstwhile persecutor into a zealous advocate, not to the man in whom the change had been wrought, but to the One Who had accomplished it, God, to Whose Name the emphasis is given by its position at the end of the sentence (καὶ ἐδόξαζον ἐν ἐμοὶ τὸν θεόν.)" Jamieson, Fausset & Brown - “Having understood the entire change, and that the former wolf is now acting the shepherd’s part, they received occasion for joyful thanksgiving to God in respect to me” [THEODORET]. How different, he implies to the Galatians, their spirit from yours!