Galatians 4:18

18 To be zealous is good, provided always that the cause is good. Indeed, whether I am present with you or not,

Galatians 4:18 Meaning and Commentary

Galatians 4:18

But it is good to be zealously affected
A zealous affection when right is very commendable, as the instances of Phinehas, Elijah, John the Baptist, and our Lord Jesus Christ show, and a contrary spirit is very disagreeable. But then it must be expressed

in a good thing;
in a good cause, for God, and the things of Christ; for the Gospel, and the ordinances of it, and for the discipline of God's house, and against immorality and profaneness, errors and heresies: and it should be "always"; not at certain times, and upon some particular accounts, but it should be constant, and always continue; it should be ever the same towards God, Christ, and his ministers:

and not only when I am present with you;
by which the apostle suggests, that while he was with them they were zealously attached to him and truth; but no sooner was he gone from them, but their zealous affection abated, and was fixed on others, which discovered their weakness, fickleness, and inconstancy; whereas he was always the same to them, and bore the same love to them, as the following words show.

Galatians 4:18 In-Context

16 Have I now become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

17 True, these teachers are zealous for you, but their motives are not good. They want to separate you from us so that you will become zealous for them.

18 To be zealous is good, provided always that the cause is good. Indeed, whether I am present with you or not,

19 my dear children, I am suffering the pains of giving birth to you all over again - and this will go on until the Messiah takes shape in you.

20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone of voice. I don't know what to do with you.