Galatians 4:18

18 Now it is always good to be enthusiastic about good-and not just when I am with you.

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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 by telling you the truth?
17 They are enthusiastic about you, but not for any good. Instead, they want to isolate you so you will be enthusiastic about them.
18 Now it is always good to be enthusiastic about good-and not just when I am with you.
19 My children, again I am in the pains of childbirth for you until Christ is formed in you.
20 I'd like to be with you right now and change my tone of voice, because I don't know what to do about you.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.