CHAPTER 4
Lecture 6
19 My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you.
20 And I would willingly be present with you now and change my voice; because I am ashamed for you.
Above, the Apostle dismissed the false cause of his correcting the Galatians; here he discloses the true cause, which is sorrow for their imperfection.
First, he expresses the heartfelt sorrow of which he spoke;
Secondly, a desire to manifest this sorrow (v. 20);
Thirdly, he gives the cause of the sorrow (v. 20): be. cause I am ashamed for you.
This sorrow proceeded from charity, because be grieved for their sins: I beheld the transgressors and I pined away; because they kept not thy word” (Ps 118:158). And so he addresses them in words of charity, saying, My little children . He purposely does not call them sons, but little children, to indicate the imperfection whereby they had become small: “As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat” (1 Cor 3:1).
It should be noted that during parturition a child is called a little one. And this is what they were, because they needed to be born again, even though parents according to the flesh bring forth their child only once. Accordingly he says to them, of whom I am in labor again . For he was in labor of them during their first conversion; but since they had now turned from the one who called them, to another gospel, they needed to be brought forth anew. Hence he says, I am in labor , i.e., with labor and pain I bring them forth into the light of faith. In these words the Apostle bares his grief. Hence a man’s conversion is called a birth: “They bow themselves to bring forth young” (Job 39:3); “And being with child she cried, travailing in birth and was in pain to be delivered” (Rev 12:2). Therefore it is because of his pain that he rebukes them so sharply, as a woman cries aloud because of the pains of childbirth: I will speak now as a woman in labor” (Is 42:14).
The reason for the iterated travail is that you are not perfectly formed. Hence he says: until Christ be formed in you, i.e., until you receive His likeness, which you have lost through your sin. He does not say, “That you may be formed in Christ,” but until Christ be formed in you, to make it resound more terrifyingly on their ears. For Christ is formed in the heart by “formed faith”: “That Christ might dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph 3:17). But when one does not have “formed faith,” Christ has already died in him: “Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Petr. 1:19). Thus Christ grows in a man according to his progress in the faith; conversely, as it diminishes, He recedes. Therefore, when the faith of a man is rendered “unformed” by sin, Christ is not formed in him; and so, because there’ was not a formed faith in them, they needed to be brought forth in the womb again until Christ be formed in them through faith, i.e., “formed faith,” which works through love. Or, until Christ be formed in you , i.e., through you Christ appear finely formed to others.
Here someone might say: “Away from us you say these things, but if you were with us, you would not say them,” according to 2 Corinthians (10:10): “His bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.” Therefore, he expresses a desire to manifest his grief more vividly, saying, I would willingly be present with you now and change my voice. As if to say: I use gentle language now, calling you friends and sons, in my absence; but if I were present among you, I would correct you more sharply. For if I were present and speaking the things I am now writing in a letter, the correction would be more severe; because I would then be able to express the scolding tones of my rebuke and the cries of my anger and the pain in my heart, much better than I can convey them by letter. And a living voice would more effectively stir your hearts to shame for your error and my anxiety.
And the cause of this sorrow is that I am ashamed for you, i.e., I blush for you in the presence of others; for as it is said in Sirach (22:3): “A son ill taught is the confusion of the father.” For since a son is a thing of the father, and a disciple as such is a thing of his master, a master rejoices in the good he sees reflected in him and glories in it as though it were his own. Conversely, he is pained at evil and is ashamed. Hence because they had been turned from good to evil, for that reason the Apostle is ashamed.