Thoughts on Galatians 4:17

Have you ever met someone who is really nice to you only so they can get something out of you? These are the Judaizers. They are being nice to the Galatians, trying to win them over with praise and compliments. They are befriending them and spending time with them, building them up. But Paul tells them they are not doing it for good purpose, they are not doing it because they genuinely care about the Galatians. They are doing it so that the Galatians would get used to the constant petting and attention and then after the Judaizers ceased their fake affection the Galatians would come running, making much of the Judaizers. The Judaizers had ulterior motives. The Judaizers never cared about the Galatians. They lifted them up and made them feel good about themselves, and the Galatians were buying the lie. Paul wrote Timothy about this tactic: “For the time is coming when people will not endure n sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Paul was the one who truly loved them and cared for them because he told them the truth about their condition.

How many churches do we see today who would fall into this category of the Judaizers? I can think of plenty off the top of my head. These are the churches led by men like Joel Osteen who preach the “health, wealth, and prosperity gospel.” These are the churches that choose not to mention uncomfortable subjects such as sin from the pulpit. It makes me sick. These churches and their leaders are the Judaizers of today. We need to love people and that means speaking the truth, not telling them what their itching ears want to hear.