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Gal 4:19. Τεκνία μου, my little children) A father should be ζηλωτὸς, i.e. affectionately and zealously honoured by his children. This closely agrees with [Gal 4:17, they zealously affect] you, as δὲ, but, which occurs in the following verse [Gal 4:18] shows. Paul addresses the Galatians, not as a rival, but as a father, comp. 1Co 4:15, with authority and the tenderest sympathy towards his little children-children that were weak and alienated from him. The pathetic style often accumulates figurative expressions. Here, however, the figure, derived from the mother prevails. In the note on ζηλοῦσθαι, conjugal affection (ζῆλος) was assumed from the parallelism. Even in spiritual things, love sometimes descends, rather than ascends; 2Co 12:15.-πάλιν, again) as formerly; Gal 4:13.-ὠδίνω, I travail) with the utmost affection (zeal); 2Co 11:2; accompanied with crying [referring to φωνήν, voice], Gal 4:20. [When Paul wrote these very words, he exerted himself to the utmost, straining every nerve.-V. g.] He speaks according to the exigencies of the case, for in the natural birth, formation precedes the pains of labour.-ἄχρις οὗ, until) We must not cease to strive. Always is the correlative, Gal 4:18.-μορφωθῇ, be formed) that you may live nothing but Christ, and think nothing but Christ, Gal 2:20, and His sufferings, death, life, Php 3:10-11. This is the highest beauty. This form is opposed στοιχειώσει to worldly formation [the στοιχεῖα of the world, Gal 4:9].-Χριστὸς, Christ) He does not say here Jesus, but Christ; and this too by metonymy of the concrete for the abstract. Christ, not Paul, was to be formed in the Galatians.-ἐν ὑμῖν, in you) Col 1:27.