Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Galatians 1:1 - 1:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
GALATIANS CHAPTER 1
Gal_1:1-5 After saluting the churches of Galatia,
Gal_1:6,7 Paul testifieth his surprise that they should so soon
have forsaken the truth of the gospel which he had
taught them,
Gal_1:8,9 and pronounceth those accursed who preach any other gospel.
Gal_1:10-12 He showeth that his doctrine was not concerted to please
men, but came to him by immediate revelation from God,
Gal_1:13,14 to confirm which he relateth his conversation before his
calling,
Gal_1:15-24 and what steps he had taken immediately thereupon.
The term apostle, in its native signification, signifieth no more then one sent; in its ecclesiastical use, it signifies one extraordinarily sent to preach the gospel; of these some were sent either more immediately by Christ, (as the twelve were sent, Mat_10:1 Mar_3:14 Luk_9:1), or more mediately, as Matthias, who was sent by the suffrage of the other apostles to supply the place of Judas, Act_1:25,26, and Barnabas, and Silas, and others were. Paul saith he was sent not of men, neither by man, that is, not merely; for he was also sent by men to his particular province. Act_13:3; but he was immediately sent by Jesus Christ, ( as we read, Act_9:1-43 and Act_26:14-17, of which also he gives us an account in this chapter, Gal_1:15-17), and by God the Father also, who, he saith, raised Christ from the dead. By this phrase the apostle doth not only assert Christ's resurrection, and the influence of the Father upon his resurrection, (though he rose by his own power, and took up his own life again, and was also quickened by the Spirit), but he also showeth a specialty in his call to the apostleship. As it differed from the call of ordinary ministers, who are called by men (though their ministry be not merely of men); so it differed from the call of the rest of the apostles, being made by Christ not in his state of humiliation, (as the twelve were called, Mat_10:1-42), but in his state of exaltation, after he was raised from the dead, and sat down on the right hand of God.