William Burkitt Notes and Observations - Galatians 5:7 - 5:7

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William Burkitt Notes and Observations - Galatians 5:7 - 5:7


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Ye did run well; that is, in the race of Christianity; you set out well at first, and received the gospel in the plainness and simplicity of it, without any mixture of Jewish ceremonies: What hindered you? who stopt you? who drove you back from your belief of, and obedience to, the truth of the gospel, which you then received from me?

Here note, 1. With what holy wisdom our apostle mixes commendations with his reproofs: at the same time that he reproves them for their present backsliding, he commends them for their former forwardness; Ye did run well.

Note, 2. That ordinarily a Christian's first ways are his best ways, his first fruits his fairest fruits: Jehoshaphat walked in the first ways of David his father, 2Ch_17:3. Commonly young converts are carried out with a greater measure of affection and zeal, and make a swifter progress in religion, than others do, at first, or they themselves do afterward when they are of older standing. These Galatians did run, yea, did run very well at first in the race of Christianity.

Note, 3. That when a person's or a people's progress in Christianity is not answerable to their hopeful beginnings, it is matter of regret and grief to all beholders, as well as matter of reproach and shame to he persons themselves: Ye did run well; who did hinder you? Intimating, that this their defection and apostasy was no less matter of astonishment to St. Paul, than it was of rebuke and reproach to them.