I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
- BSB I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.
- NKJV I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
- NASB I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
- NLT I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul fears his labor among them may have been wasted. His pastoral anxiety shows how serious the threat of a false gospel really is.
Overview
Paul expresses deep concern that the Galatians' drift toward legalism might undo the fruit of his ministry. This is not doubt about God's faithfulness but heartfelt alarm at the danger they face. The verse reveals the apostle's pastoral love and the high stakes of holding firmly to the gospel of grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Th 3:5For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
- Phil 2:16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
- Gal 2:2And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
- 2 Jn 1:8Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
- Acts 16:6Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
- Gal 4:20I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
- 2 Cor 11:2–3For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
- Gal 5:2–4Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
- 1 Cor 15:58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
- Isa 49:4Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God.
- 2 Cor 12:20–21For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 4:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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