I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.
- KJV I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
- 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.
- 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 I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.
- Phil 2:16holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.
- Gal 2:2I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.
- 2 Jn 1:8Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
- Acts 16:6When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
- Gal 4:20but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
- 2 Cor 11:2–3For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
- Gal 5:2–4Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.
- 1 Cor 15:58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
- Isa 49:4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.”
- 2 Cor 12:20–21For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire; that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, riots;
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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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