Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Parallel translations
- WEB So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
- KJV Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
- NKJV Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
- NASB So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
- NLT Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth?
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 asks whether telling them the truth has made him their enemy. Faithful truth-telling, though painful, is an act of love, not hostility.
Overview
Paul confronts the sad reality that his honest warnings may now be resented. The verse exposes a perennial danger: people may turn against those who tell them hard truths while embracing flatterers. For the church, it models the courage to speak truth in love even at the cost of being misunderstood.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Amos 5:10There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
- Prov 9:8Do not rebuke a mocker, or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
- John 8:45But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me!
- Gal 5:7You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth?
- Ps 141:5Let the righteous man strike me; let his rebuke be an act of loving devotion. It is oil for my head; let me not refuse it. For my prayer is ever against the deeds of the wicked.
- Gal 2:5We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
- John 7:7The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.
- 1 Kgs 22:8The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man who can ask the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.
- 1 Kgs 21:20When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, “So you have found me out, my enemy.” He replied, “I have found you out because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 1 Kgs 18:17–18When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
- Gal 3:1–4O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
- 2 Chr 25:16While he was still speaking, the king asked, “Have we made you the counselor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?” So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”
- 2 Chr 24:20–22Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you.’”
- Gal 2:14When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
- 1 Kgs 22:27and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:16 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.