They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.
Parallel translations
- WEB They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them.
- BSB Those people are zealous for you, but not in a good way. Instead, they want to isolate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.
- NKJV They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.
- NASB They eagerly seek you, not in a commendable way, but they want to shut you out so that you will seek them.
- NLT Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them.
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
The false teachers court the Galatians eagerly, but for selfish ends, to cut them off so they will depend on them. Paul exposes their manipulative motives.
Overview
Paul unmasks the agitators' flattering attention as a self-serving strategy to isolate the Galatians and bind them to themselves. Their zeal is not for the Galatians' good but for their own influence. This warns the church to test the motives behind those who eagerly seek followers, especially when they undermine the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 2 Cor 11:13–15For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
- Rom 16:18For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
- 2 Pet 2:3And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
- Matt 23:15Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
- 1 Cor 4:8Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
- 1 Cor 11:2Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
- 1 Cor 4:18Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.
- Rom 10:2For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
- Phil 2:21For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.
- Gal 6:12–13As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
- 2 Pet 2:18For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
- 2 Cor 11:3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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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 4:17 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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