The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 28

to his fimt journey taken with Barnabas, by 1 Cor. bt. 8, 15; in reference to the third~' by Acts xx. 34; 2 Cor. xi. 10, xii. 14. Nor is this statement contravened by the fact that, in this very first visit of his to Thessalonica to which be is here referring, he received gifts pressed upon his acceptance· by generous converts left behind at Philippi (Phil. iv. 15-17). These were extra- ordinary expressions of loving sympathy with his evangelistic work (Phil. i. 5, 7), the' declining of which would not only have been mortifying to the kind hearts of those from whom they came, but also have tended to deprive them of their Divine reward (Phil. iv. 17). But these were extraordinary benefactions, more resembling II mis- sionary donations" than the payment of a stipend to a pastor by those to whom he is· ministering. It appears most probable that St. Paul, in the second of the two verses now before us, is referring to this particular habit of self-denial, for the following reasons:~ 1. In four other instances he uses derivatives of fJrlpos with reference to burdening' converts with his maintenance; viz. l1r1/Ja.prjcra.i, 1 Thess. ii. 9 ; 2 Thess. iii. 8; tca.n- fJ'r,va., 2 Cor. xii 16; 3./Ja.pri, 2 Cor. xi. 14. • Compare also the use of ,cimwa.ptcrjrra.,, 2 Cor. xi. 9, xii. 13, 14. • 2. In ver. 9 he expressly says, "Working night and day, that we might not burden ( h-1/Ja.pfitra.1) any one of you," apparently to illustrate the very statement of ver. 6. This remark is not neutralized by the interposition of vers. 7, 8. For those verses, slating as they do the absoluteness of his tender, self-devoting love as like that which a nursing mother shows to her offspring, present the exact contrast of that disposition to assert his own rights which, if he had required or even permitted them to maintain him, they might have surmised to be actuating him. These very verses, therefore, form a per- fectly germane introduction to the statement of ver. 9, connecting it with ver. 6 as its elucidation. 3. The words d,r' 1£Mmv (ver. 6) point in the same 'direction. These 1£>.>.o, are not Christian converts in other places ; for St. Paul's relatioiis with them have nothing to do with the matter in hand: they are rather the unbelieving world in Thessalonica' it.self. St. Paul refers to his foregoing that position of respectability (5&{a.) which to people in general he would have seemed to hold, if he had appeared to them to be no xupovp-y'bs or ~a.11a.vrros, no vulgar mechanic, but a man possessed of leisure enabling him' to devote himself to occupations of a purely intellectual or spiritual character. The sedulous toil which he devoted to a mere mechanical employment, especially an employment so repulsive as that of tent-making, was in reality a self-abasement; and so he expressly describes it in 2 Cor. xi. 7 (iµ,a..,,,,.'b11 'Ta.,ru11c,11). Whatever certain 'schools of Gentile philosophy might theorize, or whatever the maxims of Jewish rabbins might inculcate (see e.g. Dr. Farrar,' St. Paul,' vol. i. p. 23), for him to be continually drudging as he did at a mere mechanical employment was a forfeiture of sociid •rank, depressing him low down among the base ones of the world. Wherever St. Paul refers to this particular of his conduct, we must bear in mind this element of its character, its se!f-degradingnese. We must not suppose that all that he is thinking of' in such passages was the strain of supererogatory toil which he imposed upon himself. We may paraphrase this sixth verse thus: "Neither did we lay ourselves out to' stand well in men's eyes in a worldly sense ; neither in relation to you, by impressing you with respectful regard for our position and by enforcing our claim to be lifted by your contributions above worldly cares ; nor in relation to those around, by wishing to appear above the need to have recourse to sordid occupations and free to live a life con• secrated to higher engagements : and yet, as Christ's apostles, this is what we were· fully entitled to do; coming to you in that capacity, we 1hould have been fully  DISSERTATION I. xli